Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

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Hyde
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Hyde »

Hey Chris,

It's been a few months now. Are you still satisfied with color reproduction on that monitor? I'm probably going to bite the bullet this season and buy 2 new large monitors. I might go with 1 large and 1 small (for desk space) IF I can find 2 monitors with the same color matching profile.

What was the color matching procedure like and did it come with the media needed to match?
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Chrisax
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Chrisax »

(Disclaimer: what I'm saying here is about the sample I own; let's hope the LED panel and the monitor model are the same worldwide and that nothing has changed.)

Am I still happy with color reproduction on the monitor? Yes, for an all-purpose monitor at an affordable price for home, it very very fine. There is not problem to use it to create web content and desktop documents with a perfectly professional quality. You can as well edit images, photos and videos in very good conditions. And all current pre-print work is OK: let's say it could be used without problem to work on ordinary magazines and books.

Now, of course, I wouldn't use it for highly accurate color printing of art books, movies mastering, and critical photo applications. But that's like 0.01% of the monitor market. And there are awfully expensive screens for that. (Barco, top lines from Eizo,...)

Let's say than, in my opinion, to have something better in color reproduction, you should double the price of the monitor (the Asus PA264Q I mentioned in my comments above in this thread would be a very nice intermediate solution) BUT, in this case, you'll have more or less issues with very fast video games or even videos, as the panel LED will be an IPS most likely or something else but anyhow slower than a TN panel.

The positive point is also that -at least regarding my sample - the monitor came with very decent factory color settings, just too much brightness. (As I mentioned.)



Now, about calibration, unfortunately, nothing is provided and I can't think of any screen below 1100ish euros that come with a real calibration device even if rudimentary.

So you either go for a calibration device, or you do "the best you" can with software. Calibration software can't be better than your own judgement and eyes.

Before starting to calibrate, remember to remove anything interfering, especially Adobe gamma (coming with Photoshop).
Software
QuickGamma http://www.quickgamma.de/indexen.html
Monitor Calibration Wizard http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/downloads/M ... Wizard.exe
Checkmon http://www.ykwong.com/checkemon.html
Adobe Gamma - Free with Photoshop software
Nokia NTest http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=960 Simple test and basic calibration (not colors). Totally portable. May require standard Windows video drivers instead of NvIdia ones.
Eizo Monitortest http://www.majorgeeks.com/EIZO_Monitortest_d5639.html Same kind as Nokia's but more advanced. (Delivered with Eizo monitors most often.)


Callibration equipment

If you want to be sure that two screens will display "the same" colors, you unfortunately have to use a calibration equipment able to perform measurements and create color profiles for each monitor, like for example, the X-Rite devices I mentioned. Bad news, this kind of equipment used to start at around 400USD, and up to ten times more. Good news, you now have some serious equipment around 169USD and at least one of them offers easy dual-monitor calibration ; I haven't used it myself yet but the manufacturer (X-Rite again) is reliable; the specs are nice and the comments I heard and read are good:
    • X-Rite ColorMunki Display

      Image

      Keith Cooper's full review, Summer 2011, provides good information:
      http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/revi ... splay.html
      (The guy is usually serious.)

      Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055M ... tl?ie=UTF8

      About calibrating a second monitor:
      Keith Cooper's review wrote:Having set up one monitor, it's a simple operation to do a second.
      The software offers assistance in matching a second display to the first, if you wish.
      You go through exactly the same measurement process as you did the first.
      I use such a monitor for palettes and other stuff, to give me more space on my main monitor - it's only a 15" 1024x768 LCD of unknown make, but it's been matched quite closely to the main monitor.
      If the second monitor is just for palettes, then having it a bit dimmer than your main one will lessen its effect on how you see the main monitor (you don't want it brighter)
      Your second monitor might be a projector...
Err... maybe I was a bit talkative... Will stop there, hoping I was helpful but there are mlore to say. Just ask. :)

:chrisdidit:
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Chrisax
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Chrisax »

I forgot ti say something: Windows 7 in the configuration panel > display offers a basic calibration feature for brightness and contrast, to create a profile. It's quite subjective, but amazingly, it gives decent results. Nothing to do with real color calibration with a device of course.
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Hyde
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Hyde »

Thanks :)
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Bredin
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Bredin »

Thanks everyone for this thread. It was VERY helpful to me in making decisions about my new system. Mine is essentially modelled on Chrisax's BEAST except mine was more on a budget. I guess all told i was at around $1200, but that is not an exact figure.

Components The system runs great so far. I have not done any over-clocking yet, but everything seems to be running at a very cool temp, so I could do that. The only performance monitor I checked was the standard "Windows Score" or whatever it is, and that was 7.6, for whatever that's worth.
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Hyde
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Hyde »

Very nice.

I've been quite happy with mine (we can call mine "McCoy").

I'm using my tax refund to buy an Ivy Bridge CPU, a 2nd vid card, a 30" S-IPS monitor (probably Wide Gamut, though I'm worried about how Windows apparently ignores color management) and a DSLR camera so I can get into photo editing again.

The beauty of the above is ... my system is already working purrrfectly and will handle the CPU upgrade.

PS. The Windows score is almost worthless. It actually rates my system lower for having 2 slower Data drives even though Windows is on an SSD. 7.6 is a good rating but honestly all of these systems would be in the 8.5-9 range if Windows was tuned to testing custom built systems.
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Chrisax
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Chrisax »

Grats Bredin :) Nice system. My only interrogation is the power supply as I have no clue at all on this brand (good or bad... no clue) and I'm always very picky on power supplies.

As for Windows score, I agree with Hyde. It's a decent overview but unable to show the real power of custom systems. Nevertheless, mine is at 7.9 but that doesn't really reflect the possibilities of the machine.

I"ll get soon a 250ish GB SSD, so the monster will have its 64GB SSD for the system and some applications, a new 250ish GB SSD for stuff requiring the highest level of performance (applications and certain type of files), and its 750GB drive for the rest. SSD's are an addiction. Don't try them! You won't be able to do without anymore.

Now I would really like software companies to understand people have SSD and allow us to decide where their software must put files and temp files on, so we don't clutter the SSD's or "consume" them stupidly.

The candidates for my next 250ish SSD are (all in SATA 3, 6Gb/s):
  • - Crucial M4 256 Go (still probably the best quality/price ratio with very balanced results in all domains IMHO)

    - Kingston HyperX SSD - 240 Go (more expensive and less capacity but extremely nice performance, too bad Kingston doesn't pay for enough advertising to get more reviews and especially to be in more SSD's comparisons where it would annoy the competition)

    - Intel 520 "Cherryville" - 240 Go (new series, damn expensive, looks like great performance, like the Kingston, nice guarantee... need to have a look if possible but the guy who set the price must be an Omni-Tek player.)

    (Side note: from my past experience, I tend to avoid OCZ products.)

By the way I realize that I never posted the URL's and references for my own system... in fact I never totally finished to post. I will, for reference. And, yes, I have to post a picture of the inside now too.

Another thing I'll do is posting about dampening the case much better and for less than any solution you can find in computer stores.

Grats again, Bredin! :)
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Bredin
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Bredin »

Ah yes, the power supply. Its not the greatest. It was one of the items I cut costs with. I have a tentative plan to one day go SLI with two video cards, at that time I will need a new power supply.

Right now I only have the SSD, the hard drive prices seem to be a bit inflated right now. Eventually I will get a hard drive and then figure out how to configure windows to properly use the two (ie not to junk up the SSD).

Please do post about case dampening, Id like more information on that :-)
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Chrisax
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by Chrisax »

Bredin wrote:Right now I only have the SSD, the hard drive prices seem to be a bit inflated right now. Eventually I will get a hard drive and then figure out how to configure windows to properly use the two (ie not to junk up the SSD).
Hard disks prices are inflated due to the floods last year in Thailand where all the HD makers thought smart to concentrate their production units... Factories have been unable to produce decently for months. Normal operation won't be resumed before this Spring. Seagate which had some stocks and facilities elsewhere is happy but still rises their prices.

As for a proper configuration with SSD, when I have a minute, I'll post what to do to optimize the system for SSD life and/or performance.
Bredin wrote:Please do post about case dampening, Id like more information on that :-)
Will do. I'm looking for the pictures I took and can't find them... If they are not on my old system, I'll have to take them again.
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gohones
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Re: Building the monster (a new computer for little me!)

Post by gohones »

nice PC :D
also i finish mine PC to.
here -->> http://gohonesgrandes.blogspot.com/p/go ... setup.html
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