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| Test System
and Setup |
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Don't bother if you
don't have a good graphics card driving this
display |
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Leadtek Winfast GeForce3 TD (with DVI
connection)
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Intel Pentium
4 1.5GHz. Processor
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Abit TH7-RAID
Pentium 4 Motherboard
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256MB of
Samsung PC800 RAMBUS DRDRAM,
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IBM DTLA307030
30Gig ATA100 7200 RPM Hard Drive
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Sound Blaster
Live Sound Card,
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Kenwood True-X
72X CD
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Windows 2000
Professional
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Direct X 8.0
and nVidia reference drivers version 12.41
The MultiLink
Adapter:
The SGI 1600SW requires a "break
out box" of sorts so that it can interface to the standard
display interfaces in place today, those being VGA and DVI.
Here is a brief overview of the "Multi-Link Adapter".
This unit is pretty
straight forward. The display connects to it via the
DFP connector. Then there are VGA and DVI input
connectors that you connect to your PC. All the cables
required for virtually any type of connection, are included.
There is also a plug for the AC adapter power unit.
The MultiLink unit
itself is fairly compact, even with all of the physical
connections it incorporates. However, it does take up
some room on your desktop and in reality, the function it
performs is integrated into most current generation flat
panels on the market.
Controls
and DVI Vrs. Analog:
The on
screen controls for the 1600SW, are fairly sophisticated and
provide a good deal of configurability. In DVI mode,
the method in which we tested the display, the controls are
a little more simplistic because the DVI connection sets
many of the scaling and positioning parameters, for you.
However, you can still adjust backlight intensity, color
temperature and a few other options.
In VGA or analog
mode, you also get the ability to tweak the display for
phase, pixel clock and a myriad of image adjustments.
We were actually able to dial in a very nice image in analog
mode. However, there really just isn't a setting more
crisp and clean, than in DVI mode. Also, of note is the fact
that it took a fair amount of adjustment to get things right
in analog mode. DVI also makes life easier in that
regard. It is much more "plug and play", if there ever
was such a thing.
Good Graphics Required:
Virtually all Flat
Panel LCDs need to have reasonably good graphics cards
driving them, in order to get any kind of decent image
quality. The
NVIDIA based GeForce3 card we used for testing, is about
the best you can do for this display. Other cards like
Matrox G400s,
G450s and the
ATI Radeon,
should also produce good results.
The best setting to
use with this monitor and a GeForce3/2 card, would be to
utilize monitor scaling, as we have shown here in the
picture above. Using the display adapter scaling
setting, caused issues in clarity and font scaling.
However, when left to handle its own output, the 1600SW
works quite well and the images are sharp and scale
resolutions nicely. More on this shortly.
Let's run this slick looking LCD
through its paces.
Get the SGI 1600SW At Computers 4Sure!
Testing, Image Quality, Motion and The
Rating
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