34” Curved Monitor - Help and Suggestions

• 

  Deditus on 16/06/2020 - 16:49

  +1

  It's always hard trying to do the necessary research when buying tech, especially for someone else. Do you know what kinds of games he plays? How powerful his computer is? Depending on the resolution of the ultrawide, you may need a fair bit of grunt.

  A few years back I decided to get an ultrawide, I couldn't stomach the price of the Acer Predator at the time either (generally considered the king of the ultrawides), so I went with a flat LG 34 inch for myself. It's not for everyone though - 60 hertz and no curve but only $600.

  I see there are some cheap ultrawides on Kogan but cannot comment on the quality, perhaps another OzBargainer can weight in.

• 

  Caped Baldy on 16/06/2020 - 16:59

  +2

  Can you find out the specs of the PC. No point buying an ultrawide (3440x1440) if you don't have the PC to match.

  Refresh rate is measured in Hz (frames per second) so the same thing and basically measures smoothness. Response time is pretty obvious, I hope. The lower, the better for shooter games.

  Kogan does have one for $449+shipping (free with kogan first trial). This isn't the highest spec but if he is just starting out it may be suitable.

• 

  OpenHand on 16/06/2020 - 17:03

  +1

  Hey Jipsi,

  Lots of options here and even the budget ones are pretty spectacular, particularly for a kid who is used to something much smaller.

  34" is the typical size for an ultrawide curved monitor. I use an older non-curved one (no longer for sale unfortunately) and it's great, and pretty much everything on the market now is better.

  The typical specs you are looking at:

  • Size: 34"
  • Resolution: 3440 x 1440 is best.
  • Refresh rate: anywhere from 60hz (standard) to 144hz. The higher the better, although you need much better gear to run it.

  One consideration could be the kogan option: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-34-wqhd-219-ultrawide-75h…

  Definitely not top of the line, but budget friendly and will probably blow his mind compared to whatever he has. It's only slightly curved if at all however.

  Keep in mind, this stuff is really hardware intensive. He needs a good computer to play games at any decent settings. Unless it's older or simpler stuff like Minecraft etc.

  • 

    Deditus on 16/06/2020 - 17:50

    These are all great points, particularly the comments about performance. A regular 1920x1080 monitor has about 2 million pixels, a lower-res ultrawide (2560x1080) has ~2.8, and a 3440*1440 has almost 5 million. If the machine behind the monitor isn't capable it will struggle to push out a decent framerate, which could make the comparisons between 60 and 144 hertz a bit mute (unless he is playing non-demanding stuff as mentioned).