My wife wants to get me a decent present for my birthday at the end of the month. She has asked me what I want. I am having trouble deciding which to get. The Xbox 360 or a 20" widescreen LCD monitor. Which would you choose?



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I have that monitor (typing on it right now.) It was well worth it.

Wait for the first price drop on the Xbox 360...that's what I'm doing.

I also have that exact monitor. It's absolutely beautiful, trust me, you're gonna love it. Also, games on the PC like Call of Duty 2 look absolutely phenomenal in 1680 x 1050. (Definitely better than 720p that Xbox offers.)

i'd get the 24 inch monitor .

Monitor and wait for a price drop on the 360. The launch lineup isn't that impressive IMO, and even if it was those games will be just as fun down the road when it drops in price.

I'm say get the 360.

Wait for a price drop on the monitor, it will look just as nice when it's cheaper.

Seriously though, I'd go with the 360 just because there's alot more that can be done with it vs a monitor. All in all, either is a solid choice.

The real question is whether or not you already have a $300-$400 graphics card. If so, get the monitor, if not, get the 360. Seems like a pretty simple choice to me.

Monitor. Get a 360 when 99% of the lineup isn't graphical updates of existing games.

monitor.

Xbox

I'm leaning towards the monitor since it is something that will get daily use. I may just wait for Halo 3 to get the 360. I don't expect a significant price drop until Halo 3 or the PS3 comes out but who knows. Those monitors are going for $400 new on ebay. Not a bad price at all IMO. I'm using an old 5600 Ultra card now but, plan to update in the next month or so. I saw a 6600GT at Best Buy for $150 after rebates. I would really like to get a 6800GT for less than $200 if thats possible. Thanks for the replys guys.

Monitor.

Both!

I've got both the 24" and the 20" widescreen Dells as a dual monitor setup and both are amazing. Definately worth the cash, you can always get a 360 when there are better games later.

Just got the monitor last week, and it's fantastic.

I'm never buying a system near to launch again. My PSP is just now getting to see some use, thanks to GTA:LCS.

What will you primarily be using the monitor for?

Both are pieces of technology that will drop in price. The drops in price should be pretty similar.

Personally I'd say get the 360 now and then get the monitor for Christmas, or vice versa.

Really, the question you have to ask yourself is:

Are there enough games coming out on the 360 at or around launch that I want to play badly enough to pay $400 for the 360 and $50-60 per game for?"

If yes, get the 360.

If not get the monitor and wait for the 360 to drop in price, the launch game to drop in price and/or more games to be released.

Personally, I'm trying to avoid buying games at launch as launch games are generally lacking (developers haven't got the hang of the hardware yet) and I just don't like paying more than $20 for games in general.

Plus when I buy games at launch when there aren't many games out I end up blowing money on games that I don't like that much and wouldn't have bought otherwise just to have something to play on my shiny new system after I finish the launch killer app.

I say get the Monitor.
I doubt you can find an XBOX 360 by the end of the month.
They seem to be all sold out, some stores are sold out of the second wave of XBOX 360's.
I'm waiting for the hype to settle.

How are you going to be using the monitor? If you will be doing a lot of movie/16x9 TV watching on it, it would be good, but if you're using it with your computer just for work, browsing the web, and checking email, you might be better off with a non-widescreen monitor at this point. Many web pages aren't designed to take advantage of available space at higher resolutions, so these pages (such as Yahoo) have dead space on the sides. Well, guess what, on a widescreen monitor that means even more dead space. One advantage of widescreen is that you do get a wider taskbar, so that would be good if you have a lot of quick launch icons/tray icons and if you like to multitask a lot and fill up that space on the taskbar. You also get more room in the address bar, toolbars, etc.

To see if you would like it, what you could do is set up your current monitor for widescreen by choosing one of the widescreen modes for your graphics card (1600x900 pixels, or any mode where the horizontal resolution divided by the vertical is about 1.78:1) and then vertically squeeze the image in your monitor's setup menu so that you have black bars on the top and bottom (the size you would get if you watched a 16x9 movie on a 4:3 TV). Then do some work, visit some web sites, etc. to see how you like it.

still call of duty 2 is suppose to look better on 360.

Xbox, unless your current monitor is absolute ass.

What he said

The 360's graphics are better than the 6600GT. I have that card in a brand-new PC, and it's not as impressive as I had expected.

Exactly. You are obviously reading this thread so the monitor can't be that bad. It works well enough.

360.

With an agrument like this, why would anyone switch from a black and white 4X3 TV?