Buying a display for my L502x, help needed.

Hello everyone,

I found a 23" monitor on the Dell site (model ST2320L - http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=corp&sku=320-9333) that I want to purchase. I was doing a little bit of research before buying, and had a couple questions:

1) The maximum resolution on the 23" monitor is 1920 x 1080. The only display output I have on my L502x is an HDMI output - correct?

2) So I will have to get a cable which has an HDMI port on one end, and a VGA port on the other end, correct?

3) Will this cable do the job, and support the full 1920 x 1080 resolution?

Dekcell CPA-1369 HDMI to VGA HD15 and Video/Audio AV Cable

4) Does anyone have this monitor? If so, any complaints?

Thanks very much guys,

Erick

 

You have an HDMI output on your L502x. You have an HDMI input on the 23" monitor. All you need is a standard HDMI cable. If you don't have one already, monoprice.com is the best place to get one from.

As far as VGA, you had the option to get the mini port to VGA connector when configuring your laptop. I would purchase this should you ever need to hook up an older monitor with only VGA input.

 

You don't want a standard HDMI cable if you want your fps to go above 30 when in the 1920 x 1080 resolution. This happened to me, I could not figure out why my fps was always capped at 30 no matter what game I played. It turns out that the standard HDMI cable doesn't transfer data fast enough to carry higher frames than 30.

I won't go into the whole reason why, but 30fps on TV or movies looks a lot better than 30fps in games. There's a lot of misconception, myth, and general ignorance on this topic... but trust me, the difference is huge.

You want to purchase an HDMI 1.3 cable. I forget what the gb/s that is, but its double the speed of a standard HDMI cable. This will allow you to achieve 60fps and higher (depending on the monitor) When I switched that out on my computer I instantly achieved 60fps as well as richer colors.

You may want to also make sure that whatever monitor you have will support HDMI 1.3 or higher, as some older ones do not. I suggest punching in HDMI 1.3 cable on Amazon. They are fairly inexpensive, but more expensive than the standard HDMI. Good luck!

Keep in mind though that the standard HDMI cable can archive 60fps in 720p mode and below. So if you play games at that res, don't worry about the better cable.

 

You want to avoid VGA at all cost. This is the lowest quality connection in a monitor. Go HDMI first and if there's no HDMI input, go DVI second. Both of these are digital inputs and transfer well. VGA is analog, and covering from digital to analog is always tricky and won't yield the best results.

 

Hate to bust your chops, but you just happened to buy a cheap hdmi cable and that was the reason for your problems. Revision 1 provides support for 1920x1200 at 60fps, and that was back in 2002. That is per the IEEE specifications. Doesn't mean the cheap cable you purchased could do that, depending on attenuation and interference caps. Doesn't matter if it's tv or pc, digital is digital. I buy almost everything off of Amazon, but I don't buy cables, and that's the reason why.

FYI, Revision 1.4 is now the "standard". There's a lot of general ignorance on this topic. Please keep up with current revisions and don't buy any cables from Amazon. If you want a quality cable for the cheapest price, go to monoprice.com.