Hi all! I'm building a PC at the moment and I know what I want to get in terms of the internals. I'm getting an ATI Radeon HD 5850 (HDMI output) so would this cause a problem for the console switching part? I'm not really sure what monitor to get and how would I be able to make it so that I can easily switch it between PC and consoles (want to connect my PS3 and X360 to the monitor) so can anyone advise me on any monitors to go with that have HD support and on how I can set it up so that I can switch between consoles and PC? Cheers.

http://www.play.com/Electronic ... /Product.html?source=9593

is that what you were after?

i think you need 3 to 1? : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet%C ... qid=1261830978&sr=8-1

lead going from ps3 to switcher
lead going from xbox to switcher
lead from Gfx car to switcher
lead from switcher going to monitor

Use DVI for PC and HDMI for console. Im pretty sure that u use own speakers, not monitor ones. DVI and HDMI quality are the same.

Quote from hazaky :

Use DVI for PC and HDMI for console. Im pretty sure that u use own speakers, not monitor ones. DVI and HDMI quality are the same.

on most TV's that have a DVI input they have a pc speaker input aswell

Thank you for the links Seb . Yeah, I was looking for that but something that bothered me a little is that I couldn't use the official HDMI cables with that switcher (official cables should output higher quality, right?)

Well, I did consider outputting the gfx card to just DVI but the thing that is confusing me is that the gfx card says it outputs either HDMI or Dual link DVI which I don't really get so I don't want to plug in the cable into one of the DVI slots and then connect it to the monitor and the picture turns out all funny.

I'm not looking out for the speakers that come with the monitor as I'll probably get a set of 4 speakers or something.

Welcome
I'm not to sure with HD stuff.. but i don't think the cable should change anything..
Not sure i can help you further sorry

HDMI = DVI in a different form.

Honestly, go for DVI for PC, HDMI for console. That's how I have my new monitor setup and it works perfectly.

CAble changes jack shit. a 5$ cable will be as good as a 500$ cable.

ok, cool. The thing is though that the ATI RadeonHD 5850 says it outputs dual-link DVI or HDMI so wouldn't I need a monitor that supports dual-link DVI to use it?

I believe they mean the 5850 has 2 DVI outputs, so you can connect 2 monitors via DVI on it.

Oh right. Thats ok then. Thanks for that info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-link_DVI#Connector

A little to read about Single/Dual-link.

Use DVI from the PC, and HDMI from the consoles, thats what id do atleast Easiest too :P

Besides, From my experience using the HDMI output for a PC doesn't really work as the TV (assuming ur using a TV) starts acting all weird and shiz. Most TV's with a VGA/DVI input have a PC mode which acts like a monitor and u dont get the errors of HDMI mode. My PC stopped recognising the HDMI was connected on boot up and i ended up with one monitor instead of 2. Then i would reconnect it and set it up and it got confused between the nVidia control panel and the windows one. So long story short, just use the PC mode not the HDMI mode on ur TV if ur gonna use one. a good quality VGA cable can show as clear as a DVI cable too (something i never found out until after i had bought my HDMI cable).