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posted by chromas on Friday September 21 2018, @03:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the moar-pixels! dept.

[Update: WOW! Thanks for all the useful feedback! Plenty of information on the TV-as-a-monitor side of things (but feel free to add more!) Would very much appreciate it if folks could provide some input as to what has worked for them in using a laptop to drive a 4K display. I'd consider a used system. Would, ideally, like something that costs in the ~$300 range, but am resigned to the fact I may have to kick out more like ~$750. What graphics adapter do you have. Is it an integrated model (e.g. Intel HD 630) or discrete card? What model? What troubles, if any, have you had with getting proper drivers (windows OR Linux/Debian/BSD/etc.) Could you get the full 60 fps or were you limited to 30 fps? See below the fold for details on my current system and what my needs are compute-wise. --Bytram]

Summary: I need more screen space.

Which means I'll need a new (to me) laptop (portability++) which can support more pixels. I want a system that is Linux/BSD friendly. I don't have a whole lot of money to spend, so I'm hoping I can draw on the experience of my fellow Soylentils to help point me in the right direction. I'd like to avoid overspending, but I don't want to find that I've boxed myself into a corner for making an ignorant mistake.

I used to follow the bleeding edge of technology, but I've now firmly moved into the "I want it to just work" camp.

Current Display: I have a 24-inch, 1920x1200 computer monitor. The majority of my display is taken up my Internet Browser (Pale Moon) which generally has 50+ tabs. It is flush with the top of my screen and covers the entire display except for a ~2 inch margin on the sides and 3 inches on the bottom. That overlays my HexChat IRC (Internet Relay Chat) which runs across the bottom 1/3 of my screen. The remainder of the screen has corners of command windows poking out as well as various utilities like an analog clock, performance monitor, connection monitor, etc.

TV as Monitor: Over the past few months I've seen the prices for 4K (3840x2160) televisions plummet. I've got my eye on a TCL 43S517 43-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model) which Amazon has on sale for $349.00 with free shipping.

As I see it, I could get a display with better dot pitch than what I have now, and much more screen real estate, for relatively little money.

The vast majority of what I do is command line based, be it in a Windows (7 Pro X64) CMD.exe command window, or an occasional PuTTY session into Soylent's Servers. I do not do any video gaming. My only video needs are an occasional short clip from YouTube, or a DVD (I have neither cable TV nor do I stream video with Netflix or their ilk; no Blu-ray, either). Internet access is currently via a tethered LTE cell phone.

Current computer: Thanks to the generosity of a fellow Soylentil, my current system is a Dell Latitude E6400 with a Core 2 Duo P8700 (1.8-2.5 GHz) with 8GB RAM and a 500GB 7200-rpm WD Black disk drive. Video is handled by a NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M.

New Laptop: My current is not going to cut it. So, I'm also on the lookout for a new (to me) laptop. I don't need much in the way of compute power. I figure pretty much any i3 or i5 should be more than enough for my computing needs. And, an Intel integrated graphics chip should be up to the task given a recent enough generation, but I'm not sure how current a model I'd need. I'm further confused by the different connection schemes and versions. I've found this page on Intel. What will I need? HDMI 1.4? Display Port 1.2? Other? Would I be able to run both a 4K monitor @ 60Hz and my existing 1920x1200 display?

With the increasing trade war rhetoric, I'm getting nervous there may be a price spike in the not too distant future. Further, I sense merchants are clearing out the current stock in anticipation of the holiday season, so I'm thinking the time is right for me to take the plunge and upgrade.

Conclusion: So, what have your experiences been using a 4K television as a computer monitor? What 'gotchas' have you run into? What things did you learn the hard way that you wish someone had told you about beforehand? What driver problems have you encountered? Did you have any issues with Linux/BSD drivers? What worked for you?


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by fakefuck39 on Friday September 21 2018, @06:50AM (8 children)

    by fakefuck39 (6620) on Friday September 21 2018, @06:50AM (#737998)

    so, maybe I'm the dumb one this time and missing something. you have 43-50" TVs out there for like $100 less than what you're looking at. Even a different 43" 2018 model TCL brand, still w/ the precious Roku whatever that is, is $259. PS, I have 3 of those cheapo dumb-tv sceptres, different models over 2 years. this includes a 4k 65". The TV tuner is crap, the audio is crap, blacks shine through a little backlight. Perfectly fine as a monitor. Don't know if you're one of those hippie anti-corporate idiots, but if you have a good card like an AMEX, you get a year added to the free year of mfgr warwrongtee for a total of 2, so flimsy or not, it's covered. Also, seems not flimsy from my experience.

    Used laptop will be interesting. Just about any used laptop will be HDMI1.4. You need HDMI2 for 4k@60Hz, so the way out is your USBC port to an HDMI2 dongle, to the TV. The laptop's HDMI port - hey you can hook that up to your old monitor. May not want it day1, but some people like 3 screens (not me, I prefer 1). A terminal window to run stuff, a reference open, and the code. You'll need 2 video cards in your laptop for that.

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  • (Score: 2) by martyb on Friday September 21 2018, @03:20PM (7 children)

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 21 2018, @03:20PM (#738167) Journal

    Thanks to your comment, I am now leaning to the lower-priced TCL Model 43S405 which Best Buy currently has on sale for $259.99 — I don't see that, for my needs, the TCL Model 43S517 (at best buy it's the 43S515, and on sale for $319.99) is worth the extra money. OTOH, I've been burned before by "saving too much" and going from inexpensive to cheap.

    Others had pointed out I'd need HDMI 2.0 to get 4k@60hz, or USB 3.2 and a dongle/converter. Nice to have it independently confirmed! I've learned to not confuse confidence with competence.. .get independent verification wherever possible!

    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Friday September 21 2018, @03:26PM (6 children)

      by fakefuck39 (6620) on Friday September 21 2018, @03:26PM (#738171)

      It looks like a major use for the new hardware for you is running this site. If you feel like posting an email address (or just create a throwaway email) here, I'll send you an amazon egift card for the TV.

      • (Score: 2) by martyb on Friday September 21 2018, @03:44PM (4 children)

        by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 21 2018, @03:44PM (#738182) Journal

        Speechless.

        Yes, it would primarily go towards supporting this site.

        OTOH, I prefer to do brick-and-mortar shopping when I can, and there's a Best Buy right near by that price matches. Should I run into any issues, I can show up in the store at 2;30 pm on a Saturday and make a firm, polite explanation of why they need to take care of things.

        So, as much as I would love to take you up on your generous offer, I will politely decline at this time.

        Of course, a week or month from now I'll need a new cable or mounting bracket or somesuch... Murphy and I go WAY back! =)

        It might be helpful toward a laptop though... feel free to send info to my nickname at solentnews.org and I'll give it some further thought.

        Thanks again!

        --
        Wit is intellect, dancing.
        • (Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Friday September 21 2018, @04:11PM (3 children)

          by fakefuck39 (6620) on Friday September 21 2018, @04:11PM (#738200)

          Sent; please confirm receipt. Careful w/ the laptop though. A couple of years ago my work refreshed me w/ a dell 5510 - xeon, 32GB ram, 1.5TB dual-ssd - I'm thinking latest and greatest. Plugged in the hdmi to the 4k tv and got 30Hz. My only gaming is old dosbox-based crap, so no big deal, but I do watch a lot of french tv online. It sucked for video - had to get w chromecast pro (wired lan) so I don't have to deal w/ the shitty usb-c hubs. The laptop will not be cheap because I doubt any 2yo used one will be what you want.

          • (Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday September 23 2018, @12:14PM (2 children)

            by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 23 2018, @12:14PM (#738818) Journal

            feel free to send info to my nickname at solentnews.org and I'll give it some further thought.

            Sent; please confirm receipt. Careful w/ the laptop though. A couple of years ago my work refreshed me w/ a dell 5510 - xeon, 32GB ram, 1.5TB dual-ssd - I'm thinking latest and greatest. Plugged in the hdmi to the 4k tv and got 30Hz. My only gaming is old dosbox-based crap, so no big deal, but I do watch a lot of french tv online. It sucked for video - had to get w chromecast pro (wired lan) so I don't have to deal w/ the shitty usb-c hubs. The laptop will not be cheap because I doubt any 2yo used one will be what you want.

            Umm, I was looking to get information *about* what you were proposing, and you went and sent... the actual GC! Thank you SO much for your generosity!!! Be assured it will be put to good use. Gives me a reason to finally set up an Amazon account. =)

            I did not see anything about expiration date, so I am assuming there isn't any? Could you please confirm?

            Thanks again for your incredible generosity!

            --
            Wit is intellect, dancing.
            • (Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Monday September 24 2018, @06:19PM (1 child)

              by fakefuck39 (6620) on Monday September 24 2018, @06:19PM (#739311)

              No expiration date. While I don't use the site as much for tech discussion as to relax by making fun of no-career idiot losers who give stupid advice, I do use the site so I am happy to support it. It is the only one out of the tech sites that does not censor comments by deleting them, and I don't enjoy having my content filtered by random internet retards. I was on /. since it's creation, and boy did that really go to shit.

              I usually get dell stuff because I just have an insane number of Dell chargers laying around. HP is similar but dipping my toes into their business line twice - build quality is absolute crap. My personal opinion on "what you need" to make sure you're not watering plants with electrolytes. Integrated as well as dedicated graphics. This will allow you to hook up your old monitor as well as your new monitor 4k @60Hz, as well as using your laptop screen. Not a huge used market for 4k@60.

              Dell is good, Lenovo and ASUS are good, Acer is ok. Unfortunately that's ~$1k new. Here's an example of a new one like that, and it's $1.2k.

              https://www.amazon.com/Acer15-6-Aspire-Full-Laptop-Fingerprint/dp/B07FQBHPZJ [amazon.com]

              A 2 year old laptop won't have 4k@60Hz.

              • (Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday September 29 2018, @06:10PM

                by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 29 2018, @06:10PM (#741858) Journal

                First off, I apologize for the delayed reply... why does "real life" have to interfere with the things that I *want* to do?

                Much appreciate the clarification on the gift card -- good to know it does not expire! (Now I just have to set up an account on Amazon.)

                My experiences with computers closely matches yours. I did get an HP Pavilion laptop over a dozen years ago which was a real trooper, but I've heard that the build quality went downhill rather rapidly since my purchase. Have had excellent luck with Dell (business class - am using a Latitude E6400 ATM with a core 2 duo that must be approaching 10 years old and still running like a champ.) I've heard good things about Lenovo business class (they took over the IBM Thinkpad line) but rather meh when it comes to their consumer lines. Along while back I got an ASUS netbook (Eee PC 1000HD) and it held up well over many years. Have had no experience with Acer, but got the impression that they were not up to the level of the other brands previously mentioned, but am willing to be corrected if things have changed.

                Thanks for the link to the Acer system... looks interesting.

                Thanks to your generosity, I am now looking to get a laptop that has Thunderbolt port(s) that I could then feed into a 'base' that would provide HDMI and/or Displayport ports for then connecting to the new monitor. Trying to future-proof a bit there, and also simplify going from portable to docked at home.

                That said, I am now contemplating maybe getting an inexpensive, low-power system to serve as a file server, a desktop for "heavy hitting" activity, and a lightweight (compute-power wise, as well as actual physical weight) laptop for mobile use. My storage needs, atm, are modest. 1TB would more than triple my current usage, but things have a way of expanding to exceed the space provided, so I'd like to be able to handle a few TB not too far down the road. I currently only have spinning rust for storage, so an upgrade to an SSD would certainly make a huge difference performance-wise for portable purposes, but seems too pricey atm for my long term storage needs.

                Thanks again for your generous gift and very informative feedback!

                --
                Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:44AM

        by Reziac (2489) on Saturday September 22 2018, @03:44AM (#738473) Homepage

        +1 Heroic :)

        Best Buy has eGift cards too, tho I know nothing else about 'em.
        https://www.bestbuy.com/site/electronics/gift-cards/cat09000.c?id=cat09000 [bestbuy.com]

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.