Best setup for 800x480

**turbohappy** · 05-02-2006, 11:28 AM

I've read lots of threads and searched and read some more, but can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I want to run a 7" touchscreen at native 800x480 with a mini-itx system (would prefer pentium M). What screen and board should I be looking at for this to work, preferably without a PCI video card? People talk about the old Xenarcs a lot, but I can't exactly buy one of those now.

Thanks a ton!

**turbohappy** · 05-04-2006, 02:38 AM

*crickets*

**psyrex** · 05-04-2006, 03:14 AM

AFAIK, no itx setup can do 800x480 natively. It's all in the chipset for video. Even going to PCI or AGP, you still have to check out the chipset pretty carefully. I think I heard some nforce chipsets can do it, but never tried it for myself. It doesn't really matter what screen you get since it's just receiving signals -- if your vid out can't push 800x480, it doesn't matter what's on the receving end.

-psyrex

**Quattro** · 05-04-2006, 03:21 AM

yeah, my board supports that res. It's got the nVidia nForce2 chipset.

**turbohappy** · 05-04-2006, 03:31 PM

So it doesn't matter what screen? I was reading that people were having all kinds of problems with Lilliputs, etc. trying to get them to run on 800x480

**seanz0rz** · 05-04-2006, 03:51 PM

i run my xenarc at 800x600, it gets compressed, thats why the skins for RR look funny when viewed on a regular screen, but look perfect on a xenarc or liliput.

my opinion on the matter, buy the parts you want for other reasons, if there is a problem there is a way to fix it, afaik, there isnt any major problems running it that way...

**nameeri** · 05-04-2006, 04:23 PM

Like Psyrex said, most 7" wide screens have a NATIVE resolution of 800X480 so they are more than happy at running that res. But the problem is the video cards on VIA and other ITX mobos dont pump out that resolution. the via s3 unichrome puts out a stupid resolution, cant remember which (its close to 800x480 but off by a little) but it looks horrible as the screen tries to scale it. 800x600 looks fine on the xenarc, even though its scaled. I cant say how it looks on a lili as I dont own one. You will have to find a video card that supports 800x480 to see this resolution on the screen.

**psyrex** · 05-04-2006, 05:46 PM

Well, I noticed that my Lilliput says it's receiving 848x480, but I'm pushing out 800x480. Whatever it is, I get pixel-to-pixel resolution, so I don't care if Lilliput thinks otherwise. The results are all that matter.

The "best setup" is simply a video chipset that can handle 800x480. Doesn't matter what CPU, what screen, what OS, or patches you have going on.

For example, all the current fancy "all-in-one" chipsets cannot be forced into resolutions outside of 4:3 sizes, but my friggin old MATROX MGA MILLENIUM can do it! It's all about the chipset (so those asking for bios updates are SOL).

-psyrex

**turbohappy** · 05-04-2006, 05:59 PM

I just assumed that (like other LCD screens) it would look bad if not at native resolution. So Xenarc, etc. look "perfect" when at 800x600 (assuming your skin is adjusted accordingly)?

**Quattro** · 05-05-2006, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by turbohappy

I just assumed that (like other LCD screens) it would look bad if not at native resolution. So Xenarc, etc. look "perfect" when at 800x600 (assuming your skin is adjusted accordingly)?

I wouldn't say perfect, but usable. Since the screen are so small and your not so close to them you can't tell that much of a difference running at 800x480 or 800x600.