Another computer upgrade?

In the house, most of our "gaming consoles" are in the same place. Both PC's are next to each other, behind us is the TV with the PS3 and Wii connected. It is a very simple layout, with no fancy contraptions besides the HD PVR leading from the PS3 to my tower. This setup actually lasted for quite a while; until recently that is. You see, Chelsea (my SO) recently discovered the magic and challenge of creating perfect towns in Animal Crossing: City Folk. I, have recently started Disgaea 4. Between Item Worlds, MOAR Story, fruit picking, and tree chopping, it is easy to see that sharing the television has become more and more difficult.

Getting a 2nd television was out of the question. So what else can you do in 2012? Play console games on your computer monitor!

The first step is deciding which monitor to get. Since I watch a lot of MLG and "pro gaming", those programs often advertise the monitors of which they are sponsored. After asking a few of my real and internet "pro gaming" buddies, I settled on the ASUS VH236 LCD Monitor. Ebay had a few good deals on used ASUS monitors (probably won by gamers or cast aside because of bigger purchases) and I decided to go that route. Yugioh (and the other random items I have sold) essentially paid for this monitor.

Of course, I didn't really think about the size of the screen whatsoever.... My original eMachines (BestBuy Quality) monitor was 17 inches. Chelsea's Touchsmart is 20 inches. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by this:

Which then became this:

You can barely make out the dinky eMachines monitor on the far right. I'm not sure how I forgot to check the size of the monitor before I bought it. The 23" screen is a pretty noticeable improvement over my 17". In comparison to the 20" Touchsmart, you can really see the 1080p/16:9 difference. that isn't to say the the Touchsmart has a bad screen, because it definitely does not. The Asus monitor just has a more accurately native resolution (if such a thing is possible).

In any case, for a used monitor, this thing  runs very well. I doubt I will notice a difference in latency with games like Disgaea 4, but I can say that the refresh rate(?) has really improved the "blur" that occurs during fast movement.  The PS3 is plugged in via HDMI, the desktop is in DVI, and switching between the two is only a matter of pressing a button on the monitor. For recording video, I will still need to play on the television because of the Hauppauge HD PVR's component av requirements. Obviously, the PS3 can switch on the XMB, so long as I am not already playing a game (PS3 limitations).

I'm pretty sure that, in the last time I posted about upgrading my PC, I said I would upgrade the cooling fan, processor and RAM. While it is true that my system is running in the "red zone" according to Speccy and GameBooster, I have managed to play this way for a while. Priority for the next systems upgrade should go towards the HP Touchsmart. While an excellent desktop pc, which plays most online games very well, it struggles on the majority of boxed, highly intensive retail games (such as FFXIV and Tera). The system isn't really old, it just isn't meeting our expectations as games become bigger and better. With luck, I can get a premade gaming rig, which often tends to cost less than building your own (unless you get some Black Friday deals). HOPEFULLY the next time I talk about computer upgrades, it won't be for myself.