The Windbox has, what many view as a major Achilles heel, namely is lack of a real digital DVI port for true digital output.
I have no idea why MSI, with such a wonderful product would want to leave out a standard feature such as this but it does appear to be the case that VGA will be the only option.
But is it really all that bad?
For me the honest truth is I cannot tell the difference. I have both DVI and VGA monitors and both appear to deliver an excellent image.
One possible problem you may run into with VGA is ‘ghosting’ but as this is primary caused by the physical length of a VGA cable. I would imagine in the case of the WindBox this won’t be an issue as it most likely will be slapped bang on the back of your flat screen TV or monitor.
What you should watch out for may not be the video output but the actual monitor itself.
Given the case where you had a VGA output to a fast response high contract LCD or a DVI output to a low response low contrast screen the VGA wins hands down every time.
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No DVI is gonna be a showstopper.
VGA only is not an issue for me, it’s actually saved me some money. I’m planning on buying an MSI WindBox to use as an “always-on” cloud/email/web PC. My plan is to hook it up to a high resolution monitor, so I decided to go for a 22″ 1920×1080, when I started shopping I quickly realised that opting for the non-HDMI, non-DVI models would save me about £40 ($60). In the end I got a Viewsonic for £120 ($170). With the VGA cable only needing to be about 10″ long I can’t see there being much difference in the way of quality.
I can see that for some people, who have other applications in mind it might be a show-stopper, but for my application, it’s not.
Yea, Ive seen this everywhere 22” monitors VGA only going for a song. No one seems to want a VGA LCD, either that or marketing has convinced everyone that its rubbish. It may be that punters have been sold on the whole digital thing but to be really honest the is practically no dicernable difference in the image quality.
Hopefully net-top systems like the windbox will show this up for what it really is, just clever marketing.