LCD? TFT? CRT?

[delfuhd]

Well I have a I-don't-know-how-old 15.5 in" IBM G70 monitor, but it's old. It does me fine, there's nothing wrong with the display, and the color/contrast/everything is very nice. But: It kinda sorta doesn't fit on my desk. I rigged up a contraption where I put the monitor on the edge of a piece of wood that I put on the desk (from an older desk), and the edge of that piece of wood hung over the edge of my desk, making plenty of room for my keyboard and mouse, which I couldn't fit before in front of the monitor.
Well anyway, I've been lookin at LCD flat panel displays, and well I have some extra money and I was wonderin if a 17" flat panel display is worth buying? It's around 400-500 greenbacks, which is a whole heck of a lot of money, I mean I can buy a whole new CPU with that much. But it would be a lot easier to handle on my desk. My current setup works perfectly fine, but are LCD displays that much better? Any suggestions would be awesome, TIA!

[qmrq]

One thing to keep in mind when looking for a new display is that LCDs consume about 1 /3 the power of comparably sized CRT monitors. They also emit less heat. It may seem expensive now, but it will most likely pay for itself a few times over before the end of its useful life.

[dangerwit]

I recently purchased a relatively "no-name" in 17" LCDs, because the reviews from consumers were go good: a 17" Cornea LCD. I absolutely love it. The contrast is GREAT and text is crisp and sharp, with no major issues with DVD playback either (some LCDs have a slow pixel rate I guess).

The monitor costs $400 new on Buy.com ... I got mine from EBay for $325. Very good deal.

*Phil

[petvas]

I had an Eizo T960 21" Trinitron Monitor for the last four years. I was very happy with it but it was so big...
I decided to buy a new LCD Monitor and bought the Eizo L767, a 19" Monitor. I was amazed! The display quality is great and playing DVDs is also great. I would suggest it to everybody... 8)

[Prevost]

A 15" flat panel will give you 15 actual inches...the same than a 17" CRT.

I had been thinking about this issue, too. In the end I thought flat panels hadn't better definition than my CRT (I own a Gateway EV700 17"). But recently I saw the new Samsung 15" and I think it's very good...good enough as to make me think again about purchasing :mrgreen:

BTW, I do not know if you have the same impression, but Mac flat panels look actually much better than any CRT or flat panel, at least those included within Windows based computers. I don't know if there is something better than Mac flat panels among Eizos, Viewsonics, and other specialized brands, since those do not reach my country .

Something I like about the Samsung and Macs is that screen fonts look as if they where working at 800x600 resolution (I guess it's higher indeed), since menus and fonts are of a legible size; most flat panels work at higher than 800x600 resolutions making screen text too small to be legible, and 800x600 setup render all text too pixelated to be comfortable. This is an issue you should also consider before making the move.

[maximus]

Well anyway, I've been lookin at LCD flat panel displays, and well I have some extra money and I was wonderin if a 17" flat panel display is worth buying? It's around 400-500 greenbacks, which is a whole heck of a lot of money, I mean I can buy a whole new CPU with that much. But it would be a lot easier to handle on my desk. My current setup works perfectly fine, but are LCD displays that much better? Any suggestions would be awesome, TIA!

If you play 3D games, or run any applications that require fast refresh, or working with image/videos alot, you should wait for the next generation of LCDs with less than 12ms. Afterglow is a pain on the current LCDs.

If you choose to go with LCDs, try the Hyundai Q17A (around $350).

p.s. make sure you check the manufacturer's policy with regard to dead pixels. :wink:

[Janak Parekh]

If you play 3D games, or run any applications that require fast refresh, or working with image/videos alot, you should wait for the next generation of LCDs that do 15ms. Afterglow is a pain on the current LCDs.
It's not that bad, IMHO. I play first-person shooters and LCDs are perfectly tolerable -- and the other benefits outweigh CRTs. I'll never go back. (Admittedly, I'm not a professional gamer. ;))

--janak

[delfuhd]

Ok well this is specifically what I'm looking for:

17 inch, I don't really care what brand, as long as it works, but for under 450, and being under 400 or even around the 350 mark would be great. I don't play that many games anymore, maybe Warcraft II here and there, and a little counter-strike, but other than that games don't really tickle my fancy anymore. lol. I'm just lookin for a bigger screen that can fit on my desk... are the prices dropping quite fast? At the end of next month, would it be easy for me to go to my local staples and pick up an 17 in LCD display for under 375? That's what I really want to know.

[Kati Compton]

Well, I haven't noticed any bad ghosting, and I play Dungeon Siege. My monitor has a "response time" of 25ms. It's certainly been adequate for my needs, though there are now monitors with much faster response times on the market.

[Pat Logsdon]

I have a 17" Viewsonic vp171b that has a response time of 16ms - very nice. I'm currently playing MOHAA: Spearhead, and it's quite nice. Better than my old Viewsonic 17" CRT, due to the digital connection. I haven't noticed any ghosting at all, and the monitor was only about $500 a few months ago.

I think that Hitachi and NEC source their 17" LCD monitors from the same source, so they have the same refresh rate.

[maximus]

Well, perhaps I am an eyophile. When I edit video (scrolling forward-backward) on a 20ms LCD, I still see annoying ghosting. Hum.

[PetiteFlower]

I like my Trinitron. But when it dies(and it's only about a year old) I'll probably get a flat panel; in fact by then CRTs will probably be hard to find!