crt/tft?

[SilentDeath]

wanna get a new monitor to replace this ageing lg studioworks 76i (17" crt max res1024*768 @75hz = eye ache)

want a tft cos of DVI = uber quality, but r there any decent enuf for games that are also cheap, dont really wanna spend more than £350... also dead pixels,any where online do checks for a small fee to make sure i dont get any?

or i could spend less and get a very decent crt but they are h000ge. looking at 17/19" crt, wots the best one i could get for upto £250 but id prefer one that cost about half that if i can.

[Austin]

TFT's are just about becoming both affordable and getting ever close to replacing bulky, power hungry, eye straining CRT's. However diffs between TFT's are pretty huge, not quite so much for CRT's ... even the cheapest 19" are pretty darn good now (and cheap too). As you probably know with a TFT you get the full size of the screen so a 15" TFT is comparable to a 17" monitor while the 17" TFT is comparable to a 19" monitor (in terms of size). If you do go TFT do some research and ask around, be sure you get 24bit colour (millions) instead of 16bit (thousands). You also NEED a very fast response time, 16-20ms and certainly nothing higher than 25ms (noticably more ghosty / slower). Also note the native res, this is what you should be running all your movies AND games in so choose wisely.

CRT's save you loads and can handle all res VERY well. The main 2 flat screen technologies are Shadow Mask and Aperture Grill (inc Sony Trinitron etc) . IMHO Shadow Mask is better (as well as cheaper) as you avoid the horizontal lines necessary of AG technology, other things balance out. So the last thing to make up your mind (besides price) is pretty much res and refresh rate support, the res with 85Hz MAX resfresh is technically the 'best' one to use for the monitor but I doubt it truly makes much diff. Do consider the SuperBright type screens from companies like Iiyama (M2 tube) as these have a high brightness mode making them become more like TV sets which is great for movies and is said to have a decent AA effect on games too ... plus picture quality is top notch. If you want the best I believe popular opinion lies at Viewsonic's door.

[Prodigy]

I agree with most of that except that IMO Shadow Mask is to be avoided. I've heard a lot of bad things about it and to be honest it just doesn't compare to a decent Diamondtron NF screen.

If you can find a nice Diamondtron NF screen in say a 19" version then you're laughing. Extremely good quality so long as you can put up with the incredibly thin lines. I NEVER notice them on my 22" Compaq P1220.

[SilentDeath]

ive heard of Sony Trinitron and Diamondtron NF but not Shadow Mask and Aperture Grill, these are the technologys that the ST and DT are based around?

im also thinkning of runing dual monitors, my gfx card is a 9700np, what could i use dual monitors for/is software support good? thisdll obviosly mean im looking at cheap crappy ones ...

some 1 tell me whats wrong with these:
http://www.digiuk.com/multi/acatalog...nitors_21.html
cos at £68 they look very good

also how much would a decent 20" crt cost? i havent really got space for any bigger

[Austin]

Prices are roughly...

15" £85
17" £100
19" £120
21" £350
22" £600
24" £1200?

15" TFT £200ish?
17" TFT £300ish?

You pay a lot more for the less common/demanded screen sizes, dual 19" shouldn't be out of your sight .. a lot of space though. There's quite a few placed like the one you mentioned which sell 2nd hand (refurb) monitors (and other stuff), possibly factory seconds too ... either way there's little guarantee of quality or lastability, but see what the savings are like.

Trinitron and Diamondtron are just Sony's copyrighted names for the Aperture Grill technology, other companies can't use Sony's brand names. Shadow Mask is the other common flatscreen technology in CRT's and as I say many find the 2 horizontal lines the AG technology demands distracting ... others never notice them (until someone points them out again, sorry). When deciding between SM and AG it's best to see the monitors in the flesh, decide for yourself as each has both pros and cons.

Rad9700's are excellent cards, very close to 9800PRO esp if you o/c and all Radeons are well known for absolute top notch image quality too. To connect up 2 montiors you'll need a DVI-to-CRT convertor, should have been inc but are cheap anyway. Sw side is good, all you should need for very good dual display abilities is built in to the ATI drivers and WIndows (XP?).

[Prodigy]

If you're interested in dual displays then a Raddy 9700 would be ideal.

Get a nice 15 or 17" TFT for word processing/internet browsing and make sure it supports DVI. Then get a nice 19" CRT for gaming. Hook both up to the same card (I'm pretty sure that you can, I think I did it with my 9700pro for a while) and you're sorted.

[Bunjiweb]

To be honest it depends what kind of applications you run, what sort of space you've got and what kind of size you're looking at getting.

In *my* opinion there's no point getting a TFT unless it's at least 18"..... Also, you've got to remember to try and get one with the lowest response rate you can. You can get TFTs with response rates as low as 13ms these days which is un-noticable to the human eye.

Now, for £350 you won't get a great TFT, so, and as i said, this is MY opinion, getting a very nice TFT might be a better option. For £350 you can get a top of the range 19" monitor with excellent refresh rates, resolutions and image clarity.

I personally own a Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 93SB.. It cost around £200, so it's not top of the range, yet it is seriously a VERY nice monitor. Excellent build quality, Excellent Image Quality and Brightness. It's not a big bulky thing either considering it's 19".

So it's all about quality. With £350 i suggest you don't buy a TFT unless you are VERY sure that you can live with a 17" screen, which in my opinion just can't fit everything on and isn't big enough to view properly anyway.

some TFTs and CRTs i'd reccomend:

19" CRTs....

NEC/Mitsubishi Pro930SB 19ins
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=43907

Iiyama 19ins Vision MST Pro452
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=23942

17" TFTs....

Iiyama AS4315U 17ins
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=32026

CTX PV722E 17ins TFT 0.26dpi 80khz
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=45571

18" TFTs....

Philips 18.1 TFT 180P2M
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=34756

Viewsonic VX800 18ins TFT 1280x1024 82khz
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=37109

I've tried to stick realistically close to your budget i think.... but yeh basically if you're going to buy a TFT don't skimp on quality...

Ben

[SilentDeath]

i thought tft's over 17" were to be avioded, dont they have worse responce or more dead pixels or somming?

also after measuring my desk, i can fit a 19" crt, but my desk is already dipping by 1cm in the middle and thats just with a 17" crt (+ my pc)

so think ill get a decentish 17" tft, or one of those referb crts, will have to save up for a while though

[dgr]

silentdeath@ god no, my lg 18.1'' dvi in never ghosts. it apparantly has a 20ms response, but bear in mind some 16ms aren't ACTUALLY that fast...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...itors_112.html
LG Flatron L1810B 18.1" TFT Monitor but in black

[Prodigy]

17" TFT not big enough? I think you've been smoking something dude. That's a visible area nearly as big as a 19" CRT.

Fair enough I like the size of my 22" CRT and wouldn't change it for the world but a 17" TFT is plenty big enough for non-gaming needs (so long as you're not doing CAD etc.)

Also some people can see ghosting, some can't. I can't play games on TFTs with 20ms response times - it's just too slow.

Still, get the CRT to play games and you're onto a winner.