tft or crt?

I want to obtain a new monitor and am wondering wther to go for tft/crt
with crt i can afford a 19 inch with good reselusion
with tft i can only afford a 17 inch with decent responce time(not such good reseludion.
any ideas, i really cant decide

How much desk space have you got? I find that decent TFTs look almost as good as CRTs, from all angles (sideways etc). I'd go for the TFT personally...I like having desk space for writing and paperwork etc, and a 19" CRT would use up most of that precious desk space
EDIT forgot to mention...the res of TFTs is good enough...a 17" should get ya 1280x1024 native res

A 17" TFT will give you about the same screen area as a 19" CRT anyway...

You can get some very good and cheap CRT screens screens very cheaply if you look for them. I have two 19" CRTs at home. One I got for 10 pounds, when a company next door to where I worked was closing down & selling of surplus. (There is nothing wrong with it). The other I got for nothing from work, because it flickers for the first minute or so when it is switched on. (Hardly a problem in general use).

At the other end of the scale, as I said in another thread, My dad brought a 22" CRT that does 2048x1536 @90Hz from a computer fair for 50 pounds. An equivalent LCD would cost thousands.

Having said all that, if you are buying new, then it is much harder to recomend a CRT, as the price difference is shrinking, and the advantages in space saving & portablitiy are hard to ignore. That 22" monster must weigh about 40kg.

I'd definitely go for a TFT... as previously mentioned TFT sizes are quoted in actual viewable area, whereas CRT is the size of the tube itself (some of which you can't see), and so a 17" TFT is equivalent to about an 18.5" CRT.

Main thing is though, with a TFT you're not irradiating yourself, and you're not looking at a continuously flickering box which your brain has to compensate for (causes headaches etc).

if you put the refresh rate up on a crt your brain is at no worse 'risk' than on a tft..

a crt will get you better value for money, a tft will look nicer. a 19" crt will support much higher res's than a 17" tft if thats your thing, it can also support lower res's properly (a tft running at non-native res will never look quite right).

you can get some amazing crts second hand these days - i personally wouldnt buy a new one as the quality is dropping - get a top of the range one thats a year old off someone upgrading to tft and you're onto a winner..

This has been discussed many times, the most recent of which was here...

My personal preference is for CRT's - this because I do a lot of gaming and photo editing, and have plenty of desk space.

S.

does the dvi link for tfts make a noticable difference to quality. I have seen monitors run on vga+crt and i cant tell the difference. I think i am probably going to go for 2nd hand crt and just find the desk space somewhere

TFTs are getting much better, but CRTs have the edge if properly set up. That said however, TFTs are great for general work, CRTs only really show their value in image editing and gaming. I've had both, now got a TFT on my work machine and a CRT on my movie/gaming PC.

Dave

if you can afford it get the TFT - you know you want to. If you can wait a while give it 6-12 months and TFT will be the route to choose every time. Plus 19" TFTs aren't much more than the 17"ers these days so you might want to look at those instead! Personally I'm going to replace my entire setup mid-2006-ish so I am sticking with my crt (a v.good 19" iiyama which has lasted me years) until then unelss a good offer comes along for it!

Theres little point in going for a 19", they run at the same resolutions as a 17" tft, and both are comfortable to read, so theres not much point in the price premium. Also the 19s can be slightly slower, at the end of the day compare the specs, and work out what fits your budget/usage requirements, then buy it and have no regrets, you will have made the best choice available at the time, cause 6months down the line it may well be £20 cheaper, but you've had its use for 6months right?

Dave

I am going to go for the AGNEOVO F417 TFT! Just got to wait for pay day now!!

be restricted by native resolutions (it looks odd if not) isn't my deal. I particularly don't see myself buying a TFT anytime soon than for reading purposes.