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19" Sony or Viewsonic? Possibly others? (Hitachi)

GoodRevrnd

GoodRevrnd

Diamond Member
I'm looking to get a good solid performance monitor for high-end gaming. How well it will interface w/ my current video card (Voodoo5) is irrelevant, I'm going long term -- GeForce4/5, Radeon 9500+. I'd say my pricerange is about $300-$450 give or take, and I must get at least a 19" for this. Resolutions above 1600x1280 aren't necessary. I've more or less looked over and going by brand reputability and the little I've seen have narrowed it down to a few Sony and Viewsonic monitors, though I'm open to other excellent suggestions. I'd prefer a flatscreen, and antiglare is good too. Also, a minimum 3 year full warranty is an absolute must, 5 preferable. I'm more partial to aperture grill, though if its a case where the damping wires are grossly visible I'd much rather go shadowmask; but from what I've seen the Viewsonics are pretty good at keeping their visibility minimal. I know the monitors can vary individually, and I read that whole THG article, but I'd still appreciate input on specific models. It's extremely difficult to find a good store w/ a wide range of monitors, especially a wide range of quality monitors!
Here's what I'm considering so far:
Sony CPD-G420S
Viewsonic GS790
Viewsonic PF790

This one also looks quite good, esp. for a shadowmask (and it's the cheapest of the bunch).
Hitachi CM721F
However, does it suffer from the same widely variable dot pitch as that Samsung 21"?

Thanks for the help!
 
Hey its the fella lookin for 21"Sony and 19". I just picked up the Hitachi Cm721F and find that it has great stats for Dot pitch and what not but the borders of the screen seem to have some blurryness to them. I am not sure If i wanna keep it or not. That Samsung for 244$ but only 75hz at 1280 looked great in the store. Now what should I do? I paid 347$ and if I do decide to keep it I will order both the Sony and 19" from Buy.com since they have free shipping if you buy 2 or more monitors. Plus they match authorized retailers so I will go price huntn and order from them. Best case scernio is I can get both monitors for 740$ And that Tom's guide helped alot , thanks ....
 
I've got the Philips 109P Brilliance.

It's Flat and it's awesome!

It has fantastic refresh rates at hi resolutions and plenty of grunt.

I'd recommend it!
 
GoodRevrnd:

I have done quite a bit of research. I was bothered by the damping wires too. I had a Sony G400 which I liked OK, but was not overly impressed. I had narrowed down my choices between the Hitachi CM723 and the Viewsonic P95f. I couldn't find the 723 anywhere except one place that wanted something like $85 for shipping. So I settled on the Viewsonic. Man am I ever impressed. I bought from Dell and got a 15% discount and free shipping. All in all, with tax it was only a little over $400. Great specs...Check out the following link for a review of this and two other monitors at Neoseeker. http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Roundups/19in3wayflat/4.html Hope this helps. By the way, where does the handle come from?

chaplndave
 
I would get almost anything over ViewSonics. Sony is nice, but they're damage-prone during shipment, consider Samsung, and Cornerstone as well.
 
i'd go with the sony... actually i'm buying one maybe today.... the same monitor.
I mean, I looked at those other monitors... they just don't cut it like the sony does. Sony has a reputation for having a sleek sexy look with performence that you can count on 🙂

Go with the sony 🙂
-Dave
 
Have 2 SONY's (G400 19" and older 17SFII 17"). If I'd need new monitor, I'd get Sony again..... (have bunch of other monitors including NEC and Samsung, SONY wins)
 
The Hitachi is very nice. Very high marks and always comes in 1st or 2nd place over anything else at cad sites.
And those guys are very discerning.
Only $260 or so shipped from Dell right now for either beige or black.

I personally also like the Sony but I hate the exterior color. It doesn't match anything but Sony's own products.



 
I have the Viewsonic PF790, and its great. Only gripe I have is that it runs 1600/1200 at 75hz, and I cant take it - little bit flikery. I run at 1280/960 at 85 hz though, and its great.
 
I'd appreciate more detailed reasons why Sony is so great and why so many people hate ViewSonic. I'm trying to discern how much rabid brand loyalty going on here.
rolleye.gif
Most of my experience has been with the cheaper ViewSonic monitors, but even they look great. It's been a while since I looked at new monitors. I used to use Iiyama a lot (dunno if those are even made any more) as well as NEC. I was never very impressed with the NEC.
For those of you that have the G420S or the PF790, can you see the damping wires? And if so, how visible are they?
Thanks for the info ChapInDave; and I've had the nick for a long time.
 
I have the Sony CPD-G500 21".. Can I see the damper wires..? During gaming, good luck, not at all.. During word on a white screen, yes, it's possible IF I am going out of my way to look for them..

Personally, I think people make a BIG deal out of this and it's usually by people who "don't give it a fair chance".. Yah, at 1st, I found myself finding them all the time, but it was ME that was the problem, not the monitor.. Nowadays, I just don't even notice them, they are just not there unless I do what I was originally doing -- TRYING to look for them..

As I mentioned before, I'd recommend the Sony CPD-G420S or the Samsung 900NF.. You will NOT be disappointed with either, though I'd say the Sony is just a bit better.. As for the other brands mentioned in this thread, most of them are "acceptable", but they are NOT equal to the one's I've mentioned.. Oh great, fear the backlash for that comment, but I've worked with numerous monitors and that's MY opinion.. 🙂
 
The fact is that both the viewsonic and sony are awsome monitors. People who bought a sony say its great cuse it is and the same for viewsonic. Personally im getting the sony 420 in a couple of months just becuase I have a sonycentral store not too far away and ive seen the 420 win the best 19" award in a few magz. Im sure the difference between the sony and viewsonic is marginal and if price is your motivator i'd go for the cheapest
 
I've had the PF790 for a few years and have never been disappointed in it...until I got my new Sony G420s.

Just built a new system and after staring at my G420 for a few days I went back to the Viewsonic and was surprised to find that the text on my desktop icons, particularly around the edges of the screen, looked blurry. I had never noticed this before and tried cleaning the screen but it turns out that's how my PF790 had been displaying the text the whole time I owned it...I just never knew the difference until after experiencing the crispness of the Sony display.

I still think the PF790 is a great monitor and would recommend it to anyone...but personally now that I have the Sony I couldn't imagine myself ever again using a monitor of lesser quality than the Sony. The Sony 420s has a single mono speaker which is pretty useless but is does have a stereo headphone jack which can be handy. I just wish it had USB ports too.

I also considered the NEC FP 950 but didn't like the lightup logo on the front panel and the Mitsubishi Diamond Pros are really hard to find so I went with the Sony by mailorder having never viewed one before. And, like I said, now that I've experienced the Sony I don't think I'd ever go back.
 
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