I'm going to be moving soon and so I need a new monitor to replace my current Sony HMD-200 17" (which I leave behind). I am leaning towards an LCD since they are the new technology and nice, but I really don't find the price for an 17" LCD justifyable. Can anybody give me a link or a store where I can purchase a good 17" LCD that's under $650 and/or give me some examples of good 19" Flat CRTs. Thanks.
Need a new Monitor
- Thread starter Blurry
- Start date
There are several fairly huge threads going about this. The biggest thing for you to figure out is what you want to do with it. Gaming will require good pixel speed and sadly the manufacturer's specifications cannot always be trusted on this.
As a friend of mine who just sprung for a $2200 Viewsonic VP201MB put it you can choose from two of the following.
Good, Fast, Cheap.
So you will be making some compromises... the best compromise option for you if you really want to keep the price down is to consider going to a 15" high end LCD running 1024X768.
Keep in mind that the viewable area of your 17" CRT is between 15.8"-16.1" so a 15" LCD would be a pretty minor downsize in screen real estate.
As a friend of mine who just sprung for a $2200 Viewsonic VP201MB put it you can choose from two of the following.
Good, Fast, Cheap.
So you will be making some compromises... the best compromise option for you if you really want to keep the price down is to consider going to a 15" high end LCD running 1024X768.
Keep in mind that the viewable area of your 17" CRT is between 15.8"-16.1" so a 15" LCD would be a pretty minor downsize in screen real estate.
Hmm..I thought of this. I guess that since I will use this monitor for gaming and I want it to last a while, I guess I'm gonna find something that's good and worthwhile. I still haven't thought about my budget, but I'm guessing around $1300ish. As usual, any recommendations are welcome.
Wow, now that was a bump in what you are willing to spend! 
Seriously, LCD's are about 12-18 months away from rivaling CRT's for responsiveness and color accuracy... on the other hand, you absolutely can't beat them for a 2D windows environment, and there are quite a few damn fine 18" LCD's for around $1000.
The Samsung 181T is extremely popular right now... the Samsung 171P is also getting good press, but doesn't look like it will be very available for at least another month or two.
Dell has some nice offerings, 1900FP is a Samsung made 19" LCD for around $1000 with coupons. 2000FP is a favorite with gamers... 25 ms response times, 16X12 (4:3 aspect) resolution and good contrast. I thought about that one long and hard but thought it made more sense to spend $900 now and spend another $900 a year and a half from now when FFD technology brings LCD's more on par with CRT's.
Sony doesn't have any competitive offerings for a gamer (IMHO).
Viewsonic's higher end panels are mostly MVA, which do have better color accuracy but I have seen 3 of them running games and was completely un-impressed.
I ended up ordering an NEC 1850X. Got it for slightly over $900 with free shipping. Respectable specifications, reported to be good at gaming. Best thing for me is that the NEC's have the option of not scaling up the lower resolutions to fit the entire panel (you have the option of displaying the lower resolution image either scaled up but in the correct aspect ratio or just keeping it in a box inside the panel to run it at the real 1:1 pixel resolution). To me that's a big deal... I don't like the stretching that occurs when you run a 4:3 image (like older lower rez games) at 5:4. Nearly all of the other panels are lacking this feature. There is a newer version of this panel coming in a month or two with a thinner bezel, higher contrast and lower power consumption... other specs look pretty similar... it will be retailing for around $1200 initially. The 1850X originally retailed at $1599.
Whatever you decide on, do a lot of research and make sure you buy from a retailer with a very liberal return policy. You don't want to be stuck with a panel that has a bunch of bad pixels, or one that you aren't happy with.
Seriously, LCD's are about 12-18 months away from rivaling CRT's for responsiveness and color accuracy... on the other hand, you absolutely can't beat them for a 2D windows environment, and there are quite a few damn fine 18" LCD's for around $1000.
The Samsung 181T is extremely popular right now... the Samsung 171P is also getting good press, but doesn't look like it will be very available for at least another month or two.
Dell has some nice offerings, 1900FP is a Samsung made 19" LCD for around $1000 with coupons. 2000FP is a favorite with gamers... 25 ms response times, 16X12 (4:3 aspect) resolution and good contrast. I thought about that one long and hard but thought it made more sense to spend $900 now and spend another $900 a year and a half from now when FFD technology brings LCD's more on par with CRT's.
Sony doesn't have any competitive offerings for a gamer (IMHO).
Viewsonic's higher end panels are mostly MVA, which do have better color accuracy but I have seen 3 of them running games and was completely un-impressed.
I ended up ordering an NEC 1850X. Got it for slightly over $900 with free shipping. Respectable specifications, reported to be good at gaming. Best thing for me is that the NEC's have the option of not scaling up the lower resolutions to fit the entire panel (you have the option of displaying the lower resolution image either scaled up but in the correct aspect ratio or just keeping it in a box inside the panel to run it at the real 1:1 pixel resolution). To me that's a big deal... I don't like the stretching that occurs when you run a 4:3 image (like older lower rez games) at 5:4. Nearly all of the other panels are lacking this feature. There is a newer version of this panel coming in a month or two with a thinner bezel, higher contrast and lower power consumption... other specs look pretty similar... it will be retailing for around $1200 initially. The 1850X originally retailed at $1599.
Whatever you decide on, do a lot of research and make sure you buy from a retailer with a very liberal return policy. You don't want to be stuck with a panel that has a bunch of bad pixels, or one that you aren't happy with.
Well, the truth is that I got kind of worried that if I got a cheap 17" LCD, there is bound to be some problems. A relative of mine recently purchased a generic LCD brand (17") for only $480. He thought it was a very good deal, but the monitor has big problems. Every three minutes, everything turns green. Then, when the LCD is used for nearly an hour, the screen goes black, and he has to turn of the monitor and turn it back on, resulting in a flicker plus green pictures.
It looks alright to me. However, when playing games like RTCW, when using a flamethrower, the entire screen is covered with dead pixels and you don't see a thing for quite a while. I think the brand is SYS.
Also, what's wrong with Sony LCD. I saw an 18 incher for 800 bucks at Newegg. Looks like a steal to me.
Wolfsraider
Diamond Member
- Jan 27, 2002
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<< ... the Samsung 171P is also getting good press, but doesn't look like it will be very available for at least another month or two >>
try here for 171p 949.00 in stock
hope this helps
saw it earlier last week when another anandtecher was bragging about them lol
edited to add a more direct link
Wolfsraider
Diamond Member
- Jan 27, 2002
- 8,305
- 0
- 76
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