Going to buy a 2nd monitor to go along with my 19" CRT for trading and have decided to go the LCD route as prices are more reasonable. I've checked the major review sites (cnet.com, pcmag, pcworld) and read various threads here and elsewhere. I also read Baron's section on monitors in Hardware. A lot of the comments, reviews, and opinions seem to contradict each other depending which site or thread you read. For example, Viewsonic LCD monitors have been slammed here on ET but they get Top 10 awards on the computer review sites. Basically these are my questions: 1) Is 17" enough? They're almost the same viewing size as a 19" CRT, right? 2) Analog or digital? My graphics card has a dual-head, but it's analog. Is the difference such that I should consider buying a new digital graphics card and go with a digital monitor? How about buying a monitor with inputs for both analog and digital and sticking with the card I have? 3) When you have a CRT and an LCD connected to the same card, do they have to have the same resolution settings or can they be independently set? LCDs I understand should only be viewed at their native resolutions for best picture. 4) Any comments on Samsung, Dell, or NEC monitors? 5) Your basic recommendations. Thank you.
i have several of these -17" LCD Samsung Monitor 170s. text is razor sharp to small fonts, very bright display. i think it a great value. www.samsclub.com
I use Graphic Card- ATI RADEON7500. <DVI + Analog output> Mitsubish 17inchLCD-RDT176S <DVI input><SXGA 1280x1024> A 17inch CRT I have used. <Analog> I believe I made the best choice for the quality and cost. Mitsubishi RDT176S also has analog input, but RADEON7500 is less than $100, I think, and if you use LCD, you've got use Degial. You can set the resolutions independently, but as you said, the native resolution of LCD is recommended, and SXGA is very good.
Before you buy a new video card, suggest you try your new LCD on an analog output. I'm sure you will find it quite excellent (native res, of course.) Dell, NEC, Samsung are all well liked. (I have a cheapo KOGi, and its display is excellent also.) 17" is good, but that Samsung 191T is superb... There's a 192T coming, too. Should be mui excellente!
1) 17" is enough, a 19" and 18" will actually have the same native res. (except if you get a more expensive 19") of 1280 x 1024. 2) Analog can actually be better, since you can in certain cases get more colors than with digital (but you would only care about this for DVD, video editing and gaming). So what ever it is don't worry (but digital is nice since u don't have to fiddle with it). 3) If the graphics card is dual head it will more than likely support two separate resolution each with their own refresh rates etc..., but check the maker's website. 4) I am myself looking at lcds (more than likely going to get 3 thou), and i like the new hyundai imagequest Q17 (not L70). It looks nice and is a good monitor, plus hyundai is one of the few manufactures that will replace a monitor once it has 3 dead pixels (in practice they actually replace it once it has 2!!!) 5) Oh, and I would get 2 lcds and sell that crt (or 3 if u can afford it, but u will need a pci card for the 3rd monitor)! Hope that helps