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Oh here you go, just as an update to see that the monitor doesn't actually do what you said:

http://www.kdsusa.com/k726mwb.asp

1280x720.

The manufacturer of my monitor clearly states that I should use 75Hz at 1280x1024. (I have a Rad-7s.)

That one's cool, and there's another one (a bit more expensive) that I've seen. KDS USA's CD Organizer. Buy.com has it for about $90. It's got a tower form factor, but it only holds 75 CDs. The one Judg3 recommended seems to be a bit more cost effective.

(Preview, preview, preview!)

Here's why. I had a KDS monitor third hand. My dad bought it used from someone else, and later decided that 19" was too big, and gave it to me. (w00t!)

Anyway, it started acting funny in a scarey way. Screen occasionaly made a popping noise and flashed. I gave KDS a call. They had me read the serial number and determined it was still under warranty. In fact, it was only 2 months shy of going out of warranty. I explained that it was third hand. They said send it back and they'd replace it, or they could put a credit hold on my card, and I could send it back when I got the new one. Considering how untransferable some warranties are, I again explained that this was a third hand monitor. They said it didn't matter. I told them to ship it and put the credit hold on my card. Got the new monitor in a few days, and shipped the old one back. Cost me a total of $30 to replace a free 3rd hand 19" monitor. Screen looks good, and I've had no problems with it. Still looking at it right now, 2 years later, and looks as good as the day they sent it.

Yeah, I know this question is more about quality of the screen, but I've got to hand it to a company that actually stands by its products. My next monitor will probably be KDS too.

I might not notice a couple points of dot pitch, but I sure as hell notice damn good customer service. Personally, that's worth more to me anyway.

More and more as time goes by (and drive size increases, and prices drop) I'm seeing much higher percentages of drives with manufacturing defects, or drives that develop errors after several months of typical (home, office, small business, small enterprise server, etc.) use.

I don't even have to resort to 'naming names' - they're all proving bad lately. It's not just our equipment, either. We're handling (on behalf of our customers) RMAs for several different computer resellers in our area, most of whom do not use our supplier(s).

I'm sure anybody would understand the significance of this problem after you've told your tenth customer in a month that their data is irretreivable, AND that they have to wait 4-6 weeks for a new unit or purchase a new one. (Don't even mention data recovery - Joe Homeuser or Suzy Smallbusiness just can't afford thousands of dollars, but it doesn't make their data any less important than a mega-corporation)

I've got a dandy of a hard drive on the bench right now, awaiting customer authorization for replacement. Scandisk froze solid when attempting to diagnose it, so I slave mounted it and began extracting data. After about 200MB or thereabouts, it made the loudest screeching noise I think I've ever heard.

The drive was manufactured less than two years ago, purchased only 1.5 years back.

It's a sad state that the computer industry is in right now, with most components suffering the same fate as hard disk drives. I must replace two power supplies per week, it seems. Granted, we're making a killing on labour on all this defective hardware (why the stores they purchased this equipment from won't help them, I'll never know, and I'm too frightened to investigate) - which, in hindsight, is probably the reason behind the "So what if it only lasts for one year?" line of thinking.

If manufacturers don't have refurb drives or services available, or if they won't replace a defective unit with the next-closest-piece available; that's not our problem, it's clearly a problem with their company policy. Being mechanical, drives are easy enough to repair.

<SUBJECT TYPE=ANALOGY>
KDS (Korea Data Systems) still offers three year warranties on their products, and I'm still extremely ecstatic with their work (which is why they're the first monitor we reccomend, and the monitor we include with our systems). The monitor we're using on our accounting machine (KDS VS-7e) is now almost exactly 3 years, 1 month old. On (literally) the last day of the warranty, I phoned them with a request for an RMA number, due to the control buttons functioning erratically. They gave me the number and I shipped it to them four days after the manufacturer warranty expired. Since I got the number in time (and didn't have to wait a month for it, like one particular HDD manufacturer I don't care to name (or deal with!)); on a Tuesday. It was back on our desk by the Friday of that very same week - return shipping paid in full by KDS. We're working on our 90-day warranty extension right now, but I don't forsee any future problems.
</SUBJECT>

So, all in all, I'm extremely dissapointed with hard drive manufacturers, and judging by current industry trends I doubt very much the situation will improve.

KDS has active cables for 20 bucks that go 80 feet. 20 bucks (with a return policy) is worth skipping the hassle of soldering together a cat5 hack.

On the subject, I've been looking for a source for cheap "APC Smart cables" for my UPS. I have pin-outs, so I know I could run down to Fry's and buy cable and ends. The cheapest I've found pre-built cables is 50 bucks, which seems extreme for a simple cross-wired DB9 cable. I need three of them, so I'm stuck between being too lazy to solder together three cables or paying $150. So far my solution is to skip the whole subject and wish really hard for one. ;)

But still an interesting product.

http://www.kdsusa.com/consumerproducts/CDorganizer _frameset.htm