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Shopping for a New Monitor?
Cecil asks: "Well, I've looked through the reviews and found several good displays. The problem is that quality can vary drastically from unit to unit. Just because the reviewer got a good screen doesn't mean you will. A lot of people say that it's a bad idea to buy a display device sight-unseen and from experience I have to agree. There are the big chain stores that will have monitors on display, but they will typically only have the 'value' models. So, what is your monitor buying process? What do you do to make sure you get the sort of high-quality display that'll last you through the next couple hardware upgrades?"
and the first 2 i had no real choice about the other 2.. well, i just really read reviews, found a price/performance point that worked for me, shopped around online for the best deal, and dove in feet first.. as long as the company had a good return policy.. with the price difference between local and online being over 100$ for the 19" monitors i've had, it was worth taking the chance to save the extra money.. plus, these days, monitor technology's getting so much better and so much cheaper, it's not as much of a crapshoot to buy 19" and 21" displays as it was say, 3-5 years ago when i bought my first one...
--Less Thinkin', More Drinkin'...
I shop at a local clone/junk store that sells tons of refurbished monitors. They are hooked up so you can look at them. Generally the large brand name (like NEC) monitors seem to hold up well.
Maybe not as sharp or flat as some newer monitors, but they seem to last forever and are relatively cheap (less than a new noname piece of junk).
Investors?
The only way to purchase a monitor:
1) Find a store that has a policy that will allow you to bring it back.
2) Pick up what you're salivating over in the store.
3) Take home: word process, hack, frag, or whatever floats your boat.
4) Repeat as necessary for n - 5 days (where n is the length of time you have to return it). I say minus five since I always miss the date by a day or two.
5) If you are in love with the monitor, keep it. Otherwise, take it back, chose another monitor.
6) Lather, rinse, repeat.
I did that at Fry's when I was looking for a new LCD monitor. I purchased something that looked great (and the salesperson said rocked) at the store, but when I brought it home- ugh.
I took it back and picked up a 16" Sony LCD. Zero defective pixels. Excellent res and definition. Zero regrets.
Aren't those the ones with those massively annoying black lines across the picture? Advocates say you stop noticing the lines after a while, but this is definitely wrong if you deal a lot with small details or even single pixels, e.g. if you use Photoshop/Gimp, design web sites, or something like that. You keep noticing the lines, they get in your way and annoy you. Ironically, most of these applications really benefit from a superior sharpness, which Trinitron monitors allegedly have. In situations in which you'll really forget about the lines, like playing games or casual web browsing, cheaper solutions are just as acceptable.
Personally, I buy a little more expensive, higher-quality monitors (I need at least 1600x1200 pixels and stare at them 10 hours a day on average), and there are very nice non-Trinitron ones (I'm very happy with my Iiyama).
but what do i know, i'm just a model.
The parent poster is right - look out for dead pixels. And before you buy - look out for the monitor with the right warranty.
Recently I bought 15" Philips 150B3T panel, with 3 yrs warranty. After I asked for this model, the shop assistant tried to peddle to me an Philips 150F4 or something like this, claiming the same technical parameters. Fortunately I refused and insisten on the one I have seen on display. At home it turned out that the one they wanted to sell me had a warrany that kicks in only if the monitor has at least 5 bright pixels or 10 black pixes. OTherwise it;s considered OK. On the other hand The one I got (for the same price) is guaranteed to have 0 bright pixels and less than 5 black ones (mine has 0/0, luckily).
The Dell ones are great, I just got my dream screen yesterday, the 20" Dell 2000FP, it's sweet. 1600x1200 native resolution, and it puts my old 21" Trinitron CRT to shame for clarity. I've got 3 screens hooked up to my PC now, the big 2000FP in the middle, and two Dell 1504 15" LCDs on the sides.
They aren't flashy, but they're reasonably priced, and fairly rugged, you can't go wrong with the Dell screens.
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
I was impressed enough with the look and reliability of the LCD monitor built into my laptop (CPU and bus speed just too slow for my needs) and elected to go LCD for the desktop. I was set on an NEC 1700 or some sort, but after reading a few reviews I switched to a Samsung SyncMaster 172t. I like it, although it's very very bright and that could be toned down a bit (current graphics card driver can do that for me, yay!) Since I spend a lot of time using the hardware I bought, I probably won't upgrade for a couple years (depending, of course, on the Hammer rollout, but even that may queue up after a few other priorities, like a new vehicle or new bicycle) I can run DV-I or Analog, so I'm pretty sure I've got compatibility covered. I figured I'd spend the money once on a new monitor, so choose your form factor as well as your supplier. This comes with a bracket to attach to the wall, too, which I might do later.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I don't know if I agree completely. I did a fair amount of internet research and decided upon Viewsonic since they had a good reputation. I ordered (online ) a black P95f+ because it had good specs and reviews. Visually, I have no complaints, but it emits a quiet though obnoxious high frequency ticking or buzz as I have heard in other lower quality monitors. This ticking/buzz corresponds to the frequency of the monitor. I could have avoided this sound if I would have bought or at least examined one at a store, unless I just got a bad apple...
Word of wisdom: look at your candidates in person, at a store, and listen to them too.
I bought a 19" Visual Sensations monitor about 5 years ago. It has been the best computer purchase I have ever made. Even after all this time, there is almost no noticable convolution problems (which always happens as monitors get old, the left side of the screen gets a blue edge and the right a red edge).
please don't feed the monkey
Are you actually using 1024x768, or are you using 1280x960? The latter mode has issues on my own ATi hardware, when displaying the stippled shutdown screen. Officially, ATi doesn't support that mode on their cards, probably due to these problems. (I had to re-enable the mode with a registry hack.)
I'm curious if it's maybe a more general issue with that mode, rather than just an ATi problem, considering as you're using a GeForce2. I mean, if it is the same res, then that might be it.
A high resolution/high lumen projection LCD is so much better than any traditional monitor it will stun you.
My screen is 6' by 5' but only takes up the volume of a toaster and can be carried around with one finger.
This is not your old-fashioned dim projector either; I project on an off-color wall but the brightness is as high as a CRT.
Yes, it is more expensive; but this is not a minor quality difference--it's shock and awe.
Sorry, I was not clear: it's *advertised* for Macs only, and the box reads "Requires Powermac G4 with such Geforce, MacOSX or 9 bla bla", which is obviously false, since, as I said above, it runs perfectly (with the ADC-DVI adaptor, of course) on my PC with an ATI Radeon 9700pro, and should work with any OS and any graphics card with DVI output.
:-P
;-)
This LCD is actually the best price/value ratio around, I guess because it doesn't have the extra analog inputs that all other generic LCDs have. Unless I've missed some?...
As for MacOS/Windows real estate, I guess that's my personal taste, and my colleague's. In Windows and other OSes, you can pretty much change any object size (borders, menu and bar fonts, window buttons, etc.), while it's way too limited on Mac. AFAIK, if Steve Jobs wants it this way, it's this way for everyone!
Fuzzy characters: we've tried every antialiazing and smoothing option on my colleague's PowerBook 15", and nothing looks as good as Windows'. Maybe taste again...
Sub-pixel antialiasing: have you ever seen Windows XP running on a LCD? You can really notice the difference with italic text. It just looks like normal text, no pixels, no fuzziness. Really impressive, try it! (Probably taste again, my colleague doesn't like it)
Anyway, back to topic: If you can afford a $2000 DVI-only screen, get the Apple 23"! Even if you don't have a Mac