Monitor Selection

[kram 2.0]

Hey,

My friend asked me to pick out a good 17 inch CRT Monitor for him. He's an artist and I have the rest of the build practically almost done. There is little gaming involved. After personal experience, I've come to learn that Viewsonic, NEC/Mitsubishi, and LG generally make the best CRT Monitors.

Getting right to the point, has anyone had experience with the <a href="http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=311510&pfp=BROWSE">Viewsonic A71f+ 17-inch</a> Monitor? I'm going to CompUSA tomorrow to see for myself, but wondering about long term effects and such. The one I don't like are those that are extremely bright and have noticibly low refresh rates - the ones that the store just ups the gamma so it looks ultra bright :p. Any suggestions? Considering the rather high shipping prices from Newegg on Monitors, I decided it's best to go retail, even more, since Viewsonic has a MIR on them.


Thanks,
kram

[icallmedan]

My friend has a Philips 17" flat screen CRT, and the picture is amazing. The screen looks so clear, I was thinking about buying one, but I don't want to spend money...lol...

From what I hear NEC/Mitsubishi CRTs with DiamondFlat are good monitors too.

[Kov-Ice]

I have a Samsung, which I believe is rated pretty highly as well. If your friend does a lot of artwork or graphics, look around for a good rebate on a 19" monitor. It made a huge difference for me when I recently upgrade from a 17" and it cost only about $60 more.

[kram 2.0]

Thanks for the recommendations - I'll be sure to take a look at Phillips and Samsungs at CompUSA tomorrow morning. I'll be also checking out the Viewsonic Monitor, if it sufficies, I think I will likely get that. It's on rebate right now, and he's on a 900 USD budget, which is modest, but doesn't leave much room for the monitor. Thanks for the suggestions Kov-Ice and icallmedan :).

Thanks,
kram

[icallmedan]

No problem, glad I could help.

[Panama Red]

Try this one. I have 2 and have two customer's that have them too. They love em.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=232007

Sold out right now, but the silver one is less expensive and has the same specs.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=232008

[kram 2.0]

Yikes - an LCD Monitor...Can't get that within this budget...though I'm eyeing that pretty closely for my own build that I have right now <I>without a monitor</i> ;). Looks great though - I understand you have a Solarism LCD too. That price for a 17 inch LCD is not bad either...I might get it. Thanks for the tip though PR :).


Thanks,
kram

[kram 2.0]

Ok - so today, I went to BestBuy, which is closer than CompUSA by about 20 minutes. I looked through some of the monitors, and the Viewsonic one looks very good, along with the Samsung Dynaflat ones. Since they had the 19 inch one instead of the 17 inch Viewsonic A71F+, I decided to wait until I'm at CompUSA for that - they also have a 30 USD rebate on it. For some reason, the screen looked blured or something - the store has a "slide show" running, with text over bright yellow background. There seemed to be a slight shadow on the text and stuff - asked a guy why that was, and he said connection problem...kinda hard to believe, but I bought the idea. So I'm going to CompUSA tomorrow to check it out there and if it all goes well and price is good, to purchase it. I guess I'll see how things go. Any of you have any long term experiences with any Viewsonic CRT Monitors? Thanks for the suggestion thus far though - I really do appreciate them.


Thanks,
kram

[Spartan]

I have had the 19" Viewsonic since about September of '03 and it has worked great for me.

-Spartan

[icallmedan]

Does CompUSA sell Philips? We don't have one around here so I don't know.

[kram 2.0]

Well, today I went to CompUSA and to my disappointment, their Viewsonic Monitor that I picked out costed 30 USD more...so I searched more just in case. I came across the Samsund SyncMaster 793, which I tried around with and looks like a nice monitor. So I went ahead and bought that - sitting in a box right now. I might try it out for him, make sure it's working and stuff...maybe Doom 3 will test it fine ;) . Thanks for all your help :).

Thanks,
kram