CRT Fanboy Needs Converting to Panels

yeknod

yeknod

yeknod

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CRT Fanboy Needs Converting to 19+ in Panels

Hi

Switched on my trusty CRT this morning and it throws a bit of a wobbly...

WA, WA, WA, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

So, time to get hip, trendy and look at the new fangly technology.

I've £450 to spend. I play games and watch movies an equal amount of time so a panel has to offer good all-round performance and must have +19 inch display and preferably lots more than my current 19 inch CRT.

NEC LCD20WGX2 appears to be the first choice but are there other models to consider?

Newbie question: are "dead pixels" a real problem with panels - I don't want to spend my time ringing helpdesks for warranty issues and waiting for deliveries - seems the churn rate on panels is quite high?

Thanks

Yeknod
 
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NEC LCD20WGX2 looks like a great monitor to me also and is what i will be upgrading to once i've saved the money. I have 1 stuck pixel on my current screen and tbh I barely notice it. Maybe if there was several dead ones i would more.
 
if you want 19" 4:3 then have a look at the viewsonic vp930 - prices for it have tumbled of late to around £265 and it is probably one of the best all-rounders in that screen size. The vx922 is also apparently very good, but lacking the 16.7m colours of the vp930. Another popular option for widescreens that is rather cheaper than the NEC is the viewsonic vx2025 - think it's the same panel technology (though lacking height adjustment and swivel) as the vp930 and it's price recently dropped to around £285.

There are undoubtedly a few 20" 4:3 screens that are 1600x1200 in your price range but I'd only really opt for these if your pc is going to be capable of outputting most games at 1600... The aliasing you get when using sub-native resolutions makes the picture sort of blur a little, some monitors are better than others, and while you could think of it as extra AA/AF ;) ymmv

p.s. wrt dead pixels - viewsonic have a 7 or 14 or higher day zero dead pixel policy on their VP series panels and I think probably also on their vx panels. Can't say I've seen this much with other manufacturers though tbh you shouldn't be getting many panels these days with dead pixels. Just get a current model :)
 
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jamena said:
The vx922 is also apparently very good, but lacking the 16.7m colours of the vp930.
Click to expand...

I just bought a viewsonic vx922 last week and i can definitely recommend this to be a superb monitor at a great price, so shop about.

Not sure what the statistical difference is between the colours but what i do know is that the IQ you get is superb. rich and vibrant. This screen is particularly good because of the 2ms response rate so ideallly suited for gaming, Playing back movies for me is on par to my crt tbh. So not sure why some people comment it not being as good? :confused:
 
once you have gone to a decent LCD, you wont wont to go back to a CRT. I would also advise a 20" widescreen...IMO so much beter than a 19" 4:3.
 
i almost got a new monitor this month after my old crt anti-glare stuff scratched, but i just rubbed it all off and its fine again. but while i was looking for a new one nothing in tft really impressed me that much and if i was going to get a new one it would have been the viewsonic 19" or 21" huuuge crt :)
 
I recently went from an iiyama 454 (19" crt) to a vx2025, and I'm not going back to crt. Partly due to the size and weight, partly because of the style, and partly because the picture looks easily as good - it doesn't look the same but it still looks great in it's way - take a little time to adjust but TFT is the way forward :)

The technical difference between a 16.2 (6-bit) and 16.7 (8-bit) million colour panel is down to the bit depth. A 6-bit panel has 2^6=64 shades for each sub-pixel (RGB) giving you a total of a little over 256,000 discrete colours. The 16.2m figure is reached by "dithering", basically rapidly alternating between two of the discrete colours to give the illusion of something inbetween. A 16.7m colour panel uses 8 bits per sub-pixel, giving each subpixel 256 shades, and each pixel (RGB) giving a little over 16.7m discrete colours. Whilst the human eye is probably not great at actually telling the difference between so many colours dithering can, in some situations, create unwanted effects. 16.7m no longer costs much of a premium so you might as well get it if you can. 16.2 in an uptodate monitor should be fine too :)
 
For £450-£500 you could pick up a second hand Dell2405 off Members Market(Although you will have to wait until your psot count is high enough). Thats what I did, and its the best thing I have bought for my pc.
 
I have recent bought a Samsung SM215 TW, which as the name suggests is a 21 inch widescreen monitor. It is great for games I have not tried any films on it yet. It also has a few extra connections in addition to the standard VGA and DVi, it also has a component connect and composite connector and and svideo connector. I got it for just under £400
 
Thank you very much for the replies - some good advice.

As I type with my ailing CRT suddenly restored to life after a little sojurn to CRT madness involving wrong frequencies and yellow, sickly headache-inducing screens I suddenly realise that I'm never likely going to get to 250 posts and therefore the forum member sales thread can only be a dream. Second-hand stuff isn't likely to happen... well, not from here.

However, what is in my power is using some hard cash.

jamena wrote:

There are undoubtedly a few 20" 4:3 screens that are 1600x1200 in your price range but I'd only really opt for these if your pc is going to be capable of outputting most games at 1600... The aliasing you get when using sub-native resolutions makes the picture sort of blur a little, some monitors are better than others, and while you could think of it as extra AA/AF
Click to expand...

I'm running a GeForce 6600GT Nvidia card with a Athlon 3200, 1GB of RAM and a Abit NForce2 NF7-S mb... okay, okay... not exactly sparkly performance but is this good enough or will there have to be upgrades to run a NEC LCD20WGX2? I've preferred to run things at 1024 x768. 1600 x 1200 is, erm... different.

Again, thanks for the advice - I appreciate all your comments.

Regards

Yeknod
 
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Just a friendly tip veknod, put [ QUOTE ] (without the spaces, i'm just putting those there so this bit im writing isnt quoted) before the text you wish to quote and then [/QUOTE] at the end and it will put the quote in its own nice little seperate bit. :)
 
yeknod said:
Thank you very much for the replies - some good advice.

As I type with my ailing CRT suddenly restored to life after a little sojurn to CRT madness involving wrong frequencies and yellow, sickly headache-inducing screens I suddenly realise that I'm never likely going to get to 250 posts and therefore the forum member sales thread can only be a dream. Second-hand stuff isn't likely to happen... well, not from here.

However, what is in my power is using some hard cash.

jamena wrote:



I'm running a GeForce 6600GT Nvidia card with a Athlon 3200, 1GB of RAM and a Abit NForce2 NF7-S mb... okay, okay... not exactly sparkly performance but is this good enough or will there have to be upgrades to run a NEC LCD20WGX2? I've preferred to run things at 1024 x768. 1600 x 1200 is, erm... different.

Again, thanks for the advice - I appreciate all your comments.

Regards

Yeknod
Click to expand...

Geforce 6600GT? You should spend less on the monitor and upgrade your card as well, a 20 incher with native res @ 1600x1200 will kill your card in games easily and it just simply can't cope at all. I would say spend £200ish to get a 1800XT or 7900GT then the rest on monitor. Otherwise just go for a top of the range 19' incher.
 
go for a widescreen it is the future and anyone that has went widescreen doesnt regret it, its soooooooooooooo much better its unbelievable, plus you get to see more stuff in games, movies , etc
 
well, I've got a 9800pro and an xp-m 2500+ with 1.5Gb pc3200, and a widescreen vx2025. I can run quite a few older games (Condition Zero, Ut2k4) at native 1680x1050, but I have to run the newer more demanding games (BF2, FEAR) at lower res 1280x800 where I can. Tbh the vx2025 is doing a great job of upscaling the picture. It does sort of blur a little bit but no worse really than lower res on my previous CRT. Think of it as free AA ;)

If you like playuing with all the graphics turned up high you'll want a new graphics card. If you don't mind playing some games upscaled and using medium-quality settings in newer games you'll probably be fine. With a budget of £450-£500 though you could spend £285 on a vx2025 and have £165-£205 left over for a nice graphics upgrade (7600gt, 7900gt, x1800xt, x1900xt) however that may require a motherboard with PCI-E...
 
the belinea 20.1" is excellent and better than the dell equivelant, the dell has a lower quality, lower spec panel too whilst being more expensive...
 
hi

if you looking for 4:3 tft then ViewSonic VP2030b will fit in to your budget , just bought one for £405 inc del.
This monitor fantastic !!! I have no dead pixel/ sub-pixel ;)
 
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