New Monitor Recomendations?

[TonyB]

I am looking to replace my faithful six-year old 15" Sony monitor on my gaming machine. It still works great; I just want something larger and easier to see at higher resolutions. With all the new FS2002 panels coming out, I need to upgrade! What monitors do you guys and gals suggest? I want to stick with a CRT, no larger than a 19", and in the $300-$400 range. I currently run a Geoforce 3 TI-500 video card. Thanks in advance.Tony

[Guest]

I suggest looking at the Viewsonic monitors. Some of the highest rated always, and they seem to be middle to low high end price.Myself, I just cheaped out and bought a used 19" Sylvania from the company newsletter classifieds. It's the model Costco sells for $179 and I am very happy with it. The most important thing to look at is the refresh rate at the resolution you plan to run. 75 hz or better will provide a pretty smooth and flicker free picture.I run 1600x1200 desktop and this monitor runs that at 77hz. Not bad for $90 :)

[Dillon]

I have an extra 19" monitor that I'm not useing. I'll sell it to you for $120 plus shipping. It's an Hitachi and it works great. It's worth saveing a couple of dollars...

[Guest]

I purchased an IIyama Vision Master Pro 454 (model HM903DT) a couple of months ago and I can thoroughgly recommend it especially if you have limited space as in my case. The casing is quite compact for the screen size, the picture is sharp and clear with 3 settings (normal, high brightness, great for FS, and video) and a bonus in my case is that it has two video inputs so I can switch between my two machines at the touch of a button.

[Guest]

jerrycwo4I use a Viewsonic P225f( 22" flatscreen CRT) and the world of simming has never looked better. I can read the smallest dial reading on almost any panel.jerry

[Guest]

I have two Sony Trinitron 17" monitors and wanted to go bigger so I went the cheaper route and bought a ViewSonic PF790 19" monitor. Very nice monitor and saved $50 bucks over a new 19" Sony Trinitron. Don't do it. Buy the Sony Trinitron Monitor and spend the extra $50 bucks. While the ViewSonic is nice, it's not as nice as the Sony. The only reason I went with the ViewSonic is cause it uses the Sony trinitron technology. But I can say from experience, though it's close in quality, it's not as good as a true Sony. So spend the extra $50 bucks and buy the Sony brand. Last time I checked the 19" Sony Trinitrons were $350 bucks at newegg.com .

[TonyB]

Thanks for all the replys so far. Something I have noticed in my research is that there are different levels or series of monitors. For instance, Sony has the HDA440 and a G440, with the G being slightly more expensive. Viewsonics come in three different series, the mass market "A" series, the "G" series and the "P" series, which I think stands for professional. Are there appreciable advantages in going for a monitor in the higher series? Tony

[Guest Dean]

>Thanks for all the replys so far. Something I have noticed >in my research is that there are different levels or series >of monitors. For instance, Sony has the HDA440 and a G440, >with the G being slightly more expensive. Viewsonics come >in three different series, the mass market "A" series, the >"G" series and the "P" series, which I think stands for >professional. Are there appreciable advantages in going for >a monitor in the higher series? >Tony Tony,Yes there are. The higher series in the Viewsonic line are probably Trinitron tubes. Although that is a Sony trademark, it does describe a certain type of tube design and although other manufacturers may not use the Trinitron name they do use the tube design in their higher end monitors. I would recommend any Trinitron monitor in the 19" or larger range as the Trinitron tube makes the difference IMHO. I use the Viewsonic A95F. When my Dell 17" Trinitron died I bought a Viewsonic 19" SuperFlat Screen but it wasn't a Trinitron tube as there was about an $80 difference. I regretted going cheap as soon as I turned it on, my wife even noticed the difference. Thank god! I took it back and got what I really wanted for a little more money.

[Guest]

Pay the extra bucks and go for a 21-inch monitor. You will be glad you did. Get a 19" and everytime you see a 21, it will taunt you. :D

[TonyB]

I would love a 21", but that pushes my price range ($300-$400), at least for the better monitors. In addition, its future home is only 25 inches deep. I know a LCD would fit nicely here, but I am still concerned about refresh rate, which no-one is complaining about here, price, pixel burnout and longevity. For those reasons, I think I need to stick to a CRT and the 19" range.Tony

[Noel]

2y 11m ago I purchased the exquisite Sony GDM-F400 monitor. The thing was a pretty penny, mind you, at $1000 retail. I got it for a better price than that :()The thing was flawless with excellent color, text, brightness, contrast, convergence, etc. Then, at about the 33rd month, it began going out of focus suddenly. After troubleshooting with everything I knew to do, and Sony support suggested, it was determined I should qualify for a warranty adjustment. I kept it as it was either perfect, or perfectly out of focus. Mostly perfect! When it went out I would have to turn it on and off and voila, it was perfect for a few more hours. Since it kept happening with increasing freq I decided to exercise my warranty option at month 35.I contacted support, and they approved a replacement, stating "they do not have parts available to repair the GDM-F400." Moreover, they told me they could send me a nice refurbished CPD-G420S 19". Well, this sucker sells new for $429 retail, and does not sport the lovely .22 aperture grill pitch and built in USB hub that I enjoyed on my pro series GDM monitor. I told them, "please fix mine and return it--i can't believe you don't have parts for this as it is still in warranty . . . ." Sony Support, said, "Sorry, it's the best we can do. You can write the president of Sony is your only recourse."So this I did. I received a phone call about one week later, from "National Sony Customer Service."They said they understood my displeasure with having to accept a lesser screen for my $1000 marvel. And this is what that offered: we don't have a refurbished GDM-F400 19" available in our service center, however we DO have a GDM-F520 ProSeries 21" with .22 grill pitch and the lovely 2048 x 1536 x 32 @75Hz vertical refresh!!!!!I said, well that would be ok! 4 days later, it arrived. The thing is totally sweet. I actually ran FS2002 at that insane resolution using my 2.5y/o Radeon 64 DDR VIVO and man, you would believe how sweet the sucker looks! Anyway, it is the spittin image of my old 19" only bigger with the same or better image quality. I looked on the sticker in the back and lo and behold, the manufacture date was July 2002. If it blows up within the month, I'll have a nice paperweight--but at least they are still making parts for it! BTW, this lovely screen retails for $1699 right now! It took some considerable whining and effort, but I must admit they did follow through with a very decent resolution to my problem with the first screen.Cheers,Noel

[Guest KenG]

I too got a Vision Master Pro 454 several weeks ago. It is excellent. Short neck CRT and VERY flat 19" screen. It has a 4 port USB hub and crappy little speakers that can be used in a pinch if your other speakers ever go on the fritz. It cost $385 at Widgets (www.widgets.com) and they shipped it 2nd-day FedEx for only about $40.A VERY GOOD monitor!