CRT or LCD need help????

by **TriX** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:10 am

Well I am a little confused as to which type of monitor to go with.

First off I am going to be doing some gaming, a lot of web surfing and excell.

I saw some nice lcds in my price range. 17", .26 dot pitch, 1280 x 1024, 16nms refresh rate.

But my friends are telling me definitely not to go with the LCD. Anybody has some recommendations? I see this question poping up a lot. I understand that the crt would always be alot sharper. But from looking at my dads 19" lcd it looked pretty good and it was 2 yrs old.

Any help would be appreciated.

by **Bullhead** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:07 am

Biggest drawback to LCD's is dead pixels (IMO), which are almost certain in the lifespan. Barring that, the other traditional downside to LCD's is the ghosting/tearing that would occur during fast motion video (like DVD's or gaming). However, the newer LCD's have gotten faster and faster response times, to the point where this isn't noticeable. Buliwyf has a LCD with a 25ms response, I believe, and he's always stated he sees no ghosting/tearing. 16ms is a GREAT response time.

LCD's have a huge advantage, though, in 2 areas: size, and power consumption. LCD's take up SOO much less room, and they use up far less power. Remember, a 17"LCD has same viewable area (17" 's!) as a 19" CRT, which I can tell you is an enormous, heavy, beast (I own a 19" Dell Trinitron).

by **Major SONAR** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:00 pm

I agree with Bullhead and would like to add one more thing...

PRICE.

CRT's are definately cheaper, have better refresh rates and supposedly better at color matching. As I understand it, most professional artists/graphic designers prefer CRT's to LCD's.

CRT's are supposed to show graphics better and LCD's are known for producing better/clearer text. (I know this is a broad statement, but I'm speaking in generalizations).

That being said, LCD's have come a LONG way and are probably equvilant to CRTs in almost all respects. I think it boils down to two things:

Price and available desk space (ok.. throw in the coolness factor if you have too...

I think you could probably buy a 22" NEC CRT (top of the line) for $700? What would a 19" LCD top of the line cost? ($700 - $1100) (After a quick check on pricegrabber.com) So... maybe price isn't that much of a difference anymore.

I spent over $1000 on my 21" Cornerstone monitor several years back. I think you can buy it for about $550 now...

One final bit of advice.... Buy what you want, even if it costs a bit more. You'll be happy you did.

... and generally you get what you pay for!

by **TriX** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:29 pm

Sonar: I just ordered a 17" viewsonic LCD it was $560. I heard good things about it. And hopefully with a 16nm refreshrate i won't have too many problems as far as ghosting.

by **Tommy Boy** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:42 pm

I have a 17" NEC Multisync and I love it...it is very good, but I do find it dark on some maps.

I would recommend it to anyone looking for a flat LCD monitor, but I now want a 19" or more...

apparently size does matter....LOL

by **JAG** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:48 pm

I have a question related to this thread. What LCD would you recommend if you had approximately $1200 to spend? I would like at least 19", but bigger would be even better (You're right Tommy, its all about size

)

Anyway, maybe some people think more than 19" is overkill, or there is no need to spend more than $700-$900. Maybe some people think, hell yeah with $1200 you should buy this...

Just looking for opinions from this knowledgeable crowd on what you would do if you had $1200 and were looking for an LCD.

In response to the thread starter's question I think it just depends on what you want in terms of looks and screen size. I think the LCD's now, with careful shopping, are fairly close to CRT's. You state that you are going to be surfing, using excel, and playing some games. I don't think you'll be able to tell the difference when surfing or using excell on an LCD. Regarding gaming, if you get 16ms, or even 25 ms, response time I've heard there really is no ghosting. I guess it comes down to looks, price, and the fact that you get a little more viewable space on an LCD. I say go LCD.

by **cavalierlwt** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 3:07 pm

I could be wrong. but most LCD screens have ONE native resolution, ie they look great at their native resolution, but look terrible on other resolutions.
I could be wrong, but this is what i have seen on notebooks I have looked at, one 'good' native resolution and thats it.

by **MajorFatty** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 3:12 pm

I prefer a 17" LCD, but bigger would be better. I have to sit close enough to get a sun tan while playing BF'42. The picture is not sharp as a CRT, but at least my desk is not bowing from the weight and I have extra work surface. I use a Radeon 9700 Pro and have no problems running games. I overclocked both MB and Video and got 300+FPS with 3Dmark and still not ghosting. I have the Samsung 172s or something like that. I have an older philips 15" LCD with had similar perforamce, but screen resolution maxed out at 1024-768 and too small for Battlefield.

by **MajorFatty** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 3:16 pm

Cavalierlwt, I'll agree with you. The LCD is designed to run at the native resolution. For 17"-19" is usually 1280-1024. Anything less is blurry and looks magified. 21" can run at 1600-1200, but costs about $750. Spare change for some people.

by **Tommy Boy** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 3:22 pm

I run at 1280x1284 normally and either that or 800x600 for games (like BFV).

I do recommend the NEC a lot...and they are usually not too expensive...

by **Major SONAR** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 5:53 pm

Jag:

I don't have any suggestions on LCD's over 19". I am not currently in the market, so I haven't been keeping my eyes open or reading the reviews.

As far as brands are concerned... IMHO NEC is the best. Also the Sony "Trinitron" (made for several companies) is an excellent monitor. (Both CRT monitors)

I would recommend doing my homework for a few weeks. Read all the reviews I could find and then start price shopping. Don't forget a lot of stores price match and if you order over the internet you will probably save some money on taxes. Good luck and let us know what you decide to buy.

By Trix:

Sonar: I just ordered a 17" viewsonic LCD it was $560. I heard good things about it. And hopefully with a 16nm refreshrate i won't have too many problems as far as ghosting.

Veiwsonic makes good monitors from everything I have read. I also think you will be very happy with the 16ms refresh. Like I mentioned earlier, CRTs and LCDs are almost equivalent these days. Even though I have a great monitor now, I would certainly consider an LCD monitor as my next choice. My current monitor is HUGH and weight 79 lbs!

Let us know how you like it Trix, just in case some of us need to buy monitors in the near future.

by **shockwave203** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 6:03 pm

I've got a NEC LCD and it has an amazing picture.

that's the good thing with with LCD's, the pictures on them are always crystal clear and very sharp.

the only drawback to them is that for gaming, you're stuck at one resolution. So if you purchase a 19" LCD with a 1280 X 1024 native resolution, you have to play ALL games at the rez, in order to get a clear picture.

if you have a slower PC, and it's not capable of playing games at good frames per second at that resolution, then you sort of run into a problem. Do you upgrade your hardware? do you play at a lower resolution which looks horrible, but it increases performance? do you play at the native rez, even if the game is choppy?

so if you're going to buy an LCD with a native refresh rate of 1280 X 1024, and you see yourself playing games that are pretty demanding, you should probably make sure that you have a fast enough graphics card and processor. It's either that, or turn all the textures to low quality...

by **smithpa68** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 6:07 pm

Originally posted by Bullhead

LCD's have a huge advantage, though, in 2 areas: size, and power consumption. LCD's take up SOO much less room, and they use up far less power. Remember, a 17"LCD has same viewable area (17" 's!) as a 19" CRT, which I can tell you is an enormous, heavy, beast (I own a 19" Dell Trinitron).

Another advantage is less heat. My tiny office has 3 PCs in it. It gets a little toasty in there with a couple of 19" CRTs.

CRT or LCD need help????

CRT or LCD need help????

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