Best SVGA monitors?

[chemdream]

I'm looking for a good monitor to compliment my 233mmx win98 box.

17" or 21"... What would you guys recommend? Which monitor brands or models have aged well?

On that note, anyone selling one?

Back in the 90s, I could only afford sceptre monitors.
I remember the expensive sonys sometimes had a line trough the middle of the screen. That's all I remember!

 

[HoJoPo]

I have a monster of a Hitachi Diamondscan 22 inch CRT that is very nice. Trinitron monitors over a certain size have the thin wires across them to support the shadow mask.

The popular top end monitor at that time was the Viewsonic P810. Very good 21 inch monitor, I had one on my desk at work connected to a Dell Dimension XPS R400 back in 1998.

 

[SomeGuy]

In the 17 inch category I recommend the Samsung SyncMaster 753df. Over all good monitor, and can handle lots of resolutions. They do not use the Trinitron tubes, but they have a high resolution shadow mask that looks much nicer than many earlier 17" monitors.

I remember when I bought this one new in CompUSA. Nice thing about the stores back then is that they would display all of the monitors actually running. Visually, the quality rivaled that of the Trinitron monitors, but was much clearer than most of the other non-Trinitrons.

 

[SpidersWeb]

On a Pentium 233, I'd probably go with 15"-17" - mainly because realistically you'll probably be spending a lot of time in lower resolutions, and those lower resolutions look very sharp on these displays. If it was for desktop work, then bigger the better.

Just an alternative view point.

 

[Plasma]

Look for something with a small dot pitch, 0.25mm or less. The picture will be clearer and you will have less eye strain.

I prefer flat glass but that's a personal preference. Try to get one that's new, new old stock, or has a low number of hours.

It's also nice if the monitor has a digital OSD and remembers each mode settings. That way when you run a game that switches to 320x200 the picture doesn't get slammed to the left and you have to constantly mess with the adjustments.

 

[wesleyfurr]

I can't comment on how well any of them have aged...probably not well if they had a lot of use.

Back in the day, I lusted after a Mag DX15F, or its PnP cousin, the DX1595. Gateway put their name on a version of it as well. Ended up with one of the 1595's eventually that I used for a long time. Its replacement was a 19" NEC Multisync of later vintage...the "aperture grill" trinitron-type monitor. After a while, you forgot about the fine lines. Worked well until I went to the 19" Dell Ultrasharp I'm still using.

What I lusted for after the Mag was a Hitachi 19"...pricey but beautiful in the late 90's.

Some of the programmers I worked with starting in 2000 were running Samsung Syncmaster 17GLi's (If I remember correctly)...those were nice monitors too.

After the early 2000's, monitor prices started dropping, and quality along with it...

If it were me, I would incline towards what SpidersWeb said...15-17", anything bigger than that is just a beast to deal with, unless you never move it...not to mention a power hog.

LCD's did appear not long after a P233 was current. I recall the company I worked for at the time selling the first LCD monitor I'd seen to a customer...I'm not 100% sure on the price, but memory tells me it was $2700 for a 15". I think it was Compaq branded to match the Deskpro 4000 it went with...I want to say it was a PII-350 or so...but it's been a while.

Wesley

 

[Unknown_K]

Should be plenty of black 15" DELL CRT's around for almost free, try one of those.

 

[Caluser2000]

My 18" IBM P97 does a terrific job and cost me nothing.

 

[chemdream]

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[jf3player]

I use a Sony CPD G220R (17" Trinitron) with my retro systems. Absolutely love it. Bought it brand new back in the day

 

[jmetal88]

In the 17 inch category I recommend the Samsung SyncMaster 753df. Over all good monitor, and can handle lots of resolutions. They do not use the Trinitron tubes, but they have a high resolution shadow mask that looks much nicer than many earlier 17" monitors.

I remember when I bought this one new in CompUSA. Nice thing about the stores back then is that they would display all of the monitors actually running. Visually, the quality rivaled that of the Trinitron monitors, but was much clearer than most of the other non-Trinitrons.

I have a SyncMaster 17GL that I like quite a bit. Mine was a flea market find.