Any good 19-21" CRTs left?

T

Tosan

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
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I recently purchased an NEC 20WMGX2 to replace my failing 19" Sony CPD-G420 CRT, but even after over a month now of playing around with it, I'm still not happy with it. I'm thinking of returning it if I still can in favor of a refurbished CRT from AccurateIT, but I haven't decided on which model to get yet.

I currently have my eyes on the Dell P992 that AccurateIT is selling, as it seems to be a re-branded Sony G410R, which is nearly identical to my old monitor with the exception of dual VGA inputs which I hardly ever used anyways. Does anyone own one of these or know if it's comparable to the Sony 19" Trinitrons? I imagine it would be, but I believe it originally sold at a lower price point than the real Sony monitors, so I'm not sure if Dell cut some corners somewhere. One thing that concerns me a little is that the advertised horizontal scan rate is 30-107 KHz for the P992, and most sites list 30-110 for the G420. Not sure if it's a big deal or not or even if it's just a misprint, since they use the same tube.

Any other suggestions would be welcome if the P992 is something to avoid. I suppose I could also try one of the re-branded Sony G520s available at that site (the HP P1130 looks decent), though after the not-so-pleasant experience I've had with monitors throughout the past month, I think I'd just like to go back to something more familiar.

Also, does anyone have any experience with ordering CRT refurbs from AccurateIT? They seem to have a pretty decent reputation, but this will be my first time ordering from them. Thanks in advance!
 
http://www.nm-select.com/searchresults.asp?search_id=1

The NEC's with the 3 year warranties are new. The FE2111 is good. I'm not sure about the others.

I just bought a Dell P1130 from this eBay seller:
http://myworld.ebay.com/cwi_1

He still has three left that will probably be relisted. The auction that just ended was actually a relisting where 5 out of 8 were sold at $210 shipped.

Lastly, AccurateIT does carry a few "new overstock" CRT's.
 
welcome to the world of LCD technology:D
not so great, is it?:D

i had the same monitor and took it back and went back to the trusty CRT:)

i would check craigslist locally in your area, or ebay.
the place you listed i have no experience with unfortuantely.
 
samsung syncmaster 997mb best 19" CRT imo

and if you want big, go for a Sony FW900 24" i have one and its a beast. LOVE IT.
 
Thanks for the replies!

I'm afraid the FE2111 SB won't work for me. I'm really sensitive to low refresh rates, and they just aren't high enough on that for a 22" monitor. Buying a totally new CRT would be great, but I just don't think it'll do. Same goes for the Samsung 997MB unfortunately -- even if it's got a great picture, I'll probably get headaches using it.

welcome to the world of LCD technology
not so great, is it?
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"Not so great" would be a massive understatement. ;)

I knew it would be difficult to adjust to (which is why I shelled out for the 20WMGX2), but this is just ridiculous. I've wanted my CRT back from day one, pretty much. I can only hope I'll still be able to return this, because LCDs are clearly not for me at this point.
 
Ryle said:
samsung syncmaster 997mb best 19" CRT imo
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Depends how picky you are. I started out loving it, then I noticed the geometry problems, the internal screen glare and the moire issues at resolutions that are not 1600x1200. Its a low quality CRT, but its better than the trash they give away with budget PC's. It has the nicest bezel I've seen for a CRT, though.
 
Looks like everyone hit up AccurateIT for the good stuff already. I had my eye on the new Sony G520's and Diamond Pro 2070's, but they're out of stock as of this month.

I've only heard good things about AccurateIT. I'd be more confident with them than eBay.
 
Depends how picky you are.
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Really picky, unfortunately. :)

My old Sony has definitely spoiled me. I probably would've been fine with this LCD if I hadn't been using such a great monitor for the past five years or so.

I had my eye on the new Sony G520's and Diamond Pro 2070's...
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They had completely new G520s? Wow, wish I'd seen that a month ago. I'd take that over a refurbed and re-branded G410 in an instant. They do have refurbed G520s available still, though the price is pretty high compared to the re-branded HP/Dell G520s. Not sure if it's worth the difference.

And yeah, I ordered a CRT from eBay once, about a year or so ago -- I've since vowed to never do that again. It was a Sun GDM-5510 (which I believe is really a G520 as well) and it was complete junk. Lots of convergence issues, and it was extremely blurry at 1600x1200@100Hz. That's part of why I'm kind of leery of 21" CRTs by the way -- I'm not sure if it being blurry at that res and refresh was just due to it being old or of poor quality, but I won't be able to take anything less than that on the desktop. My G420 was absolutely perfect at 1280x960@100Hz for years before it began to degrade. That only requires a 101.7 KHz horizontal scan though, so it probably wasn't pushing the monitor too hard.
 
Scyles said:
I just bought a Dell P1130 from this eBay seller: http://myworld.ebay.com/cwi_1

He still has three left that will probably be relisted. The auction that just ended was actually a relisting where 5 out of 8 were sold at $210 shipped.
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Ya, he's re-listed the P1130's right here: http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-21-P1130-B...QQihZ002QQcategoryZ116350QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

They're brand new in the box btw, and capable of 2048x1536 @ 75 or 80hz (i forget + i'm on a different rig at the moment). Highly tempted to buy one as a spare of a spare :p. That same seller had ten Dell 22" P1230 Diamondtrons for around $160 shipped brand new in box. Those sold out much faster of course.

Once you tweak it up you're going to love your new P1130
 
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That actually looks really nice, I'm tempted. I do hate eBay though.

Oddly enough, this site is saying that AccurateIT is selling new overstock P1130s: http://www.shop.com/op/~21inch_DELL...nt_Model_-prod-18593581-25848739?sourceid=298

Not sure why. It's not listed on their main site, but shop.com is letting me put the item into a cart. I might give AccurateIT a call or send an email tomorrow and ask about it, because I'd really rather order from them than an eBay seller.

Anyone with this monitor have any idea how it does at 1600x1200/100Hz? I think I'd probably keep it at that on the desktop if it's not too blurry, and I might try some oddball in-between resolutions like 1792x1334 for games. Given the specs of that monitor, it looks like it might be able to handle that at 92-95Hz, which is probably fine for me. If it's not great at that, I may just go with the Dell P992 still.

Thanks for all of the replies so far!
 
I just got mine. Its definately new. Text is "LCD sharp". The blacks are exceptional. There's no plastic or screen imperfections. I haven't had time to calibrate and fully analyze the display, and I probably won't until I get a desk that's not made of glass, but so far I'm very pleased.
 
Tosan said:
Anyone with this monitor have any idea how it does at 1600x1200/100Hz?
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Oddly enough, the sticker that was on the glass suggested 1280x1024 as the optimal resolution for this monitor. I haven't measured, but I thought this was a 4:3 monitor, not 5:4. Anyway, text is not nearly as sharp at 1600x1200/100Hz. It is merely passable. If I were to leave it at that setting, I would want to slightly increase text size and sit a little bit further away from the monitor.
 
Hmm, that's unfortunate. :(

I really wish I could see one of these locally, or could find a comparison between the G520/G420 or any re-brandings thereof at 100Hz. My old monitor had gotten pretty washed and blurred out as it aged, so a new P1130 at that res might really not be any worse. Sounds like this is going to be a tough decision. If I can order it from AccurateIT at least though, I'll probably be able to return it if I'm just not happy with it.

I've never understood why 1280x1024 and 1800x1440 are recommended resolutions for any CRT, by the way. I don't believe there were ever even any 5:4 CRTs produced, and resolutions like that just look stretched and distorted. I think it has something to do with 1280x1024 being a VESA standard whereas 1280x960 is not, but it still doesn't make any sense to me.
 
Scyles said:
Oddly enough, the sticker that was on the glass suggested 1280x1024 as the optimal resolution for this monitor. I haven't measured, but I thought this was a 4:3 monitor, not 5:4. Anyway, text is not nearly as sharp at 1600x1200/100Hz. It is merely passable. If I were to leave it at that setting, I would want to slightly increase text size and sit a little bit further away from the monitor.
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Don't like 5:4 resolutions too much on my P1130, and 1280x1024 never worked well for me. Most of the 4:3 rez's look fine though, even most of the oddball ones like 1400x1050 & 1520x1140. Sometimes a higher refresh rate needs to be forced via video control panel or powerstrip...it depends.

Text with 1600x1200 looks above average on mine imho, for a crt that is. I don't have any preferred refresh rate, and i often alternate between 80~100hz. And Cleartype can have mixed results.

It has been calibrated a few times, but it's due for another soon...
 
Well, of course a great thing about CRTs is you can calculate the aspect ratio from the viewable area listed in the specs and define your own custom resolutions quite precisely.

BTW, I just did a test and 1400 by 1050 by 100Hz comes in at 110.9 KHz on my CRT. I don't have one here to confirm for sure, but maybe a resolution like that would work fine on an FE2111. (1600 by 1200 would probably be pushing it anyway on a .24 stripe pitch monitor with regard to text quality.)

MaximumPC said the performance of the FE2111 was "pretty much on par" with the Sony Artisan monitor.

Alternatively, if the P1130 really is a G520, then that looks like a steal. However, I don't know if the G520 inside aspect is confirmed...
 
Don't like 5:4 resolutions too much on my P1130, and 1280x1024 never worked well for me.
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Yeah, I bet not. 1280x960 is already a touch grainy on a 19", and it's downright ugly on 21" CRTs.

Well, of course a great thing about CRTs is you can calculate the aspect ratio from the viewable area listed in the specs and define your own custom resolutions quite precisely.
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I wish I'd figured this out before my old CRT became unusable. :)

BTW, I just did a test and 1400 by 1050 by 100Hz comes in at 110.9 KHz on my CRT.
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Thanks for trying that. I asked a friend with an HP P930 to try that for me as well (it's a Diamondtron tube, but it's 30-110 KHz like my G420 was) and he was unable to get it to work, I guess that explains why. 1400x1500 at 95Hz worked fine though, and he said it was 105.1 KHz. If I get another 19", I think that will probably be my desktop res/gaming res if the game will actually support custom resolutions properly.

If the Dell P992 is actually 30-107 KHz and it's not just a misprint, that might be pushing the monitor pretty hard though and I'm worried it might be blurrier than a 110KHz 19" CRT. Would this be due to Dell using lower quality supporting electronics than the real Sony monitors, or does the tube itself dictate the horizontal scanning frequencies? If it's the tube and the G420 is really 110 and not 107 as well, then it must be a misprint, though I really don't know much about this.

1600 by 1200 would probably be pushing it anyway on a .24 stripe pitch monitor with regard to text quality.)
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I didn't know that. Maybe that's why everyone I've spoken to with G520 rebrands so far has said that 1600x1200 at 100Hz is a bit bad. Too bad there are very few .22 CRTs left like the GDM-F520 -- I think those were beginning to become hard to find even back when I bought my Sony.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that both the Dell and HP P1130s are really G520s.

MaximumPC said the performance of the FE2111 was "pretty much on par" with the Sony Artisan monitor.
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I pretty much ruled out the FE2111 due to the specs listed here earlier:
http://www.nm-select.com/product.asp?sku=1947106

Seems to have fairly low refresh rates for a monitor that large. I've heard nothing but good things about the image quality, but I'd really prefer 95-100Hz at a sharp resolution.
 
Oh, one thing I almost completely forgot to ask: what's the best way to prolong the life of a CRT?

I've heard that the brightness has a significant effect on the life of the tube, and that lowering it helps a bit. Apparently allowing Windows to put the monitor into standby also helps, and is supposedly less stressful on the monitor than turning it on and off. I think I had the brightness pretty high on my old one and all of the power management stuff disabled (I'd just turn it off if I thought I'd be gone for a few hours), so maybe that's why it began to fall apart so soon.
 
Electronics can certainly vary independently of the tube. And it could be a place where Dell (or Sony) cut corners to get a lower price point. On the other hand, that 130KHz max refresh rate for the P1130 looks excellent.

Guess my suggestion would be to buy a couple of those new P1130s from the person on eBay...

(Got to be careful with eBay purchases of course, but overall I've found it very helpful in finding CRT's and other hard to find items...)
 
Tosan said:
Oh, one thing I almost completely forgot to ask: what's the best way to prolong the life of a CRT?

I've heard that the brightness has a significant effect on the life of the tube, and that lowering it helps a bit. Apparently allowing Windows to put the monitor into standby also helps, and is supposedly less stressful on the monitor than turning it on and off. I think I had the brightness pretty high on my old one and all of the power management stuff disabled (I'd just turn it off if I thought I'd be gone for a few hours), so maybe that's why it began to fall apart so soon.
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I use low brightness, but the main thing I do is try to remember to turn it off, same as you...

(However, I'm afraid I do leave it full on when the computer is on, because I don't want to have to go through the warm up period again. An exception would be if I'm just using the computer for audio for a sustained period...)
 
Have the monitor go into sleep mode after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Bloom effects and pure white color are the hardest thing for a CRT to display. A lot of CRT's start making an audible hum on a pure white background because the display is having to use more power. Don't have a white desktop backgound.

High refresh rates wear out the monitor faster, as does a high brightness setting.

The main thing is to just make sure its not left on all the time. It can mean the difference between a 4 year life span and an 8 year life span, easily.

Remember that many of these high quality Trinitrons have several means of correcting convergence and color issues that can restore picture quality for a few extra years.

If I had the extra cash, I'd buy an extra new CRT and store it. It looks like it will be a while yet before a desktop computer display technology matches CRT picture quality.
 
WTF is a CRT? Is that like HPV? Make some warts grow on "Little Tosan" that look like a crop of cauliflower? 'Cause that can get nasty man.
 
Check craigslist and ebay local...

I found some guy selling 24+ CRT's and it would have gone for $50 + pickup, had lots of 19-21" Trinitrons, Sonys, NECs, Dells...

:)
 
Tosan said:
Oh, and I'm pretty sure that both the Dell and HP P1130s are really G520s.
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I had thought there were several sony branded G520 variants (?) Can't remember if they were different model numbers or revisions though.

Scyles: Have you had more time to test your new monitor? Am curious about your opinion once you settle into it a bit more.

The thing that impressed me most about the P1130 is the contrast and great black levels (even for a CRT that is). I'm having a hard time settling into this NEC FP2141SB-BK i just bought. I've temporarily swapped my P1130 to a secondary rig while i play with my new NEC, but the NEC isn't really impressing me as i thought it would. Trying to withhold judgement till i can properly calibrate everything, but this NEC seems just "a hair" inferior to the P1130 in certain aspects (contrast and black levels, maybe i'm just spoiled though). But as i said this monitor is not properly calibrated so hopefully i can perk it up some... And as always i'll play around with different graphic drivers since that can make a difference.

Going to research it some more but i may get the Pantone Huey calibration system. I like how it dynamically calibrates your monitor depending on your room lighting or preference settings.
 
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Thanks for the tips on keeping it alive longer. I'll probably set it to go into standby after an hour or so, as I hate the warm-up time too. My Sony had reached the point where it took over an hour to not display black as gray.

A lot of CRT's start making an audible hum on a pure white background because the display is having to use more power.
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Hmm, wish I'd known that earlier. My old monitor had begun doing that, and I took that as a sign that it was nearing the end of its useful life. Maybe it would've held on for a bit longer than I thought. To be fair though, it had become excessively bright, acquired a greenish cast, gotten blurry, and was taking forever to warm up. It did have an image restoration feature that made it look quite good again for a few weeks before slowly returning to the washed out colors it was displaying before. I hope the Dell rebrands have that, too.

As for the G520s: I believe the only other G520 made was the G520P, which just had a newer casing, slightly higher quality electronics and a new OSD button design. Specs are the same as the G520 on paper, though -- don't know if it was capable of hitting higher refresh rates or not. Here's a picture: http://www.xdy-workroom.com/crt/sony g520p-02.jpg

I guess it's come down to either the P992 or P1130 for me. Not sure how adventurous I'm feeling after the LCD though, so I may go with the P992 if the 1130 has trouble displaying clear text at 1600x1200 with high refresh rates and no one's heard anything bad about it. The 992 has free shipping at AccurateIT, so I won't be out too much if I have to send it back, at least, and I can always pick up another CRT later if they get some new overstock Sony displays in (another G420 would be great!). Like you said Scyles, it seems like it's going to be a while before LCDs become decent and having a backup would be great.

That color calibrator looks interesting, by the way. I might give that a try, too.
 
Tosan said:
Thanks for the tips on keeping it alive longer. I'll probably set it to go into standby after an hour or so, as I hate the warm-up time too. My Sony had reached the point where it took over an hour to not display black as gray.



Hmm, wish I'd known that earlier. My old monitor had begun doing that, and I took that as a sign that it was nearing the end of its useful life. Maybe it would've held on for a bit longer than I thought. To be fair though, it had become excessively bright, acquired a greenish cast, gotten blurry, and was taking forever to warm up. It did have an image restoration feature that made it look quite good again for a few weeks before slowly returning to the washed out colors it was displaying before. I hope the Dell rebrands have that, too.

As for the G520s: I believe the only other G520 made was the G520P, which just had a newer casing, slightly higher quality electronics and a new OSD button design. Specs are the same as the G520 on paper, though -- don't know if it was capable of hitting higher refresh rates or not. Here's a picture: http://www.xdy-workroom.com/crt/sony g520p-02.jpg

I guess it's come down to either the P992 or P1130 for me. Not sure how adventurous I'm feeling after the LCD though, so I may go with the P992 if the 1130 has trouble displaying clear text at 1600x1200 with high refresh rates and no one's heard anything bad about it. The 992 has free shipping at AccurateIT, so I won't be out too much if I have to send it back, at least, and I can always pick up another CRT later if they get some new overstock Sony displays in (another G420 would be great!). Like you said Scyles, it seems like it's going to be a while before LCDs become decent and having a backup would be great.

That color calibrator looks interesting, by the way. I might give that a try, too.
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I'm afraid any CRT purchase has an element of risk at this point. Including refurbished items from Accurate IT...

(Typing this on a "new old stock" GDM-F520 that I bought off eBay in 2005. Had to open the case to adjust the horizontal trapezoid setting. And later had to have Sony send me a replacement BNC connector assembly, after the initial one failed and caused shadowing. It's beautiful now though. And what's the value of something that doesn't make you work for it? :) )
 
Wow... CRT talk. Weird. haha...

I've been a diehard Trinitron fan but then mine died (or at least I thought it did, my friend has it now)... so I got an NEC FE991SB... and it's fantastic.

:cool:
 
SJetski71 said:
Scyles: Have you had more time to test your new monitor? Am curious about your opinion once you settle into it a bit more.
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No, unfortunately, I'm still looking at getting a new desk to support it so I haven't spent very much time with it yet.

I've heard that the 2141SB is one of the best CRT's you can buy. Hopefully all it needs is calibrating, though I believe that there are internal adjustments that can be made if you're ever feeling adventurous.

Tosan said:
It did have an image restoration feature that made it look quite good again for a few weeks before slowly returning to the washed out colors it was displaying before. I hope the Dell rebrands have that, too.
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The P1130 has it.
 
Scyles said:
I've heard that the 2141SB is one of the best CRT's you can buy. Hopefully all it needs is calibrating, though I believe that there are internal adjustments that can be made if you're ever feeling adventurous..
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Don't get me wrong, the FE2141SB is easily "one" of the best i've ever worked with, but i just seem to have this near-perfect working P1130 and it's hard for me NOT to compare them, i know for a fact i'm being nitpicky ;)

I'm real curious about the 21" GDM-F520, i don't ever recall working with one though it looks real familiar when i see it in pics. True .22 dot pitch has to look real nice, as opposed to the fake .22m dot pitch crap that has been sold, can't stand the misleading specs/advertisements some of these monitor companies put out.
 
SJetski71 said:
Don't get me wrong, the FE2141SB is easily "one" of the best i've ever worked with, but i just seem to have this near-perfect working P1130 and it's hard for me NOT to compare them, i know for a fact i'm being nitpicky ;)

I'm real curious about the 21" GDM-F520, i don't ever recall working with one though it looks real familiar when i see it in pics. True .22 dot pitch has to look real nice, as opposed to the fake .22m dot pitch crap that has been sold, can't stand the misleading specs/advertisements some of these monitor companies put out.
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Well, it lets you use higher resolutions more clearly. I'm using 1526 by 1142, because I like to allow room for error between the gun and the phosphors to get a clearer picture. (Also, I thought it would, in a geeky way I suppose, be cool to have a Windows computer actually displaying 96 dpi...)
 
SH1 said:
I'm afraid any CRT purchase has an element of risk at this point. Including refurbished items from Accurate IT...

(Typing this on a "new old stock" GDM-F520 that I bought off eBay in 2005. Had to open the case to adjust the horizontal trapezoid setting. And later had to have Sony send me a replacement BNC connector assembly, after the initial one failed and caused shadowing. It's beautiful now though. And what's the value of something that doesn't make you work for it? :) )
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Yeah. I just put in an order for the P992 because I was a little concerned about the 1130's quality at 1600x1200. We'll see how it goes. As long as it's in good condition, I think I'll be happy with it.

Sweet monitor, by the way. If there were any of those left I definitely would've gotten an F520 instead.

Also: does anyone know whether DVI to VGA adapters degrade the picture quality for CRTs? I'm wondering because the analog LCD I'm using right now as a temporary monitor looks much worse on my computer with a dual-DVI 7800 GTX and an adapter in it than on my other computer with a VGA/DVI Radeon 9700 Pro through the VGA port. There's a shadow under the mouse cursor, and the picture isn't very sharp.
 
Tosan said:
Also: does anyone know whether DVI to VGA adapters degrade the picture quality for CRTs? I'm wondering because the analog LCD I'm using right now as a temporary monitor looks much worse on my computer with a dual-DVI 7800 GTX and an adapter in it than on my other computer with a VGA/DVI Radeon 9700 Pro through the VGA port. There's a shadow under the mouse cursor, and the picture isn't very sharp.
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I would always use a straight-up cable vs cable + adapter. Those pesky adapters can sometimes cause blurred text (ymmv), and the higher the rez the worse it can get. Also, a shorter cable is better with high rez. Sometimes video cards that come with dual-DVI outputs have flawed vga implementation, probably rare but worth noting if you ever find yourself troubleshooting display anomolies.

A short, thick, well insulated adapter cable is what i would recommend, this one might be ok: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...905&p_id=600&style=&seq=1&format=1#largeimage

Or you could try searching for a higher quality vga-dvi adapter, as opposed to using the crap that comes with a video card. The good ones aren't cheap last i checked ~ $18-$30.
 
Weird. This LCD is only doing 1024x768 at 60Hz and it looks absolutely terrible here compared to the other computer. I wonder if this is part of why my old CRT had begun to look so bad?

I'm not sure if that cable will work -- the VGA cable seems to be permanently attached to the P992 from the pictures I've seen of it. It was on my G420 too, but it had dual inputs so I could've just attached it to the secondary input there. The P992 does not however, unfortunately. Is there any way around that?
 
Tosan said:
Weird. This LCD is only doing 1024x768 at 60Hz and it looks absolutely terrible here compared to the other computer. I wonder if this is part of why my old CRT had begun to look so bad?

I'm not sure if that cable will work -- the VGA cable seems to be permanently attached to the P992 from the pictures I've seen of it. It was on my G420 too, but it had dual inputs so I could've just attached it to the secondary input there. The P992 does not however, unfortunately. Is there any way around that?
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Could be why your old crt looked so bad, but it wouldn't explain it if your crt had gotten progressively worse over time, as opposed to right after you swapped cables, which you would have noticed immediately.

That's a tough one, you need a edit: Male dvi to female vga adapter cable, don't recall ever seeing one. You could make one yourself, or have it made for you. Either which way you slice it though (no pun intended) you'll be using two cables, so you may as well try a different/better dvi-vga adapter. Unless you feel like opening up your crt and hard-wiring a dvi-a cable to it (fun!).

What i would do is test your new monitor with your current setup. If something doesn't seem right, then try to dig up another adapter (beg, borrow, steal etc) and swap it out. If your new display still doesn't seem right then try hooking up your monitor to another computer with vga outputs, as long as it's not some ancient computer that is. If your monitor looks good after swapping computers then your next step would be to look for a custom cable, or a better dvi to vga adapter.


Monoprice has two adapter types, don't know if they're any good though: http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&style=
RamElectronics carries both custom and high-end cables: http://www.ramelectronics.net/

/Reminder to self to never buy a dual-dvi video card ;)
 
It did actually look worse after I upgraded from a 6800 GT with VGA/DVI to this card, though I foolishly didn't pursue it at the time or even know why it was happening. The difference is far more noticeable with this LCD for some reason, but I'm noticing sort of the same thing that I saw before with the CRT.

Wouldn't I need a male DVI to female VGA adapter? The DVI ports on my 7800 GTX are female DVI, and that's what the current adapter I'm using is. If so, would this work: http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=229414&srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=10-40655385-2

It says dual-link DVI though, not sure if that'd be a problem.

I seem to have a knack for getting myself into bad situations with monitors these days. I wonder if I should just try and get my order changed to a P1130 if they actually do have any and use that DVI/VGA cable you linked to earlier, since they have dual inputs? Sigh :(. I could always use 1400x1050 at 100Hz if 1600x1200 is too blurry for the desktop, I guess.
 
Corrected my above post,

Dual-link really means nothing with that adapter since it's only using the analog legacy pins, probably just marketing fluff. For troubleshooting purposes you may want to temporarily slap the 6800gt back into your rig though.

You could probably try any 3:4 ratio such as 1400x1050, 1520x1140, 1526 by 1142 or anything else you can figure out on a calculator and just use whatever looks best. You may get mixed results so try three or four different resolutions. Sometimes lowering the refresh rate can help fonts too, might be worth trying everything between 80~100hz.

I can see you're still tempted with that P1130, if you're going to change your order you may want to fire off an email really soon, before the merchant sends the package out monday morning ;), he's relisted them btw. I won't try to convince you on what monitor to select, especially since you're pretty familiar with what you ordered....21 inches is nice though, especially if it's brand new :)

Edit: Some crt monitors that have dual-inputs can different results on each input, meaning one input will look nicer than the other, you'd have to try both and find out.
 
Scyles said:
I've heard that the 2141SB is one of the best CRT's you can buy. Hopefully all it needs is calibrating, though I believe that there are internal adjustments that can be made if you're ever feeling adventurous.
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Funny thing just happened, i had just mentioned to the OP that sometimes input A and input B can make a difference on crt monitors, so decided to try it on my 2141SB, and voila! Everything looks better on input B. Hard for me to put into words but fonts are noticeably better @ 1600x1200 and everything else has a slightly nicer look overall, the corners are sharp and everything. I feel dopey for not having tried it sooner :eek: lol

Now i'll have an even tougher time comparing it to my P1130, i now consider them near-equals in quality, will keep testing but i'm pleasantly surprised.


SJetski71 said:
Some crt monitors that have dual-inputs can different results on each input, meaning one input will look nicer than the other, you'd have to try both and find out.
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SJetski71 said:
Corrected my above post,

...I can see you're still tempted with that P1130, if you're going to change your order you may want to fire off an email really soon, before the merchant sends the package out monday morning...
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I didn't realize earlier that the P992 has a variable pitch, 24mm-.25mm, screen. Is the P1130 a constant 0.24 across the whole screen? Everything else being equal, a constant pitch is preferable and represents a newer generation tube. I can't say whether everything else is equal of course...

For adapters, when I upgraded to a two DVI out card, I was quite worried. I really liked that the 6800 GT still had VGA. Tried two adapters, first one -- heavy shadows...ugh. Second adapter -- totally clear picture. (And it was actually the adapter that came with card that did a better job.) So, guess it's a bit trial and error...
 
For resolution, I tend to follow Dan's rule here:

usual rule of thumb

http://www.dansdata.com/danletters088.htm

It's just a rule of thumb and I don't allow quite that much room for error. And he says "dot triads" there when he means aperature grill stripes. Anyway, the rule does tend to give a decent estimate of text clarity I think.

(If the chosen resolution exceeds the number of physical stripes, some blurriness must ensue. And at even less than that, error between the gun and the phosphors can blur the text. However, what's acceptable for text clarity is highly subjective.)
 
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