I need a new monitor ASAP, but before I buy, I'd like to look into whether or not an LCD would be a good choice. From what I've seen, high-quality LCD's are way out of my price range, but there seem to be a few of the lower-end LCD's that might be okay.

I'm used to a 19" flatscreen CRT. That would put a 17" LCD being just a little smaller than what I'm used to, right? I could probably manage a slight decrease in size; 19" is pretty big anyway. The main thing for me is to get a monitor where I can read a 1280x1024 display pretty well and where the text isn't blurry.

So my budget is about $200. Can I get a decent LCD for that, or should I stick with a CRT awhile longer?
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This thread on the samsung syncmaster 710N should answer your question.

Currently zipzoomfly is out of the black ones, that's where I got mine, I bought another one from newegg and it arrived with some dead pixels, could be chance, hard to say. Newegg has it now in stock, total will be $250 or so.

Notice how they charge more for the black one? That's because it's cooler. LOL... but really, you should get a black one, you don't see the edges at all.

The 710N series is really great.

That monitor has been available in the past year for down to $225 with rebates, usually it's around $250 or so.

That's about as cheap as you want to go with LCD. It's a very good monitor, that specific model number, there are several 17" samsungs out there, but that one has the best spec to price ratio, better contrast ratio [600 to 1 I believe], much better response time than most [12 milliseconds], better viewing angles [160 horizontal ]x 160 vertical - that's important]

Re 19" CRT versus 17" LCD, there is almost no difference. You lose at least 1" of the 19" because of the edges on a CRT, while a 17" LCD is exactly, literally 17". For my taste, a 17" is just fine, it actually has the same resolution as a 19" LCD, but the 19" is just bigger, both max at 1280 x 1024, which is plenty as far as I'm concerned.

See if you can find this exact monitor on sale somewhere, it's really good, fantastic in my opinion, especially for the money.

To LCD or not to LCD, that is the question
Once you have switched to LCD you can never go back.

No glare. Totally flat screen. Did I mention no glare? And they take no space on the desktop. You get your desk back, that is.

You won't realize how much your eyes have adjusted to the distortions of a CRT curve until you work with an LCD for a while. Now when I see CRTs, even good ones, I wonder where that extreme bubble affect comes from. I used to not even see it.

Very easy on your eyes. CRTs are bombarding you with radiation, LCDs just sort of sit there, they are VERY GOOD FOR YOUR EYES.

CRTs make you go blind long term. Glaucoma rates among long time CRT users are noticeably higher than LCD users.

And this: once you get one good quality LCD, you can get another one, they lne up really well, and you can move into the dual monitor world. And once you've gone dual monitor, you will also not go back.

Apple almost doesn't cell CRTs anymore, maybe on the low end imacs, but that's it. Neither does Dell. There's a reason for that, which you will quickly discover once you switch.
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Thanks for the advice, I'm watching for some holiday specials to come up within the next few weeks and will be trying to get a good deal on an LCD of some kind.

I looked at the Samsung Syncmaster 710N and it seemed good. My only concern is that the horizontal viewing area is one inch less than my current monitor. (I have a 19" CRT, true flat screen.) I know LCD's give you more viewing area for the given dimensions, but when I figured out the actual horizontal viewing area of the Samsung versus the same measurement on my CRT, the CRT came out one inch bigger. That's quite a big of space as monitors go, so I'm a little reluctant to go with that one. I may if I can't find a 19" in my price range.

I did find this at Newegg, which seems okay. It's only 500:1 contrast ratio and only 140 degree viewing angle, which is lower specs than the Samsung Syncmaster. However, it does have the larger screen, which is more important to me than awesome graphic display.

My biggest concern is how Acer was able to pull in a bigger monitor and Newegg sell it for only a dollar more than the Samsung. Did they cut quality in other areas as well?

One thing that concerns me a bit is the dead pixel issue. I originally thought that dead pixels just wouldn't light up, like they'd just be black. That wouldn't be bad. Then I found that they may light up but in the wrong colors, and never change color. That could be a big distraction. Most reviews I've seen of LCD's have said "no dead pixels," but a few have said it's an issue. I'm absurdly affected by my monitor display - I get distracted all day long if it's not just right. So having dead pixels could be a problem for me. How many dead pixels did your Samsung have, and was it hard to get used to dealing with them? How visible are they?

All in all, I'd like to go with an LCD but I'm not sure. I can get a high-quality CRT flatscreen for under $150, basically a replacement of what's going bad on me. It's in the Mitsubishi DiamondPlus series, which is excellent at anti-glare (you can hardly get glare off the thing with a flashlight). So I won't be crushed if I have to go with another CRT - but like I said, LCD would be my first choice. I just have a few concerns about them before making a purchase.
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Matthew, theres's a few differences between LCDs and CRTs that reviews don't mention. One is that text on a crt tends to be more defined, easier to read, that's because of the discrete pixel lcds I think.

This means that it's more a question of resolution than inches.

You see the same amount on a 17" as a 19", the 19" is just a little bigger, which means the things on the monitor are a little bigger.

To me it's not a very big difference.

I've seen questions of LCD quality come up before elsewhere, Samsung was pretty much the most popular choice.

I wouldn't skimp, I don't know the Acer, haven't read reviews of it, but I wouldn't save that amount of money and risk having a monitor that doesn't look good.

There's a huge difference in LCD monitor quality, if you go to some local computer super store and look at a bunch of them you'll be fairly amazed at the differences.

The 140 x 140 degree viewing angle of Acer is one such difference, it gives you just much less viewing angle, that really matters long term. But since I haven't seen an acer with my own eyes I can't say.

My guess is that you are making a signficant sacrifice though, LCD screen manufactoring is a very expensive process, and the number of dead lcds is one indicator of how good the quality control is.

A dead LCD usually is a bright little green point of light. Very annoying. As far as I can tell, my Samsung has none, another one I got from newegg had some, it's hard to say, Newegg's return policy is worth reading, they specify just how many dead pixels you can have to qualify for a return.

Newegg has too many of these hidden little things for me to recommend them, or use them.

My guess is this: Samsung is doing some promotion, it's coming, that's why zipzoomfly is out of some of the monitors. In a month or two they will come out with a sale, I've seen their 19" for about $269 I think at one point. Currently no sales, just check zipzoomfly weekly.

I can only recommend a monitor I've used and seen, LCDs are simply too variable in quality, but I was happy paying much more for this 17" a year ago, it would have been nice to get it cheaper, but I've never regretted it, even though 4 months later I could have gotten a 19" for the same price.

Here's my real take though:
2 17" monitors are better than 1 19"
2 17" monitors give you 2560 x 1024 screen space.
If you wait for a sale, you will get this extra screen space for about $100 more than you would have paid for a good 19".

That means code in one side, browser test in the other, image on one side, image processing tools on the other, and so on.
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Okay, here's my take on CRT vs LCD. I have CRTs because that's what I can afford. However, my laptop, cheap little thing that it is, has (as they all do) an LCD.

I'd KILL for my laptop to have a CRT. Every laptop screen I've seen in the last couple of years is washy, has color problems, the text is "wavery", etc.

I wouldn't go to an LCD for my desktop based on that alone - as well as having seen the two EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE Sony LCDs my sister has - neither of which is as easy to read/color-perfect as are my two antique CRTs.

Of course, it could be my antique eyes.... but then again, text is INFINITELY better on CRTs. For me.
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vkaryl, doesn't your laptop have a port to plug in a CRT? Mine does, and it's just a $600 Dell Inspiron. Makes it nice if you're going to be sitting in one spot for awhile and need a better monitor

BTW, points taken, jeffd, about the Acer being inferior to the Samsung and Newegg not being the place to buy an LCD from. I can't find a single review of the Acer monitors anywhere, except on Newegg, and personally I suspect a good number of their glowing reviews are "seeded" anyway.

Anyhow, I'll be heading out to an electronics store sometime in the near future to compare a few monitors and see what I think of them. I can't think of a better way to make a choice. I'll let you know what I wind up with.
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Yeah, it does Matthew, but I'm not normally sitting using it in one place where there's also a CRT handy. This situation is a total anomaly which will be done on Tuesday latest, and it's not worth crawling around under the desk in the rat's nest of cables to detach the CRT cable from the desktop box and attach it to the laptop for a couple days.... and then reverse the process....

And in any case, re the original question, I've decided I don't WANT an LCD for my desktop. CRTs are actually better for me.
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Well, for a quick update, I went out at an absurdly-early hour this morning and picked up a 19" Samsung SyncMaster 914v for $199. So far it's great, although I'm thinking that I'll have to tone down the brightness a bit. No dead pixels, great display, and almost as large of a screen as my brother's 22" CRT. I think I'll eventually mount this on one of those monitor arms, that way I'll have my entire desk surface available to use.

Thanks for the advice. I'm sure this Samsung is far better than the Acer I was looking at before. 600:1 contrast ratio, 160-degree viewing angle, which is none too much after all, 12ms response time, razor-sharp text and graphics, color not all that great so far but I haven't adjusted it yet either.
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