Westlan Forums

what should i buy.... a 19inch CRT monitor which is about 200 quid (a guess) or should i fork out on a smaller TFT for more money? ive looked at some TFT's and they look grainy with small dots.....but i dunno. any thoughts?

Firstly, from an economical point of view
Theres very little demand for CRT screens these days, when people replace monitors, it tends to be with TFT's. A 19" CRT will set you back £150+, at the moment a second hand price would be £70-80 if its in good condition
A 15" TFT is around £200, second hand price is £150 and will be sticking around that for a good time.
Basically, i'm saying your daft buying a new 19" monitor, its a much smarter idea to buy a good quality second hand CRT if your going to a CRT.

Practicality
For general use, 19" takes up a hefty amount of desk space. If your planning on moving out or going to uni, thats desk space you won't want to loose.
For lans, If you go to them regularly, you'll soon be bored of carrying a 20+ kg lump around.

Technically
I generally consider a TFT kinder on my eyes, it doesn't flicker at all, and doesn't give me headakes or eye strain so badly. Some people would disagree, but its quite subjective.
for games, i don't see much difference with my screen (Oldish 30ms response), and certainly with a new 16ms monitor you'll not find too much problems
if your watching movies, its a slight annoyance at the lower viewing angles, newer ones are better, but its a slight annoyance
Its slightly annoying to have a fixed resolution in games, you can't drop it down a peg to get better performance, or if you do it looks shit.
The instant on of a TFT is also very nice, CRT's need to warm up a lot more

erm ditto

TFT's are quite good now for gaming and film watching, and their obvious advantages with regard to deskspace and "instant on" outweigh issues such as a native resolution in mine, and many others opinion.

ok then...it seems TFT wins out....i was thinking about lugging a giant CRT about which wasnt very appealing...cheers you just persuaded me to buy a TFT. whatch out for the "which TFT should i get?" thread next

TFT's weigh less and are less of a hassle and bulk for LANs.

Being a primary user of CRT's I have to say I'd go for a TFT at the moment, I bought my current 19" CRT (samsung syncmaster 957MB) last summer that has an excellent tube and for a stonking price of £140 from ebuyer, and for the quality it is hard beat. However if you intend to be moving around a lot and going to LAN events I would seriously consider a TFT, it will save you a lot of bother dragging it about and if you're a uni/college the deskspace you get is normally tiny.

A probelm with some tft's is that their response times can be quite high this causes the image to smear or blur on fast moving video and games, ideally you want anything that is less than 20ms, the other is the price and you would be looking at approximately 2-3 times the cost for the equivalent screen size, then you have probelms with viewing angles and colour stability etc. But still for the convienience buy a TFT.

thanks all for the advice....as i said ill go for a TFT.....more practical and are quite good form what ive heard.....so if there is nothing else can the admins LOCK this thread well? cheers