advice on new high rez monitor

[schmosef]

Hi Guys,

I've decided to buy a new monitor for my multi monitor setup.

This is my current setup:
Parhelia 128 (AGP):
- dual display mode
- Sony F500 (middle 1600x1200)
- Viewsonic P225f (right 1600x1200)
ATI Radeon 7000 (PCI):
- another Viewsonic P225f (left 1024x768)

I mainly work with Visual Studio .Net and I'm realising that I need more real estate on my middle monitor.

I'd like to buy a new monitor that nicely supports 2048x1536.

Although they're not quite as nice as my Sony, I really like my Viewsonic monitors. I did a quick check and Viewsonic has a newer model, the P225fb, which supports the resolution I'm looking for.

I'm wondering if anyone's had experience with this monitor or can recommend something better?

My primary use is programming but I also do a little bit of image manipulation and web design so I need both sharp text and reasonably good colour fidelity.

Anything less than $1,500 CAD (about $1,100 USD) would be acceptable. But I'm flexible if there's something really good for a little more.

Thanks for your help.

[az]

http://matrox.com/mga/products/p_hr256/home.cfm

AZ

[schmosef]

Thanks, but I think that's a little out of my price range.

Last I checked, The Matrox card was about $2,600 USD and the Viewsonic mentioned was about $7,800 CAD.

[Wombat]

Cornerstone?

[schmosef]

I stumbled onto Cornerstone while I was looking for reviews on the Viewsonic I mentioned. I've never heard of them before.

The P1750 looks like it might be a contender.

Anyone have any experience with Cornerstone?

[Wombat]

Search GH for Cornerstone. I haven't had one, but many MURCers have, and they're great monitors at a good price. They have a member here, GoSharks.

[Umfriend]

Have a look at Philips Brilliance line of screens. I think tit's called the 201P. I have had two, smaller, philips screens and always loved them. Still own the 15" brilliance and it is still going strong.

[Tjalfe]

I have yet to see any retailers sell either Phillips nor Cornerstone in Canada .. buying from the states adds on a fair bit of Duty crossing the border.
Here LG, NEC, Samsung, Sony and Viewsonic are the common brands.. plus misc. unknown cheap ones

[schmosef]

I agree that Philips and Cornerstone aren't popular brands in Canada.

Lucky for me my consulting company is a reseller with Ingram Micro and Tech Data. So I can order via the distribution channel and avoid all the import hassles. I also get to pay wholesale.

Ingram is the Cornerstone distributor for Canada. They don't have the p1750 sku'd on their website but I've left a message for my sales rep to look it up.

Both Ingram and Tech Data seem to carry Philips monitors but the top end 202p40 only does 2048x1536 @ 80Hz. Whereas Cornerstone and NEC-Mitsubishi each have a model that can do it at 85Hz.

Wombat, thanks very much for your suggestion to search the GH forum for past threads. I've learned a lot.

It seems I've narrowed the field down to the following:

Cornerstone P1750
Sony F520

Maximum PC did a review of the Cornerstone and basically said it was the next best thing to the Sony. Anybody have any experience with the Sony? I own its predecessor, my F500, and really like it. But side by side, it's not that much better than my Viewsonics.

As I write this I'm realising that I'm leaning towards the Sony. The only problem is that Sony seems to have stopped selling CRT monitors in Canada. They don't have any listed on the sony.ca website and they aren't sku'd with either Ingram or Tech Data. I've left my sales rep a message to look into that too.

[schmosef]

Funny follow-up,

I called Sony to ask why they didn't list CRT monitors on their Canadian website and the genius I spoke with told me he didn't know what a CRT monitor was!

[Tjalfe]

Maybe time for the sales dude to reconcider careers.. perhaps something involving french fries

/*edit : type */

[schmosef]

Actually, he was Tech Support!

He got me in touch with someone in Sales who just agreed that they didn't have CRTs listed and suggested I try a store. I re-explained that I was a dealer and wanted to find out whether they were even selling them in Canada. He just said he didn't know.

So now I'm waiting on my sales rep at the distributor to get me an answer.

[PAugustin]

I don't own the F520, just the G420 (19") and it is excellent. From what I've heard the F520 really is a great monitor. it has very few competitors when it comes to image quality, but it is expensive.
If you can get wholesale prices, look over Eizo, they sell the best monitors using tubes from Sony or Mitsu with custom high quality electronic. They are usually VERY expensive but leave the competition behind in every domain.

[schmosef]

From what I can tell from Eizo's website, they aren't selling CRT monitors anymore. I need the multi-resolution flexibility of a CRT.

[spadnos]

Note that the number of extra pixels you'll get by going from 2@1600x1200 to 3@1280x1024 is 92160 (90k). You get 1.024 times the pixels (although the screen real estate is 50% higher).

I recently did the upgrade to triple-head (also doing software development) , and I like it better than dual-head because the arrangement of a center +left+right suits me better than a 'main' and 'aux' monitor or having the borders of the monitors in the center.

As for acutal pixels, though - it's just about a wash.

- Steve