Best 21" Monitor

[A-Dog]

I just bought a new Dell system that should be arriving in a week or so (i815e,P3/800, 256MB). I hope to buy a g800 when it comes out so I went with the base graphics card (ATI Rage 128 Pro). I'll be using my own 17" monitor for the time being but am shopping for a 21" monitor. I am partial to Aperature-Grill monitors and I'm wondering if anyone can give me some advice on a purchase. Right now I'm looking closely at the Mitsubishi 2040U and the Sony G500. Any suggestions?

[ph0rk]

I'm quite fond of my ViewSonic PF815.
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/pr...9D80C4C7BE010C

As long as you go with a good name brand apperature grill though, you'll be fine.

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Cory Grimster
cory@houseofstuff.net
http://www.houseofstuff.net

[Lawlaw]

I was shopping for a 21" last month and had my eye on the mitsubishi 2040u. The guy told me it was backordered. So I ordered one and waited for a full month...but they still can't get any stock. They told me they have the G500 in stock so I got that one instead. Overall I'm pretty satisify with the Sony, but I think the mitsubishi is one of the best 21" monitor out there. Go with that if you can find one...

[Stringy]

IMO, it's either ViewSonic, Hitachi or if you can afford it Nanao/Ezio ...
I was VERY impressed with Hitachi's 19's and 21's.. Nice overall image quality and the color was very vibrant...

Craig

[qball]

The Sony GDM-F500R is the best 21" monitor made, bar none.

-Q

[A-Dog]

I'd love to get the F500R, but it's a bit much. I'd like to pay around $1200. Does anyone know how the Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 200 looks? Is it comparable to the 2040U?

[Paulr]

I still love those Iiyama's.
My 17" at home and my 21" at work both offer top notch image quality corner to corner.

[Ashley]

I haven't checked in a while, but at the beginning of the summer, www.ubid.com consistently had refurbished 2040Us that went for ~$600. There's actually spec'd at 22". They also had some of the older 2020Us - same specs as the 2040Us.

[Surfwienix]

go for iiyama

very clear and sharp screan, best for matrox

------------------
>> Surfwienix <<

My System:

AMD K6-2/400 non-o/c
Epox MVP3C-M Super7 (VIA 4.24)
128MB SDRAM(PC100)
Matrox Millennium G400 MAX
(PD 6.11.031 BETA + TGL 1.3 + DX 7a) AGP2x/256MB @IRQ11(not sharing) non-o/c
Terratec DMX Sound-System
6,4GB Maxtor HDD (UDMA33)
ASUS 50x-CDROM (UDMA33)
Realtek 8019 Ethernet (ISA)
Creatix HAM V.90 Modem
19" Monitor CTX-VL950T (95khz)
Windows 98SE

[This message has been edited by Surfwienix (edited 07 September 2000).]

[dZeus]

Iiyama is nice, but not always 'the best'. Sony trinitron tubes are VERY nice too (I own a Dell P990 monitor myself, which has a 19" sony trinitron tube), so are Eizo monitors. The best you can do is to ask a shop to have several PC's hooked up to the monitors of your choice, all using a G400, so that you can do a side-by-side comparison yourself.

Try to set the resolution at 1600x1200 or one step higher when doing the comparison, and try to look at sharpness of text and 'bleeding colours'.

[A-Dog]

I just bought a refurbished Dell P1110 from Ubid for $484. It's essentially a Sony G500 with the .24mm Flat-Sceen AG Tube. What do you guys think, did I do okay?

[Lawlaw]

Any warrenty?

[A-Dog]

It's got a 3-month warranty from Dell. They offered a 1-year for $50 bucks but I passed. I figure if there are any problems they will be apparent on arrival. I've owned 3 Sony monitors (1 a Dell Branded 500PS) and have had no problems so far. It's definitely a risk but I would've been paying about a grand if I bought a new one.

I just hope that g800 comes out soon, I don't think I can live with the ATI card for more than a month.

[foft]

A few people suggested iiyama, so I thought I would contribute my experience with them.

I bought a VMpro510 and was initially very impressed. However there were convergence issues (blue/red next to while characters etc.). As this was quite severe I contacted customer support. I was extremely impressed as they changed the monitor a few days later (i.e. delievered a new one, took the old one). This is excellent service for warranty cover!

Unfortunately the new one has issues IMO. The focus is off on the upper right -such that it is uncomfortable to read text in the upper right of the monitor (with black on white it is most severe - or other bright backgrounds). This is a pain, because I have to move windows to read them easily! Convergence is much better, but some of the vertical support wires are visible on the right of the monitor and there is a slight yellow colouring. Finally text flickers slightly - as though there is a slight horizontal difference between frames. This is with a G400 (even at 100Hz).

FYI iiyama customer support were again helpful about the replacement monitor. They got an engineer to explain the reasons for (some of) the problems. I seems that many are issues of a Trinotron tube in general. i.e. focus over the whole screen with correct convergence is nigh on impossible. Maybe it would be better to get a FST tube or something - even though not flat they are crisp over the whole screen.

However that said it is still the nicest monitor I have ever used!

Gah - just looked at the last posts. Seems you already got one. Well the above may be useful to someone

[Paulr]

Foft,
I know what you mean about Iiyama support.
I think a lot of companies should take a leaf out of their book.
We bought a batch of 15 Iiyama monitors at work.
A few 17" a few 19" and a few 21".
One of them was the very first VM 410Pro, not sure if you read the early reviews but they had a major problem with a power capacitor that caused a delay of about half a second in changing from a light to dark screen.
Anyway, phoned Iiyama support, had a new monitor with us the very next day.
The guy who delivered it, not sure if it was just a normal delivery guy or not, even came to the desk, removed the old one, placed the new one on the desk and plugged it into the PC, packaged the old one and took it away.
Now THAT is service!!