Emergency monitor advice needed !

[leoblob]

My trusty old NEC1830LCD is dying a rapid death after almost 7 years of service. I suspect the fluorescent tube, and I think it will be dead in the next few days (I have even older CRT monitors I can use in the meantime).

I don't have much time to research this out and would appreciate any opinions you all may have. I need a 19" with standard 1280x1024 resolution for just about everything except gaming. Since I spend many hours a day looking at it, I'm willing to spend a little green to get a good one.

I've always had good luck with NEC, but I know there are many newer brands with good reputations. The kicker, I want to buy from www.cdw.com. I know they are NOT the cheapest, but they are only 40 minutes from my house and they are very generous about taking back returns. If I had a dead pixel or two, I could drive back over there and get another one, no problem.

Thanks for any suggestions!

PS - when this is over, I will take the old 1830 apart and see if I can fix it. With 4 computers in the house, I'm sure it will be put to good use.

[gator]

If you don't mind buying a 19" widescreen, Lenovo has the L192 for $130 shipped on its outlet:
http://stores.channeladvisor.com/Lenovo ... /ca6920ab1?

newegg had a lot of regular 19" monitors but the prices are >$170.

[Brad]

I like anything NEC. Very nice stuff. Great choice.

I recently setup a 19" 4:3 NEC and was very impressed. The screen was excellent all the way around. Like what you would expect from NEC. The maximum resolution was 1280 X 1024.

I was surprised at how reasonably priced it was.

Brad

[leoblob]

Well that didn't take long. It's the next morning and my monitor is dead. Time to drag out my Gateway EV700 monitor (circa 1998) as a temporary patch.

I'm willing to spend $400 so there's lots of choices. The NEC Multisynchs are supposedly aimed at "professional" graphics users. Funny how the more expensive monitors have a slower response time...

As for widescreens, I could really use all the vertical height (pixel-wise) I can get, so stepping down from 1024 won't work for me. And the large horizontal width doesn't gain me anything (in my case). I have also considered 1600 x 1200 just to get more height.

Any additional suggestions appreciated. Looks like I will have to wait until Monday to go shopping for a replacement.

[syedj]

There are some LCD monitors that can be swiveled to have larger vertical height with screen rotation, both physical and image rotation, to give 1200x1600 resolution.

I know Samsung 244T that I have supports that functionality and I am
sure I have seen others too.

[Stargate199]

I have a Westinghouse Digital 22" widescreen monitor on my desk at home (new desk pics coming as soon as I upload them). It has a resolution of 1680x1050. It displays a really good picture. Colors are very accurate (white is white, black is pretty much black). You can find it pretty cheaply if you know where to look. I have only seen a couple of them in use Mine is perfect, but I have seen another that had a stuck pixel right out of the box. I would also recommend ViewSonic, they have really good monitors and also Samsung. Samsung always seems to get hight reviews and their display models seem to be the best looking ones in the stores (keep in mind, store displays are on 24/7, so it would look new compared to ones that were a few months old).

[bhurley]

I know you want to order from CDW, but still...

If you want to do the right environmental thing, Lenovo right now makes the world's only EPEAT-Gold certified monitor, and it happens to be a 19-incher. It's the L193p, and it's in your price range - under $300.

It's energy-efficient, more than 90 percent recyclable and with design optimized for recylability (plastic components are marked, etc.), has reduced packaging, etc.. Worth looking into.

[leoblob]

It's now about a week later. I brought home an NEC LCD2070VX from CDW. It's a 1600x1200. Overall, color, contrast, brightness and sharpness are excellent. Zero bad pixels. Evenness of illumination is fair, and viewing angle is poor. I did tilt this to 1200x1600 and it works, but the narrow viewing angle means even if you move your head a small amount, the image starts to fade, etc.

I find the 1600x1200 makes everything small (of course), and most web pages now display with plenty of empty white space on both sides. So, I'm not sure this high resolution buys me anything. But even so, I like this monitor.

I am planning to go back to CDW and get an NEC LCD1990SX. This is a 1280x1024 monitor. I will evaluate both, and bring back the one I don't want. CDW is OK with this.

[TTY]

I am planning to go back to CDW and get an NEC LCD1990SX.

Very good idea. For office applications, a white or silvery bezel is considered to be more ergonomic than a black one, as contrast to a document which has a white background will be less.

[leoblob]

Now it's about a week later. The winner is the 1990sx. Better lighting uniformity and viewing angle. Less (zero) eye fatigue. Contrast seems more "normal" and less fake. Tremendous black level performance... makes a bigger difference than I ever would have imagined. I can see the difference between level 0 and level 1 on this test: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Cali ... _black.htm

Also, the solid construction and the clean lines of the 1990sx make the other one look & feel like a flimsy plastic mass-market monitor, to a degree.

[dietpepsiaddict]

Good choice! And Have fun!!!

[dr_st]

The 1990SX is an excellent monitor. For "everything except gaming" I'd also suggest Lenovo L192p, which is also a very good VA monitor. Although not as high quality as NEC for professional graphics, it's just as good for general use, and much cheaper. The L193p is a TN panel and is much inferior. Seems strange that it even has the "p" suffix.

[leoblob]

Update, 3 weeks later...

I love my new monitor.

And, I managed to fix the old one. Tracked down some cold solder joints on the circuit board which contains the ballast circuitry driving the fluorescent tubes. It hasn't worked this well in a year or so. Still very glad I bought the new one... now I have 2

[dsigma6]

Gateway EV700 monitor (circa 1998)

Haha, I've got the same monitor for my desktop...but I only use the ThinkPads so it doesn't matter!

I can't believe you fixed the broken one, nice work!