[ender2002]

I am going to buy the G5 tower, bare bones. (no superdrive, no 56k modem) for $1770. Most likely i will have very little money left over ($100-200). Are there any monitors out there for cheap but with good quality. I will save up for a flat panel later on, but I need a monitor to see this baby run .

help.

[BasketofPuppies]

Go to your local discount or electronics store. You'll find a wide selection of cheap (read: lousy) monitors to choose from.

And pray you earn the money to buy a good display before you go blind. A cheap CRT can be murder on the eyes.

[bradoesch]

Find some off lease monitors. They're usually pretty cheap. Try and find one with a Trinitron tube, it'll be much brighter and nicer to look at. If you can hook it up and look at it, look for two horizontal lines splitting the screen into thirds and then you'll know it's a Trinitron tube. A light background will make the lines much easier to find.

[tooki]

Honestly, you need to skimp on the computer, not the monitor. Cheap monitors:

1. end up costing you more in the long run, as a good one may cost 3x as much, but will last 4-5 times as long. The cheap monitor will never have a great picture, and it will degrade quickly. The expensive ones start great, and stay great.

2. ruin your eyes. So don't forget to factor in the cost of seeing an eye doctor.

If you must go cheap on the monitor, then buy a new, small, high-quality CRT, like a 17" NEC, Mitsubishi, or Sony, or a high-end ViewSonic.

tooki

[DrBoar]

Go to Best Buy or a similar store and there are many 17" CRT that are really nice. I bought a Samsungin 2000 and I really liked it, at 150 dollars it was at elast as good as a 1000 dollar CRT I bought back in 1995. Now the prices are even better Look for a PC magazine testing 17" monitors, there is plenty of info on the net.

I have seem som terribe displays over the years Apples 1705" blurry monster comes to mind. For me I am sensive for Flciker so a high refresh rate 75 Hz or above is a must. And I like to ba able to crank up the resolution to 1152x870 or 1280x1024 on a 17" so it need to be sharp as well., I really do not care about colour truthfullness that much.

Samsung, NEC, Philips, Eizo, Sony, Hitachi all make nice monitors

[OreoCookie]

Originally posted by tooki:
Honestly, you need to skimp on the computer, not the monitor. Cheap monitors:

1. end up costing you more in the long run, as a good one may cost 3x as much, but will last 4-5 times as long. The cheap monitor will never have a great picture, and it will degrade quickly. The expensive ones start great, and stay great.

2. ruin your eyes. So don't forget to factor in the cost of seeing an eye doctor.

If you must go cheap on the monitor, then buy a new, small, high-quality CRT, like a 17" NEC, Mitsubishi, or Sony, or a high-end ViewSonic.

tooki

Ditto.
I have saved money on my first pc monitor. Took a kick-ass video card, but saved some change on the monitor.

That is not worth it!

Seriously, I want a G5 system as bad as anyone here, but I can't afford it right now. Wouldn't make too much sense, too (I am going abroad for a year ...).

So if you don't have enough to buy one now, save some more and then buy it. I mean, you need to upgrade the RAM of the entry level model, etc. (256 Megs just ain't enough).

[tooki]

With monitors, for any given price, you have to go to that same old thing of "you can pick any two:"

- cheap
- big
- high-quality

You can get a big, cheap monitor, but it won't be high quality.

You can get a big, high-quality monitor, but it won't be cheap.

You can get a cheap, high-quality monitor, but it won't be big.

4 years ago next month, I bought a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u (19" flat Diamondtron tube with USB) to go with my then-new blue and white G3. That monitor wasn't cheap -- it cost twice what the cheapest 19" monitors cost back then. But 4 years later, it's still in the same condition as when I bought it. Cheap monitors go fuzzy and dim after just a year, so they end up costing you more in the long run as you replace them over and over.

tooki