I think you should either go with an old setup with real Dos or just use Dosbox, disable scalers and enjoy it like this. Using an old monitor will IMO only bring grief instead of joy 😉

hmmm i did briefly try, though the blackness filling up the rest of the screen put me off, maybe i just need to man up and get with the programme. I just thought if i got a daft little monitor it would be simple as pluggin it in, bit of fiddling with settings etc hey presto DOS at its finest on a 17" monitor or something 😜

The blackness can be solved differently. Since I didn'tencounter it in the last few years, someone else needs to "fix" that 😉

the only way i got rid of that was using the scalers, otherwise no idea xD

A little note that you need at least normal2x on anyway for 320x200/240 to look right. I'ts doublescan and your CRT probably does not support actual 320x200 video modes.

I think it might be more of an issue with the video card. I had an old NVidia AGP card that could display those low resolutions properly on my monitor, which in turn made it look authentic.