Check latest CRT models, they released to ~2005. you need 17, 19 or 21". it should officially support 1024x768x85 Hz

Ask how many hours it worked. Some models have service option to show this. Or you may buy a thing that will break soon or will have burnout screen. Offices may sold as outdated stuff with ~5000 hours of work, so it's possibly to find such. Screen scratches, burned dots - directly require without this.

For games anything with these specs should be enough. You don't need models made for designers.

i keep hearing trinitrons have good picture to them

I don't know if it was bad luck, but I've had two Trinitron monitors (bought new) die within 5 years of purchase.

I like Viewsonics. Have a Professional grade 17 I still use as my main desktop monitor. 1600x1200 @75hz is pretty nice! P75f+ to be exact

wow thats some good resolution

clueless1 wrote:

I don't know if it was bad luck, but I've had two Trinitron monitors (bought new) die within 5 years of purchase.

It's not bad luck, the newer/bigger Trinitron tend to die early.

ODwilly wrote:

I like Viewsonics. Have a Professional grade 17 I still use as my main desktop monitor. 1600x1200 @75hz is pretty nice! P75f+ to be exact

I do too! But they have a lot of low end stuff. I had grate luck with my viewsonic crt, it's been used since 2000 and the only thing that I had to do was replace the vga cable.

Mine is 1280x1024@75hz

IMO Viewsonics are junk. 😀 I like Trinitron. Sony is best. Dell and Mitsubishi a good second. 😀

A lot of Viewsonics are low end stuff. Good for what they are and reliable but they do have a few gems.
Trinitrons are really nice, but I always found the good and bigger ones to be unreliable.
I had great luck with Mitsubishi but never see very many of them around here.
Every Dell I got my hands on were the worst of the worst.

Anyone here used those Silicon Graphics CRTs?

I really liked Eizo CRTs but those are near extinct now.

Sony Trinitron (or anything based on it) complete with the aperture grille's two faint horizontal lines. 😀
Dell's version is also good I read the other day, the one with 1600x1200 @120Hz (and only a 19-incher at that), which is higher than Sony's own G420 (what I have -- wasn't the top range I suppose). Sony F520 would be reeeally nice. Or Mitsubishi Diamondtron. But good luck finding them! 😀

Also, the EIZOs and the other professional color monitors, be it Trinitron/Diamondtron-based, have likely been used professionally, constantly for years and years, so a recondition effort of some kind might be needed.

I just junked a dead Sony 420gs (purchased new but died a decade later and stored in the garage).

The 15" Trinitrons only have 1 wire, 17' and larger have 2.

My favorite monitors are the Sony Trinitrons. Still have a few 15 and 17 models in working condition.

I have a HP P1100 (FD Trinitron). Dual D-SUB, with a max res. of 1920 x 1440 ... Full HD blast from the past 😀
Beautiful colors and awesome sharpness, superb geometry (after some calibration)

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/dis … mr_na-c00340698

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

wow thats some good resolution

CRT monitor may allow a resolution. But after some step higher res looks not better, as the image becomes blurry.

PeterLI wrote:

IMO Viewsonics are junk. 😀 I like Trinitron. Sony is best. Dell and Mitsubishi a good second. 😀

At least, later Trinitrons had issue. The image becomes green, overbright and with stripes after time. You may to lower brightness and do color correction (special option) when stripes will appear, - it helps for some time. Then you need to do it more often until it probable will not help. It's design's issue, probably they wanted people bought new model sooner. That trinitrons may be used by such way 15000-20000 hours, while older models could to live twice longer.

I'm another Viewsonic CRT fan, I used to have a E70f (flatscreen) and it was awesomely sharp with a lovely colour rendition. Certainly the best 17inch I had ever used or seen. Not a fan of their TFT Flatplanels though, which relatively speaking had no technological advantage over competitors imo. The CRT's did, and topped a lot of spec tables around 99-2000 (It was why I got mine, I didn't regret it one bit, and even put off the TFT transition to free up desk space because I liked it that much).

Jade Falcon wrote:

Anyone here used those Silicon Graphics CRTs?

I still have a 21" SGI GDM-5411P in storage (from 2001) which is simply a rebranded Sony Trinitron (so same as a lot of Dell's at the time). It was a good CRT, but not great and developed a red tint after a while (which annoyed the pedant in me). It still quite usable, even when using colour heavy software for a number of years and only obvious when all the other lights in the room were turned off 😀

It's unlikely you'll find anyone else using those old Silicon Graphics CRT's as they use 13w3 (not VGA) and so wouldn't work with about 99.9999999999% gfx cards available to use with x86 (I don't even think a IrisVision has 13w3 connector? In which case that percentage may be 100! but idk).

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

Currently i dont have any CRT's but ill keep my eye open at computer stores, dumpsters or whatever comes into my store that customer don't want.

The best CRT is the one you can find.

Unless you're seriously considering paying the hundreds of dollars it will probably cost to ship the "best CRT" to your location. Especially a "huge" one.

im just keeping an eye out for whatever free monitors that have good image, i just want one

FYI, it's possible to buy 13W3 to HD15 adapters to run normal graphics cards to a Sun/Silicon graphics monitor. Wouldn't have thought there's enough decent monitors hanging around to make it worth it, though.

One of my IBM C220p CRTs is slowly dying. I'll have to finally take the plunge and buy my first 16:9/16:10 1440p monitor. Everything else (even my TFTs) are 4:3.

As much as they are loved, I never quite liked the look of Trinitron CRTs. Somewhat too harsh and sharp. I was very much a fan of Philips monitors. I had a 17" at some point but always dreamed of having a 20" model. I never got one and now the train has left the station 😵

So these days I think the best CRT is one that works, is affordable and has an ok image.

I was able to pick up (2) 21" Viewsonic P-series and (2) 17" P-series for about $100 total a few months back. I use one of the 21"s as my primary display on my Dos/Win98 machine and it's great. I've never once thought it was too big or that that lower resolutions didn't look good. As mentioned before, they will run in some pretty high resolutions, depending on the model, so nice for some of the early 3D games. It is a monster though, especially the depth. Worth it IMO though...