A few 20-21" 4:3 LCD monitors from the past would be HP 2065, Samsung 214T, Dell 2007FP, ... Maybe you can find one in a good condition locally for a low price.

kixs wrote on 2025-04-10, 18:03:

A few 20-21" 4:3 LCD monitors from the past would be HP 2065, Samsung 214T, Dell 2007FP, ... Maybe you can find one in a good condition locally for a low price.

We still have quite a few Dell 2007s at work, wish I could have a 2007 at home for the composite and audio bar

Ossc pro + any modern oled display.

Sounds like you really want a S2133 :p

I agree, the Dell 2007FP/FPb is a solid choice and it's much cheaper. But it's a bit of luck if you get a model with an S-IPS panel, because it also shipped with PVA panels and it's not obvious from online sellers which one has been used.

I have two of them (S-IPS variants, the second one was in the dumpster pile at work and I snatched it 🥰).

One has been used for many years already and it's gotten quite dark because of the CCFL backlight burning out.

I love these monitors, they handle all resolutions I throw at them and also look pretty nice scaled down. They're a little nerve-wracking to disassemble and some models also have bad capacitors, but it's worth it to keep those running and fix them up.

Ok, I've bitten the bullet and don't have any regrets.

Yes it's extremely expensive, but my hardware collection is almost complete now so I don't have much spending in years ahead. I've tried it with anything from an Intel 8088 system, 90s Pentium systems, Core 2 Duo up until a few modern PCs via DVI input.

The good: Spectacular image quality for sure - which is the most important part! It's a wonderful panel and works great for both DOS, Windows 3x/9x/XP gaming. With 3 inputs I can have 3 PCs hooked up at all times (Currently a DELL OptiPlex Micro which I use as my Retro PC for DOSBox and GOG games, Pentium III 1000 MHz for Windows 98 gaming, and one slow system for DOS gaming. Love having the large 21" 4:3 display.

The bad: Well, it's not a CRT, and for older games with low resolution the image becomes "blocky". Will regret throwing my SONY 21" Trinitron 20 years ago, but live and learn... I also miss an "Auto Adjust" button. Very handy for switching between different graphics cards. Now I have to enter the menu each time which is kinda' annoying. And, I wish there was a speaker and HDMI input instead of DVI. That would have been perfect for use with all my retro mini systems like the A500, C64, NES, SNES etc.

I've got two black S2133s but I haven't done anything beyond initial function checks on my main PC. Picked them up for $200 each from an eBay auction last year while I was planning my retro PC build. Picture looks great and I've got the brightness turned down quite a bit so I don't know that I'm missing out on anything by not having the S2134.

I considered the S2133/S2134 but the spec sheets list it as grey rather than beige. How does it match the rest of your hardware?

I've collected Macs for a long time and want to build at least one from the beige era. It'd be nice to have a matching monitor. I have one small Apple 640x480 Trinitron but haven't found anything larger.

Quick word of advice for those looking to pick up used versions of these - have the seller check the hour meter. These were often used in 24/7 operations for years. I recently picked up a pair, but each has burn in and around 45k hours (5yrs of use!). They were $20/ea so I'm not out a whole lot. The burn-in is apparent in desktop use, but I haven't seen it as much in gaming.

I haven't done extensive tests, but initial results are promising. I would like to find a set with low hours as I'll probably only use these for utility tasks due to the burn in.

I might be in the same boat as you legodude. I bought a S2133 (like-new open box) on eBay for cheap and after reading your post I was concerned about the actual condition... So I asked if they would look at the usage and look for potential burn in but all they tell me is that they see no burn in... I've been pleading with them to look at the monitor further and to check the usage in the menu but, they keep saying its boxed up and they have already tested it for issues... So I guess I will see what I get... Hopefully the monitor doesn't have too many hours of use and they kept a screen saver on during its use... If it turns out that its pretty bad then I will get eBay involved for listing something as like-new open box when its not. Fingers crossed...

I can report that the S2133 I bought was actually brand new. This might be the ultimate LCD monitor for retro PC's. Its not a classic CRT but who wants to lug around a 21" CRT... This is by far the best purchase I've made for my setup.

After seeing an S2133 in person, I noticed two things.

First, the scaling on the S2133 might not be what people claim it is. 800×600 looked a little bit blurry, just like how it appears on my S2134. Most people probably wouldn’t notice or care, but if you’re sensitive to this kind of bilinear interpolation blur, it’s definitely there. My S2134 has the same slight softness in 800x600 stretched to full screen. I can confirm now that 800x600 is not integer scaled both on the S2133 and S2134.

A comment under this YouTube video confirms this as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_vOoh_Ozoo

Question: Have you tried it without emulation on real retro hardware? Like 486 with DOS or Pentium with Windows 98? I'm curios h […]
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Question:
Have you tried it without emulation on real retro hardware? Like 486 with DOS or Pentium with Windows 98?
I'm curios how 320x200 DOS games would look and what options you have in the OSD to adjust the picture, like stretch, 1:1 with black borders etc?
Also 640x480 and 800x600 games in Windows, thanks!

Answer:
I got lazy but I checked the screen size settings in the OSD. There's full screen, enlarged, and normal. I put the monitor in 800x600 resolution and in normal mode, it puts 800x600 right in the center of the screen with black borders all around. Full screen stretches it up to 1600x1200 and is a little blurry it seems like. Enlarged is the same way. Not sure if that helps but that's all that's in there in regards to picture adjustment. I use this for emulation and GOG games so it's always in 1600x1200 resolution

However, there is a workaround for this. You need to use an external scaler that's capable of scaling 800x600 to 1600x1200 and use that resolution on the S2133/S2134.

Second, the monitor accepts 70Hz in Text mode/VGA mode 13h but the output is triple-buffered. There’s actually no true 70Hz operation. That didn't surprise me, since 70Hz is usually beyond the technical limits of most IPS panels. I noticed it while playing Raptor where there was a slight judder.

Unfortunately, there is no solution/workaround for this. You can't overclock the pixel clock because the monitor's firmware doesn't allow you to do this.

Despite this limitation, the S2133 and S2134 are still among the best monitors you can own for DOS gaming and retro computing.

The S2134 has a slight edge (500 cd/m² and 1800:1 versus 420 cd/m² and 1500:1 on the S2133) but that's about it.