Any good 19-21" CRTs left?

Hey SJetski71, did you ever come to a conclusion about your FP2141SB?

CWI has offered to take my P1130 back, so I may be sending mine back in a few days. They've said that they don't have any replacements currently however. I've just asked whether they think they'll have any within the next few months, but don't know yet.

If they won't though, AccurateIT has a new overstock HP P1230 available now, which I believe is pretty much the same thing as the Mitsu DiamondPro 2070SB/your FP2141SB. It's really a lot more than I wanted to pay for a new CRT, but if I don't have any other options I might go for it.

edit: I've just noticed that a few people (on this forum, too) have recommended the G520 over the 2070SB/any versions thereof. Maybe it's not such a good idea.
 
I have the NEC and it has always looked good to me, I get compliments on it from time to time when people see what CRT's are actualy ccapable of :) FP2141-SB-BK

No Ideas on the HP but I know the NEC and Mitsu are identical. Is the max rez on the Hp 2048x1536?
 
Glad to see it's coming to some sort of conclusion, too bad yours wasn't a keeper though. The price on that P1230 sorta suprised me, but i guess it's a small price to pay for something that's brand new and very high quality. They only have 9 left in stock so you'll probably have to make a decision soon (stock can be checked by adding 99 of them to your shopping cart). It's also hard for me to recommend since you seem to be after a certain "look" in your crt's, and i'm not sure if any of the current mitsubishi, or even trinitron tubes have what you're looking for. Believe it or not my favorite CRT tubes seem to be the higher-end hitachi shadow masks (which includes some of the Nokia monitors) and if you saw a calibrated one you'd see the differences i'm talking about.

As for me coming to some sort of conclusion of P1130 vs 2141SB... that's hard for me to say after i started using the input #2 on my 2141SB. Going to postpone any judgements on my part till i have the two calibrated, side by side, and swapped with a coupla 3ft VGA cables i have coming in, all of my other vga cables are 5-6ft and not in the greatest condition. I can see differences between the two, but neither stand out anymore, i think i prefer the P1130/trinitron look but it's still too early for me to say.
 
Justintoxicated said:
I have the NEC and it has always looked good to me, I get compliments on it from time to time when people see what CRT's are actualy ccapable of :) FP2141-SB-BK

No Ideas on the HP but I know the NEC and Mitsu are identical. Is the max rez on the Hp 2048x1536?
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2048x1536 @ 85hz

And from what i've read the HP and Dell versions use the same tube, electronics have to be close i gather, if not the same, given the high pixel clock and specs.
 
Tosan said:
Hey SJetski71, did you ever come to a conclusion about your FP2141SB?

CWI has offered to take my P1130 back, so I may be sending mine back in a few days. They've said that they don't have any replacements currently however. I've just asked whether they think they'll have any within the next few months, but don't know yet.

If they won't though, AccurateIT has a new overstock HP P1230 available now, which I believe is pretty much the same thing as the Mitsu DiamondPro 2070SB/your FP2141SB. It's really a lot more than I wanted to pay for a new CRT, but if I don't have any other options I might go for it.

edit: I've just noticed that a few people (on this forum, too) have recommended the G520 over the 2070SB/any versions thereof. Maybe it's not such a good idea.
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Sorry to hear of your bad luck with finding another CRT!

2070 and G520 are both good monitors. Is the G520 available new? (I'd definitely avoid refurbished after what you've already been through...)
 
There was a sony for 4 times the cost of my Mitsu Tube when I got it (but not the regular trinitron), That is the only one I know of that was better at the time. I believe that monitor is the same as the 2070/2141SB. It's a good one no doubt, although I might be retiring mine. Generaly The Mitsu Tube is better than the Trinitron. have you looked for one fo the 24' widescreens in the sticky?
 
Thanks guys.

I'm not really too concerned about the look of the monitor, as long as it's fairly crisp, clear, and can manage very high refresh rates without blurring out too much. I think the P1130 would've been perfect for me if the one I got hadn't been in such bad shape. Having a video card with a VGA port definitely wouldn't have hurt either, or a better cable.

SJetski71 mentioned in another thread that Diamondtrons tend to develop focus issues in the corners, though. Something like that would probably irritate me more than the excessive brightness that the last generation of Trinitron tubes develop as they age, which is correctable anyhow if you want to mess around with WinDAS.

I don't think the Sony made G520 can be found new anywhere, unfortunately. AccurateIT has a refurb for a staggering $400, which is way more than anyone in their right mind would pay for a refurbed unit, I think. The Dell versions of these monitors seem to be much more common these days.

An FW900 might be nice, but it's awfully big, and I think it's equally impossible to find a new one of those these days. Given the choice between that and a new 19" or 21" Trinitron, I'd probably take the new monitor. I'd think that playing games that don't support widescreen would be harder on a widescreen CRT than an LCD anyhow, since I don't believe you can center a 4:3 resolution on them like you can on an LCD, can you? I've got plenty of games that I had to run centered when I had my 20WMGX2.

Justintoxicated: You might be thinking of the GDM-F520, which most people seem to agree is in a league of its own, and far better than the 2070SB or anything else for that matter. It seems to be basically impossible to find one of those even used now, though. The G520 is more similar to the 2070SB.
 
Hey Tosan, not sure if i had asked you prior but do you have a place that sells used monitors locally? I realize they would be "used" but they are so cheap that you could always pick up two of them, two different kinds even, this way if one dies you have the other as a backup. But the best part is you get to test them out beforehand, perhaps even with your own rig. Looking at my local craiglist right now and i see at least three seemingly decent 21" crt's going for less than $75 each (the trigger finger is getting itchy)

There's a place near my home that used to have a ton of different jumbo crt's. They don't have as many as they used to but they're still awefully cheap, they even know how to refurbish and do some basic repairs on them. Found them on www.craigslist.org, but you could probably find more local places in your local yellow pages. I'm almost tempted to cherry pick you a good monitor and ship it to you after all the trouble you've been through! They usually have FW900's for around $275 but they do not ship (once again the trigger finger is getting real itchy) :)
 
I wish there was an FW900 in my area. $275 is an awesome price. AccurateIT had a new FW900 that sold for new price (either $1600 or $2400, can't remember) a couple months ago. At least, I assume it was sold because it was available and now its not. Same with the new G520's and 2070SB's they had.
 
I'm pretty sure I don't. I looked a few months ago when I realized my G420 was on its way out, but didn't find any stores selling any that were at all decent.

I'm almost tempted to cherry pick you a good monitor and ship it to you after all the trouble you've been through!
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Hah. Three months ago, I never would have guessed that finding a new monitor would be one of the most difficult computer related purchases I've ever had to make. :p

I did find something interesting while digging around last night for new CRTs: http://www.compuvest.us/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=242707&CategoryCode=MONITORS

This is a new in box IBM P275, which I believe is pretty much a G520 with a rather ugly case and that odd DVI connector, isn't it? A bit on the expensive side compared to the P1130 I just bought, but it's probably worth it.
 
I recently replaced my dying 19" Trini.. and went with a 22" SGI refurb. from SGI. No issues at all externally, no problems at all. It was a 'Grade A", so it was about 40 bucks cheaper vs. a new one, but I have no problems / complaints.

Check them out, absolutly recommend them
 
HyperTension said:
I recently replaced my dying 19" Trini.. and went with a 22" SGI refurb. from SGI. No issues at all externally, no problems at all. It was a 'Grade A", so it was about 40 bucks cheaper vs. a new one, but I have no problems / complaints.

Check them out, absolutly recommend them
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Got a link by any chance? Having trouble finding anything on their site and google.

thanks in advance :)
 
Looks like my reply last night was lost as well. Thankfully, I didn't close the browser window before going to sleep so I'll just paste it here:

Hmm. Looking over that carefully, it does look like he's probably saying he's running 1920x1440 on DVI. That is definitely beyond the capabilities of digital DVI isn't it? I know even 1920x1200 at 60Hz for LCDs is really pushing it for single-link.

The geometry on both of my Dell monitors has been laughable so far. I guess mine really did get badly damaged somehow either during shipping or in storage, or it was just a crappy one to begin with. Like I said earlier, I never really even had to touch the geometry controls on my Sony G420, even after 6 years. The image is tilted towards the bottom right of the screen at a crazy angle without adjusting it here, and there's a sort of "drooping" on the top right of the screen that I can't fix no matter what I do.

I've also wondered about the single gun on Diamondtrons. Some people say that the text quality is better, and that the superbright mode helps for desktop work. Honestly, that's been my biggest regret in going back to a CRT from an LCD. The text quality on the two CRTs I've tried so far just doesn't even come close, and they're quite dark and dull looking on the desktop by comparison. Good thing I didn't get them for desktop usage, though.

And as tempting as getting a great CRT for $40 sounds, I'm really hesitant to try another used monitor. I think at this point, I'd rather just get the best one I can find new regardless of the cost. This might be a tough question, but if cost wasn't an issue at all, which do you think you'd go for? The P275 or the P1230? Either one sounds like it'd be great, though the DVI-A on the P275 is sounding more tempting by the minute. VGA really doesn't seem to be up to the task of running these huge monitors at high resolutions with high refresh rates, especially on a dual-DVI video card through a converter.

How much better would a dell p1130 or any monitor with BNC connections be?
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I think a P1130 would be a significant step up (if you can get one in good condition!), given my experience with the P992 and the Sony monitor that it's based off of. The P991 is a rebranded Sony G400 (instead of a G410r like the P992), but it's quite similar. BNC should be better than VGA at high resolutions/refresh rates, but I don't think very many of the newer CRTs actually had BNC connections, including the P1130.
 
Tosan said:
This might be a tough question, but if cost wasn't an issue at all, which do you think you'd go for? The P275 or the P1230? Either one sounds like it'd be great, though the DVI-A on the P275 is sounding more tempting by the minute. VGA really doesn't seem to be up to the task of running these huge monitors at high resolutions with high refresh rates, especially on a dual-DVI video card through a converter..
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Ha! that's a really tough question for me, lol. Both monitors are likely variants of what i already own (Sony G520 equivalent and Mitsu 2070SB equivalent)

But to answer the question truthfully: since in my experience both monitors are rough equals in looks and performance, personally i would probably choose the P275 for the DVI-A option and lower price. But those are the only two reasons why. On the flipside there is another thing to consider: If the P1230 is that close to the 2070SB then it would have a few more settings to tweak and thus more control over the monitor's appearance. Unless the P275 has more tweaking options than the P1130 that i don't know about?

BTW: VGA should be able to handle 1600x1200 with a well built 3-4ft vga cable (but perhaps without an adapter though). My Lacie, 2141SB and P1130 produce more than acceptable fonts at that rez. The Lacie is LCD-like while the other two are "nearly LCD-like" and easy enough on the eyes.
 
I'm sure it'd be much better on a VGA video card with a good cable, but that's unfortunately not going to happen for me. I think VGA was originally designed for much lower bandwidth requirements than these 21" CRTs are capable of pushing through it though.

What refresh rate do you typically run 1600x1200 at on those monitors? I've found that with my current 3 foot DVI/VGA cable, anything above 1400x1050 at 100Hz starts to get very fuzzy. I wouldn't consider the text quality to be LCD-like even there though, and 1536x1152 at 95Hz is just awful too. I'm guessing that this is the fault of the cable and not the monitor, since both of those are well below the 130KHz scan rate.

I think that if the P275 can really handle that kind of bandwidth over DVI and it does help the image quality, the choice is clear for me. If not though, I wonder if the P1230 might be better. Not sure about on screen display stuff, but from taking a quick glance at the advertised OSD features for the P275 at AccurateIT, it sounds pretty much the same as any other G520-based CRT. Wouldn't be surprised if it looked exactly the same as the P1130/G520. Damn, another tough decision. :/
 
I've got around 3 P1130s and 6 P991s saved from work. ;)

They had varying degrees of trouble, mainly the "over-brightness" issue that plagues some of the G520-chassis based monitors. I built a WinDAS ECS cable to control the monitor directly via its diagnostic jack, and was able to bring 'em all back to life, as well as making incredibly accurate calibration measurements (you can see 0,0,0 vs 1,1,1).

Honestly, the quality of Trinitrons really never ceases to amaze me. My LCD has to be run at over-bright settings because of a buzzing inverter that Gateway's lazy ass will not fix. :( The contrast is simply awesome, and the black levels are what you'd want from a CRT, perfect.

@ above poster, running the 1130s at 1600x1200 85Hz, and the 991s at 1280x1024 85Hz.

The P1130 has no BNC connectors, but it does not have an attached VGA cable! :D It has two female HD-15 connectors, but be warned, they do not like right-angle VGA cables you may have laying around.

Now if anyone can find me a nice cheap CRT that'll sync @ 15khz, I'll give 'em a cookie. ;)
 
Tosan said:
What refresh rate do you typically run 1600x1200 at on those monitors? I've found that with my current 3 foot DVI/VGA cable, anything above 1400x1050 at 100Hz starts to get very fuzzy. I wouldn't consider the text quality to be LCD-like even there though, and 1536x1152 at 95Hz is just awful too. I'm guessing that this is the fault of the cable and not the monitor, since both of those are well below the 130KHz scan rate.

I think that if the P275 can really handle that kind of bandwidth over DVI and it does help the image quality, the choice is clear for me. If not though, I wonder if the P1230 might be better. Not sure about on screen display stuff, but from taking a quick glance at the advertised OSD features for the P275 at AccurateIT, it sounds pretty much the same as any other G520-based CRT. Wouldn't be surprised if it looked exactly the same as the P1130/G520. Damn, another tough decision. :/
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Supposedly vga is fine for movie watching @ 1920x XXX as per CRT front projection buffs. But that's for movies and not text of course. And if that one fellow at the other forum is to be believed, he said that once he plugged in the DVI on his P275 it was a night and day difference for him, and he meant at 1600x1200. Not sure if the P275 is serviceable with a windas cable though...

Lately my favorite rez has been 1520x1140 @ 85hz but here are the resolutions that are totally do-able on all 3 of my AG monitors:

- 1400x1050 @ 85hz or 100hz: perfect fonts, literally
- 1520x1140 @ 85hz or 100hz: perfect fonts @ both refresh rates, might be my favorite rez using windows default font size.
- 1600x1200 @ 85hz: All three monitors "lcd-like", Lacie might be a smidge better. Hard to tell if there's truly any degradation since fonts are now smaller.
- 1600x1200 @ 100hz: P1130 & 2141SB fonts are "nearly lcd-like" but have finally begun to degrade, Lacie is a smidge better. Everything's still extremely readable and causes me no eyestrain.
- 1792x1344 @ 85hz: 2141SB is still readable but fonts are too small, not as blurry as i thought it would be (using this rez as i write this), too lazy to try my other monitors + need to move my P1130, swapping desks right now (Fun!) :D


movax said:
Now if anyone can find me a nice cheap CRT that'll sync @ 15khz, I'll give 'em a cookie. ;)
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15khz ? i must be missing something (?) :D lol
 
SJetski71 said:
15khz ? i must be missing something (?) :D lol
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Heh yeah, a lot of consoles are capable of outputting plain RGB + H/V Sync or C Sync. If you've got a 15khz display, you can hook 'em right up and they look *much* better, night & day difference.
 
How good is a mitsubishi diamond pro 2070sb? I have a chance to get one locally and I was wondering what the crt buffs have to say about it.
 
jkmetal said:
How good is a mitsubishi diamond pro 2070sb? I have a chance to get one locally and I was wondering what the crt buffs have to say about it.
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Its a top performer. It uses the same technology as the NEC 2141sb.
 
jkmetal said:
So basically, if I can get it, I should.
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Heck yea, but make sure to test it out before you commit. Ideally you would test it with a semi-modern rig, and run it through the common resolutions~1280x960 thru 1600x1200 at least. Make sure fonts aren't totally blurry, especially in the corners. Also make sure it has decent black levels (and not washed out blacks), you may have to set the monitor to sRGB mode to find out, you may also have to give the monitor 15-30 min to "warm up". Maybe even ask for a short 1 or 2 day warranty (not covering damages of course) this way you can test it more in-depth at home.

That is a very nice monitor, it has a few rebrands as mentioned: the NEC 2141SB-BK, Lacie Blue IV, and probably the Dell/HP P1230.
 
I just bid on an untested diamond pro for low price. Wish me luck. If I win I'll report in a few days. If its bad, than not much lost, but if its good, than awesome. I really didnt have much to spend and have a decent crt as a backup so its a gamble but I hope it pays off.
 
jkmetal said:
I just bid on an untested diamond pro for low price. Wish me luck. If I win I'll report in a few days. If its bad, than not much lost, but if its good, than awesome. I really didnt have much to spend and have a decent crt as a backup so its a gamble but I hope it pays off.
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Did you say that you live locally? If so then see if you can test it out before you pay for it. Their warranty sounds purposely vague and fishy to me...especially since they do not describe the monitor as "working", and thus would not be breaking their own agreement (technically). Also i would pay in person with cash or money order and not with paypal since it would take forever to get a refund ;)

Bring your own tower to test it out, have a copy of the 2070SB .inf driver file downloaded and ready to install.

Good luck, and if you win let us know how it works out.
 
I contacted Gnuthad (the guy from whirlpool with the P275 in the thread that SJetski71 linked, not sure if the link is still in this thread after the forum reset), and he says that he was actually just using a DVI-VGA cable like I am going from a DVI video card to the VGA connector on the P275. I guess that still leaves my question unanswered.

I'll be sending my P1130 back tomorrow -- hopefully someone here has tried a P275 with DVI. :(

I'm not in any great hurry since I've still got the P992 though. I'll probably wait a few weeks and then just buy another P1130 if no one knows anything about the P275's capabilities over DVI.
 
Hmm, here's a thought: If DVI-A were limited to 165MHz like DVI-D, wouldn't that limit everyone using an analog monitor and a DVI connection on their video card through an adapter or other means to very low resolutions and refresh rates on CRT monitors?

Since one end of the connection is essentially DVI-A in a setup like that, you'd think that it would significantly reduce the maximum bandwidth of the connection if it were indeed as limited as digital DVI. I could be wrong, but it would seem to make sense to me.
 
Tosan said:
Since one end of the connection is essentially DVI-A in a setup like that, you'd think that it would significantly reduce the maximum bandwidth of the connection if it were indeed as limited as digital DVI. I could be wrong, but it would seem to make sense to me.
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From what i understand of DVI-A, they are legacy pins that really aren't associated in any way to digital DVI except the moniker it was given. That supposedly it is VGA with the exception of the connector shape.

I have a sneaking suspicion that DVI-I and DVI-A is probably similar or identical to VGA in bandwidth. Why i think this you ask :) ? I'm thinking of the video card aspect. Newer video cards are DVI-I, which means they have the analog legacy pins within, seperately controlled and driven than the digital pins. I haven't heard of any of these DVI-I video cards being so limited in their analog output resolution via DVI-I (400mhz ramdac, more than enough for a pretty insane resolution). Admittedly my knowledge on this topic is limited, but from the info i've gathered, it seems to make sense. Hopefully somebody can clear all of this up (?)

OP are you any closer to a decision with monitors by any chance? That one place has even more P275's in stock i notice. Heh, remember my cousin and that rebrand 2060U we got for him? He's so impressed with the size and looks that he's already looking for a second one. He has his eyes on a used/decent shape Sun GDM-5410 which may be another G520 variant, specs are better than the G500, but do not seem identical to the G520 either, who knows? Even my brother inlaw is about to pull the trigger on a P1130. That's one good thing about living in a well populated area imho, there's a huge used market to shop from, and a person gets to test the product beforehand.

Edit: BTW, just out of curiosity i fired off an email to accurateIT, checking to see if they'll offer a lower price on that new HP P1230. Will let you know how it works out ;)

Edit #2: Good news OP, check your PM
 
I'm not really expecting DVI-A to be hugely different, but I was hoping that it would at least stop the ghosting and loss of sharpness at high resolutions, since a conversion would no longer be necessary. If it was at least as good as a decent VGA cable with a VGA video card, that would be great. You bring up a good point about video cards using DVI-I though, I don't honestly know if DVI-A from the monitor to DVI-I on the video card would be any better than a straight VGA cable with an adapter.

Do you get a slight amount of ghosting next to the mouse cursor with your P1130 (particularly with the cable that came with it if you still have it)? If you don't, that would definitely make me think that the conversion is what it's at fault here.

OP are you any closer to a decision with monitors by any chance? That one place has even more P275's in stock i notice.
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Unfortunately, no. Before I buy anything else, I want to make absolutely sure I know what I'm getting. I also just realized I've bought from CompuVest before -- a refurbished Sony G410 about two years ago, that was complete crap. I had to send it back because it kept turning itself off and wasn't in good shape at all. Their ResellerRatings.com record is less than impressive too: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/CompuVest

They did refund my money, but I'm not sure if they credited me for the shipping. This isn't a refurbished monitor obviously, but it makes me wonder if I'd have trouble dealing with them if I needed to return it for any reason.

He has his eyes on a used/decent shape Sun GDM-5410 which may be another G520 variant, specs are better than the G500, but do not seem identical to the G520 either, who knows?
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Definitely not a G520, not sure what it is exactly though. I tried a Sun GDM-5510 around the same time that I bought the aforementioned G410 (yes, I do seem to have been through just about every decent CRT made so far :p), and that is a G520.

BTW, just out of curiosity i fired off an email to accurateIT, checking to see if they'll offer a lower price on that new HP P1230. Will let you know how it works out
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Cool, let me know!
 
I have never noticed any type of cursor ghosting with my mouse cursor, nothing perceptible to my eyes anyway, seems like it would be pretty annoying. This is with at least three different vga cables i've used on it (got a box full of different vga cables, they're getting a little aged though).

Hope the 5410 isn't a G500 rebrand, doesn't seem like it would be though going by some of the specs, you never know though...

Be sure to check you PM box ;)
 
The cable that came with the P1130 ghosted at 1400x1050/100Hz, even 1280x960 at the same refresh I think through my adapter, as did the DVI/VGA cable. My P992 has the same problem with the hard-wired cable at 1280x960, but it seems to be fainter on this. You have to get pretty close to see it, but I was under the impression that you shouldn't be able to see any of it at all with a good video card and cable.

Are you sure that 5410 isn't a G500 by the way? It has the exact same horizontal scan as the G500, 121KHz. The G520s are all 130.
 
I see what your talking about now, had to get within 3" of my glass to see it though, lol. On the 2141SB the cursor is so brief and feint, you could almost doubt it's even there. The P1130 from what i remember is pretty close, might be more/might be less but i can't recall seeing a cursor trail on it, and that's with perfect eyesight. Will check it when it's moved back into place again, I've moved more CRT's in the past week than i care to remember :(

The gdm-5410 is starting to look more and more like a G500 variant. Good thing it hasn't been purchased yet, we'll either pass on it or insist it be in perfect condition.
 
Currently on my Lacie electron22blue II @ 2048x1536 @ 85hz as i type. This thing is simply amazing, the fonts are so tiny but still perfect at this rez. I have both inputs hooked up, one with a 3ft vga cable, the other with a DVI adapter + 6ft stock lacie vga cable. i'll have to test it more indepth but surprisingly enough both inputs look identically perfect. It also has a nearly imperceptible cursor ghosting trail.

The posted specs for this monitor vary widely, they all claim different numbers. Whatever the actual specs are i think 2048x1536 @ 85hz and razor sharp is good enough for me. Going to dumb the rez down a bit to keep from squinting but i'm definitely making this my main monitor. Wish i knew what chassis this monitor is based off of, i'd pick up the other rebrand(s) in a heartbeat, if i ever figure it out i'll def post it here. If anybody has the opportunity to test this monitor in person, go for it, if it's in decent shape you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Edit: i'm reading that the pixel clock frequency is 360mhz. Given all the conflicting information on this monitor, i'm not sure if this is correct (?)
 
Ah, I guess that's normal then. There's definitely some difference in the image quality you're getting with your setup from what I had though if you considered 1600x1200 at 100Hz on the P1130 to be "LCD-like", though. :)

Text was smudged for me at that resolution, some letters looked faded, and it was very blurry. Not something you had to look for very hard to notice, either, so I'm guessing that my cable was inadequate or the adapter was screwing things up. Interesting that you didn't notice any loss of quality with a 6 foot cable and an adapter though, hmm.

As for the Lacie, it really does sound like a 2060U to me from the specs alone. You're right about the conflicting information though, so I dunno. One thing that doesn't jive with the listed specs for the 2060U and the Electron Blue II is that you're capable of running it at 2048x1536 at 85 -- that's 137.3 KHz, well beyond the 121 KHz it should be limited to. That actually makes it sound more like a 2070SB, weird!

Maybe looking up the release date for the 2060U or any other models you suspect it's based off of and the Lacie would help?

...I've moved more CRT's in the past week than i care to remember
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Tell me about it. :(
 
To be more precise with my own terminology: "perfect fonts" mean just that, perfect in every way. When i said "LCD-Like" i meant nearly perfect, i think i can begin to see jaggies or something but it's so hard to tell that i'm probably just being nitpicky. "Nearly lcd-like" means that font degradation was finally perceptible but still insignificant to my eyes personally and it caused me no eyestrain, never was there any smudging, ghosted fonts, true blurring etc, nor would cleartype ever be needed.

But yea, i was also surprised the two cable setups worked identically, there may be some difference but i would need some advanced test patterns to find out for sure, but even then i doubt there would be a noticeable difference.

As for max resolutions, i once read an article years ago that talked about how it was possible to "overclock" the processor inside a CRT monitor. All you had to do was uncheck "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" and pick from the highest resolutions and refresh rates (which is what i did ;)) and thus your CRT would now be running at a higher pixel clock than it was rated for. I probably cheated in other words, but it it synced real fast and smooth with no visual or audible distortions. Pretty sure the Lacie II was released before the 2060U, sometime in late 2000 or early 2001 i believe. Surprisingly there is very little information left online for this monitor, but i haven't thoroughly searched it, yet. Good idea on release dates though, will investigate that next.

Found an older thread in those macforums dated around early 2005 i think. They were talking about how changing video cards improved their fonts, nearly all agreed that matrox was the best for fonts while ATI was a distant second and nvidia was a close third, generally speaking that is and there were a few exceptions. I had also read somewhere else that driver versions can make a difference, sometimes. Thats another problem when researching CRT related stuff, the articles are just so darn old, and most of the posted links are dead and useless :(
 
Well i'm conviced the Sun gdm-5410 is based off the sony G500 tube, i could spot one of those blurry/shaky tubes from a mile away. I'm also convinced that the sony G500 tube either works perfectly, or crappy, with no middle ground. Needless to say we didn't buy the monitor because it killed our vision in less than 5 minutes of viewing, i felt my eyes welling up pretty bad :( lol

Word of advice to all: never buy a used Sony G500, Dell P1110, IBM P260, Sun GDM-5410 without testing it first (they are all variants of the same G500 tube). Can't remember the last time i saw one that worked properly :confused:

Still enjoying the Lacie II, haven't researched it much recently but i suspect it's based off the mitsubishi 2045U chassis, no real evidence yet to back it up though.
 
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