- PC monitor minimum screen size - 17".
- But we don't use anything under 19".
- We only recommend flat screen monitors.
- Current recommendation:
- Samsung 204B 20.1" LCD (street price ~$300).
- ViewSonic VX922 19" LCD (street price ~$280)
If you are going to be spending most of your day sitting in front of your monitor screen - don't stint. Under those conditions, the quality of your monitor will have the greatest single impact on your computing experience. Yes, a very fast box that you never have to wait for is great but you don't want to ruin your eyes in the process.
Get a large enough screen that you don't have to work with your nose right on it. In fact, we will propose the following formula: screen size 17" plus 0.4" for each hour that you spend, on average, in front of your monitor. Notice that the minimum size is 17". According to the formula, if you spend 10 hours or more in front of the screen you should buy a 21" monitor. Five hours a day equates to a 19" monitor.
Other recommendations: The screen should be as flat as possible - not a problem if you are using an LCD or plasma display but a real concern if you are using a CRT. A while ago (over five years) we purchased a great many (for us) Hitachi CM771 19" CRT flat-screen monitors. They are no longer available. Hitachi no longer makes CRTs. They now only make LCD and plasma displays. We also use a CM821 21" monitor but while the 21" is great it is far too curved for mechanical CAD work. If we could, we would still buy Hitachi CRTs but that is no longer possible.
At this point the writing is on the wall and you should probably go with an LCD or plasma display. But there are drawbacks:
LCDs are not as fast or bright as CRTs plus they have had viewing angle limitations. Plasma screens are expensive and previously had a limited life of ~five years. The good news is that they are getting cheaper and now have a useful life in excess of ~20,000 hours (to 80% full brightness). When you figure that the standard work year is 2,000 hours that does work out to 10 years - more than adequate. And of course they are still useful after they fall below 80% full brightness.
But plasma displays only come into their own for very large formats > 40" - for instance the Philips 50" display (Philips 50PF9630 50) while in many ways an extraordinary display has only a 1366x768 pixel resolution while the Samsung 204B 20.1" LCD (street price ~$300) has a 1600x1200 pixel resolution at 1/5th the price.