HFCS: effika’s blog

As some of you know, my trusty Compaq P720 (a rebranded Mitsubishi) has had some electron gun problems since a year or so ago. Until the monitor warmed up, it would crazily mis-shoot anything on the bottom portion of the screen. This portion grew with age from about an inch on my 17-inch monitor to nearly 3/4ths of the screen with a permanent (slight-but-worsening) misfire in the bottom inch. It was out of warranty, and I didn’t feel like lugging its 48 pounds of glass and plastic home to see if my dad (former TV repairman) could fix it. I have saved the monitor for future diagnostics and use when I build a new computer (putting the current cpu and old monitor together so that the new cpu and new monitor can be together).

So, my monitor. A NEC MultiSync LCD2070NX. I found it on Amazon for a mere $250, and made an impulse buy. I thought about a widescreen monitor but couldn’t justify the extra costs. I also thought about having a higher resolution (it’s 20 inches but only does 1600×1200, which is what my 17 inch CRT did), but at that point I was looking at monitors that were $1000 and above. I was getting all squinty-eyed looking at my 17″ anyway. I may not have gained any desktop real estate, but I did gain relief from eye strain.

I swore I would never own an LCD. I had friends who had them—rich friends who bought 24″ LCDs for the heck of it in 2000—and my family’s new computers came with them for “free”. I was not impressed with the color, viewing angle, ghosting, and text legibility on any of them. Laptops I’d used had the same issues. Then, at work, I had to use a new-ish laptop. It had a very nice LCD. An LCD without any of those issues that made me hate them 6 years ago. Noticing the derth of good cheap CRTs, I knew the era of the LCD had begun.

I was cautious about this monitor. I expected dead pixels and stuck pixels and remembered stories of people unable to return their monitors for an exchange because they didn’t meet the 8-pixel limit. This monitor was perfect, though. After tweaking the settings for only few minutes I’ve got the image quality nearly identical to my CRT, and I imagine fine-tuning it will make it even closer. I know I’ll never have perfect gradients like a CRT, but this monitor comes close.

My only complaint about this product is the power cord/power interface on the monitor. If I adjust the screen at all (or even just touch it) the power disconnects. I am going to try a different cord and see if that helps it at all. **1 minute later** Yep, that’s all it took. Just a loose fitting on the included power cord. That shouldn’t be a problem to any reasonably-nerdy/geeky person, though, as I am sure you have more than one power cord lying around.

So far I love this monitor. If I have any strong feelings in the opposite way I’ll be sure to post a follow-up. The NEC LCD2070NX is a great-looking monitor at quite a nice price.