NEC MultiSync 1740CX 17inch LCD

Purchasing a good monitor used to be quite easy. Personally, I’d grab a CRT with a decent size and refresh rate and would be happy. Since technology never slows down, more new technologies are always introduced and force you to do some hard research! If you are thinking about purchasing a CRT as your next monitor, you may want to stop and think about the purchase. I personally love CRT monitors, however LCD is clearly a better choice for most people. Before we get into the model specifications, let’s check out some reasons why you should consider and LCD over a CRT.

One of the primary reasons people move up to an LCD monitors is because of the space it saves on your desk. If you move from say, a 19″ CRT to a 19″ LCD, it’s like night and day. Whereas your desk may have been so cluttered that you could barely fit your coffee on it, afterwards you could rest your legs up there if you wanted to. A second large reason is the fact that LCD’s are flicker and glare free, as opposed to CRT’s. Many people develop headaches and even migraines due to the flicker, but new LCD’s are a way to help prevent them.

Unlike CRT’s, LCD’s allow you to use a pure digital input instead of the standard VGA input. This can result in a clearer, cleaner picture. A few other benefits that stand out is the fact that LCD monitors use less power on average than a CRT, and also emit a lot less heat. Of course, if you rely on your CRT to heat up your apartment, then you may wish to stick with it.

The LCD we are taking a look at today may not interest some of you right off the bat, due to it’s 17″ size. Granted, it’s not a large monitor, however I personally find it perfect for all I do on the computer each and every day. One main reason I prefer 17″ over 19″, is because at a larger size I prefer to increase my resolution. Many 19″ CRT’s are capable of handling up to 1600*1200 resolution, but when you demand that on a 19″ LCD, you better be willing to haul out a huge wad of cash, as the price jumps drastically. However, if you enjoy a 19″ size and 1280*1024 resolution, then the cost is nothing hard to swallow.

The monitor itself has great styling, nothing over the top. It’s more ‘simple’ looking than some others on the market, but hardly plain. Unlike some LCD monitors, the frame is not huge, which looks far better in my opinion. All of the control buttons are found directly below the screen, five in total. The base for the monitor is completely round, and large, for a very secure placement. If you prefer to mount the screen to your wall, you can easily do that as well.

Looking at the back of the screen, we see that the cover is designed to allow lot of air to escape so that it does not overheat. Some LCD’s require you to remove a small cover in order to use the inputs, but that’s not the case here. The Digital and Analog input are directly beside each other, with the power input on the opposite side. Sadly, S Video is not an option here, but won’t prove a problem for those who won’t use it anyway.

One of the most important features of this particular LCD is the fact that is has an 8ms response time. While some LCD’s with higher response times can actually ghost images while gaming, 8ms (millisecond) and lower is perfectly suited for gaming, and no ghosting should ever occur. Mainstream LCD’s are now as low as 2ms, but it would be unlikely to actually notice a difference between 8ms and 2ms, but there would be a noticeable difference from 16ms to 8ms.