The monitor on your personal computer is one of the most important elements in the system, for several reasons.
A better monitor gives higher productivity by allowing you to see more information at once. Time spent zooming and panning around the screen is wasted time. There's no point in having high bandwidth networks and internet connections if there's a bottleneck between the computer and the user!
The quality and set-up of the monitor can affect your comfort, especially if you use the system for extended periods.
The monitor is often the most expensive component in the system. If you're an employer, you have a legal duty to make sure you have considered the displays being used by your staff.
There are two main technologies in use: cathode ray tubes (CRT) and liquid crystal displays (LCD).
CRT monitors are cheaper and have advantages including very good colours for graphics applications, versatility for running different resolutions, and high speed for games and videos. They are heavy and bulky and can use a lot of power.
The 17in screen is the best value CRT at the moment, but for intensive users, 19in or 21in products are worth the extra. For the best visual quality, look for a flat-faced monitor with an aperture grille. FST or "rounded" CRTs are only used on the cheapest products these days.
A CRT monitor should last around 20,000 hours - 10 years of normal office use - but a critical user would probably want to upgrade every four or five years, as performance tends to degrade gently.
LCDs - the very flat panels that are also used in notebook computers - are the new technology. They are very thin, use less power than CRTs, and some studies have shown that users can read more quickly from them, especially older users. However, LCDs cost more and are less versatile than CRTs, because they only give really good performance at one fixed resolution, and this can mean too small a text size for some. Also, most LCDs don't have such good colours as CRTs, and can smear with fast graphics.
There are two basic classes of LCD: those built for lower cost, and those built for quality. The low-cost ones tend to have a narrow viewing angle, so performance drops off quickly if you look at the screen from anything other than an optimum angle, especially from above or below. Better LCDs have wider viewing angles and faster response times.
Today, 15in is the entry-level size for LCDs, but 17in models show 66% more data on the screen and can cost less per dot. LCDs with wider viewing angles and better speed are 17in or above. If you care about graphics, look for a monitor with gamma correction, which matches the LCD closer to a CRT for viewing images.
An LCD should last 50,000 to 60,000 hours, so the extra cost may be a good investment.
With LCD monitors, it's relatively easy to add TV tuner functions (all monitors can display TV images with a special card inside the PC). Extra import duty can make the monitor more expensive. If you want TV, try to get a demonstration as slow response can make viewing "smeary" and features such as teletext are not always well supported.
