Someday we will look back the same way at articles about OLED screens. And actually Samsung's new OLED TV is not even as expensive as I expected.

It's just a lesson on why buying the early versions of tech is a bad idea. 😀

I totally agree. Any new technology needs to sit and gestate its way through the marketplace. It's like those $5,999 32" flat-panel TV sets when they first came out. A mere 6 years later, you can get one 2x the size for $499. If that.

I just trashed a whole lot of sony gdm f-520 and w900 monitors. Couldn't for the life of me find a buyer or even a take-it-for-free deal. I've got one left right now.

I recall paying $299.00 for a 25GB hard disk. And look what we have now!

Viewsonic's pro LCD screens were going for $3,400 and now you can get the same thing, EVEN BETTER, at $100 or $200..

PC hardware is among the worst possible investment in tech one can make. And it seems that any tech purchase is little more than driving the vehicle that takes money from your pocket and transfers it to a big corporation's pocket. Little else.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Compaq monitor in action. I remember playing Doom on an old (~Pentium?) laptop once and the ghosting was so bad the game was pretty much unplayable. Sounds like this one is useable though.

When did LCD sales finally surpass that of CRTs? The mid 2000's?

I think LCD monitor started being attractive in 2004 or so. I remember I bought an AOC LM728 17" for 250 Euro in 2005 and that was considered cheap!
It wasn't until 2006 and even 2007 that they started totally eclipsing CRTs though. PC Magazines recommended CRT screens for budget-midrange systems all the way to 2007!

The first SSD drives were also not the best investment somebody could make. My brother has one and he would always make sure not a lot of stuff got written on that drive because he was afraid of the number or writes limit that these generally have 🤣

But if I'd have to go even earlier, how about the first 3D accelerators? NV1, S3 Virge, Rendition, Matrox Mystique, Voodoo...
Pretty much all of them sucked, except for the Voodoo and I'm pretty sure it got lucky with the whole passthrough card design. Had it been released with a 2D unit (like the Rush) it would probably have had the same luck as Rendition's Verite.

The one on the right already has a smudge on the screen. Is that a slug crawling across it?

I picked up an LCD for my dad for Father's Day in 2004. It was a 19" MAG monitor, cost around $300.00 or so from Best Buy. The funny thing is I got him a modern, HDMI 1080p monitor a few years ago for the same holiday and he ended up giving me the same old MAG monitor when I got married. I still use it on my XP tower. It's a great flatscreen, but it only supports VGA/RGB, no DVI or HDMI.

We originally used an HP Pavilion CRT monitor. That's probably sitting in the attic somewhere.

"Thin and sexy, Compaq's TFT500 will make even Courtney Cox jealous."

So 90's. 😜

The only old LCD that I remember people really liking was the SGI 1600SW. It even used a digital interface, unlike all of the old school, less than ideal VGA-only LCDs.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

The one on the right already has a smudge on the screen. Is that a slug crawling across it?

I noticed that too.

swaaye wrote:

The only old LCD that I remember people really liking was the SGI 1600SW. It even used a digital interface, unlike all of the […]
Show full quote

The only old LCD that I remember people really liking was the SGI 1600SW. It even used a digital interface, unlike all of the old school, less than ideal VGA-only LCDs.

Ah so this is the monitor that used that fancy Number Nine card. First card with DVI perhaps?

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

The one on the right already has a smudge on the screen. Is that a slug crawling across it?

I don't know what that smudge is, I just looked at the magazine again and it's not there. Must be on my scanner. Ewwwww 🤣

The only LCD i REALLY liked is the T221 from IBM. Simply for the bragging value, not the practical value.

See how lost an 80x24 Xterm looks on the full native 3840×2400 resolution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_T221.jpg

WQUXGA resolution, baby!

Hehe, that SGI screen looks great 😁

bushwack wrote:

Ah so this is the monitor that used that fancy Number Nine card. First card with DVI perhaps? […]
Show full quote

swaaye wrote:

The only old LCD that I remember people really liking was the SGI 1600SW. It even used a digital interface, unlike all of the […]
Show full quote

The only old LCD that I remember people really liking was the SGI 1600SW. It even used a digital interface, unlike all of the old school, less than ideal VGA-only LCDs.

Ah so this is the monitor that used that fancy Number Nine card. First card with DVI perhaps?

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

The one on the right already has a smudge on the screen. Is that a slug crawling across it?

I don't know what that smudge is, I just looked at the magazine again and it's not there. Must be on my scanner. Ewwwww 🤣

I don't think it was DVI. I think it used FPDI (Flat Panel Display Interface). There weren't many cards produced with that interface and not even every Number Nine Revolution has it, just the ones made specifically for use with that monitor. I think SGI made a box that allowed you to use it with cards that didn't have a FPDI connector.

The black connector on the bottom goes to the 1600SW

I used to work security at a TRW about ten years ago, they had everything from SGI workstations to an old '286 in turbo mode running mechanical shop components. Awesome place, I miss those guys.

The 1600SW used something called OpenLDI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLDI