[comp.sys.mac] 3rd party Mac II RGB monitors

zink@pc.ecn.purdue.edu (William T. Zink) (09/13/88)

I am getting ready to purchase a Mac II and was looking for advice
on 3rd party RGB monitors. I saw an ad in the July 12 MacWeek for
a 13 inch RGB monitor for only $399. It is made by Hardware House Inc
in Philadelphia. Has anyone used this monitor? How does it compare
to Apples RGB monitor? Any bad/good stories about Hardware House?
Are there others available I should be aware of?
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (09/15/88)

In article <1052@pc.ecn.purdue.edu> zink@pc.ecn.purdue.edu (William T. Zink) writes:
>I am getting ready to purchase a Mac II and was looking for advice
>on 3rd party RGB monitors. I saw an ad in the July 12 MacWeek for
>a 13 inch RGB monitor for only $399. It is made by Hardware House Inc
>in Philadelphia. Has anyone used this monitor? How does it compare
>to Apples RGB monitor

Be sure the monitor works on a Mac, i.e., it uses analog signals.  I hooked
up my NEC multisync to the Mac II at work and the color was so muddy 
compared to the Apple color monitor that I completely put off plans to buy
a Mac II at this time.  I thought that with my existing monitor and external
60MB hard drive, I could make a Mac II affordable.  Now that I'm using a
large screen (monochrome) at work, I wouldn't trade it for any color monitor.

The letters are crisp (E machines big picture) though smaller and color is
only nice to look at. The loss of speed with 256 colors and the courser
text is just not comparable to a large screen monochrome if you are primarily
manipulating text.

Shirley Kehr

mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) (09/17/88)

In article <58600@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes:
>In article <1052@pc.ecn.purdue.edu> zink@pc.ecn.purdue.edu (W T. Zink) writes:
>>I am getting ready to purchase a Mac II and was looking for advice
>>on 3rd party RGB monitors...                                     
>
>Be sure the monitor works on a Mac, i.e., it uses analog signals.  I hooked
>up my NEC multisync to the Mac II at work and the color was so muddy
>compared to the Apple color monitor that I completely put off plans to buy
>a Mac II at this time.  I thought that with my existing monitor and external
>60MB hard drive, I could make a Mac II affordable.  Now that I'm using a
>large screen (monochrome) at work, I wouldn't trade it for any color monitor.
>
>The letters are crisp (E machines big picture) though smaller and color is
>only nice to look at. The loss of speed with 256 colors and the courser
>text is just not comparable to a large screen monochrome if you are primarily
>manipulating text.
>
>Shirley Kehr

Shirley makes it sound as though all color monitors are by nature not as
good for text as monochrome monitors are.  There's no doubt that for
exclusively-text uses a monochrome monitor is the best choice (why pay
more for color if you won't use it?), but I find that Apple's High
Resolution RGB Monitor has ridiculously sharp text, in any color mode, as
well as in monochrome mode (selected from the Control Panel's Monitors
cdev).  One of the most interesting praises of the Mac II system as a
whole was that its color monitor displayed black-and-white text in as   
high resolution as, AND AS SHARPLY as, the original Mac screen.

I have since seen RGB monitors with more impressive color graphics (such  
as IBM's new 8514 display for its PS/2 line) but NONE with as sharp, clear,
simply READABLE monochrome text.


-- 
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