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From: fangchin@leland.Stanford.EDU (Chin Fang)
Subject: Re: Idek Monitor - Where to Buy?
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.210707.5954@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: AIR, Stanford University
References: <15380002@hpavla.avo.hp.com> <27f28a9a-a6e.1comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware-1@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 91 21:07:07 GMT
Lines: 51

In article <27f28a9a-a6e.1comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware-1@vpnet.chi.il.us> akcs.gregc@vpnet.chi.il.us (*Greg*) writes:
>Only place I know of is from Logix.
>
>(800)248-2140
>
>They are lower than list/retail prices.

In my spring break I played with a brand new IDEK monitor very extensively.
This 17" monitor is very good-looking.  Well designed case.  Price is 
reasonable too -> $1100 or so. 

BUT, I would discourage people buying it for one reason -> narrow horizontal
sync frequency range!!  Only up to 50kHz.  Even 14" Sony 1304 has 55Khz!!

Since I was using my 20Mhz 386 machine running Thomas Roell's X386 X11R4 
server therefore I could "DESIGN" my own resolution, to get high screen 
refresh rate, I always prefer monitors with horizontal sync frequency range
upper limit somewhere from 60kHz to 70Khz, the higher the better.  50Khz is
really a shame for a monitor designed for high resolution use.  When you go
above 1024x728, most likely you can only get somewhat flickering 58hz screen
refresh rate with IDEK.  Too BAD!!

PC Magazine's Editor choice is not always the BEST thing to go with.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Just as a side, you have no reason to stay with 640x480 || 800x600 ||
1024x768 etc.  But unfortunately most display drivers don't give you such
a freedom as Thomas Roell's X386 server, ie, letting it's user design a good
resolution.  Meanwhile, I am using a NEC Multisync II and a resolution 832x600
even the manual says 800x560 is the maximum.  I also have 704x528 and 752x564
as two resolutions that I can switch to using hot key combo.

I designed these because they offer screen rate from 62Hz to 65Hz, pretty good
in general.  IDEK is capable of providing very good screen refresh rate up to
920x690, but beyong 1024x768, forget it!

BTW, I use a superset of AT&T UNIX SV/386 on my 386box, ESIX V 386 Rev.D. on top
of which I run MIT's X11R4 X window using Thomas Roell's server if this matters.
Definitely it's MUCH faster than MS Window 3.0.

No matter what, I would say the 17" IDEK monitor is good, but not outstanding.
It's good viewing area goes someway to compensate it's narrow sync frequency 
range at resolution lower than 1024x768.  (I was using 1000x750 for a while
and felt it was tolerable).  The relatively flat screen helps too.

Hope the info helps

Chin Fang
Mechanical Engineering Department
Stanford University
fangchin@leland.stanford.edu
