Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell.com!ucsd!usc!sdd.hp.com!think.com!paperboy!hsdndev!cmcl2!phri!rna!dan
From: dan@rna.UUCP (Dan Ts'o)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Video Choice - Summary
Message-ID: <1069@rna.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jan 91 18:12:33 GMT
References: <1991Jan15.220959.7494@athena.mit.edu>
Reply-To: dan@rna.UUCP (Root Beer)
Organization: Rockefeller University Neurobiology
Lines: 34


	A few notes based on my experience.

	Although the Orchid Pro II seems like a great board when it works,
I've have tremendous problems with it. I've had to return three different
Pro II boards to Orchid, each with different problems. Although their
Tech service seems nice enough, the bottom line is that turn around is slow.

	The ATI boards (VGA Wonder and VGA Wonder Plus) do seem slower, but
perform quite nicely, are cheaper and come with a builtin mouse, which
saves a slot. Although ATI had driver problems earlier, their drivers now
seem much better. 256 color drivers seem universally slow from all companies.

	The boards that I have had the least trouble with are from Video 7.
They still seem among the fastest (the VRAM), but aren't the cheapest.
They are limited to 16 colors at 1024x768.

	In a recent PC mag, Orchid got the worse rating in terms of reliability
and service. Video 7 got among the highest (but stay away from the Fastwrite)
and ATI did fine.

	Among monitors, the least expensive color VGA monitor capable of
1024x768, non-interlaced that I have had success with is the Goldstar 1460,
which can be purchased for $350. It is a 14" monitor that is very reasonable,
if you must go cheap. Otherwise, I tend to the NEC 3D, although it only runs
interlaced at 1024x768 ($600). In addition to the NEC 4D, consider the
Nanao 9070U ($1050), which seems to have a better image in the 16" catagory.

				Cheers,
				Dan Ts'o		212-570-7671
				Dept. Neurobiology	dan@rna.rockefeller.edu
				Rockefeller Univ.	rna!dan@nyu.edu
				1230 York Ave.		tso@rockvax.bitnet
				NY, NY 10021