What monitors are compatible with NVidia GeForce?

[cdarling]

I'm sure this will be an easy one for all you experts, but it's taking me out of my depth.

I try to help our small community cable tv access channel when I can. Someone just gave them a 2- or 3-year-old Dell Dimension 4100, Pentium III, 384MB RAM, NVidia GeForce 256 video, Win XP Pro, but no monitor.

I suspect I can pick up a good used monitor on eBay, but I want to be sure it will work with this system. Could someone tell me the specs I should be looking for?

And any suggestions on mfgr and model that I'd be likely to find used, but with life left in it, would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Charlie

 

[paparazi]

ANY SVGA monitor will work just fine (that is any standard monitor built in the last 5 years)
So you have absolutely no worries.
The Nvidia geforce256 was the original Geforce card and is capable of displaying reasonable frame rates at faily high resolutions so you could choose anything from a 14 to a 21inch if so required.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[Selphie]

I agree with paparazi on this one. Any SVGA-capable monitors will work on your PC. It stands for Super Video Graphics Adapter. Now if you want to know what that means, it means it can support high resolutions and 16 million colours.

As for monitor size, a brand new one with 17 inches or less should be cheaper than 110 USD (I got mine for 95 Euro because of the exchange rate )
Anything larger will get much more significantly expensive, example: a 17-inch might cost 100 bucks, another 18-inch with the otherwise same specifications might cost 120 bucks, a 19-inch probably 150 bucks, you get what I mean)

If it's for personal use, just a 15-to-17-inch is fine with the monitor just in front of your face. If you are using it to teach students programming or anything like that, with multiple observers standing over your shoulder, then at least 17-or-19-inch, the bigger the better. If you plan to put it on a shelf and run a movie on it with a classroom full of people, I think people sitting further back would have headaches straining their eyes trying to see the movie, even with a 21-inch.
Your bet then would be to use a TV instead of a monitor, but then you will need a graphics card which has TV-output. I doubt an old card as Geforce 256 has it.

If you have money to burn, then try a LCD monitor. It looks nicer, doesn't heat up, runs on less power and as light as a feather. Though you might find it hard trying to recoup your spending from the community tresurer...