I'll admit to admiring the smooth, retro styling and dynamic precision of BMW's Z3 roadster, but there are times when you need the ground-pounding, window-rattling, no-holds-barred performance of a Shelby Cobra. That's how I feel about CTX's Ultra Screen PR1400F 21-inch monitor. While I love the svelte, space-saving LCD panels, this 21-inch (19.8-inch diagonal) CRT is both the biggest and best monitor I've ever tested.

All monitors are not the same. Some inexpensive models are better suited to working with office-suite software, but CTX's Ultra Screen PR1400F monitor is perfect for graphics applications where sharpness and accurate color are important. The monitor has a .24 dot pitch, but since the CTX Ultra Screen PR1400F uses a Trinitron cathode-ray tube, which has vertical stripes instead of dots, the ratings are similar to conventional monitors, but they're not exactly the same.

One of the easiest ways to spot a Trinitron tube is the two thin, soft gray horizontal lines that appear about one third from the top and one third from the bottom of the screen. These are shadows of wire supports holding the aperture grille--instead of a conventional monitor's shadow mask--in place. It took me only a short while to see the top line, but I didn't see the bottom one until using the CTX Ultra Screen for more than a week; that's how negligible these shadows really are.

The monitor has a built-in USB hub with one upstr...

Click here to read the rest of this article from Computer User