D9800 really that bad?

[RobotNinjaTim]

I will be building my first cab sometime in the next several months, and I am looking into getting a present day arcade monitor.  I was hoping to get something around 27" to really fill out the cab.  The Wells Gardner D9800 seems like it is one of the easiest ones to get.  However, it seems like people have a lot of problems with Wells Garner monitors (there is a whole sticky thread on that).  I was wondering if WG monitors are really worse off than other monitors.  It seems that some people have problems with any given monitor, and others luck out and have perfectly good working monitors for years.  Can anyone suggest any other monitors that I might be able to find somewhat easily?  When I check ebay from time to time, I can find some monitors around the size I would like, but can't really find any reviews on them.  Thanks in advance for suggestions and information.

[isucamper]

That sticky thread was really for addressing problems with the 9200, most of which were fixed with the 9400 and with the subsequent 9800.

There have been reports of problems with the 9800 on these forums, but they haven't been incredibly frequent.  I've had one for a year and a half and haven't had a single problem other than some less than stellar geometry at medium resolutions.  I'd recommend it based on my experience with it.  The picture is pretty amazing at standard res.   

[RobotNinjaTim]

That sticky thread was really for addressing problems with the 9200, most of which were fixed with the 9400 and with the subsequent 9800.

There have been reports of problems with the 9800 on these forums, but they haven't been incredibly frequent.  I've had one for a year and a half and haven't had a single problem other than some less than stellar geometry at medium resolutions.  I'd recommend it based on my experience with it.  The picture is pretty amazing at standard res.   

Thanks.  I assumed that was somewhat the case with the sticky thread, but some people kind of made it sound like it carried through all their monitors.  But, then again, those replies were probably outdated as well.  The D9800 looks like a pretty solid monitor.

To go further, I know it's not required, but would something like the Arcade VGA from Ultimarc be recommended for that monitor?

[isucamper]

You'll definitely get more out of it if you have a PC that can do standard and medium resolutions.  Either the Arcade VGA or running Soft15Khz with a compatible video card will get you there.  I use Soft15Khz myself. 

[Epyx]

@RobotNinjaTim

Clink on the tutorials link in my signature and it will bring you to my video review/tutorial on the D9800 with ArcadeVGA.

They work perfectly together

Also I have had my D9800 for just over a year now as well with no issues.

[RobotNinjaTim]

Very nice, thanks Epyx!  Looks great.  If only the ArcadeVGA had Linux support... oh well, looks like I'm leaning towards Windows at this point anyway, but that's a whole other thread.

[MonMotha]

You don't need an ArcadeVGA in Linux.  If you add the proper modelines to your xorg.conf, you can run whatever timings your heart desires (limited only by your hardware, and most cards at this point can do pretty much anything you'd want).

Linux's bootup screens will be double-screened of course, though actually that can be fixed too, if you want.  The BIOS controlled stuff will always run at the 31kHz VGA scanrates, but that's not usually a problem.