Sun microsystems monitor Question

[Edgedamage]

Hello I keep seeing used sun monitors on ebay and for the price they seem like a good deal. Do they really work with PC's or is that a myth?

[AlanS17]

I think the cable looks the same, but they have a different pinout. Don't quote me on that, though.

[mclaught]

do a search on "fixed frequency monitor" on google for more info on what you will be looking at. check this link as well. These monitors can work, but if you have to go out and buy an expensive video card, it might not be worth the savings. That's why they're so cheap on ebay. Here's some links for more information.

http://www.kit.hi-ho.ne.jp/~hidetomo/sunmonitor-e.html
http://members.home.nl/leibbran/sunmon/sunmon.htm
http://www.netsys.com/sunmgr/1999-02/msg00004.html  

[Edgedamage]

Yeow is looks like to much hassle. Thanks everyone for the help.

[BobA]

Contrary to popular belief all sun monitor are not fixed frequency or odd ball res.  Many of them are PC compatible and require just an adapter plug from 13W3 to vga. Some even have the vga plug.  If they are PC compatible the seller will usually say but sometimes they do not.  Check the horiz freq range.  If it is from 30Khz to 85Khz or more it is a multisync monitor and can be made to operate with your PC.   I used a sun 17E20 and I make one small change to get comp sync from the separate Horiz and Vert syncs and it worked fine with my PC.

Look at the specs and details given.  If you look up the specific model number on the web you can sometimes find more into.  Be careful however as most of the specs are supplied my a monitor database maintained my a company that sells expensive fixed freq cards.

Remember if the monitor operates in a Horiz Freq RANGE then it is not fixed frequency.

There are alot of deals because alot of people say SUN! cannot use that on my PC.  (WRONG)

BobA

[Valence]

Most of our Sun's have a monitor that has two connections. One for the sparc and one for a PC.  Everyone use's them. At any res or freq that a pc can put out.

[ntjedi]

At my old work I would use Sun Monitors with PC but used a gender changer for the connections.  Suns have a different connection then the standard VGA pinout.  The gender changers (if I remember correctly) were only like $15 or so.

Also I did have a couple of Suns that were not compatible but they were a different model number (and alot older) then the ones that do work.

I hope this helps.