Would LCDs (in the $300 price range) be okay for CAD work or is the performance of CRT a must?


Thanks in advance.

There are only two reasons I know of to avoid LCDs. High response times (ghosting) and bad color. CAD work doesn't have fast movement, so no problems with ghosting. I don't believe you would have any problems with accurate color either. (You only need to tell the difference between red and orange, not red and magenta.) Depending on sales, if the large screen LCDs are too much, I would get a couple of 17/19" I would probably go this route anyways. CAD work is easier on a dual monitor setup...

LCD is far much better than any CRT monitor for CAD, and the larger the better. Don't take me and my 15 years CAD engineering experience, ask any CAD operator.
Also, a 19" CRT is small for CAD design, generally considered entry level.

Like I said, CAD workstations make money, skip and you lose productivity and motivation. Bigger is better with CAD displays.

I used to use a 21" and a 19" for CAD, but found it more efficient to have a larger single LCD since it is easier on the eyes and a second monitor does not help that much anymore.
In the old days, a color monitor and a monochrome monitor were referred, with the text window on the mono display.
Using two displays today the same second display is used for text, the main one for graphics.
Two monitors does not negate one bit having at least one large LCD, the second monitor can be even a 15" CRT, since it only needs to display a text window.

I use a sony sdm-p234 (23" 1920 x 1200) for CAD work like solidworks and visio. I think a single large format display is easier to use than two 19/17" LCD. The Dell 24" and 30" are also ideal. Quite an investment though.