I'm interested in learning about using an external LCD monitor —
probably 17"— with my Mac PowerBook 2400c. (The 2400c has a 180mhz
processor, the PCMCIA slot has been cardbus enabled; it has 80 megs of
memory, and OS 8.6)

The 2400c itself supports only limited colors/resolutions in an
external monitor, so if I want to use the external monitor at native
resolution and with many colors, will I need to get a graphics card to
put in the 2400's PCMCIA slot?  If so, can you tell me  which cards
would be compatible, and appropriate for my purpose? (I don't plan on
playing any graphics-intensive games; mostly I'll be working with
text, and a little image and photo editing.) If there is a wide range
of choices and prices, perhaps I could be referred to a website that
compares them; or perhaps I could do it on my own if I were given a
few tips about which specifications I should be comparing and what
their significance is.

Also, what connectors/adaptors will I need?  Am I limited to
considering a certain category of monitors (i.e. the "vga compatible"
ones) or will any kind work (and work just as well, and just as
reliably, etc.) with the right adaptors?   Will the type of graphics
card I need depend on which category of monitor I'll be getting (i.e.
VGA, DVI)?
  
I'd like to know what features/specifications are significant to look
at when comparing LCD monitors. I've noticed that there is a wide
range of prices for 17" LCD monitors, and I'm interested in knowing
whether the price is a good indicator of the monitor's quality. 
Specifically, the Formac monitor appeals to me.  Because there are
many monitors that are less expensive, I would like to know whether
the Formac's higher price indicates a more advanced technology and
higher quality than the cheaper ones, or if it has more to do with the
"stylishness" of the Formac that commands a higher price.  Are there
any websites that include the Formac in their comparisons of various
17" monitors?  I found several sites that compared an extensive list
of monitors, but none mentioned the Formac.  (I did find a couple of
reviews of the Formac monitor, mostly favorable though some criticisms
of flimsy case and bad customer service — but the only other monitor
mentioned in comparison, in any of these reviews, was Apple's LCD
monitor, which is about equally expensive.)

Hello Quester2,

You have posed a very interesting question. The steps you need to
follow will depend somewhat on the specific version of Powerbook 2400c
you have. Let me describe the options you have at this point.

Use the existing video output

You may already know this, but I will take a moment to recap the
capability of your existing equipment for comparison purposes. With 1
Meg of video memory, you can get:
 - 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 as thousands of colors
 - up to 1024 x 768 as 256 colors
mirroring the display is at 800 x 600 only. This is a summary of the
Macworld review at
  http://www.macworld.com/1997/11/reviews/3992.html
You will need a video cable - if you don't have the apple one, one is
available at:
  http://www.powerbookguy.com/2400.html
(scroll down or search for "video")

PCMCIA video adapter

The only PCMCIA video adapter that I found for this model was the Road
Rocket from IXMicro. Unfortunately, this company has gone out of
business
  http://www.ixmicro.com/
the web site has a link to drivers at
  http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/index.cfm?load=ixmicro.html
which has the manual and drivers available. It was also described at
  http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/PB_G3/rocket/


The Road Rocket is available (used) from
  http://www.powermax.com/cgi-global/generate.cgi?p=A-51403
for about $100. According to the description, you get both an apple
video connector and a VGA cable. I can't tell if the Apple video
connector supports the "ADC" interface - ask the vendor to be sure.
You may be limited to VGA. The steps to take to use the card ar at
  http://www.liethen.com/filia-ul-copt/ix3d-rr/
Please note the "four hoops" you have to jump through to use it
 - ensure you have the CardBus enabled. Apparently only the later
model 180 Mhz machines had this enabled. You say yours is ready, but
if not, a company provides an upgrade service (about a week turn
around) at
  http://store.yahoo.com/powerbook1/mcecarupser.html
You are already running Mac OS 8.6, so you don't need an OS upgrade.
The CardBus upgrade also costs about $100.
 - second, "kickstart" the lower slot with another card; apparently
the machine can hang at boot up.
 - third, insert the road rocket (and don't reboot)
 - fourth, if you want the upper slot back - get an adapter ($25) from
someone like
  http://www.goessex.com/store/hot_products.html#1259
The one hoop not stated, is to get the drivers - but try the site
mentioned above if not included with the card.

Whew! For this, you get millions of colors at the higher resolutions.

For displays - the best suggestion I can make is to try to see the
displays you are considering. A lot of what people look for is
subjective such as:
 - clarify of off angle viewing
 - update rate / smearing of motion
 - dead pixels
and so on. Some people have much higher standards than others and I
would expect yours to be higher based on the way you have described
your requirements in the question.

There are sites with side by side comparisons of LCD's that include
one or more of the Formac displays. For example
  http://hwreviews.netscape.com/hardware/1,10121,0-2295747-402-0,00.html
I found this using the search
  lcd monitor formac compare features
and it was the first link listed. This site includes editor ratings as
well as user comments and you can select several displays - and get a
side by side comparison of cost, features, ratings, etc. The two you
mention (Apple & Formac) are the two highest rated 17" displays on
this site.

If this is not clear or there is something related you want addressed
- please use a clarification request.
  
  --Maniac