My workbench, where I test out all the stuff I review, has been going strong for some time now. I’ve got a full dual setup: dual monitors, keyboards, mice. It’s great because it gives me plenty of flexibility for testing stuff (record on one system while testing another, etc.). But one of the monitors (the left one) is an older 1440X900 Westinghouse:
It’s a good enough monitor, but it’s not 1080p, which is kind of important when testing NUCs.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m a fan of “treasure hunting” at my local Goodwill. Just recently they came through in fine fashion. Tucked in among the piles of used keyboards, scanners, printers, and old, old monitors, I noticed this beauty:
That’s an Asus VS238H-P 23″ 1080p monitor. I love Asus monitors. I have 3 set up in my house and they all work beautifully. I couldn’t believe my luck in finding one at Goodwill, at the rock-bottom price of twenty USD! And this one is still available new. I could go on Amazon or Newegg today and buy one. It’s got a 4 1/2 star rating on Amazon too:
I figured it must be dead…I’ve learned over the years that when it comes to electronics more than a few people use Goodwill as a dumping ground for broken stuff. Still, for $20 it was worth a shot, so I snatched it up and brought it home.
As soon as I got it home and plugged it in, I knew why it was there…no video. That’s kind of a deal-breaker for me when it comes to monitors. But after a bit more testing I realized the problem was that the HDMI port was dead. Fortunately this model also included a DVI port, and it was working just fine!
I happened to have an HDMI to DVI adapter, so I hooked it up and was immediately looking at a pristine 1080p screen:
A lot of times when you look at monitors at Goodwill the screens are dinged and scratched, but this one had not a mark on it. Of course using DVI instead of HDMI means no audio, but this monitor doesn’t have built-in speakers, and I already have speakers on the workbench, so I’m good to go.
I ended up ordering a 90 degree angle HDMI to DVI adapter, since the one I had wouldn’t allow for mounting the monitor.
As soon as the weather cools off I’m going to swap this out on the workbench. It’s quite a bit larger than the old monitor so I’m going to have it sticking out on the side. But I’m ok with that.
Treasure hunting’s so much fun when you actually find the treasure!
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