Well, your options are LCD and CRT. CRT is the cathode ray tube, or what most folks have called monitors for years. CRT's have dropped in price drastically since LCD's have become popular.

The other option is LCD. The LCD is a flat screen and is generally higher priced then the CRT. They have dropped in price as they are becoming more popular.

I am typing this while looking at a 21" CRT monitor that I bought for $125.

Setting beside it is my 20 inch Flat Panel LCD that was $299.00

When LCD's first came out, they had slow response times, which made them undesirable for gamers. Most of the manufacturers now have very fast response times and gamers can now consider buying an LCD monitor. As far as photo editing goes, there are some of us who still have to rely on the CRT monitors since the ultimate color purity that the CRT offers for editing colors cannot be had in an LCD monitor. This color purity issue may have already been addressed in the manufacturer’s labs but a commercially viable product which an average Joe can afford has not yet hit the market. However if you are a gamer and were waiting for the technology to take off, read on!

The gamers needs have been adequately addressed as the LCD monitors available in the market have very fast response times – as low as 12 ms and getting better. These response times are fast enough to even satisfy die hard gamers who want the best and are not willing to compromise.

Brighter Display

Lower Heat

Take up less space

Lower Weight.

No Flicker

Livelonger asked a question about OLED's(Organic Light Emiting Diode). This new technology produces incredibly vivid images. Since the first prototypes of these came out a few months ago, the price is still pretty high.

To answer the question.

Are they viable, yes, but affordability is another thing. The cost of a 20 inch model is currently around 1800.00