you know what

i think i was right

i just got home instead of posting on my ibm x31 laptop (LCD with thin border)

my current CRT (about to be replaced tonight!) has about 2.5 inches of plastic border on the top left corner and bottom right corner all together

so yeah

17x17 is the measurement of the plastic casing for the whole monitor, not just the LCD panel itself

once again, Evil Techie saves the day!
lol