24", 27" or 30" LCD Monitor
 

Question out there to you folks.

I'm going to be buying a new LCD monitor. In terms of performance for games which monitor do you recommend. I don't want any ghosting. That is more important then screen size.

I'm going to have an 8800 video card powering the thing so I should be able to run max screen rez with no problems.

Thanks in Advance for any suggestions.

Dell. I've got a 24" widescreen at work that is FANTASTIC, and we just got a 20" widescreen for my wife at home (sucks that it wasn't my turn for the big upgrade). Both have been great.

You can find equivalent ones cheaper, but there's usually something about them. For example, I hear people rave about the Viewsonic 20" widescreen, but it's a lower resolution than the Dell. The Dells are visually stunning, have tons of inputs, and just work.

FWIW, the one I've got it work handles both my PC work and my 360 DevKit equally well...

24" Dell I heard was great. I think that is the way I'm leaning. I saw that they have a 27" dell and a 30" dell, but the reviews on those weren't top notch.

I've actually been trying to do some research on this, but the array of information out there is bewildering.

What things should one look for in these LCD monitors?

it's when i read threads like this that I think everyone must be loaded - i don't think i'll ever be at the financial point in my life when i could drop down $1,300 on a computer monitor.

If you want one for gaming, don't get a Dell. Their response times are generally higher than some other companies. I heartedly recommend LG Widescreen monitors.

Lot of 'wonks' (I guess) don't really like Dells. There have been reports of heavy backlight bleeding, etc.

- Native resolution (can be very important, as this is the resolution you want to run the LCD in). If you buy a widescreen, make sure it's a true 16:9 or 16:10 res, not one of those HD plasmas that were really 1024x768 with horizontally-stretched pixels.
- Inputs (need to match what you want to run into it)
- Refresh times (slow refreshes lead to ghosting / blurring in games and videos)
- Contrast (higher contrast means a bigger spread between dark and light, and helps make black actually black and white actually white)
- widescreen vs narrow
- For business purposes, some like the ability to rotate it between landscape and portrait (not me)

Or just buy the 20" or 24" Dell (depending on budget) and be done with it...

Just another Dell vote here. If you keep an eye out and are willing to wait a bit you can get the 24" at a bargain.

I just bought a 24" LCD and I'm thrilled with it. I thought pretty hard about the 30" Dell, but in the end figured it would be too big. After using a 24" for a while I think it is right at the sweet spot.

I wanted the Dell 2407 for a long time, but ended up going with the Gateway FPD2485W. It has all the same inputs as the Dell (minus the 9-in-1 smart card reader), but does HDCP at 1080p, has much better back lighting, and is available in retail B&M stores. You can find the Dell for around $680 right now which is what the Gateway goes for at Best Buy. I think the Dell is an excellent monitor though and you can't really go wrong with either.

So, are these criteria for LCD computer monitors also true if you're looking at getting an LCD TV?

My Dell 24" is the best PC purchase I've ever made. I think any larger would be too big.

I would vote for Samsung for gamming, they have really low response times and are not expensive.

Well I stuck with a CRT until about a year ago. Even bought a $600 CRT 22" CRT in 2004 over an LCD, all because I could not and would not deal with any blurriness or ghosting when gaming.

Zero issues in that regard with the Dell. Don't know what exactly the specs are, but there are no issues with gaming.

For the most part, yes, although the inputs you are looking for will differ. Viewing angle is more important for TVs because you have a number of people watching, where you sit right in front of a monitor (some LCDs have trouble if you aren't looking straight at them). This is easy to check in a store, though: stand off to one side and see how the TV looks.

TVs are a bit less picky about resolution as well, as movies are likely to be scaled anyway.

Thanks Greg!

Ok, that is exactly what I wanted to hear. I have kept a CRT forever because of those reasons you mentioned. If you are happy, then I'm sure I'll be pretty happy too.


Thanks for everyones help.

For a ton more info than I gave plus better explanations, see:

http://www.anandtech.com/displays/sh...spx?i=2935&p=2