20" Widescreen Gaming Monitor

Snip3r

Snip3r

Snip3r

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Can anyone recommend a good 20" widescreen monitor? Its primary purpose is for PC gaming (mainly for FPS games like CoD4/BF2/TF2/CSS). I'm quite a hardcore gamer (play way too much), and right now I'm on a 17" CRT, so responsiveness of the monitor and things like ghosting are my main concerns. Oh, and just before anyone thinks of bringing it up, I'm not interested in a 22" or 24" monitor (they are too big) :D
 
I've got the Asus VW192s bought from Oc'ers last year which is a 19" widescreen. Resolution tops out at 1440X900 which is the native for this monitor. Had it over a year now with no dead pixels, and i would say it gets used about 10-15hours a day. I also play a lot of games on it at 1440x900 and cant fault it one bit, it's got a feature called 'splendid' for games which makes the colours brighter which works nicely on certain games instead of the washed out look some other monitors show.
 
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RobRX-7 said:
i would say it gets used about 10-15hours a day
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wow... and I thought I spent a lot of time infront of my monitor :p

thanks for the info, but ideally I'd rather go for a 20". The difference in terms of size between 19" and 20" is pretty minor, but I'd definately rather have the 20" native resolution of 1680x1050.
 
You say you don't want a 22" but seriously, I'm a competitive source player. Just upgraded from a 17" to a 22" Samsung Aqua and it's amazing. definitely not too big but not small at all. Oh, and it's 2ms so you won't find any ghosting :)
 
Don't switch. If anything get a 19" CRT (hard to find but look on some auction sites).

Samsung Syncmasters are the best types. Look for 997MB (really rare), but generally any Syncmasters are good.

Main reason is, once you get a LCD your hz will be capped at 60 or 75hz which means you will be limited to 60/75FPS respectively, and flashes on CSS will last a bit longer.

I recently went to a LAN with someone who just bought a nice new LCD and I brought my 19" CRT along, the smoothness in which CRTs run games is unmatched, but the colours are amazing on LCD.

So basically, if you are an avid gamer that needs every frame then stick to CRT.
 
I got the Samsung 206BW. Very good, no ghosting, clear colours. Replaced now by the samsung Aqua or Rose Red. Not sure why they have two monitors at the same price point and size but they r both supposed to be very nice. 3yr warranty is good though i believe their dead pixel policy is minimum 4 (but u can always send it back under the DSR if u find this out in the first 7 days).

I specifically chose 20" over 22" because i tested my bro's 22" LG for a week before buying and decided i wanted the smaller pixels (although same resolution) of the 20" as i just think it looks far crisper (e.g. same as diff between a 17" and a 19").

Not quite sure why there r so many 22" lovers on this forum but imo the IQ on a smaller monitor is far better at the same native res.
 
Hmm. The last time I built a new PC, the advice was to stay on a CRT, and I did :rolleyes:

For the new PC I'm about to build however, I think it is about time I moved. For a start, I really like the look of widescreen gaming. Secondly, I'd be really disheartened to have to go out and buy a 20" widescreen CRT and put it on my desk (if such a product even exists).

Thanks for the info creed, I was looking at the Samsung 206BW. Are either the Samsung Aqua or Rose Red models any good for gaming?

Any idea how much slower roughly these panels are in relation to CRTs? Would it for example give my opponents using CRTs a significant advantage over me?
 
The Aqua and the Rose are both similar spec to the 206BW but are the latest versions so will be perfectly good for gaming. Incidentally i have just ordered the 20" Aqua from the B Grade section and it should arrive tomorrow so i'll post my findings over the wknd :)
 
Can people not read, the man wants a 20”, and everyone just says get 22”. I’m sure he knows what size he wants.

As for CRT’s, meh, move on people.
 
Linken said:
Don't switch. If anything get a 19" CRT (hard to find but look on some auction sites).

Samsung Syncmasters are the best types. Look for 997MB (really rare), but generally any Syncmasters are good.

Main reason is, once you get a LCD your hz will be capped at 60 or 75hz which means you will be limited to 60/75FPS respectively, and flashes on CSS will last a bit longer.

I recently went to a LAN with someone who just bought a nice new LCD and I brought my 19" CRT along, the smoothness in which CRTs run games is unmatched, but the colours are amazing on LCD.

So basically, if you are an avid gamer that needs every frame then stick to CRT.
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I dont get this? Why would it be capped at 75FPS?


Oh and a CRT is the 90s we are now in 2008, I wouldn’t even dream of buying a CRT.
 
I'm not too concerned with desk space. After all, I've had a CRT up until now. I'm more concerned with the size of the screen. I like to be able to keep an eye on everything in an FPS game, and a 24" screen is quite a lot to keep an eye on. I'm usually only about 60cm away from the monitor when playing. My HDTV is 26", and that is massive, so I really can't see myself using 24" as a PC monitor. I've looked at the dimensions of various 20" monitors, and it seems ideal to me.

Also, does anyone know if the Samsung SM-206BW suffers from the same panel lottery issues that I've read about with the SM-226BW?

The two monitors I have my eye on at the moment are the NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 Pro and the Samsung SM-206BW. Any views on either of these?
 
Snip3r said:
I'm not too concerned with desk space. After all, I've had a CRT up until now. I'm more concerned with the size of the screen. I like to be able to keep an eye on everything in an FPS game, and a 24" screen is quite a lot to keep an eye on. I'm usually only about 60cm away from the monitor when playing. My HDTV is 26", and that is massive, so I really can't see myself using 24" as a PC monitor. I've looked at the dimensions of various 20" monitors, and it seems ideal to me.

Also, does anyone know if the Samsung SM-206BW suffers from the same panel lottery issues that I've read about with the SM-226BW?

The two monitors I have my eye on at the moment are the NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 Pro and the Samsung SM-206BW. Any views on either of these?
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I can see everything going on with my 24" I only sit about 60cm away too, I used to use 37" as a monitor and had no issues with that.

But fair does. :)
 
Snip3r said:
Also, does anyone know if the Samsung SM-206BW suffers from the same panel lottery issues that I've read about with the SM-226BW?
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Yes it does. Dont know which panel i have but i'm very happy with the colour reproduction.

Snip3r said:
The two monitors I have my eye on at the moment are the NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 Pro and the Samsung SM-206BW. Any views on either of these?
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If you're considering the 206BW u should really be chosing between the Rose Red and Aqua as I said above, they are the replacements for the 206BW model...
 
Report back what you end up getting.

Still undecided myself. As I suffer from lots of thunder flies getting in my current monitor, I don't fancy paying the premium for the NEC 20WGX2 Pro.
 
I'm now thinking of getting a 24" :eek:

While 24" monitors are rather big, I recently checked the dimensions of the screen itself on a number of models, and I think it may be suitable. So now I've got to look at 24" models too :p

I think I'll try a 24", and if it turns out to be too big, I'll replace it with a 20". So I need to find a suitable 24" monitor with low input lag, and little to no ghosting visible.
 
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