A CRT goodbye and some monitor advice

Slogan

Slogan

Slogan

Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2006
Posts
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Will try to keep this quick.

  • What is the best lcd I can get for £500 or less?
  • Is it possible/practical to use your lcd monitor as a tv?

I'm getting a new desk this week, to fit the room. I currently have a 19" CRT for the computer and a 28" television - both of which are fairly heavyweight and take up too much room.

I'm looking forward to being able to see the desk my monitor is sitting on, so I'm making the 'much dreaded' leap from CRT.

The priority for the new monitor would be to work well with games; the reason why I'm so late in switching.

In regards to using a monitor as a tv, is it generally a good idea? Or would I be better just saving up the pennies and getting a tv later down the line?

Thanks for any advice.

Slogan
 
The 20WMGX2 is great although its a little on the small side sitting next to my GDM-FW900 24" CRT, My main gripe with the 20WMGX2 (and any LCD ive tried) is the poor black levels when watching movies or gaming at night ,I also prefer the CRTs color, although its not quite as 'vibrant' as the LCD it just seems to be showing a wider color range (color gamut?) but I tend to use the CRT for Movies & Games and the LCD for web browsing / text work.

Camera focus & settings weren't ideal here but I mainly took it to show size differance.

fw900_20wmgx2.jpg
 
If I could get a 2407WFP for under £500, would it be a better option than the 20WGX2?

It's just that 20.1" is a bit smaller than I'd have wanted, with that sort of budget - although if it's much better 'quality-wise' then it would obviously make it more of a 'considerable' purchase.
 
Why not just get a 26 inch (or 32) HDTV... if you really only game, you dont need super high resolutions. OCUK have a 32" TV for about 400. And at 1366x768 you need less GPU power than 1920x1200.
 
I do a load of stuff on the comp (photoshop, video editing) - I just meant that in buying a new monitor, I would like it to play games well.

I'm think buying a seperate HDTV later down the line would be a better job. I foresee a mass of connections and complication.

I forgot to mention I would be running this from an 640mb 8800, incase that's significant.
 
Slogan said:
I do a load of stuff on the comp (photoshop, video editing) - I just meant that in buying a new monitor, I would like it to play games well.

I'm think buying a seperate HDTV later down the line would be a better job. I foresee a mass of connections and complication.

I forgot to mention I would be running this from an 640mb 8800, incase that's significant.
Click to expand...

What about getting a 20" widescreen now, and then saving the rest of the money and buying a 26" HDTV. Its easy to setup, as you could use DVI to VGA to plug it in to the monitor, and there you go. Use the TV for gaming, the 20" wide screen for work. You could even use the TV to place documents/filebrowers/palettes.
 
BFG_9000 said:
Can't beat a good CRT for gaming.. :D
Click to expand...

seconded, my teams sponsor is harrow lan (omega sektor) and there we have 5 top end comps for our disposal (core2duo's and 7950gx2's) and a private room :) but they are all using NEC 19GX2 monitors and whilst they are still very good monitors for gaming i would always take a CRT over it due to the difference in response time (and yes i can tell, especially in cs 1.6)
 
harris1986 said:
seconded, my teams sponsor is harrow lan (omega sektor) and there we have 5 top end comps for our disposal (core2duo's and 7950gx2's) and a private room :) but they are all using NEC 19GX2 monitors and whilst they are still very good monitors for gaming i would always take a CRT over it due to the difference in response time (and yes i can tell, especially in cs 1.6)
Click to expand...

I can see why , although my 20GMGX2 has very little motion blur it just doesnt feel quite as responsive as the CRT, Even just moving the mouse pointer around in windows has a slight stutter / blur effect on the LCD yet its perfectly fluid on the CRT, plus it does have slight input lag which I verified doing the stopwatch test (both monitors were set @ 1680x1050 60hz to avoid any discrepancies):

The LCD had 13ms lag here which seemed to be the average out of the several shots I took:
Lagtest-crt_left_lcd_on_the_right3.jpg


33ms lag in this shot :eek:
Lagtest-crt_left_lcd_on_the_right2.jpg
 
It is possible to get a Dell 2407WFP A03 for under £500 - I just paid £495 inc P+P for one this morning, should be arriving tomorrow :D
 
Budget has taken a bit of a hit. In that it has pretty much halved. :D (£250 max)

I've decided to come back and have another go at this. I'm eager to go LCD but obviously want a screen I can be settled with.

I've made a shortlist of:

  • Samsung 226BW

    22" Widescreen
    1680x1050

  • Dell E228WFP

    22" Widescreen
    1680x1050

  • Dell E207WFP

    20.1" Widescreen
    1680x1050

I'm really not up to date on all the types of panels, connections, response times, 1:1 mapping, contrast ratios etc...but I just want a monitor that can handle games and general light usage.

I assume the extra 2 inches on the Samsung and E228WFP are of no real advantage, given how they're the same native res as the 20.1 inch E207WFP?

Any suggestions of other montiors are welcome of course. I'm also doing research on all three suggested monitors, so I'm just looking a bit more of a 'personal opinion' as opposed to the propaganda that is advertising.

Thanks in advance.
 
You can pick up a DELL 2407 A04 well under £500 from a well known auction site. Mine is fantastic!
 
GM@N said:
You can pick up a DELL 2407 A04 well under £500 from a well known auction site. Mine is fantastic!
Click to expand...

I've chopped and changed through the time of this thread.

I think I'll just bide my time, save up and get one of those 2407's when I can afford it.

Damn budgets.
 
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