Help with new Monitor, £250max budget

[Pulley]

Hi all, after deciding my HG281D (28" widescreen LCD) is heading for the grave I think it's best to get a new one as per thread title with that budget....and by max I do mean max, I know it's not a lot but it's all I can afford anytime soon so nearer £200 would be better but can appreciate that might get me nothing!

I've had a quick browse at the shop site but to be perfectly honest I know nothing about monitors, I saw the BenQ GW2760 27" in a Deal but noticed it has no HDMI connection so that's no good. Then there's a few in my price range but all LED and that's totally new to me as well

If it helps here's what I mainly need it for:

- needs to be 26"+
- I mainly play Car Racing Simulations/Games so the bigger the better.
- Fast Refresh Rate as per the above, not sure how these work but input lag on the screen to steering wheel lag is a big no-no and I've been told the faster the refresh rate the better, although Im not expecting 120 with my limited budget so 60 may have to do unless you know otherwise.

That's all, any help will be greatly appreciated as I'm lost

 

[GMac11]

Well for your fast refresh/response times you'll be wanting a TN panel monitor - which is ideal as these are at the cheaper end of the market. £250 should give you your pick of 27 inch screens in that area.

One that stands out for me is the Iiyama Prolite: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-077-IY&groupid=17&catid=1120

A good bit more than the BenQ admittedly but has a 1ms response time and HDMI input. I can also say from experience, having owned one, that it is a top monitor and Iiyama are a very reliable brand.

Another thing I would say though is not to get too hung up on response times. A large number will say it's imperative but I find this is mainly for the FPS genre. I myself am a massive racing game enthusiast and own all the F1 titles, Grids, Assetto Corsa etc - you name I have it or have had it. And in my experience I have played on screens with response times as high as 25-30ms and have noticed no problems whatsoever - but then maybe I'm just slow!

Hope some of this helps.

 

[PCM2]

Some very important reading for both of you - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18566417.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to opt for a TN panel from a responsiveness perspective these days unless you're looking at a high refresh rate model. The Iiyama E2773HS is no more responsive in practice than a good IPS model like the AOC i2757Fm (or a properly configured ASUS MX279H which is a bit beyond your budget but stocked at OcUK) and the colour performance simply isn't as good. The richness and subtle shade variety just can't match a decent modern AH-IPS model. It's also important to note that 'response times' refer to pixel response times, which as mentioned in the thread linked to and article linked therin, are only important up to a point. A point which depends on the refresh rate of the monitor. GMac11 is referring to latency/input lag/signal delay rather than response time. For the models you're looking at latency will not be an issue - 1080p 27" models all tend to have very low input lag these days.