New Monitor Advice?

Bozebo

Bozebo

Bozebo

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10 Oct 2008
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353
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Dundee
Hi, monitors is one of the things I have the most trouble deciding upon: on the face of it many are very similar so you can't tell which is good without asking somebody, they are quite expensive and they determine the overall graphical output you should possess.

I was looking into monitors before Christmas but they were all upped in price to ridiculous proportions, so I have been looking again recently and most of the reasonable looking ones have dropped by about £70 - yay.

Currently I am on a rubbish Samsung SyncMaster 172v (analogue) - 76 Hz 1280x1024 with bad viewing angles a horrid contrast ratio, and low colour quality.

I really want a tried and tested 16:10 ratio monitor with nice picture quality and good overall build quality (so it doesn't die 1 day after the warranty runs out) with 22" size and 1680 x 1050 resolution (I guess 1080 would be good if the price doesn't escalate or it doesn't fail in another area). Contrast ratio - the higher the better of course. As for response time... can anyone actually notice? How many kills would a 4ms response time net you in cs over an 8ms one? and of course you would just blame it on the reg if you were 8ms late on the kill. Plus, at 100 fps you wouldn't notice any difference... would you? (my understanding of response time is pretty much nonexistant by the way, just kidding you on :D)

I have seen some monitors which seem to do the job but they are always made by cheap sounding manufacturers so I would expect them to leak or have some other big flaws.

As for speakers and tv tuners and all that rubbish - I honestly don't care. They are stupid gimmicks that have hardly any use, particularly speakers - monitor speakers are always inferior and who; buying a widescreen, low response time, high contrast ratio, high resolution, wide viewing angle monitor; won't be using a headset or a nice set of stereo or 5.1 speakers?
The only thing I would indeed like in that respect is a 2nd input (vga) for 720p (scaled out of native, eww) so I could plug in my xbox and sell my samsung hdtv which looks terrible when a pc connects to it.

A local retailer seems to have good prices on a small range of monitors, but are they appropriate quality? The reviews I find are all auto-generated; wth.

What I am asking in the end here is: are there any particular monitors that shine out above the rest for their price range? Like if I was asking about hdds then I would get about 20 replies saying "WD Caviar Black" - and rightly so. What are your experiences in the monitor world? and is there a specific monitor you hear about being great?

Thanks for your time - I know it felt like proofreading with my very odd structuring style :(
 
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I've heard nothing but good things about that Dell monitor. A couple of reviews i've read have called it "the best 22-inch monitor yet"

But of course, it has been out a little while now, since January this year. Since then, a few 1080p monitors have been released...

For the same size, a higher resolution means a crisper picture. Yes, most are TN panels at the moment, but it depends what you want it for.

1920x1080 of course is full 1080p HD, which would be very nice if you had a blu-ray drive, or if you get a monitor with HDMI input, you could run a PS3/360 through it, and get an awesome picture.

This is just my opinion at the moment, as I haven't got a 1080p monitor. When i've sorted car problems (may need to get a new one) i'll be looking at buying one of these monitors. If you're still looking for one then, i'll let you know how it is.

I'm a gamer, so the fast response times of TN are pretty good, and stuff like overdrive, and other such things mean the cheaper panels can look really good. Especially interested in the LG freeview monitor, as it doubles as a TV. I have limited space for a full TV as well, so this sounds perfect.
 
wow yeah, I have just been looking at the Dell 2209WA, was about to edit my first post to say so but I have replies ^_^

tbh, 1080 sounds like it could be good too. But some games hate the aspect ratio I hear? Or is that a myth - if the screen supports 1:1 so I can just slap in the 1680 x 1050 inside it would rock. I can sell my samsung tv for over 100 quid, yays.

Also worth saying, my graphics solution is 9800GT 512MB in sli, so it can handle 1050 nicely but might cower from 1080 if I want high frame rates - but I will look into a dx11 card halfway through next year probably, whenever win7 drops in price.
 
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Newer games will support any resolution that your monitor can output. But older ones might not even support widescreen!

For instance, battlefield Vietnam (excellent, old game) needs a .ini modification to run at 1680x1050 (using the nvidia control panel to increase antialiasing, makes the game look sweet as.)

If you want to watch lots of movies, go with the 1080 monitors. If you're mostly going to be using it for gaming and/or general PC use, you may be better off with 1680x1050.

Also yes, the 9800GT will probably suffer in playing games on 1080p. I used to have an 8800GT that suffered a bit playing Oblivion on 1680x1050...

Go for the Dell, if you can get hold of one. They seem to be out of stock everywhere.
 
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