New Monitor needed ~£200? NOW UPPED TO £300!

Thekwango

Thekwango

Thekwango

Soldato
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N. Ireland
so my trusty ~7 year old BenQ is in it's death throes , so it's time to replace.

pc is only ever used for gaming so don't need a 37 inch monster with perfect colour reproduction.

current gpu is a lowly R9 380x and unfortunately no real plans to update it - unless of course some silly deal pops up.

so with all that in mind i'd say i'd be looking for 24inch, 1080p, freesync and maybe 144mhz if possible - budget wise i'd prefer to keep as close to 200 quid (or rather her indoors would :rolleyes:) so is this at all possible or am I only looking at bottom of barrel monitors with that spec and that budget?

advise me folks :D
 
southernorth said:
The other two I would recommend are the:

ViewSonic XG2401/XG2402 and Samsung C24FG70/73.


The Samsung's have substantially better colour accuracy and contrast than the other 2 I mentioned, but costs ~£250. The Viewsonic's has very slightly better picture quality than the LG, but also costs ~£250 at the moment.


There are also a few even cheaper 144hz monitors, but I wouldn't recommend them as they have much worse picture quality in comparison.
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Funny I was going to post up about the sammy and viewsonic you mention as a bit of googling had brought both up. I know I said a 200 quid budget but to be honest I don't mind pushing the budget up for better quality.
 
Bit if csgo and pubg is about it. The gpu will be getting replaced there's just nowt appealing from amd at the mo. An Rx 580 maybe but prices are just daft currently.
 
Yea I saw that 580, but as you say perf jump isn't really enough.

I'm thinking of just waiting it out for another couple of months on the gpu front to see what chrimbo/new year brings - prices are just all over the place at the minute.

Think I'll rule the sammy monitor out, don't like curved monitors.

But the viewsonic doesn't look too bad.
 
southernorth said:
Apart from being a large size, it's a worse monitor than the previous ones I mentioned.

For the Samsung, what was putting you off the curve?
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Looked at one in a bricks and mortar shop a while back (can't remember the make/model) and it just didn't feel right, visually looked great but just the whole curve thing felt weird! Hard to explain really!!
 
southernorth said:
That's fair enough. From what I've read the curve is a bit odd at first, but your eyes quickly adjust and it just becomes a regular monitor in your mind (slightly more immersive also).

I do wish Samsung just made it flat though, curves are much more beneficial on larger monitor, not so much on 24inches


For the 27in monitor, that size is a bit large for only 1080p in my opinion. Gaming is also 'better' on a 24inch screen, as you don't have to move your eyes around the screen so much.
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Yea the more I read up on monitors the more I see 24 inch is the 'sweet spot' for 1080p

I get the idea behind the curve screens, in fact when we upgraded the lounge tv a few months back I wanted a curve screen for that very reason (immersion) but her-indoors, much like me with the monitor couldn't warm to the idea.

PCM2 said:
You certainly can't judge how a curve works by glancing down at a screen in a shop. Or indeed spending such a brief period of times looking at it, even if you're eyes are at the correct level. I have considerable experience with curved models of various sizes and certainly feel it's easy to adapt to. It becomes a subtle but welcome addition - I agree, though, that it is most beneficial on relatively large and wide screens. That's not to say it's useless (refer to my Samsung review linked to above) on a 24" model, though.
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I agree wholeheartedly, 15 minutes staring at a screen from the wrong angle is not the best way to judge its merits. Sadly I'm a stuck in the mud, limited spare time 40+ year old, so 'change' scares me :p I just want to buy a screen I can 'jump into' without having to adjust.

Edit: I appreciate the time and effort with the advice btw.
 
Sorry for the delayed reply! Cheers for all the comments advice. Though I fear it's just made my decision all the harder!! Lol
 
southernorth said:
No, the Viewsonic's image quality looks very similar but doesn't have a strobing backlight like the LG. Also, subjectively it looks too 'gamery' in my opinion.

I'd say just order it mate, see how you like it and return if it's not for you. It's a great price.
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I think you're right. Im only gonna flaff round not making mind up and buy something in a 'fit' some night!!
Coming from a ~7 year old monitor and currently having to use a 'borrowed' 21inch non gaming monitor from work I doubt I'll fail to be impressed. Plus as you say if I am I can just return it.
 
so the monitor arrived today as expected.

must say it's very impressive, no daft 'go faster stripes' or such nonsense.

out of the box the picture is very very impressive, but as I say coming from a ~7 year old monitor I guess it was always going to be. unfortunately after about an hour of use it has developed a stuck blue pixel. I've tried all the usual fixes without joy so unfortunately back it goes. :(
 
southernorth said:
That's good, and bad, to hear mate. Are you going to get a replacement or get a different model?
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Just gonna get a replacement, shame the price has gone up 20 quid though. Definitely worth it even at the higher price. It's a lovely piece of kit with a multitude of options to play with if you want to tweak the image. PUBG plays so much more smoothly even though I'm at the lower end of the freesync with my current gpu.
 
southernorth said:
I'm sure OCuk would honour that original lower price for the replacement. Did you try the strobing backlight in a game like CS:GO or Overwatch?
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Only played pubg so far. No idea yet how to turn on the strobing backlight!

Decided not to play about too much once I saw the stick pixel :(
 
So, just turned the pc on to start the returns process and immediately noticed where there had previously been a stuck blue pixel there now was............NONE!!:D:D

Time to get messing with the settings!!

Edit:damn stuck pixel is back again :mad::mad: seems once the screen has been on a while it gets 'stuck' which is a bit weird. Anywho, other than that I love it!
 
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