New monitor time. Talk me out of it...

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Gav

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if you can!!

I am looking for a new monitor and i am quite interested in this:

Viewsonic VA2025W (EDIT: not 2012w as previous)

Is there any reason not to go for it? It's main use will be photoshop and office packages so it shouldn't get to stressed but i am quite partial to a CS:S bout and maybe some UT and Quake from time to time.

Other systems specs are:

P4 3.0 on an Abit IC7Max3
1.5gig ddr400
6800GT (Edit: not a 7800GT as previously mentioned)
 
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Gav said:
if you can!!

I am looking for a new monitor and i am quite interested in this:

Viewsonic VA2012W 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-051-VS)

Is there any reason not to go for it? It's main use will be photoshop and office packages so it shouldn't get to stressed but i am quite partial to a CS:S bout and maybe some UT and Quake from time to time.

Other systems specs are:

P4 3.0 on an Abit IC7Max3
1.5gig ddr400
7800GT
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Whats your budget my good man?
 
Gav said:
up to around £350. Dont fancy spending 500+ on an NEC
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They're £420 mate, and well worth the investment! Trust me the difference in qualty over other brands is well worth the extra £70, and its not a short-term investment. :)
 
muddyfox470 said:
you can get dell 2005fpw's for £250 atm

a bit of searching is all you need

Ian
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Not being funny but i am in the market for a decent monitor and, from what i have read on a few sites, these monitors just cant hack it. Too slow, not bright enough etc..

The NEC and the Viewsonic are rated extremely highly so all i have to do is decide which one.
 
The NEC is far superior to the Viewsonc in every single way, the difference is like night and day.

Its the best 20.1" widescreen bar none, the only negative is the price, but you pa for what you get...
 
mmm. starting to sway now but i still dont see why its worth the extra. After all the Viewsonic took top awards from Bit-tech
 
I'll have a go at talking you out of it Gav :p

The VA2012W is not a bad screen, but I think for your uses, you might not find it the best. It is based on an 8ms TN Film panel from CPT, and TN Film isn't really the best panel technolgy for photo work and colour accuracy. There have been good improvements over the last year or so in this area, but they still don't match the colour quality of PVA/MVA or IPS panels. The panel used is also only a 6-Bit panel, offering quite a low colour depth (really only 262k colours) but with dithering / FRC used to offer a viewable 16.2 million colours. Black depth is also not really TN Film's strong point, and this might be an issue to you too.

If you can stretch to the NEC LCD20WGX2, the AS-IPS panel offers some excellent colour reproduction, and a true 8 bit (16.7 million colours) colour depth. Black depth is good as well, and the use of LG.Philip's Digital Fine Contrast (DFC) helps in this area as well offering some staggering contrast ratio figures (1600:1!!!) and helping to improve black depth beyond what TN Film can offer. If you decide you don't want to extend the budget, then there are a couple of models like the Belinea 102035W which uses P-MVA panels. Again, these offer better colour reproduction and black depth than TN Film. I just think that as a photo worker, it would be a shame to settle for the drawbacks of TN Film when other panel technlogies are far more suited

hth
 
Baddass said:
I'll have a go at talking you out of it Gav :p

The VA2012W is not a bad screen, but I think for your uses, you might not find it the best. It is based on an 8ms TN Film panel from CPT, and TN Film isn't really the best panel technolgy for photo work and colour accuracy. There have been good improvements over the last year or so in this area, but they still don't match the colour quality of PVA/MVA or IPS panels. The panel used is also only a 6-Bit panel, offering quite a low colour depth (really only 262k colours) but with dithering / FRC used to offer a viewable 16.2 million colours. Black depth is also not really TN Film's strong point, and this might be an issue to you too.

If you can stretch to the NEC LCD20WGX2, the AS-IPS panel offers some excellent colour reproduction, and a true 8 bit (16.7 million colours) colour depth. Black depth is good as well, and the use of LG.Philip's Digital Fine Contrast (DFC) helps in this area as well offering some staggering contrast ratio figures (1600:1!!!) and helping to improve black depth beyond what TN Film can offer. If you decide you don't want to extend the budget, then there are a couple of models like the Belinea 102035W which uses P-MVA panels. Again, these offer better colour reproduction and black depth than TN Film. I just think that as a photo worker, it would be a shame to settle for the drawbacks of TN Film when other panel technlogies are far more suited

hth
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Cheers mate but i made a boo boo. It should have been the VX2025 model not the 2012 model. Still swaying towards the NEC though. !!
 
ah right, well that changes it a bit! :) This BeHardware comparison might help a bit, compares the two. Both are very good screens. Colour accuracy is still better on the NEC thanks to it's AS-IPS panel. Responsiveness is excellent for gaming as well. If you can stretch the money, it might well be worth it. The VX2025WM is still a very good screen though, and i think would also meet your needs if you needed to keep the budget low
 
It's not so much of a buget issue. As a tight scotsman i hate spending money on things that simply arent worth it.

The Viewsonic looks impressive at that price and it did get the higher award. The NEC has a shiny screen and is about 70 quid more expensive. Is it worth it?
 
Gav said:
It's not so much of a buget issue. As a tight scotsman i hate spending money on things that simply arent worth it.

The Viewsonic looks impressive at that price and it did get the higher award. The NEC has a shiny screen and is about 70 quid more expensive. Is it worth it?
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don't base the decision too much on Bit-techs quite frankly brief review :) The NEC does get excellent reviews across the board really. Very hard to say whether the extra £70 is worth it, tough call which i guess only you can answer. Take a look at all the info on both models in the sticky as well, should help you
 
I brought the viewsonic last week, read loads of reviews and went for it in the end based on price and avalbility ( i can't stand waiting for things to come back into stock :cool: )
Just after i ordered it i heard several bad things about its build quality so when it arrived i was almost scared to turn it on.

*I* am very pleased with it though, its a big leap from my hitachi 17" tft and everything looks 10x better on it.
 
I would also think about depreciation. It won't be long before we see 23-24" screens, which will drive down the price of 20" screens. So if you bought the NEC for £420 +Postage you might be pretty gutted when you come to sell it or see larger screens for the same price. After all its exactly the same size as the Philips and Viewsonic.
 
after much deliberation i have decided to go for the NEC. Cheers for the halp guys.
 
Gav said:
after much deliberation i have decided to go for the NEC. Cheers for the halp guys.
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Great choice mate. If you're a gamer don't worry about 23" monitors for another year or more as playing the upcoming latest games at 1900x1200 with all details maxed is going to require a LOT of graphical horsepower... SLI or crossfire at least.

The 20" screens are the best combo of size and functionality, and the NEC outshines them all. I genuinely have nothing bad to say about my monitor, though it did take me an RMA to get a perfect model. My first screen had minor bleed in the bottom left and a wonky button, but NEC were blinding at swapping it out for a new one, and even pre-testing it for bleed before they sent it out to me.

However the talk is pointless, you'll see what I mean when you fire it up. :D
 
Have to say I am well impressed with My relatively new Dell 2005 for games etc, but undoubtedly the newer screens will better it. Pity so many still have back bleed problems

Hope your choice works well for you
 
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