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Revision of Monitors monitors monitors... from Tue, 10/06/2008 - 08:44

Fuzz's picture

Since the beginning of time I’ve used a CRT monitor, and for the last few years it’s been a 21” Sony trinitron CRT. It does a great res (2048×1536, or 1600×1200 as its optimal res) so I’m used to a fairly high res and get a little antsy when I don’t have heaps of screen real estate.

Well, the 21” CRT is to put it nicely past it’s best so I’m on the market for a new monitor. I’m well aware of the advantages of CRTs for gaming, but not many of them are made these days and I don’t think I’d trust buying one off ebay that was probably made as long ago as mine.

So it will be an LCD, but hopefully one that’s suited to gaming. I’d love to hear what everyones using for a monitor on their gaming PC’s and how they find it. Any advantages / disadvantages of one brand over another. Anything specific you would say to get or not to get. Pretty much anything to do with LCD’s, gaming and general usage, I’d be interested in hearing.

I’m mostly interested in 24” monitors simply due to their res (1900×1200). I have a 22 at work and it’s not enough screen real estate, so if it was going to be a 22, it would be 2 side by side. For a while I was waiting on the Dell 24” ultra sharp models to drop in price but I just found out their latest models are S-PVA which aren’t great for gaming due to input lag so that forced me to have a bit of a look elsewhere at TN panels.

I’m liking the look of the new Samsungs, which have a $100 cash back offer right now.

Either

  • 24” – 5ms, 10,000:1 DC ratio (1000:1 normal contrast ratio), 400cdm. 160/160 viewing angle. Model 2493HM. Prices from $575 to $680 depending where you look, less $100 cashback
  • 25.5” – as above, but 25.5”. Model 2693HM. Prices from $699 to $799 depending where you look, less $100 cashback.
  • 2×22”‘s – 22”, 300cdm, and viewing angles 170/160 – 2 of these = a little over $600.

Found a good review of many of the current 24” monitors here – http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=3302&p=1

Budget is up to $600 so both fit into that with the $100 cash back.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Fuzz

Comments

Robag's picture

Hi Fuzz Here is a start

Hi Fuzz
Here is a start

Altech are a bit to $$$ i know you can get them cheaper

NEW! Samsung 24” 245B+ TFT Wide Format Monitor – Black, Max. Resolution 1920 × 1200, 5ms Response Time, Digital / Analog Interface
http://www.altech.com.au/productinfo.aspx?id=17518

BenQ V2400W 24” Widescreen LCD Monitor – Glossy Black, Resolution; 1920×1200 (WUXGA), 2ms Response, Typical Contrast Ratio 4000:1
http://www.altech.com.au/productinfo.aspx?id=16361

PC Casegear is another place to look better prices

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=558&zenid=d6e3...

I have the 19” version of the Samsung LCD I am very Happy with it..

hope this helps

Ta
Robag

Fuzz's picture

Thanks Robag. Yeah I was

Thanks Robag.

Yeah I was using http://staticice.com to come up with my lowest prices. Great little site that. I’m leaning towards the newer model Samsung’s (2493hm) as opposed to the cheaper older model (245B). There’s a few differences, one’s the brightness.

Great to hear you like your Samsung, that definitely helps. A friend just got the 2×22” combo and loves it too.

There’s also the consideration of running games at the native resolution. So to play full screen games at native res they’d need to be able to run at 1900×1200. Thats a pretty heavy ask. QW will run fine with my single 8800gtx, but Crysis and newer games would be an issue.

Quick question for anyone – do any of you play games full screen at a resolution other than your native one? I hear it’s supposed to look really bad.

chipper's picture

VX2235wm

Hey Fuzz,

I just went the ViewSonic 22”, at the time basically all 22” screens were from the same manufacturer (apart from some mythical Samsung type B screens which came out in some batches but there was no guarantee of getting). To be honest it has been fine for gaming and general work. I don’t watch movies on it so can’t comment on that . Next time though I would go for a 24” plus which are a better quality of screen anyway.

Just remember to check the dead pixel warranty!! Pretty sure the Samsung one was good.

cheers,

chipper

Hashy's picture

I’m still on the old

I’m still on the old HITACHI CM721F (19”) CRT. When I was looking into what I would eventually upgrade to, I decided it would be a 24” wide screen LCD at least. Ok ok, 22”-24” will suffice.. But when I came across the question of the old response time issues, I guess I was a bit in the dark.. But I came across plenty of 5ms LCD monitors. I would be trying to hunt down a 3ms, as they currently exist.. But hey they will eventually be 2ms, then 1ms… Then we get into the fractions of that. Its just gonna take a bit more time. This one LCD I used many years ago was fine, did the trick. I havn’t used an LCD lately really, but I would bet it would be satisfactory, I’m more worried about dead pixels then not getting 100% “perfect” FPS.

I say just do it, get an LCD and don’t worry too much about “the gap”, its closing anyway.

HarassmentPanda's picture

22" Benq

I like it. Picked it up for around the $300 mark. Except for the occasional motion sickness when I haven’t played for a long time, can’t complain.

I would get a viewsonic as

I would get a viewsonic as over all the reasearch i have done regards LCD’S i have found that they have the least flaws and problems as well as value for your dollar.
http://www.viewsonic.com.au/products/productspecs.php?id=292
http://www.viewsonic.com.au/products/lcd/

Good to see you have bitten the bullet and gone to a LCD you will never look back.

Zoomer17

Sha8doW's picture

Zoomer

Zoomer… WTF!?

Fuzz's picture

thanks

Thanks for the tips guys. It’s really interesting to hear what you’re all using.

Zoomer – viewsonic’s look good. Unfortunately they don’t seem to sell any 24”‘s. They have a 26” but that’s getting a bit pricey.

The benq 24” looks good. 2ms too.

Time to bite the bullet and buy before the boss changes her mind :)

Fuzz's picture

Finally bit the bullet a

Finally bit the bullet a week ago and picked up the 24” Samsung 2493hm. Very happy with it. Playing QW at 1920×1080 in a window with enough space to see IM’s outside. Very nice. Also picked up a G15 rev 2 keyboard, not minding that either. Its got a little LCD up the top which shows some of your ETQW stats as you’re playing. I’m thinking of downloading an IRC app for it and having it display the IPX chat room while I’m playing.

Last step is the mouse. Probably going for the G5 mouse or the Ikari optical with a razer mousepad…. mousepads – probably a topic for another blog one day. I know n0mad’s had great experiences with the razer mats.

Anyway thanks for all the help / recommendations regarding the LCD.

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