Revisions for Monitors monitors monitors...

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