Looking for a new monitor

I'm in the market for a new LCD monitor of at least 19" size. I'd like to spend no more than $400-450.

I was wondering what monitors all of you would recommend. Game play comes first but clarity of text is also important.

Check out Dell's Monitors. The UltraSharps. They are fantastic and cheaper in cost then Sony or Viewsonic. I have a 20.1 LCD and it is now about $550.00. The 19" is well within your price range.

EDIT:
Here is the web page for Dell monitors. The 20" widescreen is $439.00. That is a sweet little display. http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/c...9&l=en&s=d hs

I have a samsung 940b and I love it, very good picture quality, digital or analog, no dead pixels.

Very nice indeed. I have been wanting to get a Dell LCD for some time.

/me starts saving some extra money.

The only thing I do not like about their UltraSharp 19" LCD is that it's a 25ms one. The 20" and up are 16-12ms. That is why I got the 20.1" 4:3 ratio UltraSharp. Was the 16ms. The 20" Widescreen in 4:3 mode is like a 17" so I would rather have the 24" Widescreen....sadly it is just out of my price range...better put...Mrs Dood's Allowable price range for me.

i love dell monitors but don't know how good fast gaming looks on them. i'm also not sure if i should look at regular square monitors or widescreens.

i currently use a 21" nec and everything looks great on it.

also, is there a big difference in viewing areas between 21" crt's and 19" lcd's?

Yes in my opinion there is a big difference. Also the 4:3 ratio 20.1" screen is faster then the 19" 4:3 ratio screen.

Mine is at 16ms. I have not seen any "blurr effect" at all. I run movies and games through it. I love my monitor...it has 4 USB jacks and it can be turned 90 degrees. Also it has height ajustment up to 18".

They are the best bang for the buck out there in monitors. Make sure you look at the UltraSharps...not their regular analog ones.

hi Dood

i have a 75 pound nec FE2111sb here that has given very good duty for years now

old dood, your dell 20.1" lcd is not widescreen, correct?

i'm not sure i want a widescreen monitor since not many games take advantage of widescreens yet.

Correct. Mine is the 2001 FP UltraSharp. The Widescreen 20.1" is a 2005FPW. I'll say this my friend has the 2405FPW 24" Widescreen and Guild Wars looks fantastic in widescreen.

EDIT: opps...Hello Loviatar! Yes, I still have my older Dell Sony Trintron 19" P991 CRT. It was a great monitor..it is failing now tho...

Just some opinion.

For gaming, I wouldn't want to look at much less than an 8ms response time, and 700:1 contrast ratio. Even more so if you play some FPS like Fear, or even good ol' Counter Strike. I would also counsel to stay away from Wide screen at this time. Guild Wars does a lovely job scaling to any resolution possible (I'm loving 1600 x 1200) including WS, but many other games simply do not support it and the textures would all be 'stretched' out of proportion. I'm sitting in front of a Dell 17" at work right now, good brightness. Have no idea what model / response time it has, plus I can't say I've gamed on it seeing as it's at work.

I just recently acquired a nice Samsung 214T. Its a lovely 21" with an 8ms response time at 900:1 contrast ratio running natively at 1600 x 1200. Speaking of native resolution, something else to consider about LCDs is that they don't particularly look great (if even good) at resolutions lower than their max. For most 19" montiors (if not all) that would be 1280 x 1024, something to consider for gaming is the power of the overall system to support that resolution. For gaming purposes the ability to rotate on horizontal or rotate the screen 90^ isn't a real big thing. I would definitly consider going for one with height adjustability. I recently help in the purchase of a new 19" for my Bro for Xmas. It was a Samsung 930 I believe... 700:1 and 8ms response. I've heard no complaints from him, and though I've only seen it once ghosting is basically non-existant and it is a bright and vibrant monitor.

Personally I do believe Samsung (even though I've only had the monitor for a couple weeks) is a good name brand of high quality. My previous monitor was a BenQ 19" LCD, and although it was a great monitor too it came out back when LCD was new and suffered some ghosting as it was only a 25ms response time.

I was gonna go into tirade mode, but he just said it all. Only addenda I got is that a lot of games offer updates for widescreen modes.

Check out this one.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...62#description

It's 20.1 Samsung 700:1 with response time of 16ms
It's $480 - $80 rebate

I am not sure but I think the Samsungs are the models Dell uses. they sure look like it...or maybe LG...but, I think it is the Samsungs. In anycase that sure sounds just like my Dell monitor. 20.1",16ms, etc.

at this moment, both my wife and i are going to buy the dell ultrasharp 2005FPW 20.1" widescreen LCD. response time is 12ms. contrast is listed as 600:1.

let me ask, if i play a game that is not made for widescreen and i play it on this monitor, will the game stretch out covering the whole viewing area or will the game's image stay square as if i was playing in window mode?

also, if the dell's max resolution is 1680x1050, does that mean the picture will not be clear in 1280x1024 resolution?

thanks everyone!

It streches on mylaptop widescreen display so I figure the same would happen here. Just run it in Window Mode.

so if a game doesn't have the option to run in window mode it will stretch and everything will look distorted?

No! It will look like a square in the middle. You can stretch it if you want too. What is nice about WideScreens is that you can open more windows on it and have the space to do so.

I have the dell 20.1 widescreen.
You wont regret buying it.

On the contrary you actually lose some space on Widescreen displays, depending on which ones you are comparing and at which resoultions. For example, most 19" monitors max out at 1280 x 1024, and my 17.4" (I think) WS notebook is maxxed at 1440 x 900. Now on the x-axis you are gaining over the 1280, but you on the y-axis you do end up losing some.

Pixel math:
1280 x 1024 = 1,310,720
1440 x 900 = 1,296,000

1600 x 1200 = 1,920,000
1680 x 1050 = 1,764,000

I guess it all comes down to user perspective, and the type of work being performed on the system. You could for instance fit more 'narrow' type windws (say ala MSN Messenger) accross the screen in a WS format. There is a 1900ish resolution in WS, that would definitly gain some space over conventional 4:3.

Good info there TekLord! I was not totally sold on the 20.1" Widescreen. The 4:3 ratio 20.1" is a better monitor for me anyways. My native resolution is 1600x1200...and I like that.

EDIT: And at 16ms for me has caused no problems at all. I have not seen any blurr effect and I have played many fast action games and DVDs with it too.

It's done. My wife and I just ordered two 2005FPW's.

Thanks everyone for the input!