New Monitor:

[Darus Grey]

I havn't bought a new monitor in about 8 years now, so I'm abit out of the loop.

I just put together a new PC with an 8800GTX so I can actually push resolutions higher than my HDTV consistantly, so gonna actually get a new monitor.


I'm looking in the $200-$800 range, Much prefering something closer to $400 as the "Sweet spot", whats my options... whats "Good"...

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Edit: Forgot to add, I'd prefer 22+inch range(obviously just based on resolution range I want), and widescreen.

[Vorph]

I still think the 23" displays based on LG.Philips' SIPS panel are the best you can buy for a reasonable amount of money. To be honest though, you aren't getting a 1920x1200 display for much less than the top end of your price range.

Sony SDM-P234
HP L2335
Apple Cinema 23"

Those are three I know of offhand that use the LG panel. You probably won't find the Apple or HP for too great a price, but the Sony can be had for under $800 shipped and is pretty much identical to the others. A friend of mine has the Sony and bought a second one a week later so I think it's safe to say he's pretty happy with it.

I'd recommend looking at the Samsung 244t also, but it's a little above your price range.

[Darus Grey]

Thanks for reply, looked at them and am considering the sony for the price.

Though in reality looking myself and the ones you mentioned, I realized that I'd need to spend closer to 1.5grand to get something thats significantly better than what I'm already using(a 1080p tv), 1900x1200 seems like a damn minor upgrade.

I guess theres still the form factor issue, I find RTSs are way too diffacult to play competatively when you have a really large display, have to move your head to pan around screen too often.

I kinda thought monitors had really gone down in price on average over the years, I guess that only applied to 17-19inch models huh?

Thanks for the advice.

[Vorph]

I'd say 17-21 inch, but yeah. Anything over 1650x1080 is still pretty expensive.

[Grabbit Allworth]

I'm curious why you didn't suggest the Dell 2407.

It can be had for $600 on Ebay, or about $675 directly from Dell. Sure there's better, but it's a damn good monitor for a relatively low price.

[Laek]

The Dells always get good user reviews. I've been really happy with my LG 21" widescreen that I got for around $300. Not the greatest with small font text on a white background but overall colors are amazing and blacks are insane.

[Vorph]

Dell 2407 had color banding problems that weren't even totally fixed for everyone after the A02 upgrade. I haven't kept up with it since then, maybe it's all better now. I sure wouldn't buy one off ebay though, you're just asking to get someone's lemon.

And since the Sony is only about $75 more than the 2407, I would spend the extra cash to get a LG.Philips SIPS panel. Dell uses LG in the 2007 and 3007 but not the 2407, for some unknown/bizarre reason.

[Sanchek]

I've got a Dell 24" that I've had a little over a year and love long time.

[Zeste]

Originally Posted by Darus Grey

Thanks for reply, looked at them and am considering the sony for the price.

Though in reality looking myself and the ones you mentioned, I realized that I'd need to spend closer to 1.5grand to get something thats significantly better than what I'm already using(a 1080p tv), 1900x1200 seems like a damn minor upgrade.

I guess theres still the form factor issue, I find RTSs are way too diffacult to play competatively when you have a really large display, have to move your head to pan around screen too often.

I kinda thought monitors had really gone down in price on average over the years, I guess that only applied to 17-19inch models huh?

Thanks for the advice.

The apple 30" has dropped 1000 dollars in the last year. 2560 x 1600 really is the sweet spot.

It sounds like you're a man who is serious about his multimedia experience. Get a credit card and just bite the bullet. You think you'll ever regret having 30 fucking inches of sweetnees?

[Darus Grey]

The apple 30" has dropped 1000 dollars in the last year. 2560 x 1600 really is the sweet spot.

It sounds like you're a man who is serious about his multimedia experience. Get a credit card and just bite the bullet. You think you'll ever regret having 30 fucking inches of sweetnees?

Thing is I already have 60(or 104 if I wanna use my projector) inches of "Sweetness", part of the problem is my grossly misinformed friend made it sound like I could get a 2560X1600 type monitor for under a grand, I havn't used an actual computer monitor in many years, so I really had no idea what the market was like.
So I looked around and saw the high prices of those kinda models and got kinda turned off it.
Asked here because I thought maybe I was just missing some model, or some seller who had them obscenely cheap.

If best I can do under a grand is 1900x1200(basically what I already have with my 1080p's) than I might just get a smaller cheaper 1650x1080 just for the form factor aspect of it, as I pointed out, playing RTSs from a recliner simply does not work well at all.

Anyways, really do appreciate all the advice/comments, thanks once again to all.

[Twobit Whore]

If you want something cheap to throw on a desk, Office Depot has a Hanns-G 19inch widescreen for 179 bucks this week. It only goes to 1440x900, but I just picked one up and it is probably the best 19inch WXGA monitor I've seen for anywhere near that price. Hell, I paid that much for a 17 inch CRT 3 years ago.

5ms response time, no ghosting, 700:1 contrast. It's getting great reviews for a new company without big name presence.

Anyway, it's worth a look if you have an OfficeDepot nearby. 229-50instant savings for 179.99 until 1/20.

/shillmode off

[Zeste]

I bought this at Costco for 275, its a 20 inch widescreen LCD:

ViewSonic: Products: Desktop Displays: LCD Displays: Value Series: VA2012wb

its 1680x1050. It's perfectly fine and wasn't too expensive. It's not the best, but you sound like you've already go the best.

If you have a nice TV like you say, and a projector... I'd grab something like that for 300 bucks and just call it good.

It sounds like your either rich, or just prefer to invest in A/V stuff instead of computer stuff.


Also, I DO have to point out that in the Apple 30" display, the resolution is not only higher than your TV, but what is the ppi on a 60 inch TV? On the apples, its 100 ppi (points per inch).

to make the math easy, lets say that your 60" tv is 60 wide (not diagonal) and the 30" Apple is 30" wide.

Your TV would be 32 ppi compared to 100 ppi. Viewing distance and shit come into play as well, but the tiny pixels on a real computer LCD, to me, far outweigh the size of an HDTV.

I have a 50 inch 1080p TV that I used for games/computers like once... the ppi is just to big. The pixels on a good LCD monitor are around 1/3 the size of the HDTV. Yes, the screen is MUCH bigger on the TV, but for me, I prefer the clarity of a higher ppi.

Post your TV's ppi if you can, I'd like to know.

[Vorph]

Why would you pay $700+ more for an Apple 30" rather than the Dell 3007? I haven't seen the Apple in person, but they both use the same LG panel (some reviews indicate that the Dell is actually a newer revision, but Apple may have updated theirs since then) and I can't imagine Apple made a backlight that is worth paying so much more. Especially since Dell makes getting a replacement for any pixel/backlight problems trivial.

[Darus Grey]

I googled and couldn't get any clear number on thrown PPI, I have a KDS-602000A, and a Sony VPL-VW100.
Both are projectionTV/projectors, so even if you find the statistics, they're probably not gonna be accurate for the purposes of this discussion, I believe they're 0.61" panels in them, so it'd be some obscene multi-thousand PPI because its so small, but that doesn't account for the throwing of the image, which is the figure I couldn't find.

I used to be a heavy PC gamer but fell out of it like 5-6yrs ago outside MMOs, just starting to get back into it for actual games.

I'm "Well off" but not rich, I live with 8 people in a fairly large house, so when we make any large A/V purchases we split it amongst ourselves, paying 1/9th a $2000 TV isn't a major issue, or even 1/9th for the projector.
We like to have highend items for things that will see alot of use among us...
(Offtopic but <3 extended family system as opposed to nuclear, virtually negligable cost of living and an immense increase in quality of life because of combined incomes)

But a pc monitor is something thats only really useful to me, so its all out of my own pocket(and I'm very frugal) , so I'm not gonna just drop 2k on one because I "need the best", I was using a fairly decent 21"CRT I had for 11 yrs
until I started using HDTVs as my main monitors, which were a big upgrade compartively.

I'm "used" to them, so well I recognize they have lower quality compared to a PC monitor(which is why I'm interested in finally getting a new one), it isn't that bad to me and if the differance is saving 1-2 grand I can live with it.

Anyways... After looking at suggested models, etc, I'm probably gonna take others(and your) advice and just get a nice $300ish one, that seems the best bet, since getting 2500x1600ish is out of my price range it seems.
If I do decide to just fuck it all and spend the money...I'll probably go for the dell, searching around I can get it for 1100ish, seems like the best bet if I'm gonna go slightly over original budget.

Edit: Said fuck it and got the 30inch dell... So I put less money into my mutal funds for a month(wtf is wrong with me?) , live big!

Thanks again everyone.

[Zeste]

did you buy directly from dell? is that the only source for them?