New Monitor

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This morning my monitor died on me.
This was a rather old monitor (4-5 years or so), so i have been looking to replace it for some time now.
I was planning to save up for a good one though, but now I won't have time for that as I can't really go for a couple of months without a monitor.

So I would like to hear if you guys have any recommendations for a decent monitor.

Right now I only have two demands:
- price ceiling is at about $350 (although I would prefer to stay below $300)
-it must be at 1920x1080 resolution.

I might have more when I get home from work.

Now this monitor is primarily going to be used for gaming.
I also watch movies on my computer sometimes; not often though.

I don't really now anything about monitors, and what to look for.

 

Any particular size in mind?

Here is a decent 24" at 1080P for $290

http://www.amazon.com/VG248QE-24-Inch-Screen-LED-lit-Monitor/dp/B00B2HH7G0

 

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out when I get home .

Well my old one is 22", so I would prefer not to go below that.

 

Dell generally has some pretty good monitors. For instance the Dell UltraSharp U2412M looks pretty good. It's 24", 1920x1200 (I don't like the 16:9 ratio monitors - it's good for TVs, but that the lack of height really puts me off for monitors), and IPS which means that the viewing angles should be pretty good. Haven't checked the reviews to verify, though.

It's LED edge-backlit, so I wouldn't expect that great a homogenity of the light on the screen (more light in the edges than in the middle, usually), but you'll have this problem with most monitors in this price range or below.

IPS monitors tend to be a bit slower in input lag than TN panel monitors, but unless you're playing games where you need good reaction times - like fps online - it's generally not that much of an issue.

 

What are you going to do with it? Hardcore gaming demands a high response rate. A TN panel is needed.

Fact: all response rates told by any manufacturer are false. I repeat are false. And I repeat again are false. Check with hardware test sites what the real times are.

Returning to topic, if you do not want to game that much, other panel types give better viewing angles and colour.

Any screen size smaller as 24" will dissspoint you. I have a 27"inch screen and can confirm size matter while gaming.

As for brands, I like Iiyama. Other brands can have good screens too, and Iiyama can have bad ones. The name of the brand is often just a few letters on the bezel. Make sure that your choice is tested at at least two sites.

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And to make it worse, there are things like colour depth, colour bleeding. Candela..... it is easier to choose a processor. The timing are false because they test those themselves. They test black to white to black, but the tricky part is between the greyscales.

A tech site test all monitors with the same equipment.

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http://us.hardware.info/productgroup/8/monitors


http://www.anandtech.com/tag/displays

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/monitors/

 

I am going to be gaming on it, yes. Pretty much exclusively. As I said earlier, I sometimes watch movies on my computer as well; very rarely though. Like once a month maybe. So it's pretty much a non-factor.

Be that as it may, I imagine my price ceiling is going to limit the affordable seize a bit .

This is why I came here! It's a jungle out there!

Do you have any specific recommendations?

 

24 inch TN....

Iiyama prolite E2473HDS-B1, Samsung syncmaster s 23B550V, BenQ XL2420T(pricey)

A bit older models, perhaps one is priced nice.

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more recent:

Samsung Series 5 S24C550VL
BenQ RL2455HM
Iiyama prolite E2483HS B1

 

Thank you all for your input. It is greatly appreciated!

Probably going to order tomorrow, so I still have a little time to think things over.

 

What response times are you talking about? Normally for gaming input lag is important, as it determines a lag between your input (keypress, moving mouse) and it actually showing on the screen.

TN panels generally have the lowest input lag. There are some slow TN panels too, though. IPS panels and PVA panels are generally somewhat slower in terms of input lag, but there are some faster ones that are nearly as fast as some of the faster TN panels.

There's also ghosting, which basically is how much the panel is showing after-images of the previous image when the next is being shown.

Obviously you'll notice these things more if you play certain types of games. Fast-paced online first person shooters are the most demanding both in terms of input lag (you're not shooting where you think you're shooting) and ghosting (sweeping around to see what's behind you changes the whole screen very quickly).

If you play mostly BG or Jagged Alliance, then all of this is pretty much moot (though ghosting may still have an effect) and pretty much any screen will do.

Don't stare blindly at these stats, though. Mine are pretty good on ghosting and have apparently ok input lag for a PVA panel (still slower than most TN panels), but it's never really bothered me much.

I do play shooters from time to time (STALKER, Painkiller, Deus Ex, of which only Painkiller is fast paced) and it's never bothered me that these screens are slower than the CRT that was my previous monitor.

For your reading pleasure, some sites that specialise in testing monitors:
TFT Central
Prad.de

The latter site is in german, though you can find the reviews in english as well (there's a flag icon to change the language on the front page). Last time I checked, though, they had more tests in german than in english (though this was some years back).

 

I play a very wide variety of games. It's everything from the old Infinity Engine games, to Diablo III, Skyrim and also shooters like the Crysis series.

Pretty much the only games I never play are RTS games .

 

I hear you. It was the same with my old monitor. Had to buy a separate stand for it because it wasn't adjustable.

 

Yeah, it's something to look out for. I had to look for it too when I bought my monitors, plus I wanted to put one up portrait so it had to be able to turn as well.

 

Being able to turn a monitor to portrait is a sneaky little feature that most people never think about. Although, once you have one that can do it, you will never be able to go back. I speak from experience.

 

I ended up buying some cheap LG monitor on sale at my local hardware store...

I had ordered a BenQ XL2420T, but after not having received it after a week, and not hearing from the site from which I had ordered it, I contacted them and found out that despite it being listed as in stock on the webpage, it was, in fact, out of stock, and they did not know when they would get a new batch.
Naturally I cancelled my order. I did, however, not get my money back, and they were still listed as *reserved* in my online bank. So I contacted the company from which I had ordered the monitor, and they told me that I had to get my bank to cancel the reservation; I then contacted my bank, who said that only the company could cancel the reservation... And so I went back and forth, until I gave up and decided to just wait for the reservation to run out on it's own, which was about a months time .

I could not got that long without a computer though, so I decided just to buy some random ****, what with my money being in limbo and all. And I refuse to go buy a new monitor when I just bought one.

 

Yeah, Ouch. Nothing beats modern Shopping.

I was eying A Samsung 1080 LED HD TV panel (they sell well and are sensible priced here) to serve as a TV/Gaming Hub.

Need to upgrade our TV, and incidentally I need a new 'Monitor' to hook up my gaming rig.
So why not get two with one money.

You guys have experience with LED TV and gaming?
Mix-y things?