Rydra Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 My wife broke the power button on one of my monitors last night, so it's time to look for a new one! It's served me well for 5-6 years, but has a line on the LCD now, it's brightness isn't what it used to be, it's only 1280x1024, and now has a broken power button. I'm looking to upgrade this significantly, but there's just so many damned choices out there. Monitor will primarily be for gaming (FPS games, LOTRO, or Eve online), but I do watch some movies/TV on it from the sofa I have behind my chair, so I need reasonable viewing angles, AND/OR decent tilt/swivel options. What I want: -22" to 27" max, preferably around the 24" mark. -1920x1080 or 1920x1200 resolution. -Decent refresh rate for FPS gaming -Enough colour range to be decent for Full 1080p HD/blue ray movies (I have a BR drive in my PC) -HDMI and DVI connection What I'd like if I can: -Tilt/Swivel/height adjustment stand -VGA, DVI and HDMI input for using with any PC/input And budget wise, Absolute roof of £300, but would prefer the £200-250 mark. Anyone got any suggestions from experience? PC wise I have an I7 950 with a Sapphire Radeon 5870 graphics card, 6GB memory, BR drive and running windows 7 in case this affects the choice.
LosOjos Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 Iiyama Pro Lite 24" Widescreen 1920 x 1080 2ms HDMI DVI-D VGA LCD Monitor with Speakers (PLB2409HDS-1) - dabs.com EDIT: that one covers all your bases I believe, only thing I'd maybe look out for is one with DisplayPort connections (although I imagine it'll be a good many years before HDMI is redundant yet!)
MK-2 Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 i looked into tilt/swivel stuff, the ones that clamp onto the desk and are gas adjsutable. look good but you're talking £150 for a decent one unfortunately.
3s-gtech Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 ViewSonic VP2365wb Review | bit-tech.net IPS panel, cheap, win. No HDMI though - the NEC screen mentioned in the review has this.
Rydra Posted January 25, 2011 Author Posted January 25, 2011 The downside to most IPS panels is it's response times. 14ms response time is pretty bad, and my 5 year old monitor beat this. The viewsonic screens are OK, I have an older 22" screen currently as my main monitor, but they just don't cut it on image quality. Yes it's an IPS panel, but the amount of corners they've cut to fit it into that price bracket mean it's a no go for me. Iiyama I've heard mixed reviews on, and seems to depend on the exact model, and they are more commercial use than home use nowadays it seems. That certainly looks interesting, i've read some good reviews on it.
pete Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 I bought a couple of Benq G2420HDBL's a while ago. You ideally need them on a dual display mount to get them high enough because the stands are short (there was a £50 one with swivel kicking around Amazon when I got mine). Used for Eve, massive diagrams and gaming. For the price, I'm happy with them.
Flakes Posted January 26, 2011 Posted January 26, 2011 (edited) Honestly if your going to be watching movies and things on it and playing some games scrap monitors, and just buy a 32" 1080p TV, Samsung and Toshiba are particulary good, and around the £300 mark these days. EDIT just to add i use a 32" JVC TV for my PC/PS3/xbox, the refresh rate is 60Hz however there is no ghosting and the quality of the screen is perfect, if you search around im sure you could get one with a higher refresh rate. remember though to look for 1:1 Pixel mapping(called different things for different makes) so your screen is displayed correctly from your PC. Edited January 26, 2011 by Flakes
featured_spectre Posted January 26, 2011 Posted January 26, 2011 I have an LG 22in TV supplied by CP-Ltd for my monitor. Serves as dual purpose which I love!
JoeBloggs Posted January 26, 2011 Posted January 26, 2011 monitor 24" 1920x1080 2ms HDMI + DVI LED £170 - bargin
JoeBloggs Posted January 26, 2011 Posted January 26, 2011 more to the end of your budget, but really nice monitor... - Screen Size: 27.5" Widescreen - Resolution: 1920x1200 - Contrast Ratio: 15000:1 - Brightness: 400cd/m² - Response Time: 3ms - Colours: 16.7 Million - Inputs: 1x Analogue, 1x DVI-D & 1x HDMI £260
Brpilot99 Posted January 26, 2011 Posted January 26, 2011 I bought one of these Acer Aspire GD245HQ 120Hz 3D Vision-ready Monitor Review - 3D Vision Blog I'm very happy with it and Half Life 2 in 3d is amazing !!!!
Rydra Posted January 26, 2011 Author Posted January 26, 2011 Honestly if your going to be watching movies and things on it and playing some games scrap monitors, and just buy a 32" 1080p TV, Samsung and Toshiba are particulary good, and around the £300 mark these days. EDIT just to add i use a 32" JVC TV for my PC/PS3/xbox, the refresh rate is 60Hz however there is no ghosting and the quality of the screen is perfect, if you search around im sure you could get one with a higher refresh rate. remember though to look for 1:1 Pixel mapping(called different things for different makes) so your screen is displayed correctly from your PC. 32" monitor on a desk is overkill, especially as I dual screen; size of the monitor is almost irrelevant, but bigger than 24" starts to get too big to sit at the desk with. 27" is just about doable, but even that's pushing it. I need a large desktop area, not a monitor i can see from outer space! monitor 24" 1920x1080 2ms HDMI + DVI LED £170 - bargin Looks about the same as the other Iiyama, but LED, higher contrast and no adjustable stand. Might take a look at that one too. more to the end of your budget, but really nice monitor... - Screen Size: 27.5" Widescreen - Resolution: 1920x1200 - Contrast Ratio: 15000:1 - Brightness: 400cd/m² - Response Time: 3ms - Colours: 16.7 Million - Inputs: 1x Analogue, 1x DVI-D & 1x HDMI £260 There's nothing really special about it, it's just huge. I think having 1-2 of these on the desk will dominate too much, so not sure on it really. 27" monitor would have to be something special to warrant it over a 24". I bought one of these Acer Aspire GD245HQ 120Hz 3D Vision-ready Monitor Review - 3D Vision Blog I'm very happy with it and Half Life 2 in 3d is amazing !!!! I have an ATI radeon card, so 3d capability is useless to me, and I wont be buying 3d Bluerays as my TV in my living doesn't support it. I hear 120Hz 2d gaming is meant to be good, but from what i've seen the 3d capable monitors come with a dozen little niggles and issues that affect 2d performance.
sonofsanta Posted January 26, 2011 Posted January 26, 2011 HP ZR24W 24" LCD MONITOR - 1920X1200 1000:1 DVI-D.. | Ebuyer.com is, annoyingly, just out your price range, but the HP IPS monitors nearly always end up being the top recommendation from most tech sites. Has DVI, VAG & DisplayPort, all the adjustments, 7ms response which is pretty good as IPS goes, lots of colour range. Downside is no HDMI, and I can't tell quickly if it's 16:9 or 16:10 because eBuyer contradict themselves between the product name and the spec. HP and Dell IPS monitors generally seem to be considered best, though, and make sure you're happy with 16:9, personally I much prefer a 16:10, but that may be from habit as my home monitor is a 16:10 22".
sonofsanta Posted January 26, 2011 Posted January 26, 2011 Handy Well now I can't correct the spelling can I, it'd ruin everyone's fun. Although let's be honest, it won't be too long anyway will it!
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