looking for a new monitor

[Hemi-Cuda]

soon i'll be grabbing a second Geforce GTX 460 to SLI with, and with the extra horsepower i want to upgrade from my 20.5 inch monitor to a nice 1920x1080 one. currently i'm looking at this LG one the most, as the reviews all seem very positive

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...1%28ME%29.aspx

good buy? i know Samsung is supposed to be very good as well, but they have so many damn models listed on Memory Express's site i don't know where to start with them

[Roast Beef]

Whatever you decide to get I suggest getting 2 of them. Nothing like a dual monitor setup.

[photon]

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfo/periph...ll-u2410&s=dfo

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

Whatever you decide to get I suggest getting 2 of them. Nothing like a dual monitor setup.

for my work PC i agree, but dual screens for gaming is kinda pointless, especially first person shooters. that's why i'm opting for one big screen instead of 2 smaller ones

Originally Posted by photon

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfo/periph...ll-u2410&s=dfo

any reason you recommend that one photon? the specs seem lower than the LG one, 6ms response time vs 2ms. it also has a 16:10 resolution vs. a 16:9 for the LG, which is the standard for HD. the LG is also $150-200 less than the Dell monitor and according to cnet the Dell has a poor energy rating. any positives that you can note?

[photon]

It uses an IPS panel where the LG uses a TN panel, the quality difference is quite significant, the panel just can't display the same quality and number of colours.. you usually have to choose between good quality bright colours, or good quality dark colours, but not both, and detail overall will be worse than an IPS panel.

TN panels also have poor viewing angles, which is more of a concern the bigger the monitor and the closer you sit. Something like this: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php for me just looks like a grey field and if I sit back I can't see the words at all, whereas on a TN panel if you move your head around the words will appear different colours.

A TN panel can be faster for games, but unless you play CS professionally or with 90% of your free time you won't really notice.. input lag due to monitor electronics and processing can be far more significant and that's a function of the monitor not the panel technology.

It is cheaper, and if the image quality doesn't matter as much then TN panels are fine, some people don't notice a difference. Personally I can't stand them and the few times I've gone away from an IPS panel I always have returned the monitor.

Though if it's pure gaming I'd consider a 120Hz monitor, I've never used one but lots of hard core gamers like them, I'm skeptical but wouldn't mind trying one.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...27465(ME).aspx

And personally I prefer 16:10, because 98% of my time at a computer is spent doing computer stuff or playing games, so the extra vertical pixels are useful, and if I do watch a movie they're just black pixels, so no real disadvantage.

A good thread about IPS here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1525269

In general the HardOCP display forum is a great place to go to get reviews on different monitor models.

[Vulcan]

The Dell Ultra Sharps come with IPS panels which give better and more accurate colours, better off angle viewing, just better all around panels compared to TN panels, except for response times. You pay for it though but sometimes they come up on Days of Deals for reasonable prices. The 23" one was on a few days ago.
If you are into it, the 30" USharp is on sale right now for $999.

I got the ST2410 which is a TN panel and it suits my needs well.

Here's a list of current Dell monitors on sale. Maybe check the Days of Deals bargains which has 6 days left.

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/sna.aspx?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~topic=hotdeals _monitors

[Vulcan]

Hey, here's the LG monitor you are looking at for $200 at NCIX and Memory Express will price match, if that's the one you choose.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...s&promoid=1015

whoops yours is W2442P-BF while the NCIX one is W244PA-BF.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by photon

It uses an IPS panel where the LG uses a TN panel, the quality difference is quite significant, the panel just can't display the same quality and number of colours.. you usually have to choose between good quality bright colours, or good quality dark colours, but not both, and detail overall will be worse than an IPS panel.

TN panels also have poor viewing angles, which is more of a concern the bigger the monitor and the closer you sit. Something like this: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php for me just looks like a grey field and if I sit back I can't see the words at all, whereas on a TN panel if you move your head around the words will appear different colours.

A TN panel can be faster for games, but unless you play CS professionally or with 90% of your free time you won't really notice.. input lag due to monitor electronics and processing can be far more significant and that's a function of the monitor not the panel technology.

It is cheaper, and if the image quality doesn't matter as much then TN panels are fine, some people don't notice a difference. Personally I can't stand them and the few times I've gone away from an IPS panel I always have returned the monitor.

Though if it's pure gaming I'd consider a 120Hz monitor, I've never used one but lots of hard core gamers like them, I'm skeptical but wouldn't mind trying one.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX27465(ME).aspx

And personally I prefer 16:10, because 98% of my time at a computer is spent doing computer stuff or playing games, so the extra vertical pixels are useful, and if I do watch a movie they're just black pixels, so no real disadvantage.

A good thread about IPS here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1525269

In general the HardOCP display forum is a great place to go to get reviews on different monitor models.

thanks for the info. i've done some reading on the HardOCP forums, specifically in the 120hz monitor thread as i was seriously considering that Acer model, and the almost universal consensus is that while 120hz is good, it's not worth having to give up having an IPS panel. i think that's the direction i'll be going, now if only Memory Express' website actually listed whether a monitor was TN or IPS. looks like Dell it is

[Vulcan]

Here's a list of IPS based LCDs.

http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php

Here's the HP ZR24W

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...P%20Commerical

other panel types such as samsung's PVA are also better than a TN.

[photon]

Yeah some people like *VA panels better, find them a good balance between TN and IPS, I've only ever owned one PVA panel and I returned it.

[photon]

The one downside of the U2410 is their quality control seems a bit on the lax side, there has been an issue with people getting panels with a colour variation across the screen, check HardOCP's thread on the U2410 for more info. Some people had to return their monitor 4-5 times before they got one that was satisfactory to them.

There used to be a dithering problem as well but they fixed that with the latest revision of the firmware. I returned mine a while back to have the dithering problem fixed, and I had to exchange it 4 times before I got one that was good, they all had dead pixels or bad colour variation.

The other things I like about the monitor is it comes calibrated and with a report of that calibration. It also lets you pick a colour mode so you can go with sRGB for Windows and games since those apps expect sRGB, and then you can switch to the extended colour gamut for Photoshop or other apps that support more colours.

[MickMcGeough]

Not sure what your minimum size is, but Dell's got their 21.5" IPS 1920x1080 on today only for $199. You won't find an IPS monitor cheaper than that.

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/prod...1&sku=320-9271

[Regorium]

I am very frustrated by the prevalence of the 16:9 aspect ratio over the much cleaner and nicer looking 16:10.

A lot of good suggestions in this thread, as I'm looking to get a new monitor myself.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Not sure what your minimum size is, but Dell's got their 21.5" IPS 1920x1080 on today only for $199. You won't find an IPS monitor cheaper than that.

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/prod...1&sku=320-9271

Better yet, get two.

Making me rethink my U2311 purchase...

[photon]

1920 x 1080 at 21.5" would probably be a bit too small for my taste, too many pixels in too small a screen. You can mess with OSes a bit to keep things readable, but only so far.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by photon

1920 x 1080 at 21.5" would probably be a bit too small for my taste, too many pixels in too small a screen. You can mess with OSes a bit to keep things readable, but only so far.

Oh come on, who doesn’t want a “Retina”(tm) display on their desktop

[photon]

Lol, so I'm like the people who would buy a 19" monitor and set it to 640x480?

I would love it if OSes were completely resolution independent and we could have crazy resolutions.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by photon

1920 x 1080 at 21.5" would probably be a bit too small for my taste, too many pixels in too small a screen. You can mess with OSes a bit to keep things readable, but only so far.

Uh, if you say so. A 23" 1080p monitor is 95.8 PPI, a 21.5" is 102 PPI. If you can tell the difference between those pixel pitches you've got much better eyes than me.

[ricosuave]

Which would be better, this at 159
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...n&sku=320-8299

or this at 199?
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/prod...1&sku=320-9271

ps, I plan to buy 2.

[photon]

I've got a 24" monitor, some of the text on my screen is 8 or 9 pixels high, and there's a 10% difference between the two, not huge but noticeable for that small of text.