Looking at LCD's

[wctyler]

I'm looking into buying an LCD in a couple months. I'm thinking that I want at least a 17", if not an 18 or 19". I want to spend between $400-500, so I think I'm somewhat limited to 17 or 18". I currently have a Radeon 9200 video card, but I upgrade regularly, and I want a display that'll last me a number of years. I play games (Counterstrike) and do development work, so I want good quality.

I plan on having only one LCD for the present, but will be buying an identical one in about a year when I've moved into a new house and have a different desk, and more room.

What do you suggest?

I found this Scanport 1821A (18") at Tiger Direct for $389. I also found the Viewsonic VP171 at Newegg for $554.

[CraigK]

If you are mostly going to play games, especially FPS's, you really want a CRT monitor. They have better refresh rates and what not.

but if you really want an LCD like I did. check out www.techforless.com. for good name brand monitors. I got my 19" NEC lcd from them. They only sell refurbed items, I'm pretty sure. They have excellent customer service, and their shipping is pretty good too.

[Xtreeme]

Apple Cinema display. Kidding. $$$$ hehe. Brand smand when it comes to lcd's. Most all use one of 3 or so diff actuall lcd panel brands. The plate of glass (TFT)and the controler arent even made by the co. Most are really Sharp....Toshiba.....and etc tft/lcd controlers. Want a good lcd? Look at SPEC's and SPEC's only (warrenty should be considerd) not brands. Cause most of'em come from the same grab bag of parts anyhow. Now the better the lcd quality the better specs and better lcd. So look for that. As in Toshiba. THey make lcd's ranging from crap to aswome! Same with sharp. Those little playstation one lcd's for instance are really toshiba's (I take lcd's apart ALOT). Lots of cell phone's use sharp. Same with caclulators. But they also make yer top end couple thousand $ pc mon's too. LOL.

[wctyler]

In that case..... what specs should I be looking for to reasonably play games with?

[Xtreeme]

Alot of lcd's today EASILY handle games.

"If you are mostly going to play games, especially FPS's, you really want a CRT monitor. They have better refresh rates and what not."

Thats kinda hard to do. A lcd's refresh is infinitive! Not 60 or 100hz its CONSTANT. Hence why easy on the eyes. A lcd uses a CFL bulb that is always on its called the backlight. A crt uses a Cathode Ray Tube and a ray gun that shots light at yer eyes through mask to illuminate the pixels. BIG diff. A LCD's #1 things to look at for games -RESPONCE time and native res. 3rd would be the best CONTRAST ratio you can get. For gaming your gonna want a native res of about 1024x768. Your gonna want the fastest responce you can afford (and they go very fast but $). THe responce time being slow will make a image moving fast mook blurred. For contrast about 400:1 or 500:1 if ya can get it. I've seen 600:1 popping up alot lately. I work on lcd projectors for film/fun/ and presentations. Trust me lcd's have come light years ahead in tech advancments in just the past 2 years! And prices are dropping fast. Plasma's worst enemy-(L.C.D.) Liquid Crystal Display TFT display. Why. No burn-in like crt's and plasma's.

[implexant]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/P...46&brandid=139

That is a Planar. It was built with gaming in mind. To my current knowledge (which is somewhat limited), I believe it is really the only "Gaming" LCD out there. It's spendy at $529 @ Dell, but I'm sure you could find it for a bit less somewhere else. I can almost guarantee that you'll be pleased with it. Like I said, they had gaming in mind when they built it.

-Chris

[implexant]

Found it a couple dollars cheaper @ TigerDirect.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ODE=SHOPPINGDF

Good luck!

-Chris

[Xtreeme]

Ha they list a refresh! LOL> Its a friggen bulb with no refresh. And the crystal either passes light or not. The speed at which it changes (twists crystals bending light)is the responce. But anyhow...

16ms responce is good. Contrast is bottem of acceptable. 400:1. Which is good but nothing great. 500:1 pretty easy to get now. The BIG HUGE PROBLEM.
Max Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Max Resolution: 1280x1024 pixels (SXGA)
With NO list of "native" res. Which means it could be anything. But lets say its native is 1280x1024 once (its likely not). When you game at 1024x768 like most of us do. It will make the textures look SQUASHED badly. There is better Q out there for games. They were aiming for a "gaming" panel but at a "budget" like most stuff they sell. LOL. A Good 17-18" lcd is gonna be about $600 or so with optimal specs.

[thekingofpain]

In my recent search before buying my 19" LCD I found the 17 to purchase if gaming is involved is the Samsung 172X, it features the fastest response time at 12ms with a 500:1 contrast ratio and 1280 x 1024 maximum resolution---
You might wanna check it out, its about 600$...
http://www.samsungusa.com/cgi-bin/na...d_id=DS17BSDSV

[Xtreeme]

Ohhhh nice specs. Now thats the kinda lcd Im talking about thekingofpain! And see the price....hehe ya get what ya pay for in this world. Nice very nice find. FOr gaming thats a honey.

wctyler
Try this link for a run down on some of the current 17" mon and how the stack up.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...esponse-2.html

Response time is crucial. THats 12ms one thekingofpain listed will look *NICE*. And black will stand out well from grey with the high 500:1 contrast. Meaning darker and all white colored images wont look "washed out". Also important for games and photo work etc.