Buying a new monitor

[Guardsman Bass]

I'm looking in the range of 23-25", 1920 x 1080p, and with an HDMI slot. I've already looked at a bunch on Amazon, and done some googling, but I'm not sure which brands of monitors are generally considered to be the best. Any ideas?

[Mr Bean]

You must see your monitor to be in person period.
The monitor is literally the most important purchase in a computer these days since you spend, all of your time looking at it.

[phongn]

What do you want to do?

[Executor32]

Get an ASUS VS248H-P. 24", 1920x1080, LED backlight, 2ms grey-to-grey pixel response time, VGA, DVI, and HDMI ports, and it's $199 with free shipping. I dare you to find a better deal than that.

[Panzersharkcat]

A ViewSonic VA2231 wm. 22", 1920x1280, LED backlight, DVI and VGA ports and it's sixty bucks less than the ASUS. I've used it for almost a year and it's been wonderful to me.

[phongn]

For higher-quality alternatives, the Dell UltraSharp U2212HM (21.5") and U2312HM (23") are good monitors. They're eIPS designs, so they have better color fidelity and better viewing angles but have slower gray-to-gray times. I personally have no problems with ghosting or refresh with my UltraSharp 2209WA, but others report that the refresh times are too slow for fast-paced gaming.

A ViewSonic VA2231 wm.

Be aware that this monitor is a 6-bit display and only capable of display ~262K colors. Some users don't care, others are driven to distraction by it (once you know where to look)

[starslayer]

In addition to phongn's suggestion, HP's ZR series are also good IPS monitors. Really, it depends on what you want to do with the monitor. Do you need actual color fidelity (e.g., graphics work)? Then you have no choice but an IPS panel, since TNs (the ASUS and the Viewsonic already suggested have that panel type) do not have great accurate color reproduction. They are universally cheaper, however, which is why they make up most of the monitor market. Their viewing angles also suck horribly. They're so bad that you'll probably be able to see color shift between the top and bottom of the panel without moving your head, even when looking at one straight on. IPS panels do not have this problem.

[Guardsman Bass]

Thanks for the feedback! I ended up going with an ASUS VS247H 23.6 inch.

[Alyeska]

Wish I had seen this thread earlier. I recently upgraded from 1920x1080 to 1920x1200. 16x10 ratio monitors are more expensive, but they are also very nice. Wonderful desktop space, but you can still run shooters at 1080 resolution for maximum field of view.

But you won't find these in stores mostly. The 16x10 monitors are mostly reserved for web ordering.

Anyway, welcome to the widescreen club. I ran 24" 1080 monitors for several years and loved them.

[Darth Wong]

I've had two LG LCD monitors go dead on me, so I tend to stay away from that particular brand. Admittedly anecdotal, but when you've had two monitors from one brand fail on you, it makes you leery.

[Edi]

I on the other hand have had nothing but good things to say about my LG Flatron IPS231. It's a 23 inch monitor with excellent color fidelity and quality.

My bad experiences have been with BenQ monitors, my previous 24 inch monitor had a design flaw where the power button simply broke free of its mount and sunk into the casing. That one was replaced through warranty, but the one I got, same model, broke the same way a couple of years later. It still works, you just can't turn the power on or off and the color quality is crap compared to my current monitor anyway.

I took the second BenQ to work, because once it does break down permanently, it'll just get tossed with the other electronics and in the meanwhile one of the girls from the radio network side now has a second monitor that she badly needed.

In any case, it is possible to get several lemons in a row if they all came from a bad production run.

[phongn]

Anyway, welcome to the widescreen club. I ran 24" 1080 monitors for several years and loved them.

I want my 4:3

[TheFeniX]

Get an ASUS VS248H-P. 24", 1920x1080, LED backlight, 2ms grey-to-grey pixel response time, VGA, DVI, and HDMI ports, and it's $199 with free shipping. I dare you to find a better deal than that.

I own two of those as well (older models) and I'm impressed with the quality. My only issue is that ASUS RMA department is pretty bad. They require around 7 dead pixels before they'll deal with an RMA.

[Alyeska]

Anyway, welcome to the widescreen club. I ran 24" 1080 monitors for several years and loved them.

I want my 4:3

Dell still sells them. Set your video card to not change aspect ratio and you can run everything 4:3

[phongn]

Dell still sells them. Set your video card to not change aspect ratio and you can run everything 4:3

The 2007FP costs an outrageous amount and there's no way to determine if you'll get an AS-IPS or P-MVA panel.

[Darth Wong]

Anyway, welcome to the widescreen club. I ran 24" 1080 monitors for several years and loved them.

I want my 4:3

Put duct tape on the sides of your widescreen monitor. Presto, 4:3.

[phongn]

Put duct tape on the sides of your widescreen monitor. Presto, 4:3.

Gaff tape leaves less residue

[aerius]

I want my 4:3

Get a CRT screen. People are literally giving away their 21" flatscreen Trinitron monitors, same thing with 22" Diamondtron tubes. I got a few of them to use for all my photo editing. The only problem is they weigh 70 pounds and will break most desks in half with their mass so I had to get a couple metal workbenches from government surplus to support them.

[Alyeska]

Dell still sells them. Set your video card to not change aspect ratio and you can run everything 4:3

The 2007FP costs an outrageous amount and there's no way to determine if you'll get an AS-IPS or P-MVA panel.

If you're going to spend an outrageous amount, just get the u2410 series. These are 24" 16x10 monitors and they are sheer awesome. 1200 vertical resolution, IPS displays. If you like 5:4 (they haven't made true 4:3 monitors in a decade) you can just set your video card to not change aspect ratio.

Thats sorta what I am doing. I set shooters to 1920x1080. I get small letter boxing but retain full field of view. You would just get vertical bars but retain full vertical resolution.

[Executor32]

Er, 1600x1200 is 4:3, brah.

[phongn]

Thats sorta what I am doing. I set shooters to 1920x1080. I get small letter boxing but retain full field of view. You would just get vertical bars but retain full vertical resolution.

What, no, then I'm just paying for more pixels I won't use (plus, I go multi-monitor).

[Starglider]

Wish I had seen this thread earlier. I recently upgraded from 1920x1080 to 1920x1200. 16x10 ratio monitors are more expensive, but they are also very nice. Wonderful desktop space, but you can still run shooters at 1080 resolution for maximum field of view.

I agree on 16:10; once you've got used it there is no substitute for 2560 x 1600. I liked the U3011 so much that as well as one for home, I have another one that I take to whichever client site I am spending the most time at. Unfortunately while the high-res market was formerly immune to nasty 16:9, Apple reverted to that for the latest cinema display (further proof that they are utterly irredeemably evil). I am looking forward to quad HD displays but alas that may be the final death of 16:10 and total 16:9 supremacy.

[phongn]

Get a CRT screen. People are literally giving away their 21" flatscreen Trinitron monitors, same thing with 22" Diamondtron tubes. I got a few of them to use for all my photo editing. The only problem is they weigh 70 pounds and will break most desks in half with their mass so I had to get a couple metal workbenches from government surplus to support them.

I had a pair with Diamondtron tubes, actually (and could've acquired more). They took up way too much space and the convergence was starting to go.