LCD Monitor Suggestions

[rbertram]

I am getting ready to purchase my first LCD monitor, but I am not sure what to look for. I am not going to get anything less than a 17" display with at least a .26-.27 dpi pixel size. I don't want speakers integrated, since I alread have a 5.1 surround sound card and speakers on my system. I also have a gForce4 4600Ti video card.

What features should I stay away from, and which are a must have?

 

[paparazi]

Look for: comparisons on the same size of TFT
High contrast ratio
Highest refresh rate
Highest resolution
Lowest response times
Greatest viewing angles
As so many advances have been made with TFT's over the last 18months or so, go for a new model, one that has only been out a couple of months or so, it will have the newest technology and best performance.
Here in the UK many PC magazines have an "A" list of components, the best sound card, the best writer etc etc, these give a good impression of what to buy and what to miss and if you spot a particular model that interest you type the make and model in a google search and put the word
"review" after it, monitors have nearly always been subjected to a mass comparison review on some site or other. Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[gargouille]

Go where they have them displayed in a row and pick without considering price and mfr., then go from there.
If they'll allow it, ('specially if there's no one in the store) set all to the same input. You'll see lots of difference...and it makes it lots easier to see a comparison of them.

They don't usually work much out of the range of their "native" resolution, which is usually quite high.
And they're coming down all the time.

 

[algernonsidney]

I have been pretty happy with my NEC. NEC/Mitsubishi has gotten high marks in some of the publications I read. There are a lot of crappy monitors out there.

Chris

 

[BEverding]

I first got a deal on a KDS Radius 3...It is OK, then got a good deal on a GEM 17" LCD...it too, is OK. My folks looked and looked for along time (they got in the Raduis 3 deal) and got a Samsung 191T. Get it if you can. Techdepot.com had excellent prices and did us good. If you can afford it, I can tell you that you shouldn't be disappointed.

Look for quality, the other threads pointed at contrast ratio (look for 500:1), that will make you a good monitor. Check out the latest LCD reviews at PC World too.

 

[JeffTH]

rbertram, check out this review of the new Hitachi CML174SXW -

http://www6.tomshardware.com/display/20030109/index.html.

Here's a quote from the review:

"The claimed response time is--16 ms. And this is not even an error of the Compaq variety, you know, Compaq having conveniently forgotten (oops!) to add in the time taken to power up and down. No, the powering up time really is 12 ms and powering down is 4 ms, making a total of --16 ms! ViewSonic dreamed of doing it, Hitachi achieved it.

And that's not all. The CML174SXW claims a contrast of 400:1, a very good average at the present time, an almost record brightness of 260 cd/sq. m., and 160° horizontal and vertical angles of vision. These features would make more than one of its competitors shudder, beginning with two of our favorite monitors to which we compared it, the recent AS4314UTG from Iiyama and the always fabulous LM1711 from Solarism . To add icing on the cake, it has two video inputs, DVI and analog, and it's really good-looking, in that it meets current ergonomic criteria to the letter. It has a very thin profile, a very small base, the option of attaching the screen to an arm, control buttons on the front, etc."

I just set a friend up w/ the predecessor to this model - the 170, and w/ its DVI input it's one heck of a monitor.