i have a budget of about 700-900 dollars. Looking for a monitor that will be able to run movies nicely (getting blueray drive) and most importantly ill be playing all types of games, rts fps, rpg etc (escpecially Crysis) so i need a monitor with relatively quick response times. I also want the monitor to be nice looking lol, no front speakers just nice plain and really classy which most are but yea nice looking and i guess most monitors are so yaaa.... :S

I really have no brand that i really prefer as long as it is good quality 24" and meets the above criteria. Thanks for the help since i really cant seem to find any displays and hopefully someone will be able to run some good ones by me

The Samsung 245BW is a nice 24" display. 1920x1200, 5ms response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio (as spec'd by Samsung, take with a grain of salt). It looks fantastic, it's color fidelity is great, and it has HDCP support. I use it for office work, gaming, and watching movies, and I am pleased with the results in all cases.

Cons:
The housing is glossy black (that's not the screen) which reflects light and can be annoying at times. The viewing angles are not as good as on other (smaller) LCD screens I have used; colors tend to be off a bit if you view the screen at an too much of an angle, but the picture remains clear. It also comes only with 1 DVI and 1 D-sub port, so you are limited to only 1 high definition source (and HDMI sources need an adaptor to go to DVI).

Other than the Samsung, I have heard good things about the LG L245WP-BN and the Acer AL2416WBSD. If you need a HDMI connector, the LG is the only one of those that has one.

I'm sure that Benq and NEC also have good products in the 24" category too, though I have not seen or heard of them. I would avoid the Westinghouse L2410NM like the plague. I saw it in person and it was horrific - I've seen 22" models that have better picture quality (and that's saying a lot, given the general lack of quality in the 22" segment).

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna [...] u=320-5647

I would go with the Dell im looking for one for myself atm and looking between 24" and 27" they look the bomb

The Samsung 245BW uses 6-bit TN panel technology found on most inexpensive monitors and is used in all 22" LCD monitors. 6-bit panels cannot produce 16.7 million colors, they can only produce a little more than 262k colors. Through a process called dithering, the missing 16 million colors are created by blending the colors the panel can produce, but these colors will not be accurate (read as bad for Photoshop). Dithering can increase the chances of video artifact.

6-bit TN panels also have poor viewing angles, but it should not pose a problem for most people since most people sit right in front of their monitor. However, blacks are not as black on TN panels compared to the other available LCD panel technologies: P-MVA, S-PVA, and S-IPS which are all 8-bit panels.

I would spend the extra $75+ (depending on exactly which monitor the 245BW is being compared to) for an 8-bit panel that can truly display 16.7 million colors.

24" LCD monitors I was looking at before I decided to look for something larger:

BenQ FP241W / WZ......... (the WZ seems to be in short supply in the US)
Dell 2407WFP...........That was before the Dell 2407WFP-HC came out.
HP LP2465 Carbonite

The BenQ uses the 8-bit P-MVA panel.
The other two use the 8-bit S-PVA panel.

For the most part, P-MVA and S-PVA panel technologies are basically the same without having to go into the technicals.

so the best for 700-900 would be the BenQ then or?

btw thanks a lot for the information, it has been extremely useful

just for reference:

120 people reviewed BenQ 5 star
136 people reviewed Samsung 5 star

and for comparison LG has 12 and HP has 22


On newegg of course

The BenQ FP241WZ was the monitor I settled on before looking for something bigger; the Planar PX2611W.

You can by the FP241WZ from Amazon.com for $770.

http://www.amazon.com/BenQ-FP241WZ [...] 266&sr=8-1

The main difference between the W and WZ model is the use of BFI technology. BFI = Black Frame Insertion to simulate the output from a CRT monitor. However, BFI is not for everyone and will not alway provide the best results for games. You will need to play around with the BFI settings for different games. From what I've read it has 4 settings and an OFF option, just in case BFI doesn't improve anything or makes things looks worse to you.

Another difference is that right off the bat, the 1:1 bitmapping works properly as opposed to the W model which did not work properly until they released it with a January 2007 firmware date.

Below is a link to a review comparing the FP241WZ to the Dell 2407WFP (not the HC version) and the LG L246WP:

http://www.bexox.com/showdown.htm

Below is a review of the FP241WZ from December 2006:

http://www.behardware.com/articles [...] ening.html

Below is a link for additional information if you are interested in reading a quick comparison between 24" monitors using 6-bit TN panel technology vs. 8-bit P-MVA and S-PVA technologies.

http://www.behardware.com/articles [...] a-mva.html

i havent time to read those links right now, though i will later im just running out the door but now that you showed me the Planar PX2611W im quite interested in that. Its a couple hundred dollars more but it seems you were in the same situation as i am and decided to go for the 26". If you could go back would you make the same choice and land on the 26 again or would u settle with the 24"? Also i noticed the Planar PX2611W is 8 bit while the BenQ is 6 bit. so i am assuming the Planar is not as good in games or is it still great without or with very little ghosting?

thanks again

To put it simple, I was in the same position last month trying to find the 24" monitor. Reading some of the reviews from users can become very much a pain because there is always that handfull of folks that give cons that totally make think. For example I was going to get the samsung and out of 300 people like 7 people complained of mouse lag and it was noticeable in games. Even though 290 other people loved it and said games were great, I couldnt buy it.

So I just decided to say F it and went with the Dell Ultrasharp which is basically samsung parts and for $536 bucks I couldn't pass it up.

I been playing BioShock on with with 1920x1200 and it is beautiful. No lag, ghosting......nothing. So if you went with the Samsung, Ben Q, or the Dell all 3 look great and no matter what you will have users that find something wrong. I love my 24 inch Dell and I am a gamer.

I have a Samsung 245BW.

Great for games, not so great for Photoshop.

Needed something high-res for benchmarking. I'm happy with it, especially for the price.

I actually also recently went with the Dell Ultrasharp 24" and I would consider myself a gamer, but I haven't been playing much lately. I bring this up because I have used my monitor mostly for TV (HD specifically) and movies and it also does a great job of displaying these. DVDs llok fantastic and the HDTV looks fantastic.

I bought a LG L246WP-BN 24" widescreen and am very pleased with it. It has true 8-bit color and 8ms response time (5ms or less usually indicates 6-bit color). Connectors: HDMI (comes with DVI adapter), Component, D-sub, 2 port USB hub built into panel and PC Audio out. I guess the audio out port is for headphones since it's on the side of the panel, never used it though. Monitor supports true 1080p and took my breath away when I hooked up my PS3.

I own a Dell 24" 2407WFP-HC and I couldn't be happier. I'm also a hard-core gamer and HD movie buff. The only complaint I have is there is no HDMI connection.