I am looking to purchase a new lcd. I will be gaming. I hear that only 24" are good because all 22" are TN displays. I don't want that to conflict with my decision. So, out of all the 22" and 24" LCDs under $500, if I had to narrow it down to one, which would it be?

The Westinghouse L2410NM @ $409 and the NEC ASLCD24WMCX-BK @ $439 have good ratings out of the one's I've seen at Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824255001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824002359

From what I've read, 1920 x 1200 isn't perfect for games, but for Blu-Ray. I'm getting a 20" LCD myself this Friday because the sweet spot is 1650 x 1080, and I'll pay around $250 or so. I'm thinking of the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824001253

I'm just going to find it locally at Fry's instead of taking a chance on dead or stuck pixels where I'd have to ship it back for replacement. So, I expect to pay closer to $300 for it.

I got my new graphics card before the monitor and I am so tired of a CRT at 1024 x 768 (for 85hz refresh).

I have a Samsung 24" 245bw (TN PANEL) and i game nearly all the time at 1920x1200 with abosultely no problems. That is a very good monitor and i think you can buy it for as little as $300 or even less. A TN panel has faster response times but less color accuracy compared to other panels. IF you game, then you NEED the TN panel because of its faster response time, becuase other wise if you are a hardcore gamer, you will notice the "lag" on a non-TN panel LCD.
 
recap, if you game, then go for a cheaper TN, with your budget, you may be able to buy 2 22" or even 2 24" for $500.

well, now i know that I WANT a TN. Now that i know that, my budget would have to be under $400.

I'd put in another recommendation for Samsung.  I have a 22" (226bw) and love it.  It games at 1650x1080 and has been wonderful.  I liked having the extra screen space, so I got another Samsung 22" monitor.

 
I own an ACER X241W if you can still find one, 1920x1200 on every game I have, excellent monitor, I bought mine for $320 at Best Buy, if you can find one it's a good buy.

The one I'm getting is this Hanns-G. It's a great monitor (I have one of it's little brothers, which is a 19" ), and over a year I've only had one dead pixel in the corner. It has awesome sharp colours for its price, and the only downside is just a tiny bit of backlight bleedthrough on the tops and bottoms in really dark environments. (The only time i've noticed it is on a CSS loading screen. Not noticable in even dark horror games)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824254020
On the more expensive side of the 22-inchers is this Samsung:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824001096
I don't really know too much about it, but it's one of the bestselling monitors on newegg... with 5x Customer Choice awards.
 
Keep in mind that the bigger monitor you have, the higher resolution you will have to run your games at to look as good as the did on a smaller one. If you get a 24" incher, and you try to run crysis at a lower res to get a decent framerate it will look like crap. But whatever floats your boat, bigger is better. 24-inchers are also significantly more expensive, and it's not worth it IMO, that extra 2 inches and resolution is just more then I need.

Samsung 226BW

i recently bought a dell SP2008WFP 20 inch monitor. it's pretty good. i bought it mostly because it has an integrated webcam, but the monitor itself is actually very good. it usually goes for about $250 or less

I also got the Samsung 245BW. SOOOOO GREAT. COD4 at 1920x1200 looks and plays incredibly.

its 1680x1050 for 22" monitors
 
get a 24" over a 22", you get 2304000 pixels with a 24" as opposed to 1764000 pixesls for a 22". Given that its about 30% more screen for less than a 30% premium it makes sense to get a 24" in most cases.  
 
So there you go, a quantifiable reason to get a 24", as for the best, look at reviews that find out the panel type used in the monitor, most companies buy panels from other manufacturers and stick their label on it. Because of this brand means little to nothing so go with whatever panel is INSIDE the plastic cover as it is a far better indicator of quality than a brand name, even if it is samsung (226bw fiasco).
 
 
Good luck and good shopping!

 
Yes, I'm looking at the Samsungs because they seem to be reliable with fewer complaints. With CRT's I'd always bought Viewsonics, but I don't think their LCD's are as good as Samsungs, and are around the same price. My comment about gaming was related to the 1680 x 1050 sweet spot for most games. Reviews of the 3870x2 actually said it shined at 1920 x 1200, but framerates might be too low for newer games until I go CrossfireX.
 
I figure I can get a 20" LCD now and then next year go 24", when I'll have CrossfireX. Sharper colors are great for Bluray and anime fansubs, but response time is crucial for games, especially LOTR online, which I'm playing alot of right now.
 
It's funny that 8ms is seen as slow now. I remember when most LCD's were 16ms and not recommended for games at all. The Samsungs I'm looking at are all 5ms. If the price is right, I'll go 22" instead of 20" but I won't settle for less than 1680 x 1050. A few 19" and 20" are 1440 x 900; like the notebook I use for work.  
 
March 14th the monitor... May 15th the Phenom 9750. I'll still lose to the Penryn blitzkrieg, but it will be a glorious battle!

If u cant decide between 22" or 24" then try to obtain any of them that can be matched with real life scale...
 
For example go to a house friend and run doom ... unarmed the soldier and see if the size of his hand match with yours when u get close yours to the screen ... thats real scaling for me ...  
 
So the prespective of the characters will match your point of view like in real life...
 
Or if you want a 20" screen take the Viewsonic vx2025wm ...if you can find it yet ... is one of the top best lcd screen by many testers like the respected cnet website:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4370-3174_ [...] ml?tag=dir
 
 
...here is a link to behardware one of the best testers of lcd  
http://www.behardware.com/articles [...] 16-ms.html
In average wins the Viewsonics specially the one i mentioned...
Many others fails playing dvds and playing well...
 
 
... here you will find many brands and samsung is crap for me they dont respect the consumer 226bw 4 example they take like 3 different manufacturers to build their screens for europe.. asia ,,, and others ... i dont trust them ...you are lucky if you receive a samsung original ...
http://www.behardware.com/articles [...] rdict.html
 

I would go for a cheaper 24 inch 1900 res.
I't nice to be able to open chat windows etc in games and still have space.
I'm getting a : IIyama 24" Wide ProLite B2403WS-B1, DVI-D/HDMI/D-sub, 2000:1, 2ms for 400euro soon.  
But don't expect to run crysis with this unless you have good SLI or crossfire. The rest should be fine.

Well, I'm getting mine at high noon tomorrow. I'll have a budget, but being in the store looking at 20", 22" and 24" LCD's just might swing me to the higher end. My budget's $250-300 but I could go $400 to $500 if I ignore this month's savings goal. How long do these monitors last? Dividing it by the number of years might make the pain a bit less!

samsungs are the best going atm IMO- i bought 2 of the 19 931c (tn) last year as well as a 40in 1080 10k panel and they are all just the best dam displays i have had the luxury of enjoying.
 
good luck.

I also like Samsung, I have a 220WM that I use now, and a 17 inch that is about 4 years old that still has no problems.

Its key to look at response time when buying large monitors. The key one to look at is black to black time. Its the ms time that they give. Some companies only give you the gray to black time which is about half the time of the black to black; so make sure you look at the "btb" time and less at the "gtg" time. Most monitors that are 22" and over have slow response times compared to smaller monitors. I would say for most games 8ms would be ok though but the faster the better. I have the older LG of this model with a slower response time and it is great. Here is the newer and faster one for the same price, $499.

Have Fun !

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspag [...] 1913868031

SAMSUNG!! I have the 2232GW 22" and it's great. The response time is 2ms. Seeing it beside the other Samsung models, it looked alot better. I'd recommended checking them out in person as opposed to just buying it online based on specs. The only thing is, its resolution is 1680 x 1050 so I can't really run my PS3 on 1080p without it downscaling and looking a tad bit uglier than 720p. The price is also significantly more than its other Samsung 22" siblings. If your computer is up to it, might as well check out some 24" monitors if you want the 1080p.