37" HDTV for a monitor?

It's been decided, a large monitor for my next rig is necessary. I think I could get away with a 37" monitor at my desk (it's like 4' deep) and not be overly huge and awkward.

Should I get a 37" 1080p HDTV or a 24" + monitor?

I'm leaning toward the HDTV because of the shear size advantage. But the 120Hz displays are spendy...

I plan on gaming, so blurring is a not an option. I would like to play current games on high settings (excluding Crysis). The video card powering this display is going to be limited to under ~$300 in a single card setup.

What would you do? Thanks!

lol, 37" is rather large to be right in front of your face, even if it is 4' back. 24" IMO. I got a 28" viewsonic, and its perfect, though only 2' back. Maybe go for a 32" 1080p.
As for a graphics solution under $300, I would go with an HD4870. You could also do a 9800GX2, the only problem being it is two cards mated into one, which runs on its own SLI if you will, and it doesn't perform similarly in every game. By that I mean SLI is inconsistent, so in some games it kicks major ass, in others its just meh. The 4870 would be solid all the way through.
My 4870 is good enough to power 1920x1200, with some settings very high on crysis. So basically you should max out every game.

Doomturkeys got it right. I gotta 22" HDTV for a monitor 1360x768 is its highest setting which is great for typing papers & watching movies online. Everything far more clear then a 19" CRT. Gaming at 1280x720 is just fine as well. This monitor (width wise) takes up half of my desk. I couldn't imagine even a 32" I would feel blinded. Unless you plan to sit like 8 feet away from your desk then I would consider something smaller then a 37" HDTV.

O yea the HD 4870 would be a great card for ya.

Even though I like regular screens, I have the itch to get myself an HDTV just for the sheer size like you say. I would suggest for this however to have a wall available, so you can set your desk a few feet away, then and only then it'll be worth it, otherwise you'll just feel awkward and out of place.

I already got a "wall" for my HDTV in my house, it's just a matter of time and money for me to buy it, I probably would use both my screen and TV, but the TV I'm sure will win for games! (Nothing beats a big ass screen for gaming).

Thanks for the reply's guys!

Personally I don't feel that I need higher resolution than 1080P. The whole point of this large monitor is so that I don't need to sit so close. I think the lower res than the 24"+ monitors would help me from trying to "lean in" Plus I don't want to have to spend massing amounts of cash on a video card to be able to keep graphics and frame rates up.

It's understood that I need to be sure the monitor needs to be fast enough to keep from the ghosting. Which is my biggest concern.

Does anyone have a HDTV that they would recommend?

I use a 70 inch HDTV as display
Video Conneciton is DVI to HDMI
Resolution is 1080P for Games, PC Application and HDVideo (Blue-Ray, HD-DVD)

Video Card is BFG 8800GT 512 OC
OS is Vista Ultimate 64

It works great.....

When it comes down to it. If you are going to get an HDTV and use it as a monitor, you better sit a decent distance away. I've been using an HDTV display as my main monitor for about almost 2 years now and it's been going great. There's a few things that you should keep in mind.

1. Try to get a HDTV that lets you adjust the h-size, v-size, and overall size of the picture. This will help you get by annoying overscan issues.

2. Read the manual of the display that you want to get before you buy it. Make sure to check the resolutions that the outputs can support.

3. Figure out how you are going to setup your PC. Since you are (should) be sitting further away from the screen. You are going to have to position your PC in a different way in order to get everything to reach from your sitting position.

That's all I can think of right now. I hope that helps. I've been extremely happy with my HDTV as a monitor setup. As long as you aren't doing any professional graphic design, you'll be fine using it as a screen. If you don't want to sit further away from the screen, you are much better off getting a normal monitor.

I recommend ATI cards due to the quality of AVIVO and the ability to totally avoid any overscan issues that arise. Their color adjustment works really well if you are hooking up through the PC input (DVI or VGA) that usually comes built-in to HDTVs.

This isn't a fanboy observation either, I used to use a 7900GS and a 8800GT after that, but I've found that the 2xxx/3xxx/4xxx series just does a better job (Though others have had better experiences with Nvida cards like leon2006) .

If you have any questions for me, feel free to post here or PM me.

Thanks guys. IndigoMoss, that's a great idea to read the HDTV monitor manual before the purchase. I'm definitely going to do that.

It looks like you can get a decent 37" TV for $800 or less, vs ~$500 for a 28" monitor and ~$1200+ for a 30" monitor.

Do I need to worry about more than response time for blurring in gaming?

All the 37" monitors at Newegg are 8ms or better, which should be plenty fast I would think. . .