What to look for in a Monitor?

I need some help choosing a new 20-22'' wide screen monitor, I'm leaning towards a Samsung or Viewsonic right now. Basically I need to know what you look at when you buy a monitor, is it the contrast ratio or what? Also which brands should I avoid? Thanks.

Edit: The contract ratio in this monitor shows 20000:1 (1000:1), what does this mean? Is it 20k:1 or 1k:1?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824001306

Yeah I know CRT's are better but I dont have the room for it. It's mainly for gaming but It's not for FPS games, and FPS games are the ones who are effected by what kinda monitor you have from what I understand.

What about contrast ratio? I heard the higher the better.

Also I'm still confused about the contrast ratio on that link, is it 20k:1 or 1k:1?

Another thing, this monitor has speakers on it ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824009157 ) and last time I had a monitor with speakers on it I would echo people in Vent and I couldnt figure out a way to make it stop. Anyone know if this is a problem with all monitors w/ speakers?

But a screen with 20k:1 ratio would be much more clear right?

ERYX24; Just type the model number of the monitor into your search bar and read the reviews.
BTW 20000;1 is B*****ks, no monitor has that sort of contrast, all the more reason to read the reviews.
Your best bet is to go to the local computer stores and actually see the monitors on display or in use.
We all see the world differently, so what is good for one may not be good for you, so, again, try to actually SEE the monitors working.

Samsung monitors are, in fact, very good for gaming PCs. The low latencies and good color accuracy, as well as fair prices make them good at what they do. I'm typing on a Samsung SyncMaster 2053BW, and I love it.

The main thing is to look at reviews or see it in person if possible. You can't really tell much from specs alone.

Well the specs on the monitor (the one I linked on my first post) shows 20000:1(1000:1). What does that mean, that it's really 1000:1?

if im looking for a monitor to buy i want the best possible resolution @ first. then picture quality, then the extras.

i was actually looking @ this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824236051

since it can offer me a wider resolution than most 22" (1920x1080 vs 1680x1050), which will help me in Race Driver Grid (better cornering), and some other RTS ( i have a habit of building my bases sideways).

in the end it still depends on what you need.

How is a higher resolution going to help you with cornering in Race Driver Grid???

lol

Yeah CRTs are bad for your eyes, which is why I'm pushing to get an LCD at work. I got P.O.'d when they took my old 19" CRT and gave me that dumb Dell 15" CRT because it "matched the dell computer". Like seriously they chucked my good monitor because the outside of it looked crummy (white plastic being not so white and what not). For that reason I use my slower laptop most of the time at work since it's LCD won't strain the eyeballs. Anyway I still game on my NEC 19" MultiSync 97F CRT, because its nice to change resolutions on the screen without worrying about it looking crappy for not being it's "native resolution". Ah glorious 19" CRT 120Hz color and lighting goodness, even if I rarely use it's highest setting of 1600x1200.

Speaking of that if you want to get an LCD monitor and play games on it you need to consider the native resolution. The higher the resolution, the more powerful a GPU you will need to cope with it. As people have said, paper specs don't mean alot for LCDs and you should go to somewhere like BestBuy or CompUSA to see them operating in person. Generally Samsung is the best but viewsonic is pretty good too. HansG is a pretty good lower cost brand as far as how it looks but I don't know how reliable they are.

Bump, anyone have any idea about the speaker issue?

Bump again, anyone?