Gaming Monitor - Need Help Buying

So my tax refund will be available soon and I'm planning to get a Sparkle Calibre X580 GeForce GTX 580 - 1536MB unless someone happens to talk me into something different.

But the main point here is I'm suffering from so much confusion about how to decide on a monitor.

What good is a 1ms response time if the refresh rate is only 75hz. Shouldn't 13ms be enough because (1000/75=13)?
I also hear some not so good things about the 1ms monitors.
I don't really care about 3d. I want the monitor to be as excellent as possible for gaming specifically FPS type games.
I would like to stay at 24" or less(i think my current 24inch is a tad big). I want superior picture quality and I don't want any ghosting.
I understand, at least I think I do, what the refresh rate and response time mean.
I'm just lost on trying to decide what values I need to get what I want.

I plan to be gaming and do very little video editing or anything else graphically intensive.

I'm currently using an NEC 24inch its 5ms and thats about all i know. Also a 9800 GTX+ 512 mb

Hrrmm. As far as response time goes, you wont notice anything 5ms or below. Even 8ms I would dare say you will not have any ghosting, but definitly not at 5 or below. The refresh rate, since you don't care about 3d doesn't really matter for you. Most monitors are 60hz (3d requires 120hz), which means it refreshes 60 times a second. The most frames per second you can get, therefor, is 60. Most people are happy in FPS at 40 or higher, so thats fine too (results will vary by GPU, but the 580 will do well at almost anything). Lastly, image quality is about resolution (detail) and contrast/brightness. I would say a minimum is 1920x1080 for res, 1000:1 for contrast ratio. Pay no attention to "dynamic contrast". "Dynamic contrast" is a gimmick and is not a good measure of performance. It won't say dynamic, but it will be rediculously high, like "60,000:1" or higher. and at least 250cd/m2 for brightness. Wikipedia can tell you all the nitty gritty about these different measurements. Lastly, if you can find a suitable LED backlit, you will have better power consumption, and less heat put out.

Summary:
Response time: anything 5ms or less is perfect
Resolution: 1920x1080 (24'' are typically 1920x1200)
Contrast Ratio: 1000:1 or higher
Brightness: 250 cd/m2 or higher
LED backlighting is good, as it reduces power and heat, but does not have a big effect on picture quality and thus would not be critical to your needs.

PsychoSaysDie thanks for the reply. Have you ever experienced the ghosting I'm talking about on any monitor? Did you ever experience it on the monitor you use now?

Best answer selected by d1ag0n.