Best 24" LCD?

What is the best (fastest, clearest, color correct, etc) 24" LCD for under $1000? Will be used mostly for gaming but also some movie playback and photo editing. I need both DVI and VGA inputs

Dell? Apple? Samsung?

I have a Samsung 226BW-S now and I am not totally happy with it (not as clear as I think it should be) and think now I should have just spent more money and bought a really nice monitor. The 226 is nice and well worth the $349 price tag, but I know I can get a nicer monitor for more money.

For US$800 the NEC 2470WNX. For $700 Benq FP241W (but you get those nasty side-mounted controls). Samsung leaves little to be desired at this size. BTW we're talkin 1920x1200 rez, and we're also talkin INPUT LAG.
edit==> Stay away from 160 degree view-angle monitors: bad color if you move yor head even a little bit.
f61

I had the NEC at my old job that contracted out earlier this year. (I think its was because the LCD was single and looked great )

Coming from home types at lower dimension and rez, I thought it rocked hard. Some off-time was spent with it on corporate websites and news sites for Shockwave and streaming video. I thought presentations and streaming were excellent. No gaming on it, but as I said what I could do was way above average. Now, one of my buds got this, and uses it for gaming (why, with the lag, I dunno), and the usual movies rip and burn. To be brief, it is better than the 19" set he had for movies, but gaming took a BIG hit due to rez and GC. Having said that, in spite of the FPS issue the pict quality is at least equal. At higher rez, one turns down/off the AA/AF. For high-end applications, the NEC is more future-proof, at the expense of OTHER components. IMHO if you have one of these, you already have an 8800GTX/2900XT, and an E6600 with o/c.

If you haven't built yet wait for the CPU/GC price drops that are immenent, and go Dual-Core/ DDR2. Quad-core/DDR3 is still an expensive proposition with small returns. As for GC's the best of this round are out, and the next 6 months aren't too exciting, except for price drops.

f61 ... sorry for the extra stuff, but it counts towards the final decision.

As far as the Benq is concerned, I'm basing that much on the reviews, and lotsa people do not like the side controls, but like the picture. I had the chance to see one in action, and it DOES look nice. Again, tweaking that beast to get it right musta been a RPITA. But once its set, its great.
Same issues with FPS and gaming in general.

f61

No experience with the Sammy, but the reviews indicate great picture, bad USB hub placement, no height adjustment (5.5" ), runs hot, and not HDMI.

Its about the same price as the Benq, and $100 less than the NEC. A few reviews indicate the mouse lag is significant with an 800/1000dpi mouse.

Picture-wise same as Benq, but easier to tweak.
==> sorry about the Benq stuff, wanted to separate it from the NEC stuff.
f61

Vista 32 reads 3.25 gigs. Runs very well. I have had no issues with Vista at all so far...

So you see no real reason not to buy the Samsung 244T? I have a wireless optical hi res Microsoft mouse. I am guessing the lag should not be too bad.

I thought it did have HDMI? I don't care about the height or the USB hubs.