$200/$300 budget for gaming LCD

[EagleTwelve12]

Well it turns out I'll be looking into the LCD market, as I'm buying a new computer tommarow morning. However, I really know next to nothing about LCD screens! I don't even know if widescreen LCD's are good or bad for gaming purposes...

Scanning through newegg.com, I found information such as latency times, which I have begun to understand. But as to which monitor would apply to my system, I do not really know. So far, the gaming machine I will be ordering tommarow morning looks as so. In accordance to this system, which monitor would you say is the best? I don't want to be restricted because of the monitor, but at the same time I don't think it's necessary to shell out 600 dollars for a screen (already paying around 1.8k for the gaming computer).

SLI motherboard
Intel E6850 + 4GB DDR2 800 RAM
Nvidia 8800GTS

THANKS!

 

[pchoi04]

I think for a system of that level I think you can really make use of a bigger monitor. I built a system last year and bought a 19" Samsung which I do like but for what I wanted to do it wasnt cutting it. I just got my Dell 24 which is on sale right now, and its amazing and I dont know why I didnt get it sooner (money). lol

So when everything is set and done I spent more money in the long run. I got someone to buy my monitor so it wasnt all a big waste but if I had to do it again I would of saved up a few more dolllars and just got the 24.

But I'm sure you could get a great 20-22" screen for around that price range which would do just fine. I use my monitor to play 360, watch movies, HDTV, PC games and the Dell 24 does it all and the 1:1 pixel mapping is amazing and now I can finally play 360 in native 1080p in its native resolution.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[prodystopian]

I agree about the 24" monitor being worth it. If you spent that much on the system, I imagine you will be playing games that require that much hardware and imagine you will be upgrading the hardware again. If you purchase an outstanding monitor (at a higher price) you won't need to updgrade it as soon as monitor tech does not improve nearly as fast as graphics cards/processors. Also, the 24" allow several other plug ins, like component which is nice if you have a console you want to play or an upscaling dvd player.

If you are set on the lower price, know that 22" monitors cost about the same as 20" monitors because the 22" monitors use cheaper panels that are very fast (great for games) but lack the color accuracy (not good for watching movies/photo editing). So if all you want to do is game and the usual internet browsing, the 22" will suit you fine.