Need Serious Help / Advice on finding a Monitor…

[razor117]

Ok… I’ve had a 20.1 inch gateway monitor for the past few years now (the smaller variant of the FPD2275W) and to say I’ve been spoiled is an enormously gross understatement… I use it for gaming, movies and graphic design; and it has more then excelled in every task I need it for. I suppose the key point here is the viewing angles, my old Gateway has no fade out or negative shift at all no mater the angle, a big plus since it sits fairly high on my desk. I’ve been to my local Microcenter twice now to brows their displays; and again, to say I was disappointed would be an under statement. I only found one out-of-date 30” Dell monitor for $1200 that didn’t seem to suffer too bad from the bad viewing angles infecting all the other displays but it was their last one and they said they would only give me 10% off the base price for the display model….

The main reason I need a new monitor is because I recently built a new performance desktop with a blue ray drive and it was a bit of a shock to find out that my faithful Gateway does not support HDCP, that plus my old computer and Xbox are now fighting over the same VGA port….

After some research I discovered that 90% of the displays out there are using cheap TN type panels with bad viewing angles and that IPS or VA type panels would be the better way for me to go. Sooo… with a sub $1000 budget what is the best display out there with graphic design and gaming in mind? Or should I wait and bite the bullet by getting a 40” HDTV instead… the new Samsung LED TVs do look amazing, but they are a bit out of my price range right now.

 

[cjl]

Well, if you want to save a lot of money, the Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA is a good choice. It is perhaps the best value in high quality LCDs on the market today, as it has a 22" IPS panel for $250 or so. It definitely isn't the best in your $1000 budget though. The HP LP2475W is in that range IIRC, as is the Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP (a monitor which I own and love). Both are excellent 24" 1920x1200 displays. IIRC, the HP is an S-IPS, and the Dell is an S-PVA. The Dell has a wider color gamut, but does suffer slightly more shift at very high viewing angles due to the nature of PVA compared to IPS (both are far, far better than TN though). You also might be able to get a Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP - which is probably the model you saw on display. Currently it's $1099 direct from Dell, but they have sales often, so you might be able to catch it under $1000.