First LCD - What must I consider?

Hi there,

As the title states - this will be my first LCD. I've had the same 17 inch CRT since before Diablo 2 came out. The newest game I have played would probably be Warcraft 3 - but I'm now looking to build a new rig that can handle Dragon Age possibly. Or some other new games.

Some other important points.

- I'm Canadian, so the monitor needs to be available from say Memoryexpress, NCIX or something similar
- Due to the extreme lengths of time I keep computers for I'm going to put the overall budget of the PC between 2K - 3K Canadian

Originally I was thinking I hadn't built a computer in 10 years so I should spoil myself and get a 27 inch Samsung 275T. But looking at it, and even looking a bit smaller at the 26 inch Samsung 260HD I realized these are probably just way too big to sit an arms length away from. Looking at the majority of posts here I'm gathering that 24" is the sweet spot and recommended size currently? I have also seen some discussion on the types of panels. Does this really matter? I'm not going to be editing video or anything like that. Maybe the odd picture on it's way to be printed. What about the response time? I always though the lower number was better, i.e. 2ms vs 5ms. Perhaps I'm totally wrong here. Also is there a best company, and worst company? In my mind I'm thinking Samsung is the best while trying to avoid Dell at all costs. Maybe that's just some bad experiences creeping into my logic.

Last point - this computer will be purchased this fall. To coincide with the new i5/Windows 7 releases. So if there is anything to consider there, please let me know.

Anyways, thanks for any and all help!