Monitor size and viewing distance?

Alright so I plan on building a new computer this summer. I will also be purchasing a monitor, but I am unsure of what size to get.

The monitor will have a resolution of 1920x1080.

The most typical viewing distance for me will be just a little over two feet. This is the distance I will use for all of my school work, gaming, youtube, etc.

Occasionally, when I don't want to watch movies on my tv in the living room, I will watch movies and tv shows from my bed, which will be about 4-5 ft. away from the monitor.

My question is what is the best monitor size for my uses? A 24" monitor was the absolute biggest I would go, but I was wondering if a smaller size would be better when most of my viewing is only a little over two feet away. I would really like the picture to come in as clear as possible, especially when I am gaming. 21.5" is the smallest I would go, as they don't make too many monitors with full HD resolution that are smaller than that.


Any help would be appreciated. Also, if you know of any good viewing distance calculators here on the web, that would be helpful.


BTW, price is not really a factor here. Most of the monitors I am looking at our made by Asus/Hp. The difference in price between the biggest and smallest sizes is anywhere from $50-$80. That's not really a big deal to me, thought saving money is always nice. However I would rather get what I will enjoy the most.

Also, I am currently using a laptop with a 17", 1680x1050 display. Any of the monitors in the range listed above should feel like a sizeable upgrade, no pun intended