I need a LCD monitor.?

Question

I am looking for a 19-22 inch LCD monitor for $200-$400 Canadian The price is not that big of a deal. I find that the builky older monitors are more clear then most of the LCD I do not know why I feel this way. Anyhow I am good with computers but do not know anything about LCD monitors.

I want to know what stats to look for to get a great monitor. There is this 500:1 ratio things and contrast stuff , optimal (resolution ) and max resolution witch I think I can guess that one.

Just tell me what to look for to get a high quality LCD monitor thats around 19-22 inches.

Question 2. I heard that LCD monitors are made to only support one resolution or best fit one resolution. I do not like things being to small on the screen. I mostly game do you think I should get a wide screen or a full screen size LCD monitor. What is better for gaming or better overall? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If you are a gamer, which you said you are, either stick to CRT, or spend at least a couple hundred more in money.

CRT's look better because they are, this is mostly becuase of the resolution. The resolution on a LCD monitor for the size is MUCH smaller then an CRT, My 20inch monitor goes too 1920x1440, an LCD of equivalent size would go to 1600x1200 on an expensive nicer one, most wouldn't even go to that, and would go to 1280x1024.

Now, If you DO want an LCD monitor, and are looking to play games, you need to look at the specifications closely, The most important one being Response time, which is measured in MS. you will experance "Ghosting" while playing games on a high MS monitor, the lower the better. In my opinion, to play games, you want something under 8MS. Some people will say 8MS is OK, but personally, I would go for UNDER 8MS.

After that is Contrast Ratio, which is the ratio for contrast, the HIGHER this number is, the better, and the better the picture contrast is going to look. 500:1 is low 600:1 is about standard monitor, 700:1 is decent, and 800:1 or anything higher is very good.

I am personally waiting at least a couple more years before I switch my gaming computer to a LCD screen, because they just arn't good enough yet.

This would be the least expensive monitor I would buy
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4335
Although thats much more then I am willing to pay...and Sadly the resolution on that screen is MUCH smaller then my 21inch, and that one is a 24 inch. Which means worse quality.

Both my 19 and 21 inch CRT screens I got for free locally. I would look in your local advertisements, or websites like craigslist.org for your location(I don't know if they have Canadian city's or not) and look for a good CRT personally. You can probally get a very nice one for under 50$ easy, but if you want LCD, then Make sure to look at response time the most.


(Oh, and also, if you don't run it at the native recommended resolution then it normally does look distorted on a LCD screen.)

Answer 2

The higher the contrast ratio the better. You can have more control on how bright you want it to be. High resolution only means it's the optimum resolution of the monitor. You can always change the resolution on display properties if you want bigger graphics to look at. Besides being able to watch widescreen DVD's, widescreen is also preferable than a regular 4:3 screens as you can change the width:height ratio on display properties. Some games does not adjust to widescreen so you need to check if the games you play will do so.

I've seen a Viewsonic that claims 2ms response time which is better for gaming.

I have a 24 inch with 8 ms response time and using the 1920x1200 resolution produces some ghosting. Changing that to lower resolution, ie 1280x1024 gives better video.

Answer 3

The Gateway 19" widescreen is very nice- Viewsonics tend to look great right out of the box and lose a bit of sharpness over time. I tend to think contrast ratios aren't as important as seeing the monitors side by side and checking the picture quality yourself. So don't dimiss 500:1 as worse than 700:1 unless you've seen them on the specific monitors yourself.

Yes, all LCDs have an optimal/native resolution (whether conventional or widescreen) and if you choose any other resolution, text looks blurred and crappy. To make things readable, you may need to select a scheme with a larger font size. Note that for most widescreen monitors, you'll need to insert the driver disk in order for XP to use their 1440x900 or similar optimal resolution.

I find widescreen worth it- for general use it allows me extra space to put browser windows or e-mail etc without having to navigate tabs or the taskbar. For 1st-person gaming it's great because you can move all of your status windows to the sides without cluttering the central screen area or interfering with gameplay. The only drawback is that may need a better video card to drive the widescreen mode at high framerates. For gaming, make sure your monitor has a refresh rate under double digits. 6-8ms is fine, 15ms will have ghosting problems.

Answer 4

liquid crystal exhibit could have a extra suitable exhibit from CRT because it has very small pixels that may alter themselves to very very nearly any colour (relies upon on the photograph card or the processor pictures in the event that they are able to assist that colour). yet they are not tough and confusing.A small bump can harm their pixels. yet CRT's at the instant are not.they're completely tough and confusing and have a larger life expectancy than liquid crystal exhibit's. besides the shown fact that that's no longer stable in any respect because it consumes larger electricity, Have extra weight, Consumes extra effective area which isn't stable. they're additionally no longer stable for gaming and designing Use as they can't help severe resolutions while liquid crystal exhibit's and LED's can.

Answer 5

I have a 19" AMD LCD from Fryes. Works great for everything including games.

Hope that helps.

p.s. Just cost $200