LCD Monitors: Advice wanted

Endymion

Hello I'm considering purchasing a new LCD Monitor, the thing is, I'm not as up to date about these things as I one was. I was wondering If anybody could help me pick out a decent LCD monitor in the 350 - 450 eruo range. What should I be looking for wrt to contrast ratio and Delay timing (I'm not a gamer).

I'm currently looking at this one and this one.

PogMoThoin

The Benq has a higher resolution. Depends on what your gfx card supports. Other than that they have nearly the same specs. Dont know how good of a make they BenQ are (others might advise). full specs of benq here

Anti

Benq are not known for their great reliability. ?But for that price with them specs you cant go wrong

DirkVoodoo

OC-UK

Great selection, good prices, delivery a bit steep so maybe if u need another item might help.

I got the Viewsonic VX2025 off them, worked out at €447 i think incl. VAT

Great monitor, just the right size (I was originally gonna get the Dell 2407 FPW) and 1680x1050 resolution is perfect (my laptops native res is 1920x1200, granted its a smaller screen, but its very hard to read stuff)

Problems mainly revolve around backlight bleed, havent noticed any (watched star wars episode 3, no problems). Response time could be better, fine for most games although i did find Civ4 a bit blurry when scrolling.

Great monitor 8/10 from me

L31mr0d

yeah you need to look at the response time, and also the glare off the screen. I've got the 19" version of that BenQ, and the 8ms response time is great for most games, but I do notice some blurring when scrolling in RTS's. BenQ do a 2ms model of that monitor which you will never notice the pixels even flicker. But 8ms is good enough for most needs, and apart from the odd bit of scrolling, i love it. The glare I said needs to be considered because it depends what you use the computer for. It you do a lot of work on the computer and stare at the screen for 6-7 hours at a time, a bright, sharp and reflective monitor (like the vaio x-black) will be hard on the eyes but great for games, movies, etc. For working with, you should look for an LCD with more of a matt effect, which won't reduce its sharpness but will greatly reduce the screens glare (i.e a light on behind you won't be reflected in the screen)

zilog_jones

Be careful about response time measurements - they aren't all measured in the same way, so someone's "8ms" can be someone else's "16ms" - and they're not even consistent between the one manufacturer!

This might be of use to you.

L31mr0d

zilog_jones wrote:

Be careful about response time measurements - they aren't all measured in the same way, so someone's "8ms" can be someone else's "16ms" - and they're not even consistent between the one manufacturer!

This might be of use to you.

Hey thanks for that, I was looking for a comprehensive breakdown of LCD technologies. I always wondered why Sony panels had the great contrast but the worst glare. Never knew about special "coatings" on the panels to increase the contrast.

Endymion

Well I'll mainly be using it for programming so text has to appear very well. I've not interest in gaming. However, I do like to watch the occasional avi.

Wrt Overclockers, I dislike dealing in sterling, and with them in particular. Things have a habit of ending up far more expensive then you might initially think.

Endymion

well I bought one. Thing is, there seems to be a whiteness around the sides and top, is this back light bleed, what can be done about it. Do I just have to put up with this, or could sending it back result in a better a replacement.

DemonOfTheFall

That is backlight bleed. Which screen did you buy ?

If I wanted one just for desktop use I would have gone for highest resolution, screw the other details.

Endymion

well I went for the LG 19"