Flat Panel Monitors

[Hammerstein]

I have been doing some research into purchasing one of these. But, the problem is that most of the reviews on the internet tend to contradict each other. One will praise a monitor and another will slam it. So, as part of my research I thought I'd ask you guys what you thought.

I'm looking to spend under $1000, firstly. With that said, what 18 or 19" LCD monitors can you recommend?

I have noted the Dell Ultrasharp 18" and there is also a Planar 190M 19" that caught my eye. Any others?

Thanks

Edit: The monitor will be used both for gaming, including FPSes, and also graphics, word processing, etc.

[Sparrow]

You're definitely right with the contradictions. I too am looking for a new lcd, probably 17 inch though. www.pcworld.com has reviews of flat panels. Their reviews are good but since the site is not game oriented, they don't test their lcd's with games. Therefore, if you haven't actually tried the screen, there's no way of knowing if it ghosts or not. For example, pcworld's top 19 inch is the Samsung syncmaster 191T. Its a really nice screen, but even with its 25ms pixel response time, many other reviews say it ghosts a lot, expecially with the color grey. (anandtech.com and pcstats.com also have reviews of this screen) I'm not sure about 18 inch screens, but a definite good 19 inch one for gaming is the viewsonic vx900. For 17 inch, there's the dell ultrasharp 1702fp and the samsung 172P. Don't forget that the Dell monitors are actually renamed samsung's. Hope this helps. If you need any more info, pm me.

[OS-Wiz]

If you're a Gamer or movie watcher, stay away from the LCD monitors for now. Wait for the next generation or two.

[masteraleph]

Originally posted by OS-Wiz
If you're a Gamer or movie watcher, stay away from the LCD monitors for now. Wait for the next generation or two.

If you're a gamer, perhaps (although "gamer" is a relative definition; there's a difference between a casual player and a "twitch" player)...but you should have no problem with movies on a current panel.

[Hammerstein]

Based on the reviews at Newegg, it seems that the VX900 is rather well liked. As for gaming, yeah, I know CRTs are better, but I'm heading to college after the summer and would like to save the space. Until then, I use a really small desk and a laptop so a LCD monitor does much better for me.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help so far. Been great

[toastbim]

Originally posted by Hammerstein
Based on the reviews at Newegg, it seems that the VX900 is rather well liked. As for gaming, yeah, I know CRTs are better, but I'm heading to college after the summer and would like to save the space. Until then, I use a really small desk and a laptop so a LCD monitor does much better for me.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help so far. Been great

NEC 1712, NEC 1720, NEC 1760 (i will pick 1760)
Samsung 172B (def worth my money)
if you wana go 19 then samsung 191N or NEC 1950 (i think) will do the trick.
they are just brilliant 19 inch screens, 1:500 contrast ratio, movie playback is awesome, samsung has lower dp but NEC has DVI so that evens it out both are priced the same, we sell them for 1299 CDN thats around 800 US, but definitely worth the money. I cant even surf interent on lcd though, i goto forums alot and do a lotta reading, and the response time tends to be so poor when scrollin thru text. its a turn off!
anyways i def recommend going the 19" way pick one!.