My birthday is coming up and the wife says I should replace my 50 lb monitors with some sleek new LCD monitors and I'm not going to complain because I'd like to try gaming wide-screen anyway. Problem is I don't know the best models for gaming. Is there a manufacturer that in general is the best? I've read some good things about Samsung, but do I need to look for a certain refresh rate or black level? I will probably have some size constraints because of the way my desk is situated so I wanted to look at a manufacturer and a set of parameters and then make sure I can find one that will fit. Thanks!
I'm currently using a Samsung T260 but I haven't really had it for long enough to be able to vouch for it. Refresh rate seems good enough to me though, but I believe it's hard to get a bad deal there these days; I haven't seen anything that isn't either 5ms or 2ms. 5 may not be enough to keep up with REALLY rapid movement (e.g. FPS games), but other than that it should be fine. I'm guessing.
im using a LG 19" widescreen flatron with 2ms response and 3000:1 ratio ... they have better ones now (mine is almost year and half old) and i will tell you this is the BEST lcd i have ever used and they are pretty cheap on sale once in awhile at best buy FYI
Ive got an acer 24 inch... its great. I think it has about the same specs as Erocks. And I got it about the same time as he did.
Samsung are fantastic monitors for gaming if you want something <=22" for monitors 22" and larger go with the 24" gateway or Dell(same specs and parts just different name slapped on) I currently have 2 22" samsung monitors. found here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001273 and one older 22" samsung model 226BW I play a lot of FPS style games and have never had an issue with any of them.
The fastest LCD panels are TN's. They're all about speed and probably the cheapest of the panels, but that's about it. If you do any kind of digital imaging seriously, then you might want to stay away from them. Check here for more information: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2049206&enterthread=y As for CRT radiation, I'd think there's enough lead in the glass to prevent any kind of radiation from coming through.
I have a 22" Samsung Syncmaster (2ms) for awhile now works great was the best gaming screen for under $300 when I got it don't know about now.
Thanks all, this is exactly the type of info I was looking for, I'll hopefully be picking up two 22" lcd monitors in the next week or so!
go BIGGER... i had a 24" and dualed it to my 19" instead of replacing... but it's so much better now that the 24" is the secondary and the 26" is king. makes movie viewing and such viable at a few feet should you dvr your tv shows
Hey I got the same one! The Acer 24" widescreen (x243w). It's crazy how bright this thing can go. I bought it because it's got a sleek design and matte finish. I also got a deal on it. Only problem with it is it doesn't have an instant switch between analog and digital outputs (if you have 2 things connected to it). My Samsung monitor did. Samsung is one of the best when it comes to LCD monitors.
Samsung is the best way to go for gaming LCD monitors. Hands down, anyone that disagrees has not dished out money to buy a samsung LCD. Simple. Oh, and yes, these days, You get what you pay for... Unless its a sony LCD, then you get what you pay for, but you get extra charges for the SONY., lol
Thanks all, I wanted to get a 22", but the dude at Best Buy said Samsung is going away from 19/22" and going with 20/23". I picked up a 23" for me and a 20" for the kids. Guild Wars and Eve both look amazingly better, but oddly enough Warhammer wasn't much of an improvement (I guess using an ancient CRT is why I could never tell why people said Warhammer looked bad... ) Anyway I felt a lot better knowing what to look for, so I wasn't worried when the monitor looked like total crap in the store.
I've got a couple samsungs too, and I always think it's funny (strange-funny) that the sales people never seem to take the trouble to adjust the monitor settings for the computers they're paired with to actually look, y'know, good? lol XD Like... native resolution would be a good start I spent a while fiddling around with one in frys trying to find how to do this with vista when it first came out and am a bit ashamed to say I couldn't figure it out -.- I bought the monitor anyway (22" widescreen) because I already had a 19" samsung at home, and I was not disappointed Glad your monitor hunt was fruitful, and interested to see so many other people recommend samsung as the brand of choice.