[Malloy]

Hey guys,

Im lookin for a flat panel 17" (maybey 19) monitor. Dell has a 17" for $529. Are these any good? DO you recommend anything else?

I am doing this to conserve space, I moved into a small condo BTW I am not a gamer.

Thanks!

 

[dogstar]

i HIGHLY recommend LCD monitors, ive got a late first generation samsung 15", and i love it.

any of the new major brand lcd monitors will provide you with excellent service.
i would stick with samsung, nec, lg, sony and maybe a couple others, but im a samsung fan, ive used 5 different lcd monitors over the last couple years, and i still like the sammys best.

i believe you can do better for price as well, 529$us is a lot for a 17" lcd, IIRC you can get good 18s and some 19s for that price.

http://www.samsungusa.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=DI17PSQAQ
the stats on this monitor are VERY amazing to a guy like me, using old tech, and ive seen this thing for about $800 canadian, which is about $610 us dollars.
not bad at all...
but anyways, lets assume you dont know what the stats mean...
what your basically looking at are contrast ratio, viewing angle, and max resolution.
the higher all these numbers are, the better, simple eh

a contrast ratio of 700:1 was simply unheard of back when i got my monitor... mine was 300:1 and considered very good.
the viewing angle of the monitor linked above is 178 deg.... meaning you can be looking almost parallel to the monitor and still able to view it, versus older ones where you had to look directly at it.

hmmm, any more questions?
be happy to help

 

[ChanSecodina]

The rest of my family and I pitched in to set my dad up with a Samsung 175v lcd monitor for Christmas. It can be found for around $419 after a mail in rebate and looks like a really excellent monitor so far. Pixel response time of under 20ms (average I suppose) and a contrast ratio of 430:1 with 270cd/m^2 brightness. These are good baseline specs to watch out for in a $500 or below lcd. I've seen some Dell lcds...probably not the one you're looking at, but the ones I've seen are absolutely awful. The refresh rate on them was so low you couldn't read text on a webpage at all while scrolling it. It might just be me but I'd stay away from Dell for lcds. I strongly second the recomendation of a Samsung as the image quality is beautiful and it has very good brightness and contrast. I've heard that the following brands are also good (in no particular order): Sharp, Hitachi, Neovo, Nec, and I've heard some positive stuff about LG. Neovo is kind of a toss up to me as they apparently have incredible pixel response time but the display model I saw had some serious issues with sharpness or something. Text just looked ugly on it, blurred and halo'd sort of. Anyways, here are some specs to look for and ask about:

Contrast: 350:1 minimum, look for 430:1 or more

Brightness: 250 cd/m^2 or better. Matters more if you have a lot of light in the room that the monitor will need to compete with.

pixel response time (rise and fall time combined)...This figure is similar to the refresh rate of a traditional CRT monitor...except that lower is better in this case. This is the total time that it takes a pixel to stop being a certain color and start being another color. fall time is how long it takes to go out and rise time is how long it takes to come back on.

This is the reason you see "ghosting" on lcds, especially with fast moving images. Response time is measured in milliseconds. You can take the response time, lets say 20 milliseconds, and divide 1000 milliseconds (1000 milliseconds = one second) by it and get the number of frames the monitor can show every second. This will give you a better idea of how it measures up. 1000 / 20 = 50. So a monitor with an average pixel response time (rise and fall) of 20 ms will yield (on average) 50 frames per second.

Make sure to test the monitor that you'll be buying and put it throught its paces for the task you'll be using it for. A fairly good test is to move a window around the screen quickly and see how much "ghosting" occurs. Also, try scrolling black text on a white background as that is one of the worst case scenarios for an lcd to have, as the pixels go from white (all colors on) to black (all colors off) and back again quickly. Also, ask the sales rep at whatever store you're at for any specs not listed on the box, or better yet look at the manufacturer's website before going shopping so you're armed with the specs ahead of time. Don't assume that just because some of the specs on the monitor are good that the one's aren't listed will be. Stores usually list the best specs and leave off the unimpressive ones. I've seen $500 monitors with 500:1 contrast ratio and 30ms pixel response time and only 225cd/m^2 brightness. I would not consider that a good deal. One last thing: Don't buy a floor model as they are left on constantly and will have a much shorter life as a result. The only way I could see buying a floor model is with a significant discount and a really killer 3 year+ warranty thrown in. Good luck with the purchase! LCD's really are the way to go, just be careful and you won't get ripped off. Its like 5AM here...so I hope this is mostly coherent. I'll come back and edit it tomorrow if not.

-John

Wow, I just previewed that and it got a bit long. :shock: Oh well...

 

[Supra GTR]

Get the 17" LCD. I got the one with my Dell. And am very pleased so far. Some of the lower end units have issues with spreadsheets.

17" goes well with my 23" LG Flatron. :wink:

Regards,
James R