LCD Buyer's Guide

[pencilcase]

Originally posted by: xtknight
What about Overclockers UK? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/17_Inch_LCD_Monitors.html

NM I guess it's a lot more expensive than morecomputers incl. VAT. But the specs there seem to be in-line with what they should be if that gives you more assurance about what is being sold in the UK.

Yes, it looks most likely that ebuyer just got their facts wrong. As for overclockers.co.uk, though their website may be better organised, I've heard several horror stories about their customer service, especially when you need to return an item. And the owner of overclockers.co.uk is notorious for his extremist political views...

Meanwhile, I was briefly excited about a Sony SDM-S95AB which is on sale from dabs for £169.18 (311 USD). I looked it up on prad.de and it appears to be a 16ms MVA panel. Initially, I thought this might be a good deal until I read a post by someone who'd bought it and said there was noticeably poor refresh when scrolling. Now, whilst I don't require the fastest response time and will not be playing any games, this sounds too slow even for internet browsing.

 

[Brahmzy]

xtknight, that ghosting link is friggin' awesome! Thanks!

Makes me wonder if I could've gotten a 2407 instead of my VX922?

 

[roemer21]

I am considering buying a Viewsonic 2025. What are the negatives about it, and could you give me the top 2 reasons for why I should buy it? Anyone? I'm flipping back and forth between the 2007WFP and the 2025, so someone tell me what you would buy if you were in my shoes.

(I will be using it for gaming (nothing hardcore or anything) and watching movies along with all the other general daily computer tasks. Any input would be greatly appreciated!)

 

[imported_Psykosis]

earlyace Says:
ViewSonic VP930b
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116365
Seems to be a perfect match for what I'm looking for, but I am worried about quality control; i.e. backlight leaking and dead pixels.

I'm gathering information about Acer AL1923, it uses the same MVA panel as the VP930b and some people says that it has less backlight bleeding, but still I couldn't see a picture to confirm it.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: roemer21
I am considering buying a Viewsonic 2025. What are the negatives about it, and could you give me the top 2 reasons for why I should buy it? Anyone? I'm flipping back and forth between the 2007WFP and the 2025, so someone tell me what you would buy if you were in my shoes.

(I will be using it for gaming (nothing hardcore or anything) and watching movies along with all the other general daily computer tasks. Any input would be greatly appreciated!)

I'd go for the VX2025WM because Dell switches panels without notice and it's no telling what you'll end up with. The VX2025WM is pretty much superior for everything unless you care about the USB hub. I've heard the Dell has more scaling options but I'm not sure about that.

 

[Pugnate]

Originally posted by: roemer21
I am considering buying a Viewsonic 2025. What are the negatives about it, and could you give me the top 2 reasons for why I should buy it? Anyone? I'm flipping back and forth between the 2007WFP and the 2025, so someone tell me what you would buy if you were in my shoes.

(I will be using it for gaming (nothing hardcore or anything) and watching movies along with all the other general daily computer tasks. Any input would be greatly appreciated!)

The biggest neg. that stopped me from purchasing was the lack of HDCP.

 

[Skott]

The biggest problem I see with the 2025 is possibly the lack of height adjustment but that hasnt bothered me at all. You can always put something solid beneath it to raise it up if it is an issue for you. I dont need the extra usb ports one may find on other LCDs so thats not a problem for me neither. it might be an issue for others though. I like Dell LCDs but the ViewSonic outperforms Dell's 2007 in the 20" class IMO. The Nec is the only one to out do the ViewSonic in this particular class but its more expensive. The Dell 2407 is a different class IMO so I dont count it in with the 20" LCDs. Its also a different resolution. If I wanted the wider screen and higher resolution I'd have chosen the Dell 2407 but thats not what I wanted. Figure out what resolution you want to game and watch movies at and then choose a LCD built for it. Thats what I did.

 

[roemer21]

Thanks for all the useful insight and info guys. I think that I am willing to go for the 2025, but I just have another couple of questions.

1. What is the lowest price any of you have seen this monitor at? I am waiting for the best deal, as I do not need the monitor right away.
2. How long should I wait for price drops? I don't need the monitor right away, and I want to get it for as cheap as possible. How long should I wait before jumping the gun? (The longest I can go is probably until Oct/Nov, so I guess I'm just asking how much of a price change do you forsee between now and then?

Thanks again guys. I am just really looking for the retailer and price on it, and I'm willing to do mail-in-rebates as I have had great success with these in the past. Any useful information that I didn't ask about concerning purchases would be greatly appreciated as well!

SR

 

[Pens1566]

Office Depot has it for $379, might PM it to $329 (the 'egg) and they also have a manufacturers $50MIR for purchases made @ OD.

Hot Deals link

 

[Trate]

Hello there. I've tried a few searches on this thread and couldn't come up with anything. Excellent guide and links though. Especially that comparison site.

What I was wondering was opinions on Dual 20" WS, or a single 24" WS.

I cap out at $1000 for a budget and I have an EVGA 7800GT CO 256mb card (which I don't plan to upgrade for some time), I play CS and RTS games mostly and regular desktop stuff in excel. And I am looking at the Benq FP241W that is coming out, as well as anything new from LG or HP that is S-IPS, as well as the Dell 2407 (I saw it on display today, looks lovely)

Currently I have a Samsung 19" 913T that is going to replace a 7 year old 17" CRT. I tried a gradient, and apparently my monitor has some banding, but I've never noticed it. Blacks are really washed out, but before I started looking, I never really noticed it (plus zombies are scary in the dark haha).

The thing that really is worrying me is the loss of 1.5 inches in height on a 20 inch, so potrait ability is really important to me. And I think that makes it just the Dell 2007 that fits the bill (2 x price and rotate). On the 24 side (or 23 for that matter) I would need scalability at 1:1 cause my vid card isn't up to snuff, and this will blow my budget for the updgrade cycle)

Conclusion: Wondering opinions on dual 20", or a single 24", my timeframe is probably up till September?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: roemer21
Thanks for all the useful insight and info guys. I think that I am willing to go for the 2025, but I just have another couple of questions.

1. What is the lowest price any of you have seen this monitor at? I am waiting for the best deal, as I do not need the monitor right away.

$330 @ Newegg (very reliable retailer): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116381

2. How long should I wait for price drops? I don't need the monitor right away, and I want to get it for as cheap as possible. How long should I wait before jumping the gun? (The longest I can go is probably until Oct/Nov, so I guess I'm just asking how much of a price change do you forsee between now and then?

I really doubt that at this point the monitor's price will drop that much. $330 is insanely low for a top-quality 20.1" widescreen. By October I can't possibly see it being under $305 but miracles happen...

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Trate
Hello there. I've tried a few searches on this thread and couldn't come up with anything. Excellent guide and links though. Especially that comparison site.

Unfortunately the search at AT forums is basically non-functional. Your best bet is to set 'messages per page' in your profile to 500 then browse the few pages/use the browser's find function.

What I was wondering was opinions on Dual 20" WS, or a single 24" WS.

I cap out at $1000 for a budget and I have an EVGA 7800GT CO 256mb card (which I don't plan to upgrade for some time), I play CS and RTS games mostly and regular desktop stuff in excel. And I am looking at the Benq FP241W that is coming out, as well as anything new from LG or HP that is S-IPS, as well as the Dell 2407 (I saw it on display today, looks lovely)

Currently I have a Samsung 19" 913T that is going to replace a 7 year old 17" CRT. I tried a gradient, and apparently my monitor has some banding, but I've never noticed it. Blacks are really washed out, but before I started looking, I never really noticed it (plus zombies are scary in the dark haha).

The thing that really is worrying me is the loss of 1.5 inches in height on a 20 inch, so potrait ability is really important to me. And I think that makes it just the Dell 2007 that fits the bill (2 x price and rotate). On the 24 side (or 23 for that matter) I would need scalability at 1:1 cause my vid card isn't up to snuff, and this will blow my budget for the updgrade cycle)

Conclusion: Wondering opinions on dual 20", or a single 24", my timeframe is probably up till September?

I would prefer two 21" screens personally. I just can't see myself using a 24" PC monitor, but that's just me, and I'm not a big movie watcher. Consider getting a couple Samsung 215TWs which have great ergonomics and top-of-the-line image quality. And they just fits your budget perfectly (2x$500): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001078 Hopefully shipping won't be much or you can wait until the price drops just a bit.

Though the 215TW doesn't have the best response time, so something along the lines of one 215TW and one ViewSonic VX2025WM sounds ideal to me. The problem is they won't match up very well physically, but if you weren't planning to put them *right* next to each other, it shouldn't be that much of an issue anyway. Or if you check out the 215TW and find the response time fine, then just grab a couple of those. They have better color reproduction than the VX2025WM, but both can display 8-bit true colors.

 

[xtknight]

Since the 215TW is a great monitor, you may be wondering about the 205BW. It's not quite as impressive, but to Samsung's credit it does support HDCP which seems to be a trend in their newer models, and hopefully that will continue. The 205BW sports a TN panel (low viewing angle, dithering required, fast response time). There's a review of it here: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5015

 

[eXecutioner28]

hey guys could u help me out too? Which 17" and which 19" would u recommend from Samsung/Benq/...? for playing and watching divx/dvd movies? (don't know if I can afford 19" but recommend both).
for instance in Croatia Samsung 740b costs 265 euros. My limit is around 300 euros give or take...

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: eXecutioner28
hey guys could u help me out too? Which 17" and which 19" would u recommend from Samsung/Benq/...? for playing and watching divx/dvd movies? (don't know if I can afford 19" but recommend both).
for instance in Croatia Samsung 740b costs 265 euros. My limit is around 300 euros give or take...

Sorry. It's easy to get side-tracked with the amount of replies in here.

The Belinea's results on LesNumeriques didn't look very impressive at all to me. I'd go with the Samsung. Is there anything specific you dislike about Samsung?

 

[eXecutioner28]

it's ok about being side-tracked... (a lot of people ask for your help so it's reasonable). What do I dislike about SMG? well everyone has it, and it covers like 85% of Croatia's market. I dunno. On lesNumeriques 730BF got only 3 stars.

U said 740B? it's that the way to go? what about 19"? couse in our cimputer magazine they praised 930BF but said that 940B is not as good (something about backlight bleeding and bad colours compared to 930BF).
740B (260E) is about 15euro cheaper than 730BF. And 940B (340E) is 40euros cheaper than 930BF. But th

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: eXecutioner28
it's ok about being side-tracked... (a lot of people ask for your help so it's reasonable). What do I dislike about SMG? well everyone has it, and it covers like 85% of Croatia's market. I dunno. On lesNumeriques 730BF got only 3 stars.

U said 740B? it's that the way to go? what about 19"? couse in our cimputer magazine they praised 930BF but said that 940B is not as good (something about backlight bleeding and bad colours compared to 930BF).
740B (260E) is about 15euro cheaper than 730BF. And 940B (340E) is 40euros cheaper than 930BF. But th

The 930BF has some response time problems just like the 730BF (it's not easily noticed in all reviews). When you move the cursor, you don't see ghosting, but you see ugly color artifacts around it if you do it on the right color.

17" - Samsung 740B
19" - ViewSonic VX922 or VP930b

The VX922 has a faster response time but the VP930b is also great and high-contrast. The VP930b sounds like it would be better for you overall. If that's not available then the BenQ FP93GX or FP91G+ are also great.

 

[Trate]

Thanks for the thread search idea! I never thought of that.

I guess I should have specified, its $1000 CDN, unfortunately we are pretty much staying about the $0.90 exchange rate, but price parity to match that is still pretty much non-existant. So around $825 USD is what I could spend.

The 215TW looks nice for a general use monitor. Plus Samsung is pretty good with their customers, I think.

I am starting to lean towards dual monitors too. Not all games can be run windowed mode, whcih I like to do at the moment.

Do you think there will be 20" WS that will be able to do 1080i/p in the future?

 

[Skott]

Originally posted by: roemer21
Thanks for all the useful insight and info guys. I think that I am willing to go for the 2025, but I just have another couple of questions.

1. What is the lowest price any of you have seen this monitor at? I am waiting for the best deal, as I do not need the monitor right away.
2. How long should I wait for price drops? I don't need the monitor right away, and I want to get it for as cheap as possible. How long should I wait before jumping the gun? (The longest I can go is probably until Oct/Nov, so I guess I'm just asking how much of a price change do you forsee between now and then?

Thanks again guys. I am just really looking for the retailer and price on it, and I'm willing to do mail-in-rebates as I have had great success with these in the past. Any useful information that I didn't ask about concerning purchases would be greatly appreciated as well!

SR

This is actually a simple answer for your situation. When you actually need it and ready to buy. That'll be when the cheapest price can be found for you. Prices on these monitors go down only so far before they stop. Once they bottom out they wont go lower because eventually the monitor will get discontinued for a newer and better model. How long before that happens? A year maybe. Maybe more. Maybe less. No way of telling really. Basically just buy it for the cheapest price you can find at the time when you are ready. Its a good monitor so whatever you pay for it is gonna be a good deal.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Trate
Thanks for the thread search idea! I never thought of that.

I guess I should have specified, its $1000 CDN, unfortunately we are pretty much staying about the $0.90 exchange rate, but price parity to match that is still pretty much non-existant. So around $825 USD is what I could spend. I was looking at the 215T, but I notice on the front page that they are not listed the greatest for gaming, and the viewsonic doesn't have adjustibility, or else I would definately pull the trigger on two of those.

It is true that the 215TW is behind a lot in terms of response time but you'll never know how good it is until you really try it. Obviously it's not very convenient to buy it and then take it back so I wouldn't get it unless you can try it for yourself at a store, or unless you're ambitious and they have a really good return policy. That's the absolute only thing that worries me about recommending the 215TW, because otherwise it's the greatest 21" widescreen LCD on earth (21.0" not 20.1").

I am starting to lean towards dual monitors too. Not all games can be run windowed mode, whcih I like to do at the moment.

My idea was that you could use a 215TW for when color reproduction is key, and then use a different 20-21" LCD with a great response time for those gaming moments. If the VX2025WM is not a possibility I'm at a loss for what to recommend for gaming there that could fit under your total budget. I suppose you could just get two TN screens like the 205BW for gaming, but I don't know how much they retail for over there ($450 CAD according to WS gaming forum). The Dell 2007WFP seems insanely expensive ($600 CAD?).

So hopefully you can get a 215TW and 205BW combo. That is just above $1000 CAD total though if my prices are right. Even then you may have to wait for price drops on those two because it's probably more expensive in Canada.

If you decide to go 24", that's easy: the Dell 2407WFP.

Do you think there will be 20" WS that will be able to do 1080i/p in the future?

I would say not for at least a couple years. The market just isn't there yet, and I'm not sure the technology is either. Yes, they can manufacture very small TFT pixels (even smaller than the phosphors of the highest-res CRT), but color and response time may suffer until they improve the process. For notebooks it's not as much as a problem. They use 15.4" screens with a 1920x1200 resolution in laptops. But notebooks are hardly a benchmark for color accuracy.

 

[eXecutioner28]

xtknight, please give me another 19" model couse in my country we don't have ViewSonic. And please tray to recommend something that's not too expensive.

thank you

btw Benq 73GX is over 400 euros so it's out of my league... 91G+ is just ot of my league, maybe I could squeeze it in, but I saw on specs that is has viewing angle of 135/140 degs and that is preety bad. So give another candidate... please.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: eXecutioner28
xtknight, please give me another 19" model couse in my country we don't have ViewSonic. And please tray to recommend something that's not too expensive.

thank you

All of these are decent but I have no idea of the price.

BenQ FP91G+
BenQ FP93G X
LG L1917S
LG L1920PQ
Belinea 10 19 20
Belinea 10 19 25
(The Belinea 10 19 27's tests weren't too impressive, nor were the Sonys)

Do you have a link to a Croatian store's website with a list of available LCDs?

 

[eXecutioner28]

ok, this is a search for hardware prices in Croatia. U devide the price there with 7,2 (that's for euro, 1 euro = 7,2 croatian money)

http://www.nabava.net/katalog/trazilica.php


and the web sites for Croatian stores are (three biggest in my country):

http://www.hgspot.hr/komponente.aspx?grupa=19
http://www.links.hr/index.php?option=katList&id_kategorija=1003
http://www.ve-mil.hr/cjenik.aspx?GrupaOznaka=monitori

look under "Gotovina" that's for cash payment...

btw I edited my previous post... so read it too.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: eXecutioner28
xtknight, please give me another 19" model couse in my country we don't have ViewSonic. And please tray to recommend something that's not too expensive.

thank you

btw Benq 73GX is over 400 euros so it's out of my league... 91G+ is just ot of my league, maybe I could squeeze it in, but I saw on specs that is has viewing angle of 135/140 degs and that is preety bad. So give another candidate... please.

The BenQ FP91G+ actually doesn't have lower viewing angles than the other monitors. The other manufacturers inflate their specifications more than BenQ (they all use TN panels). I don't believe there's anything cheaper than the FP91G+ that offers better performance. Otherwise, the BenQ FP71GX is good for a 17". The BenQ FP72G+S is better than the FP71GX but also cheaper than the FP91G+. You could give the Samsung 920N a try for 19". It's only analog but the quality should still be decent. The LG L1930S is also good and cheaper than the FP91G+. The Belinea 10 19 25 is under 400 Euros too and I'd rate it right up there with the BenQ FP91G+.

 

[eXecutioner28]

but u think that if I have the money then Samsung 940B should be the first choice? and then the Benq FP91G+ and thirdly Belinea 10 19 25?