I'm also looking for some advice on which direction to take with a new monitor.
I'm set to order a new PC within the next few days, with some decisions in that PC hinging on the price tag of whatever monitor I choose. That said, I've spent the past few days spending every free moment I've had researching monitors, but with all the stuff I've read, I believe I'm more confused now than I was at the start. The short of it is, I'm looking to spend less than $300 on a monitor that will be used primarily for gaming, and lots of it. Other uses are, of course, web browsing and very little movie watching. It's also worth noting that this will be my first monitor that isn't a CRT, so I'd like to pop my LCD cherry with a good experience rather than some of the horror stories I've read across the web the last few days.
At this point, I do know I want:
-19" display, not widescreen. New system will support 1280x1024 resolution like a dream. This generally seems to be my price range as well.
-No unnecessary extras. I could care less if my monitor can take my picture, has speakers, or a microphone.
-Little to no ghosting, bleeding, or any of that sorta stuff. I've never personally experienced any of these things, but it does make me wary of LCD having never used them.
-I just want to make a decision on the damn thing. :disgust:
Honestly, I hate to just say "no widescreen", but I'm absolutely stumped on whether or not this will cause conflicts within some games or not, so if someone here can convince me otherwise, I may warm up to the idea so long as it's still in my price range. I just keep reading all this stuff about the monitor losing picture quality outside of its native res, and not all games support widescreen so I'm really just confused on the whole thing. Help?
To suck up a bit, I thought I'd also add that this article, by far, has been the greatest help so far. I only wish I'd found this page first, rather than the day before I was planning to place orders. Had that been the case, I'd likely have saved a ton of time, and been far less confused. Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you guys can give.
I also thought it'd be worth adding that I'm currently using a Dell M991 - 19", 17.9" viewable. I may not be entirely opposed to even going with a 17" LCD, if it means bumping the quality up by a significant amount. I've used this monitor for ages, and have almost always had my desktop set to 1280x1024. Just adding more info to work with