Monitor Halp?

[EmptyMemory]

I know there have been threads about monitors in the past, but Sosseres' thread is almost a year old.

I'm wondering which brands for monitors are considered good/shitty, and what prices are okay.

To give you an idea what I will be using this monitor for, it will be for gaming and anime (as if that wasn't obvious enough), so resolution should be at least 1920x1080. I'm looking for a monitor around 23", but i was really hoping for something around 30". Unfortunately, from what I've seen so far, they get pretty expensive once you start going 24"+.

What I've been thinking of getting thus far:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236112CVF



Side note:
I'm also looking to get this:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824994064CVF

[metro.]

I really dislike that arm, but that's not the point.
Asus makes pretty good screens, so does LG and Samsung from my experience. You will have to shell out more though, which is entirely a balance you have to find.

[Hadouken]

Dell, LG and Samsung make pretty good LCD monitors.

[Rizirdo]

i own the asus screen the exact one. no thing wrong, quality is good. bright. you can play with the color settings, or use the screen settings already available in it.

[datora]

.
I bought one of these about four weeks ago:

Dell UltraSharp U2412M Black IPS Panel 24" 8ms LED Backlight

It's nothing less than amazing.  Picked mine up for $270 delivered, which is virtually an unbeatable deal.  Shop around and you can certainly get or beat ~$280.

Some people claim the 8ms hurts their game play slightly, if at all.  I'm not a gamer, so I'll never know, and many gamers post that they are fantastically happy with this monitor.  The out-of-the-box experience is breathtaking.  In this price range, it's entry-level pro gear; only about two products compete in this class.  I was looking at an HP of nearly identical specs, but got a better price on the Dell ... and I've had excellent experiences with Dell, so there's also a bit of well-earned brand loyalty on my part.


The 1920x1200 resolution is magnificent for workspace flexibility.  I do, in fact, rotate it for vertical orientation sometimes to surf websites and do heavy text/code composition.  I had to look hard for the 1920x1200 + rotate option & was very pleased to find it.  Also, I specifically didn't want speakers built in ... useless shit I didn't want to pay for.

At 24", it's about as large as you can use and still sit close enough to your desk and use a keyboard/mouse.  This comes with an anti-glare coating, which is critical for me.  Glossy screens are impossible for me to work at since I need lights on around my workspace.  The imaging is razor sharp, so a glossy screen could not be any noticeable improvement.  Some fags claim the hi-gloss improves movie sharpness ... I don't agree, and the glare for 90% of my use destroys any possible benefits for the <10% I would watch video, in my opinion.

Anime & movies look magnificent, really glorious.  There are PLENTY of options to adjust screen color, bright/contrast etc. to really bring out all detail possible across a wide variety of scenes.

Nice bonus: it's also a 4-port USB 2.0 hub and works flawlessly for that.  I have a couple of USB 3.0 16 GB flash drives, and they push data across these USB 2.0 ports like a boss.


I shopped hard and saved hard for a long time to afford a new, large, really decent monitor.  I might have been able to match this deal with a little luck, but haven't seen it yet.  I've seen positive reviews of this monitor lasting for years under every day use by graphics pros ... so I'm anticipating minimum of three (if not 5-8) years service.

For the record, most graphics pros recommend even higher quality monitors for very serious, professional work ... but those are about $750 up to $1100.  This particular UltraSharp model gets high marks as a secondary/utility/backup model to the Really Serious Shit.

[nstgc]

Datora, is that 8ms GTG or BWB?

[buchno]

What about the Korean 27" monitors with a resolution of 2560x1440 for around $300 - $400?
http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-2560x1440-ips-no-ag-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270

[Tephnos]

What about the Korean 27" monitors with a resolution of 2560x1440 for around $300 - $400?
http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-2560x1440-ips-no-ag-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270

Excellent choice. I've got two Shimian's and they're perfect.

[nstgc]

I myself have a 24" monitor and anything larger, in my opinion, is a nuisance. In fact, I would have liked this monitor to be a bit smaller.

[Freedom Kira]

I got a 24" 1920x1200 Samsung off Kijiji for $100. I'm happy with it.

In any case, it is definitely worth your while to walk yourself into a store that sells monitors and see which ones you like. After all, it's something you'll be looking at a lot, so you want it to look nice as well as show nice. If theirs are more expensive, you can always look for the same model on Newegg once you know you like it.

[nstgc]

I wouldn't bother going to a store, unless you have a really good one. Here we have Best Buy, and there displays are terribly uninformative. The sales staff are even less helpful. You won't know if you will like a monitor for certain until you actually have it on your desk (or where ever) and use it. In neither a store you won't know if it bleeds light from the corners, but you can from online user reviews. In neither case will you be able to really see if the pixel switching is too slow for you, although online feed back will help a bit.

[Tephnos]

Increase in resolution and density is definitely worth it to almost all people, however. More space is always good.

[nstgc]

And increase in space requires increased space to put the monitor. Also, if you are using your monitor to watch videos or play games, it may not be a good idea to have a monitor that large close to you, requiring that it be back further than your surroundings will allow.

[datora]

.

Datora, is that 8ms GTG or BWB?

"8ms with overdrive gray-to-gray (typical) response time" according to the Dell propaganda.  I would assume that whatever "overdrive" technology Dell has incorporated into these might be responsible for the happy gamer reviews I've seen.

I've watched about 20 hours combined movies & anime on it so far and have not noticed any issues with video blurring or smearing.  I also haven't been looking too closely for it after the first two movies ... watched BluRay rips of 5th Element and Immortal for the celebratory christening once I got it connected & setup.  Not the most extreme quality rips, since my current computer is limited, but pretty damned decent.  Both of those are pretty dark & moody in lots of places, with copious action sequences.  So, for what that's worth.

As I said, got no games to speak of & very unlikely I will any time soon.  So, won't be able to give a personal evaluation on that.

In another month or so I'll have a much more powerful rig running and will start exploring some of the more extreme quality 1080 rips we have here @BBT.  Will also have a BluRay player installed on that ... so, if I notice any issues I'll drop back & bump this thread with some added content.

No light bleed anywhere.  When the screen is black, it is pretty fucking black, without any brown gradient zones to speak of.  I'd say fully 98% uniformity, if not more.  No stuck or dead pixels ... *touches wood*

I'll also mention that it is surprisingly light.  It's supposed to come in at ~17 lbs.  My old Dell 21.5" LCD @1920x1080 is heavier.  Funny thing about size, too: I expected to have to make a bunch of extra room on my desk.  This 24" screen only takes 0.75 inches more horizontal space than the old screen.  The bezel is significantly thinner to encompass the total screen real estate.  Matte finish, too ... no more glare shining at me from the edges.  Nice, subtle touch.

My bottom line is that I had wanted to get a new 24" monitor, preferred 1900x1200, and I wanted it to be under $250, maybe even ~$225.  I was unable to find anything in that low range to meet those specifications; a couple of options had pretty shady reviews  For a few extra dollars, I got a pretty stunning piece of technology.  If it keeps performing like this for three years, I will be perfectly satisfied and ready to upgrade ~2015/2016.

I did look at a number of 27" 2560x1440 monitors, but the ones I had the most confidence in were way outside my price range.  27" was also getting scary big for my workspace, and I really wanted something that was entry-level pro quality for graphics & video editing ... so, this was pretty much the best deal under all those considerations.

[EmptyMemory]

What about the Korean 27" monitors with a resolution of 2560x1440 for around $300 - $400?
http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-2560x1440-ips-no-ag-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270

I read through it, I'm intrigued, but I'm also skeptical about buying it from like... some random. How did you guys go about buying yours?

[Tephnos]

What about the Korean 27" monitors with a resolution of 2560x1440 for around $300 - $400?
http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-2560x1440-ips-no-ag-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270

I read through it, I'm intrigued, but I'm also skeptical about buying it from like... some random. How did you guys go about buying yours?

known reputable sellers: red cap, dream seller, green-sum, bigclothcraft, accessoreswhole, and ta_planet.

All are proven. I've dealt with the latter two, and it's gone extremely well.