Hey,

Basically im after buying a new monitor, im currently using a big old Mitsubish diamond plus 200 CRT. Now im not all that clued up on what monitors are good etc so i thought it would be best to ask in a place like this

Im after something like a 24-28 inch flat screen, i heard Samsung do good monitors.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Oh i will be using it mainly for gaming, possibly a bit of movie watching too.

For gaming you will want to stick with a TN panel.
I just upgraded from a Samsung 22" to a HP w2408h and couldn't be happier.

Based on reviews Here and Here, among others I can't locate at work, it seems to be one of the best TN displays avaliable. Just be aware that you may need a DVI-HDMI adaptor depending on if you live in the US or Europe.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention that some of Samsung's TN 24" displays are only 6bit color, not the 8bit advertised. They use dithering to simulate the 8bit. I wish I could remember the model numbers you should avoid if you decide to buy a Samsung but I am unable to at this time.

I just recently purchased an Acer 24inch P243W display and I must say, it really is an awesome monitor. Suffers from a tiny amount of backlight bleeding on the sides (not as much as I've seen on some monitors though) and the vertical viewing angle is quite small. But for under 300 quid, I really can't recommend this monitor highly enough .

Also love the gloss finish as opposed to matt so that also swung me as it just looks good all the time. Even when not gaming.

The LCD Thread

http://forums.anandtech.com/messag [...] erthread=y

^
My buddy swears by Acer Monitors and he builds gaming PC's for people. I was skeptical as well, but Let me tell you I was impressed. He has a 24" and not a 26" and I actually liked the 24" more because of the glossy screen. Samsung is great, but you can save some $$ by going Acer. I think I'd give them a try myself, and I'm very picky.

Depends on your budget. I just bought a 28" Viewsonic from Costco for $500 and couldn't be happier. I know you can spend more the question is do you need/want more.

do not get a HP w2408 it is a terrible monitor especially for the price. I had one and experienced terrible back light bleed through along with really bad viewing angles. I switched to a dell 2407wfphc and i couldnt be happier.

It is not just the HP w2408h that has bad viewing angles. All TN panels (the most common, cheapest, and, almost exclusively, the only ones sold at any of your local stores) have bad viewing angles. Especially if you look from the bottom of the scree. In this regard, the HP w2408h is superior to the vast majority of TN panels.

The same can be said about the back lighting. I am typing on one right now, when I switch to the unused input to give me a true black screen, I can see very little discoloration. This is especially true when compared to my old Samsung panel that had bright bars on the top and bottom when the screen was dark.

Yes, your 700€+ S-PVA monitor has much better viewing angles and slightly better color representation than a ~420€ TN monitor. Paying a premium like that, I would expect it to. The biggest issue I have with Dell's 2408WFP (their replacement for your monitor) is the input lag with an excessively high response time, measured over at AnandTech, of 38ms.

Not trying to push a decision either way, but it is good to have as much information as you can when making a major purchase. With different types of LCD displays, it is all about trade offs. In my opinion, unless you are doing graphical design, a quality TN panel is what you are looking for. Your views may differ but for 90%+ of LCD users, this holds true.

Best luck and be sure to do some through research before you make a decision. prad.de and Anandtech.com seem to have some good methodology to their testing and are a great place to learn.

i paid 400$ for my 2407 and i love how the main complaint is for input lag. I really noticed a problem with the HP when playing darker games like Witcher at night where the bleedthrough or whatever it is was so bad that you couldnt even see the top 20% of the screen because the colors were so blended together, it was like that one part of the screen was being viewed at a terrible angle. If you get this monitor for games and play anything thats not well lit then you are going to be very upset with this monitor.

So if you really think ~15-20ms is worth sacrificing all of these things, then be my guest.

Honestly, even as a gamer, it's worth the better viewing angles, accurate color, and better contrast ratio. That extra 15ms isn't going to save you when you can't see the enemy hiding in the dark for ****.

Samsung makes beautiful panels, and you absolutely will not be disappointed with one, regardless of what the scrubs around here think. DO NOT GET A TN PANEL. You absolutely will be disappointed.

While looking for monitors, check to make sure you're not getting a TN panel with it: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/panelsearch.htm

@ Xylith

What resolution do you currently game at with your CRT? A large increase in monitor resolution (say from 1280x1024 to 1920x1200) is going to kill performance in games unless you already have a highend graphics card.

What graphics card do you currently have and what internal interface does it have (PCI, AGP, or PCI-E)?

What monitor connections does your current graphics card have? 1xVGA? 2xVGA?, 1xVGA and 1xDVI?, 2xDVI?

-Wolf queries

I've had experience with both TN panels (2 viewsonics and 1 samsung) and M-PVA and for me TN panels suck ! I am now using a Benq FP241vw 24" monitor and it is amazing, both with color reproduction and viewing angles. I use it to watch movies, surf the net and lots of gaming, mainly FPS's. As for latency well since I do not yet have bionic eyes I don't see much difference between the 2ms or 5ms of TN panels and the 6ms on my current monitor.