A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Dear Hexus'ians,
As you may have guessed from the title of this thread, I'm looking at getting a 27" desktop monitor.
The main uses for this monitor will be..
Work - internet, office, reading and writing C++ code, being sworn at when said code doesn't work etc.
PC gaming
Gaming on my brand spanking new Halo 4 edition Xbox 360 (which I'm amazed I've had the willpower to keep in it's box, stick in cupboard and pretend it doesn't exist until I've caught up on my work this next fortnight!)
I would say the main requirements I have are a good quality screen that will look great for gaming on a pc and xbox. In my current mindset, I don't really want to spend anymore than £280 and would prefer something more towards £250 and below. However...
For a while I was considering getting a 2560 x 1440 resolution monitor as I'd heard, at 27" screen size, 1080p can look a bit 'pixely' and not very good quality. I've struggled to find out whether an xbox 360 would look good on a 1440 screen (given that it only does 1080p and it's important to me that I get the most out of it image wise.) From further reading, it seems that whether 1080 looks good on a 27" comes down to personal taste somewhat. And, perhaps most importantly, I've had it pointed out to me that, while PC gaming would look great on such a high res screen, my ASUS 6970 probably wouldn't fair so well, at least not at above average graphics settings. And, to me at least, there doesn't seem much point in getting such a high res screen to then run all of my games on medium settings! X) Hence why I've gone down the 1080 route. I'm not set on this completely; I do have the money to go for super high res 27" monitor (though I'm sure I should be like, budgeting my spending and saving some of my money, or some adult shiz like that) so feel free to try and persuade me by resolving the above issues with your words and stuff...
Otherwise, having done some surfing around on la interwebz, I've come up with the following possibilities...
ASUS VE278Q
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-as...300-cd-m-1080p
One of the Iiyama Prolite range - there's quite a few of them listed on scan and I lost track during my research of which version number I was actually interested in! :s
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-ii...1-300cd-m2-1ms
A good ol' Samsung
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/samsun...92988-pdt.html
And I've seen this BenQ one get some favourable reviews, despite being much lower in price than the others...
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-be...speakers-black
At the moment, I'm leaning more towards the Samsung or the ASUS, as I've read more favourable things on them and am more familiar with the brands I guess. These are just some of the more frequently mentioned (in a positive light) monitors I've come across though. Please do suggest others.
I'm horrendously indecisive as I know so little about this area! I'm basically looking for you all to say "this is the best one, go buy it!" X-) I appreciate though that, to an extent, monitors boil down to taste and preference so there's unlikely to be a smoking gun. So any advice or suggestions you have to help me whittle down to a decision will be gratefully received!
Regards,
Kirano
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Personally I would stay away from the Benq, I bought it earlier this year, had 2 bright red dead pixels which really was annoying but not as annoying as the text via websites etc. The writing was blurry i.e not very sharp, and I was forever adjusting clear text to no avail. I now have the IIyama 1ms prolite, bought this after walking through my local novatech store, walked past all the display monitors and pc's not paying much attention and suddenly stopped, looked at the screen and thought S**T thats clear as hell. Its so sharp your even noticing the dots on the i's, as they say pin sharp. Gaming is silky smooth, only let down really by the looks and the menu isn't very good.
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
If i had to choose, I would go with the Iiyama or Asus, but you would need to know what features you do and dont need. Doubt you would notice a difference in the respose times and the Asus has a Display port which is not important if you will only ever use a single device on it.
Personally, at that size, I would pay extra for a 2650x1440 display which are all IPS atm so cost a bit more, unless its one of those korean ones.
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Thanks for your responses. So far then it's
+2 Iiyama
+1 Asus
@hesham1516 - I was also inclined to pay extra for the large resolution display. I've heard they look amazing for PC gaming. It's just whether my graphics card could run at that resolution at more than average settings and how the image from the xbox, outputting at a max of 1080p, would look scaled up to that resolution.
About the display port... So, I'd probably be using my Computer and Xbox on it. Would that mean I could make use of the display port?
@technodean - thanks for the advice on the BenQ and the Iiyama. Is it definitely the Iiyama I linked to that you have? There are a couple rated at 1ms, including the 120Hz refresh speed one...
And to everyone else.... keep your suggestions coming! :)
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Mine is the Iiyama Prolite E2773HDS 60hz model, I can't see any difference between this and the B1.
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Any more suggestions folks? Hoping to make a decision by the end of the weekend so any advice you have to offer would be welcome! :)
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kirano
About the display port... So, I'd probably be using my Computer and Xbox on it. Would that mean I could make use of the display port?
Considering most PC users use DVI if their monitor supports it, It wont be needed.
Personally I like to have my options open since I use a lot of devices, but that is not important in your case.
It is difficult to pick monitors as too much is subjective, and it is difficult to find professional reviews for monitors of that size unless they are IPS, so the only thing I could suggest is to go to your local pc stores and hope they have them on display.
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Quote:
Originally Posted by
hesham1516
It is difficult to pick monitors as too much is subjective, and it is difficult to find professional reviews for monitors of that size unless they are IPS, so the only thing I could suggest is to go to your local pc stores and hope they have them on display.
This is of course the big problem! I know that my local PC World stocks the Samsung, so I can go have a look at that in-store and see what I think, but that doesn't help with the other two... :undecided
Thanks for your advice on the display port.
Was there anything in particular that made you rule out the Samsung from the original list btw?
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
I would look at this monitor:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-ao...10001-speakers
Here is a review:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/aoc_i2757fm.htm
It uses a 6 bit IPS panel.
This monitor probably uses the same panel too but I have not seen any reviews yet:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-vi...1-7ms-black-sp
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Thanks for passing those suggestions on CAT-THE-FIFTH
I believe I had read the review on TFTcentral before on the AOC one. It looked a good screen but I had ruled it out for some reason and I can't for the life of me remember why. I think I'd seen a less favourable review of it somewhere. I can't recall. I consider it back in the running now until I can figure it out.
I think I'd seen mention of this Viewsonic one before...
*sigh* four possible screens (Iiyama, Asus, AOC and the Viewsonic), all sat next to each other in Scan's list of 27" monitors, all within a £15 price range, with almost identical specs...
So, the AOC lacks a DVI input, having instead two HDMI ports. The AOC and the Viewsonic both have viewing angles of 178°/178° (°H/°V) compared to 170/160 (°H/°V) for the Asus and the Iiyama. The AOC and the Viewsonic have refresh rates of 60Hz, while the Asus and Iiyama list variable rates between 50 and 75Hz. The AOC and the Viewsonic have lower brightnesses (250 compared to 300) than the other two. They also have much lower response times. The Iiyama and the Asus have the highest contrast ratios but contrast ratios are a difficult parameter to compare against as most manufacturers define them differently.
And tbh honest, I think any of them could probably do the trick...
One question... My monitor at the moment only has DVI and VGA inputs (running it on the DVI at the moment) and I'd probably want to run a dual monitor setup with the new one (when it's not being used on la xbox). Is it better to have them both running off the same format i.e. both connected to DVI slots or does it not matter? For information, my graphics card has two dvi outs and 4 hdmi outs...
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
The two monitors I suggested use an IPS panel and the Benq one in the OP uses a VA panel. AFAIK,the Asus,Iiyama and Samsung use a TN panel. IPS and VA panels tend to have much better viewing angles and colour reproduction when compared to TN panels of a similar age.
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Shame that 2048x1152 panels didn't catch on, I would probably go with a 27" of that as an upgrade to my aging 24" 1080p non-LED. Just as long as the response times were no worse, still had a VGA, HDMI, and DVI port and the black level noticeably better.
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
The two monitors I suggested use an IPS panel and the Benq one in the OP uses a VA panel. AFAIK,the Asus,Iiyama and Samsung use a TN panel. IPS and VA panels tend to have much better viewing angles and colour reproduction when compared to TN panels of a similar age.
Thanks, I didn't realise that. How can you find out what type of panel they use? Is it something in how they name them?
Also, will the longer response times of the IPS panels be a problem? it's 5ms for the AOC and 7ms for the Viewsonic....
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
The response times should be OK - if you look at the review of the AOC it is fine for gaming, and AFAIK the Viewsonic uses the same panel although the electronics might be different. I found the panel types by doing a quick search on Google.
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
Thanks once more CAT-THE-FIFTH.
Having done some more poking around on the internet I'm erring towards the Viewsonic (I prefer the look of it to the AOC) though I'm disheartened by the lack of reviews on it. I had originally thought to go with the ASUS simply because it's been mentioned in more threads as a good quality 27" screen and has a few very positive reviews. The Viewsonic being an IPS (and I also quite like the thin bezel design) has tipped the balance in it's favour...
Now I just need to make my mind up!:juggle:
Re: A 27" Monitor for Work, PC and Xbox Gaming
I have the DGM reviewed on TFT central, its a dream, however the Xbox does not do 1080p, so for gaming you are stuck with 720p i believe. Still a damn good monitor (is that what DGM stands for?), it was around £315 and is the same panel used in the Apple Cinema screens