22" or 24"??

[nvening]

Hi, ive just come into some money and im hoping to upgrade my monitor.


I currently have a (19") Dell Ultrasharp 1905 - im not sure whether to go for a 24" (wich would probs be the sammy 245B) or to get a 22" (probs one of the sammys again) and keep my 19" for some dual screen action.

I imagine working with a 24" would be nice however im concerned with price, lesser quality because i would be buying lower end and the high res being not possible for gaming (i have an x800xt lol, and im not planning on getting a new card right now because of the performance of this gen in DX10 )

The 22" i suppose would over give me more screen space (wasnt planing on using the 19" with the 24 cause of the diiferent vertical res and physical vertical size) with the 19" as well but that 24" does look oh so tempting...

Whats your guys opinions??

[staffsMike]

I think the 24" samsung looks nice. Seems to get decent enough user reviews..

I think you're going to have a pretty hard time gaming at either res on that card anyway.

Given the price of the sammy (on ocuk anyway) i'd take that at the moment. But if i could afford it i'd go with the dell 2407/HC

[nvening]

i really dont think i can justify the extra £100 thought, unless i can get something for my 19", ill get a pricecheck

[arthurleung]

I would go against having 2 monitors with different dimension as you will have a hard time tracking your mouse accurately from one screen to another

22" 1680x1050 = 90dpi
19" 1280x1024 = 86dpi

The 24" will have really small pixels (94.34dpi) so you also need to think if you are going to like the pixel being that small.

[s_kinton]

A 24" is obviously going to be better quality, but if you're keeping that vga card then it aint worth it.

If I were you I'd save the extra cash, get the SM226BW (Ive got the 225 and its excellent) and put the rest towards a new graphics card. It takes a good card to run at 1680x1050, nevermind 1920x1200

[CooperXS]

I'd take proper 24" LCD cos of lot superior picture quality compared to 22" TN.

[directhex]

22": 1.7 million pixels
24": 2.3 million pixels

and what do pixels mean? prizes!

[grart]

I got my self a 24" TFT dell after using 2x 20" crts for a long time, I have used 20, 22, 24" TFTs at work also and after having the 24" there is no way I would go back. 1920x1200 ftw

[s_kinton]

I'd take proper 24" LCD cos of lot superior picture quality compared to 22" TN.

Agreed, but with his vga card the quality wont be superior in games, where it counts. He'll be running 1280x1024 on a 1920x1200 native res screen.

I still think overall he'd be better buying a 22" and investing the £100 saved, plus the money from the sale of his current card inti a good vga card capable of running games at 1680x1050 (22" native res).

[nvening]

The problem is that I really dont play many games atm, in fact i dont at all - occasionally i will fire up BF2 or CSS but thats it. However im now ending my holidays (which funnily enough means i will end up playing more games, thats work for you XD) and im really looking foward to crysis, quake wars and world in conflict

Apparently i should get about £80 for my current monitor (any takers XD) and will probably get about 50p for my GPU lol

Its just that im worried about spending what to me is alot of money on a 22" screen if its not going to be much different to my current screen, whats the hard in playing at 22" res on a 24" anyway? - just slightly blury?? Thats my version of AA haha

Thanks for helping me

[s_kinton]

Its just that im worried about spending what to me is alot of money on a 22" screen if its not going to be much different to my current screen, whats the hard in playing at 22" res on a 24" anyway?

You answered your own question. Just sell you monitor and vga card. Monitor will go for about £70-80 and card for £25-40 depending on if you have the box etc.

Say £100-120 for those together. An x1950XT would do the job fine on a 22" screen for about £100. If you wanted more performance you could also use the money you saved by going with a 22" and get a 320mb 8800GTS for about £180.

[nvening]

Ive decided that im not goign to bother upgrading the monitor just yet as i still have my dell going strong - i will however give my pc a freshen up and sort out my media center

Thanks for your help guys, i will be returning at Christmas for a new screen then maybe XD - ohhhhhhh, displayport lol

[baius]

after having the 24" there is no way I would go back. 1920x1200 ftw

1920x1200 ftw is pretty much THE resolution to beat. I would NOT buy a monitor that didn't have that resolution (or above, but 30in = more energy use), and DVI-HDCP, HDMI or DisplayPort.
Trust me that you'd kick yourself later on if you got a blu-ray/hd-dvd player, an XB360/PS3 or a game/application you wanted to run at higher resolution, and you couldn't.

Having switched from a 19" monitor (1440x900) straight to a 24", I can't comment on what 20/22in 1680x1050 is like, but I know the 19-24 shift made a major difference to my productivity, just in basic windows tasks.

For instance, 2-page (i.e. side-by-side) PDF/Word viewing really IS possible on a 24in monitor, and at "real-life" size. (Exp: A sheet of paper 29.7 by 21 x 2 (=42), i.e. 30cm by 42cm (A3 landscape), will fit into/onto a 24in monitor.)

Ive decided that im not goign to bother upgrading the monitor just yet as i still have my dell going strong - i will however give my pc a freshen up and sort out my media center

Thanks for your help guys, i will be returning at Christmas for a new screen then maybe XD - ohhhhhhh, displayport lol

Confirms what I was saying above. You're dropping words like "media center" - why not do it in high def? I'm looking forward to DisplayPort, too, mate...

[2Cold Scorpio]

I say get a Samsung SyncMaster 226bw 22" monitor; I've got one and it has a fantastic picture. I picked it up on sale for $300; not sure what that would be in your local currency, but its quite a bit cheaper than a high quality 24" monitor. I'd then use the remainder of your money on a graphics card, namely an ATI HD3850 or 3870 (I think thats then umbers for the new ones...), or if you can afford it, a GeForce 8800GT (which is what I use, and its perfect for a 22" monitor; I run all my widescreen-capable games at 1680x1050, including the newer ones (yes, Crysis, even. Even with stuffo n Very High I get a very playable 20 fps...every other game, I get 40+ fps with everything maxed, AA and AF included (particularly F.E.A.R.).

I think you'd get more bang for your buck this way.

[fraps]

I would go for 22"

[baius]

I say get a Samsung SyncMaster 226bw 22" monitor

I would go for 22"

Guess I'm out-voted.

I have a few things I like to watch at 1080p, but I guess I'm an early adopter. 24in monitors (and 22in ones...) will be a lot more reasonably priced within a year, so...

Get the 22".