Thinking of buying a new monitor

[BigGlenn]

Hi folks,

As the title says, I am considering purchasing a new monitor (currently use a 'standard' 19" TFT @ 1280x1024) and was wondering which would be the best bang for buck at the minute

Due to space (or lack of), I am looking at a maximum of a 22" widescreen with a budget of £150 - £200

Usage is for general browsing, work and gaming - which tends to be mainly FPS (CS:S and TF2 for example) so something that can handle the gaming side ok would be helpful

My machine consists of an E8400 with 2GB PC6400 memory and a 512Mb 8800GT so my second question is..... Would I notice a significant drop in performance by getting a bigger monitor and playing at a higher resolution??

I suppose nothing beats seeing the monitor working before you make the final decision to buy, but any advice to point me in a particular direction, or what to avoid, would be appreciated

Cheers

Glenn

PS - If any have extra inputs to allow me to connect my old PS2 to it as well that would be a bonus

[Powderhound]

I was in the same position recently, and ordered the Samsung T220 off Ebuyer for £330 odd with £40 cashback. I've only tested it out briefly with my current PC (The rest of my new rig arrives tomorrow), but it's got some good reviews and I liked it for the brief period that I tested it for.

[sleepyhead]

Are you sure you want to move from 19" standard to 22" w/s?

You'd lose viewable screen height and not gain alot in terms of screen width. I am still debating which monitor to buy and for me to "upgrade" I ideally would like something in the region of a 27" monitor to gain the most visible real estate vs my standard 19".

Anyhow, that's just something else to chew on if it hasn't crossed your mind.

[shaithis]

22" isn't a bad jump from 19" and you only need to go to 24" to get a VERY noticeable difference.

27"+ are scarily large to begin with and you soon start to realise the strain these new resolutions place on your PC.

22" is going to be 1680x1050 I guess? A 8800GT should handle that fine for most games, Crysis would probably be the only game out currently that would chug a bit on it.

[Powderhound]

Are you sure you want to move from 19" standard to 22" w/s?

You'd lose viewable screen height and not gain alot in terms of screen width. I am still debating which monitor to buy and for me to "upgrade" I ideally would like something in the region of a 27" monitor to gain the most visible real estate vs my standard 19".

Anyhow, that's just something else to chew on if it hasn't crossed your mind.

I found the extra width cancels out the ~10mm height loss for me.

[BigGlenn]

Thanks Shaithis, I haven't tried Crysis yet but I may well get round to it one day lol

Sleepyhead - The slight drop in viewable screen height isn't an issue for me as the work I do involves a fair bit of spreadsheet usage so the widescreen is more what I was looking for
As for a 27" monitor, that is too big for the space I have available so even if I could afford it, I couldn't fit it in the space it needs to go unfortunately

Powderhound - You say you bought the T220 for £330 - Did you mean £230?? As I have just been looking at it for that price with a £40 cashback offer. I had discounted it when looking at the price you quoted but after seeing the £230 price I may well hang on to my cash for a little bit longer and save up for that one instead

[Hicks12]

LG make fine monitors, currently i have the 22LS4R which is great especially on usability. Has hdmi, component,VGA(i think lol, so many), S video, Scart, Ariel, Headphones/speakers. Quality is great on it, so far i havent noticed a single flaw, not sure how much it goes for now but i bought mine a year ago for about £180(offer) but since then it went up to around 300, probably fallen now.

[TheReaFireblade]

Look no further: 22'' Samsung SM226BW - just £179.00 + £6.35 delivery

It's been around a while now, but read reviews, and you'll see why I suggest you "Look no further"

[Olmy]

The Samsung 226BW suffers from the panel lottery so you don't know what quality screen you're going to get - most likely a lower quality display than the ones in reviews. I've heard the 226CW is guaranteed to have a Samsung panel in it but I haven't heard anything definitive about that.

[Powderhound]

Thanks Shaithis, I haven't tried Crysis yet but I may well get round to it one day lol

Sleepyhead - The slight drop in viewable screen height isn't an issue for me as the work I do involves a fair bit of spreadsheet usage so the widescreen is more what I was looking for
As for a 27" monitor, that is too big for the space I have available so even if I could afford it, I couldn't fit it in the space it needs to go unfortunately

Powderhound - You say you bought the T220 for £330 - Did you mean £230?? As I have just been looking at it for that price with a £40 cashback offer. I had discounted it when looking at the price you quoted but after seeing the £230 price I may well hang on to my cash for a little bit longer and save up for that one instead

Yeah, sorry, I was looking at monitors 24" in that higher price range before I settled on the T220. It is £230, -£40, makes £190.

[mnstar]

I have a Samsung 223BW that is 21.6" WS. AFAIK there isnt a panel lottery. It only has a 5ms response time and it is good enough for Xbox 360 too. I paid £189 6 months ago but it is available from dabs for £164.

[raptor]

i suggest buy sharp monitor

sharp lcd is best in the world .

[2Cold Scorpio]

Look no further: 22'' Samsung SM226BW - just £179.00 + £6.35 delivery

It's been around a while now, but read reviews, and you'll see why I suggest you "Look no further"

Seconded; I have one of these; awesome monitor. And thats quite a bit cheaper than what I paid for mine last October.

[Crevan]

I have a Samsung 223BW that is 21.6" WS. AFAIK there isnt a panel lottery. It only has a 5ms response time and it is good enough for Xbox 360 too. I paid £189 6 months ago but it is available from dabs for £164.

Got the same one from ebuyer for 163 quid. Very pleased so far =)