17" TFT for non-gamer

[cybrarian]

This post might seem familiar to all of you who've given advice on TFTs to people. For that, I apologise, but I have read, I think, pretty much everything I can find, here there and everywhere before resorting to asking the question:

I have an old 17" CRT, and I want to replace it. So, I'm going to get a 17" TFT.

My system is: Shuttle SN41G2, 512MB RAM, Athlon 2400+ if that's of any interest. I use the onboard graphics, rather than having a card of my own.

I don't play games. At all. I haven't installed one single game on my machine since I bought it. My gaming days are long-gone, it seems.

The heavy use will be for playing poker online, so minimal graphical handling ability needed there, internet use, and spreadsheet use.

So, I've been looking around, reading pretty much every review I can find, and reading up on whether DVI makes any difference ("it depends") and whether response times are crucial ("maybe, maybe not").

At the moment, the front-runner on my list is the iiyama 431S, which I know quite a few people have and love.

I'm thinking of ordering today from pcnextday.co.uk - anyone got any good or bad experiences of them and delivery of TFTs? Should I ask for a dead pixel check if they offer that service? (should i always get one done wherever i buy from?

Aside from that, there's the LG 1715s which might be ok, and is within my budget of £200.

Other than that, my options seem to be something cheap and cheerful from Aria, but what I want to know about their cheapo monitors is this: will I wish I'd spent the extra £30 or so on the iiyama?

The only negative I've seen really on the iiyama 431s is a review suggesting the viewing angles were not great, which made it ok for games, but a pain for office applications - can anyone confirm or deny this?

[Akumu]

At the moment, the front-runner on my list is the iiyama 431S, which I know quite a few people have and love.

Fantastic monitor As for viewing angles, I think the vertical viewing angle is maybe a weak point, though on mine it only really shows itself when playing DVDs... Viewing angles are only really a problem if you have lots of people looking at the screen, but then that's a problem for all TFTs (compared to CRTs). If it's just you sitting in front of it it'll be fine.

[shiato storm]

how many people do you intend cramming round a 17" screen?...LOL!

[DANZO]

I use a Samsung syncmaster 172v on my internet rig and for reading text and watching the odd movie it is brilliant the stand isn't the most flexable but the monitor looks great and has a nice price tag .