Christmas LCD

I've been toying for about 6months with the idea of replacing my current LG 17" Flatron CRT with a 17" LCD, and as i've not really considure what i wanted to for Christmas i'm thinking of getting this and getting people to put money towards it.

Sadly it seems that there is now a lot of choice out there on the market place. So a few questions that I really need some help answering.

Firstly is an LCD for me, My room is on the front of the house and i get a lot of sunshine in my room, when playing on my CRT it gets terrible sun glare even with my curtains closed. Will my LCD suffer with this as bad, i'm assuming it will but is it going to be worse or better :confused:

The second is astetics. I'm probably too picky about LCD screens looks, but its something that i'm keen to get right if i'm spending £300+ on it.

Choices at present are....
LG Flatron L1720B 17'' TFT Monitor - no DVI input, usb hub afaik
Hyundai ImageQuest Q17 17" TFT Monitor - Silver - usb hub, speakers and dvi - it wins on all these points for features, but out the three i'm least convinced of its looks
Hercules ProphetView 920 Pro 17" LCD Monitor - Best looking of the three imo, don't think this version has DVI and may not have the best screen but i think good enough for my requirements.

Uses for reference are, games, GTA vice city, bf1942, CoD, various rts and turn based strategy games and development work that i do outside of office hours.

Views with back on what i should go for would be appreciated.

TiG

well i would suggest, since you're gaming that you opt for the DVI input. Choose this over how the monitor looks any day.

Can i recommend this one? Its an LG 1710B.

It also has 16ms response (on the LG website anyway) which is important since you'll be gaming.

Again the key factors are DVI and response. Try to make these a priority over aesthetics.

DVI input and response may well be key factors, I'd sure like DVI but all those three lcd's have sub 20ms responses which is enough for me.

But i don't like the standard looking LG one, Prefer the black one as listed above.

Thanks for the view, appreciated, but i'm not really convinced over what DVI gives me..... which is why currently astetics will win over DVI input

TiG

screen glare will be less with the tft
i would get this if i had around £300 to spend on a tft:
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...7412#post81891 (i think it's made by LG, but it's got a thinner frame - got these at work and they're REALLY sweet.)

I got a better picutre with analog rather than DVI on my Hitachi :)

which is only 275+vat on nexnix.co.uk :)

I've got an NEC-Mitsubishi 17" TFT, which came from Scan for about £250+VAT.... see here for a piccy:
http://www.nec-mitsubishi.com/coreme...-F-picture.jpg

It's not DVI, but its got 16ms response and runs at 1280x1024, aesthetically it is quite minimalist with a very slim frame in black (silver face trim), which I like as i'm not a fan of the big plastic casings.

I was unsure about getting a flat screen as the desktop ones i'd used in the past had been average, only decent Sony laptop ones really impressing me. I am seriously impressed with the NEC :)

NEC info: http://www.nec-mitsubishi.com/coreme...F__uk__en.html

Dell has a nice 20" gaming moniter, cost you pretty penny though. Dell claims it their 1st flat screen worthy of being called a gaming moniter. Anandtech just reviewed it.

Personally, I think flat screens are still probably another year or so away from being a REAL gaming moniter. If you could wait longer to go flat, I would.

I got a 19" Planar (from Dell) = Samsung 191T. While its a nice moniter. It sucks for fast paced gaming. Ghosts horribly for grey to greys. The claimed response time of 25ms must have been black to white or maybe average response. So I brought it to work as my office moniter and bought a 21" Trinitron CRT for gaming at home.

Claimed response times are not accurate. They are average or best case scenarios depending on the manufacturer. Noone puts their worst case which is really the most important!!!

I love my Hitachi 17" LCD for CS/IL2 in fact anything I throw at it. They're cheap now too :)

Got an email through from Novatech showing off this stunning offer!

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?DCS-1800FP