$1500 for a Flatscreen...what should I get?

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Twitch

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I recently got a newegg.com gift-certificate from my uncle for $1500. He knew I am a computer-addict and he figured I would buy a system with it. Well, I just bought a new system. I won't need to upgrade for awhile.

So I decided that the most cost-effective way to spend $1500 on a computer would be to buy a really nice monitor, since it will last through several upgrades. I see several reviews for monitors on THG and their ratings, though I notice most of the high-end monitors and flat panels seem to be in the $500 to $900 range.

Are there monitors / flat panels in the $1000+ range that would be solid performers for use in FPS games and for all the other ways a computer is typically used? I haven't even decided for sure if I need a CRT or a flatscreen...I know a couple years ago, CRT's were better for gaming, but I also know flatscreens have improved. I'm open to buying another CRT if there's a noticeable difference, though I think I'd prefer a flatcreen if the differences are negligible.


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Twitch on 01/12/05 04:37 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
If you buy lcds they're going to be big at that price level and they won't play fps games well. In that case you'd be better off getting more than one, smaller, lcd monitor.

I'm sick and can't communicate properly. I hope you understand what I'm saying.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA
 
Don't listen to the two guys above :) Go to NewEgg and buy the Sony 23" with the $80 rebate that brings it to $1,500. Great monitor for gaming and everythign else. Read some reviews on it and see what I mean.

Who wants two monitors sitting on their desk? That's crazy talk. Get the Sony! Or HP makes one that's said to be good for gaming as well.

<A HREF="http://www.ericstoffers.com" target="_new">(My little web site)</A>
 
"Don't listen to the two guys above :) Go to NewEgg and buy the Sony 23" with the $80 rebate that brings it to $1,500. Great monitor for gaming and everythign else. Read some reviews on it and see what I mean.

Who wants two monitors sitting on their desk? That's crazy talk. Get the Sony! Or HP makes one that's said to be good for gaming as well."

I have to agree. At 20+ inches you are going to get at least 1600x1200 native resolution and the potential for even higher settings. The Sony is a great choice and the HP's are good too (I think it's their L series business LCDs not the home stuff). Don't forget the Apple cinema displays they are simply beautiful and some fit in that price range although I'm not sure that newegg sells them so that is a problem here.
If you get 2 17s or 19s you will most likely be forced into no higher than 1280x1024 native resolution, which ain't bad but not the best for that money.
Response time is also an issue but the more I read the less I think it matters unless the vendor is giving Grey to Grey response. The normal rise and fall response times aren't such a good indicator for FPS gaming. Generally, anything less than or equal to 16ms should be gaming ready although you still may get some ghosting.
Gary

PS: I highly recommend this technical review site that solidusuk found. It is great for details (pros and cons) for current LCD technology. NOT as good as Tom's, of course, but let's call it an alternate source.
http://www.behardware.com/


If you don't know where your going any road will take you there.... <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by palmerg on 01/28/05 10:41 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
I was wrong only once - the time I thought I was wrong 🙂
I have played both dual 17s and single 23" cinema, There is no comparison the single is the best experience especially at 1600x1200 which is very tough to find in any LCD below 20"
😎


If you don't know where your going any road will take you there....
 
I now have a Hyundai L90D+ 19" which cost me $380.00 and is great. I have also played FPS games using a friends Viewsonic VP201 which was awesome but I didn't want to spend the $750.00 for it.

If you don't know where your going any road will take you there....
 
Thats my point, you played it for 10 mins and didnt see it under different conditions or test it by using other applications and you have probably never seen 2 17"LCD's setup with the type of mounts that I have desrcibed or seen what they are capable of. My point again is that its real easy to suggest to someone else how to spend there money when its not yours. This is a large investment, and regardless of what you think LCD technology has a long way to go before it gets to the point that it needs to. Its one thing to express your opinion, but its totally irresponsible to down someone elses opionion especially someone that has been a member here for a long time and knows alot more than you do about what hes talking about. You can either get mad about what I have said, or you can give it some thought and try to be a little more respectful of other peoples opinions and also of other peoples choices. Neither one of our opinions are the most important when it comes to somone elses choices. What is important is that if your going to suggest something then do based on fact and not from you 10 minutes of playing a game.

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:
 
I think you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder. Ok, I thought about what you said and I am not mad however I also do not consider what I said in any of my posts irresponsible. I have played many configurations including dual monitors and I didn't necessarily feel that I had to satisfy your constant interrigation buy relaying them all just so you could decide if my opinion was responsible or not. It is in fact no more on target, but considerably more informed ( I don't see any detail or specifics in any of your posts, sorry. Not even the reference to these mounts you speak about) than your's BTW. The bottom line is that if nothing else a monitor is a very personal choice. I would still opt for a single display even with the thinnist bezel on the market. To me personally that is totally annoying. Yes, even more annoying than your desire to have stated the opinion that people view as somehow "responsible"
The person has a GIFT CERTIFICATE that they may spend in any way they desire. It is for newegg.com and no where else. That on-line store sells a myraid of monitors of all sizes none of which you may sample before you buy. So opinion is what most if not all buyers use heavily in this market.
As to downing opinions. You called my posts and me by implication a "LOSER". If you look back you will see that p05esto made the original comment to ignore what may have been a post of yours under another name or whatever, I don't know. I replied to his post agreeing with his conclusions about why one is better than two and I have given my reasons in multiple places. Why aren't you fixated on p05esto? Is it because I responded and he didn't?
Oh BTW I challenge you to play just 10 minutes (maybe it was 15 I don't really log that sort of stuff)on a 23Cinema display and not come away with some positive comments. Going from 1280X1024 to 1600x1200 is (again in my opinion) a benchmark or crossing a threshold in gaming ( depending on your video adapter of course). How can you ignore that, I don't understand it.
Oh, and did you see anything in the original post (that asked for OPINIONS BTW) that said they didn't want to spend all the money or that they were looking for a cheaper solution? No you didn't. In fact the post said they had decided that a monitor (or monitors I suppose) was the most efficient use of the gift.
I certainly hope that you continue to provide your opinions to the folks that post here. I just as fervently hope that you get off my case and refrain from trying to twist my words to your purpose.

If you don't know where your going any road will take you there.... <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by palmerg on 01/30/05 02:52 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Well, it has been over two weeks now, what did you decide on???

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>
 
"Don't listen to the two guys above :) Go to NewEgg and buy the Sony 23" with the $80 rebate that brings it to $1,500. Great monitor for gaming and everythign else. Read some reviews on it and see what I mean.

Who wants two monitors sitting on their desk? That's crazy talk. Get the Sony! Or HP makes one that's said to be good for gaming as well."
Click to expand...
That was the quote made by the other loser, that you quoted him as saying just before you made this brilliant statement.

I have to agree
Click to expand...
You agreed with what he said, and part of what he said was "Dont listen to the two guys above". When you quote someone and then agree with them, then you agree to all of it. Im through with this, so comment all you want to. You have already made yourself look bad enough, you dont need anymore help from me to do that.



To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:
 
Well that is the way you have read it and I suppose that I can't change your OPINION on that. In fact, I won't even try since changing your OPINION about me isn't important to me at all. Reading that quote again I see it as rather light hearted when compared to your contantly ridiculous and unreasoned banter.

The bottom line is that my OPINION may have, along wit others, helped positively influenced the person who posted the query in the first place because I actually had an opinion backed up by some fact along with personal preferences. Whereas your posts are usualy one liners with little content and almost no technical insight. Don't get me wrong I'm sure you know your stuff because you have been on Tom's forums way longer then me and therefore you must have gained some intellecutal superiority over me and all the other (stranger)posters out there.

One more thing. I appreciate your willingness to try (emphasize TRY)and engage in a debate with me on this forum. It was you who decided to attack me in the open and I have returned you acusations in kind. However, since this is a forum that is supposed to deal with issues related to flat panel monitors and not about one persons inability to have a rational conversation, I would ask that if you insist on continuing to try and attack me please do it in a private message and stop waisting bandwidth. I could be wrong but I think that other readers would appreciate it.

If you don't know where your going any road will take you there....
 
Not sure if you were addressing this to me or not...but I have made a list of high-end monitors at newegg, and this coming weekend I am going to drive around to CompUSA, Fry's, Circuit City, and a few other outlets so I can check out as many of the monitors as possible. Like one poster said, newegg doesn't let you test out the monitors, but that doesn't mean I can't check them out if they are sold in a retail store. Image-quality and color rendering are extremely important to me. For the last 4 years I've been using a 19" Sony E400 Trinitron, and I think the picture is good even compared to a lot of the newer Trinitron-style monitors I've seen.

I am going to check out the NEC Mitsu 22" Diamondbright and the Sony SDM-P234 23" WS flat panel...but somehow I doubt an LCD that big will be good for gaming. Maybe I'm wrong...

I might buy a good monitor in the $500-$700 range, buy a couple hard drives, and save the rest of the money for when the R520 comes out...
 
Sounds like a solid plan. I dug up a couple of other LCD review sites that you may not have seen. Also you probably already did this but to save yourself leg work you might compare your list to the online inventory of the stores you listed. They all have websites and some may tell you what models are avaialble in the stores.
As far as rendering color and LCDs it depends a lot on the type of LCD panel(TN, IPS, VA) and by what standard it was constucted.
For instance my Hyundai L90D+ is a samsung panel that was manufactured as a TN type. That type has the limitation of only really recognizing 256K colors. They advertise rendering 16.2 million but that is a game they can play because of dithering and such.
There are LCDs of different types that "see" or accuatley render a much larger color palette.
This article explains it much better than I can.
<A HREF="http://www.behardware.com/articles/498/page1.html" target="_new">http://www.behardware.com/articles/498/page1.html</A>

You might want to look here for good tech detail as well:
<A HREF="http://www.d-silence.com/feature.php?id=249&pn=0" target="_new">http://www.d-silence.com/feature.php?id=249&pn=0</A>

Best of luck in your quest. Sorry for all the off-topic posts.


Other review sites (i'm assuming that you already checked Tom's Reviews :smile: ):
<A HREF="http://www.lcd-monitor-reviews.com/" target="_new">http://www.lcd-monitor-reviews.com/</A>
<A HREF="http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1738,1409036,00.asp" target="_new">http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1738,1409036,00.asp</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newbie.net/computer_monitors/" target="_new">http://www.newbie.net/computer_monitors/</A>
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/</A>

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by palmerg on 01/31/05 05:30 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Great info and resources there pamerg...


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>
 
Actually that last post of yours was a very good one. Yes, I am being sincere. You give links to multiple sources and take a more open minded approach to the subject. Well done!

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:
 
Mr Mozzartusm, I'm so sorry I have not returned to this thread since I posted my comment. I would have loved to battle it out with you here. I live for this. I bet you think you know it all and ... I really do :) so it would have been fun using my Jedi-like powers of knowledge to watch you choke.

You go play on your two LCD screens with a big bar down the middle and I'll have my 23" incher with no bar. I don't need to be a genius to figure that decision out.

And what lame comments about who's been a member longer or whatever. I don't give a crap if this is your first post or 1 millionth. That doesn't mean crap to me and I respect that zilch.... You think the only experts in the world are on this board with a million posts? Crazy man. I don't know any of you and certainly one opinion is as good as another.

Okay, that should set you off :) If it doesn't let me know. I've got more.

<A HREF="http://www.ericstoffers.com" target="_new">(My little web site)</A>
 
Big screens have a purpose, albeit, not great for gaming....

Me, I would love two 20" LCD's with under 20ms timing, which you can not get with displays over 21".

I could get two great 20"ers for that cash, and that would be the ultimate, IMO>

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>
 
Twitch, I DO own the 23" Sony that I bought from Circuit City. They have a ZERO dead pixel policy which is why I paid more through them. But these newer monitors most of the time are manufactured with no dead pixels so it would probably be safe to order from Newegg.

Games are important to me although I play rarely. I've been following LCD screens for years now and have been waiting and waiting for fast and large (cost was of no concern). The Sony is excellent for games and everything else. No real bluring that takes away from the game. Although my eyes are good and I do notice the flickering of CRTs and ghosting of all LCDs to some extent. I'm a web designer/developer and have built dozes of sites so color/contrast is very important to me and the new Sony passes for me. It's a good compromise of size, speed and image quality.

Looks matter to me also and the sony is attractive. Not as nice as the Apple but better than the large HP and Samsung. I hate the Samsung look - too bulky. I would have bought the Apple but it allows very little in the way of screen adjustment if you're on a Windows machine. That was the deal killer for me on that one or it would have been my first choice.

<A HREF="http://www.ericstoffers.com" target="_new">(My little web site)</A>
 
RichPLS, the Sony is 16ms and so is the HP and Apple 23" screens. Just to be clear that your statement was not accurate.

<A HREF="http://www.ericstoffers.com" target="_new">(My little web site)</A>
 
That sony 23" is a awesome monitor. 16ms too.
I like it, just not yet 2k worth.

I like dual monitors, and $4000 is a bit steep.
Dual 20" is JaG better in my case, and for under the price of that sony, and 3200x1200 dpi to view your apps.

Like I stated, it was just "IMO"

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>
 
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