Any suggestions on a good $300-600 monitor?

[johnyeah]

Hey guys, I currently use a Samsung 226BW 22" @ 1680*1050. It's served me fine and well, however, I'm thinking of getting a bigger monitor.

As stated in my topic, I'm willing to spend anywhere from $300-600.
I originally thought of getting a decent 24", but then I realized that wouldn't be much of a difference from my 22".
I looked around Newegg and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254036 seemed like the next step up without going overboard with my budget.

I'm going to be using my monitor to play games such as TF2 and watch HD movies (My system sports an overclocked 8800GT, not the top of the line card, but I don't play Crysis, so who cares).

I'm not limited to only buying from Newegg. I just want a decently sized monitor with great graphics and I don't mind buying from anywhere as long as it's not shady.

 

[johnyeah]

Any suggestions or comments? Would really appreciate them.

 

[chef_jd]

Well the samsung t260 is a great monitor for around 500. It is 25.5" which should be plenty large, 5ms response, 1920x1200 so full hd and blue ray will work. You have hdmi, dvi, and a few other inputs that would serve you well.

 

[johnyeah]

MMM, I was thinking about the Samsung (since I own one right now and it's pretty good), too. Any other suggestions or comments?

 

[johnyeah]

I looked over the Samsung and the Hanns.G monitors. I was thoroughly impressed by the picture quality and response time of the 27.5", it was on par with the Samsung T260 (though it lacked DVI-input, but the HDMI more than made up for it).

I ended up getting the 27.5" and it came with no dead pixels. Watching HD videos on this is simply amazing, I'm so glad I got this instead of the 25.5". Problem is, upgrading from 1680*1050 to 1920*1200, I couldn't run all my games on max on my 8800GT anymore (still run at very high quality).

This Taiwanese brand has won me over Samsung (better price, bigger size, equal quality, what else can I ask for).

 

[chef_jd]

Congrats on your monitor. I thought about going with a larger monitor, but like you said, they are the same resolution 1900x1200. I feel the icons and such would be too large.