First off where, where have you looked so far? If your really interested in getting an LCD screen, at that a good price and model, I would imagine you would do some of the research yourself, instead of just make a pointless post on this forum in hopes to have some one give you a suggestion thats been mentioned countless many times.
I dont know about the rest of you guys, but this is VERY irritating, come on people, stop being lazy and do a little reading yourself.
Monitorsdirect.com has been highly praised as a great place to buy monitors on this forum, the internet in general, and by ME! I jumped on over there and right away found them to be selling that NEC your looking for for under $500, so i dont know where else you were looking that you got such prices...
Secondly, this is a response to someone else, and to you, who is looking for an LCD in this price range and size; I purchased the Planar PX171M not too long ago. I love it. At the moment I feel it is the best 17" LCD on the market. Recently I made another purchase, a Samsung 152T, I just got it in today and am using it as we speak while I am typing this. As you know, the Samsung is a 15" and it does not sport the 16ms response time, but thats not why I bought it. Its for my younger sister, and she wont be doing any gaming.
I REALLY like this Samsung. I bought it at Newegg.com cuz they had a good price on it and there service is the best, bar none. I paid like $372. Tomshardware if im not mistaken just wrote up an article including this monitor, and I think thats what got me hooked.
The monitor display is superb, its very crisp and bright, even moreso, the styling is amazing. It is a very sleek, contemporary silver case, and the way Samsung thought up of the stand is engenious. Look at some photos and you see what i mean. The monitor can be folded up so that its completely flat which makes it very portable, if necessary, but the way its setup, this is a true flat screen. I think this is as flat as they go! Everything is VERY thin and sleek.
Alright, I kinda got off track there, getting tired. But hope that helps you guys out. And o yea, read around before you post.
Correct me if Im wrong, but using these types of forums is to gain knowledge which you cant find elsewhere. Not so that someone else goes off and finds it for you just cuz your lazy! And im not directing this strictly to you. It just seems that almost every post lately seems the same.