Foamingpanda's 19" Holiday LCD MADNESS!!!

[foamingpanda]

It's the most wonderful time of the year (well not really) we're still getting 80 degree weather down here. Stranded inside to endure this onset of strange fall heat, I found myself digging through the hazy world of 19" Gaming LCD's. Those little monsters have come quite a way from the days of 40 MS "wow, I didn't know counterstrike had a spirit mod, ghosting!

My research has narrowed my selection to a few models, but I'm still a bit uncertain about which one to purchase. I will list the monitors in the order they appeal to me and would appreciate any feedback (this should also help others looking for a good gaming 19" LCD upgrade):

-- All prices taken from newegg.com --

1. 352$ --- ViewSonic VX924 3/6ms (550:1 CR).

352 for 3 ms, 19", and a decent contrast ratio? Sex.

2. 319$ -- HYUNDAI L90D+ Silver 19" 8ms (700:1)

My initial choice, but many qualitiy control issues have popped up over the last few months. Tons of customers have reported issues with vericle lines, --massess-- of dead pixels, and nasty horizontal lines. I'm kind of worried about purchasing a product from a company with bad customer support.

3. 375$ -- SAMSUNG 940b-Black 19" 8ms (700:1).

Seems like a decent all-around monitor.


From these three monsters, which would you reccommend? I'm so torn between them! Help me before Panda eats a village of small children!


I'm also upgrading my video card from a Geforce 4400 to:

eVGA 128-A8-N350 Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card; pretty sure it's the best bang for the $ (no PCI express on my mobo and I'm too stupid to set up a new MB).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Acert93]

I have 2 Hyundia L90D+ monitors. They are hooked up to an eVGA 6800GT. One in Digital, one on Analog.

1. They are clear, bright, and have rich color. I was getting a lot of eye strain using my 21" Sony Trinitron monitor. Comparing these side by side with the Sony it was clear that the Hyundai were not only clearer (text was not fuzzy at all) but also easier on the eyes. Here is my setup.

2. The base are easy to get on a VERY hard to get off. Once they are on they probably should stay that way. The bases are heavy though and the monitors stable.

3. Forget using these monitors in portrait mode for anything other than documents. The viewing angle pretty much puts the kabosh on that.

4. They are 16.2M color LCDs. There is a trend in the industry to mislabel 18bit LCDs as 24bit. You CAN see the hardware dithering in areas that contain gradients that cover a lot of area and there is very little contrast between the two colors. e.g. Black to a dark grey will show some dithering.

It is not very bad but it is noticable and may make some graphic work that requires absolute percision difficult. I do a lot of web work and for the most part it is not an issue.

5. With an "8ms" response rate they are quick although there is very subtle LCD lag effects. I would not call it ghosting or smearing, not even "lag" really; but you can tell it is not quite as smooth as a CRT. I am not complaining, but it is there if you are very sensative to framerates. if you are someone who can spot the difference between a solid 45fps and 60fps or get annoyed when a game goes up and down from 60fps to 30fps and back again this is something to consider. That notes those things DO annoy me and these monitors sit ok with me.

6. One of the first pair I got sent had 2 stuck pixels (red and green) and 1 dead pixel. The replacement pair has 1 red stuck pixel. It is very annoying on black backgrounds but totally unnoticable any other time. After 6 months I do not even notice anymore. Be warned most of these companies consider like 8 dead pixels the minimum for a return. Suggestion: Pick up the LCD local and TEST it BEFORE you leave the store. Tell them you WILL buy one if you can test it.

7. So why did I have a replacement pair? Because mine had large moring effects. From talking with Hyundai it seems that they were damaged at some point in transit and they had a few complaints about this (Andy at Hyundai was VERY nice). They look like some type of roller marks. The LCDs were replaced. Here is a sample of the problem.

8. Chiefvalue.com was a big pain about the return. Slow to respond, and then they were going to make me pay for shipping. I talked to Andy at Hyundia and he was TICKED and said Chiefvalue should pay for it so he gave me their number to pay for shipping and UPS shipped it on Hyundai's dime for me. Again, Hyundai tech/support was very good for me. Chiefvalue was slow and not very helpful. Yes I got replacement monitors that worked in return, but it took an additional 3 weeks to get everything sorted out and they had no intent of helping me out in the issue. Instead of being proactive they made me jump through hoops and wanted me to foot the bill.

9. The monitor controls on the bottom of the monitor are not the best but work.

10. They slide up and down, tilt, and rotate. So fairly flexible.

11. They have audio ports (stereo; no 5.1 which is sad because I have 5.1 headphones!) and no USB.

12. 1 Analog, 1 DVI. If you tighten then Analog good the text should look just as good as the DVI. When I did not tighten them all the way you COULD tell a difference (the text was denser with fuzzier outlines).

13. They look absolutely HORRIBLE in non-native resolutions. e.g. BF1942 at 1024x768 was all muddly and blotchy. Solution? Either have your video card scale it for you OR do fixed pixel output (auto-letterbox). I have found using the fixed pixel works nice. The letterboxing is not annoying IMO. Anyhow be warned that like most LCDs anything but native resolution looks poor... very poor to be exact.

14. Some games do not accept anything above 1024x768 on DVI (like BF1942). I believe it is the 5:4 aspect. Sometimes you can hack this in the command line.

15. VERY NICE LCDs. I really like them and would buy them again.

2 are great for productivity. My only real gripe is Portrait mode is unusable for the most part. I WISH they were 16:9 and had Component inputs. But for the price I cannot complain. Very nice product by Hyundai. Better than the Samsung with the same panels due to the DVI and price IMO.

 

[foamingpanda]

The Hyundai does seem like a better buy, but all of those terrible reviews about line problems turn me off to it.

I'm so confused!

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Sweet setup man!

 

[Acert93]

Thanks 😀 Dual Monitors is really nice for productivity. They seem small in the picture, but when seated at the desk having 2 19" screens in front of you is a lot of desktop real estate. Reading over my reply though I can spot all kinds of typos and grammar errors... I hope he could understand what I was saying! That is what I get for posting while tired!

 

[StigHelmer]

Nice setup man! Got myself a L90D+ here too, and it's the best monitor I've ever had!