Widescreen monitor: 19" Quality or 22" Budget ???

[RostokMcSpoons]

I've got some vouchers to spend at Comet, and so my choice is down to a straight fight:

I could have one of the best 19" widescreen monitors, a Samsung 931BW, with 1440x900 res, 2ms response, high contrast etc etc

OR

a big 22" Emprex budget widescreen (this seems also to be sold as a Cibox as well. 1680x1050 res, 5ms...

I've seen lots of good reviews, both 'pro' and by buyers, for the Sammy... and most of buyers reviews for the Cibox seem good too.

I'm upgrading from a Hitachi CML174 which I've just sold, and I'm currently using a 15" (!) Sammy 152. Both seem ok to me, for image quality and games playing, so I don't think I'm particularly 'sensitive' to anything... except in-game framerate: I'm sort of tempted by the smaller screen size so I can play my games at native res, because my system is a bit underpowered (A64 3700/X1950 Pro), but I may be upgrading the cpu soon.


So ... what do you guys think? (apologies to any Bit-Tech / TechReport forumites who've stumbled on this thread and are currently saying 'oh no, hasn't he made his mind up yet!?!' 😉)

 

[aadamszc]

Hmm..it really up to you. Do you like quality(19'') or quantity(22'') more? Personally, I would go with the 19''.

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Well, ideally of course I'd have the world's best 30" display, with a beast of a pc to drive it.

So the actual size of the screen isn't a 'problem' - I've got plenty of desk space.

The real nuggets of the question are:

1) Is it worth making my pc struggle to deliver decent framerates on the higher res of the larger screen?

and

2) Is a budget large screen noticeably less able than a good small screen?
(Which maybe comes down to this: is todays' technology for budget screens better than that of my old Hitachi, which I was quite happy with?)