I'm tempted to buy a LCD, i'm not really sure what to buy but it has to cheap but good, i don't mind it been a little expensive but not over 300/400 euros. If anyone can recommend one that can be great. I currently have a 19" CRT, is it possible to use this as a 2nd monitor? So i can see if i like dual monitors or not, and if i do i can simply buy another one of the same and use them as dual. Also if the LCD can have a thin(er) bezel then some of the ones i've seen would be great too..
You don't need a card with 2 VGA outputs to use 2 VGA monitors. Most retail cards that have DVI come with DVI to VGA adapters equal to the number of DVI outputs they have. What type of screen are you looking to buy? 17", 19", 20"+ or widescreen? What do you use your PC for? If you play games and watch DVD's you'll be wanting the lowest response time you can afford. My TFT uses a VGA connection and IMO the picture is very good. A lot of people say DVI gives a much better picture but I'm not really sure. At my uni there are some Viewsonic monitors with DVI and some with VGA in the same lab (same model, they have both connections) and I have not sat at one with DVI and been able to notice any improvement over the VGA ones.
19" prefrably, unless 21" have come down in price alot, i would really like a 21" but i won't be able to afford it. The reason i'm looking into a LCD is a CRT is pissing me off, it never fits in its..um, screen? It's mishaped, so theres tiny black bits around the side because it never really fits, i really can't explain it I watch alot of dvds on my computer, but only play a few games really.
Buying a 19" lcd really isnt worth it. They have the same max resolution as a 17" (1280x1024) so in effect, your paying more for larger pixels. It all comes down to if you have enough for something bigger than a 17". If you try calling dell, you can get the old model 20" widescreens (2005fpw) for around $300 usd if you talk with an operator for awhile and get on their good side. (Dell operators can give out discounts, but they dont really like to as it cuts down on their commision) So yeah, if you can only afford a 19", spend less and get a 17", you might even be able to afford 2 17" if you watch prices.
I have a samsung SM913N, which is a 19" monitor and is very nice for the price (only £180, which I think is around 300 euro). Dual monitor is very very nice, when I went home for my easter holidays I hooked up the monitor at home. You might want to consider a widescreen monitor and a 19" as a second monitor. For me, 2 19" were fine though.
At the lower end of your budget you could go for a BenQ FP91G+ and at the higher end of your budget you could go for a Samsung SM940BF. If you want widescreen the Acer AL1916W which is a great value for money monitor.
LG Electronics Flatron L1970H, 19" this is what I'd recomend, it has 8ms response time, 1600:1 contrast, 300cd/m2 luminosity and a pretty thin bezel, it costs 311 euros.
The 2005fpw does look tasty, but it also looks big, does 20" look odd in WS ? If i can pick one of them up cheaply then definantly, but if i cant seem to then im gonna have to go with a 19" one. Thanks for the suggestions, keep em comin!
i use a widescreen and no it doesnt look weird as long as your gpu can out put in the monitors native resolution. My GPU required me to use DVI to support the native resolution of the monitor, so when i hooked it up via VGA it did look odd, now that it is hooked up with DVI it looks and feels like a normal monitor, just I can launch two browsers full width next to each other. For movies and DVD wide screens are really nice, you can actually watch in true 16:9 with out bars on the screen
Not at all. It's roughly as tall as a 17" screen, but wider (duh). I'd say that in the standard landscape mode it's really only still big enough for one window, but if you put in in portrait mode, you can stack two windows (each about the size of a 15" 1024x768 screen) vertically without a problem. It is great for movies - it makes it seem a lot bigger than it is when showing widescreen movies. Which is *always* nice. The 20" panels are about as wide as a 23" or something in standard 4:3, but it seems even larger for some reason. I'd disagree with tm36usa about 19" panels though. While he's totally accurate, sometimes (notably gaming) just having a bigger screen is very nice. Especially if you don't want to have to upgrade your GPU to up the resolution a notch. That's the one major downfall of my 24" - my GPU just can't handle most games at 1920x1200. Note to self... buy 7900GT. Say, for instance, 19" panels ran at 1600x1200 - if your GPU can only handle 1280x1024, it'll look far worse downscaled than at a native resolution with larger pixels.
Hmm, after a quick look around i've found they make a 24" version too. Have this years models only just recently come out? Seen as there 1200+ euros? I would really like to get that, i might even save up all year just to get it ^_-
The biggest difference between VGA and DVI input is in text and black line art, especially on a non-white background (grey seems to be the most troublesome color). In the early days of LCDs, fuzzy text was the biggest complaint with VGA, but sharpening algorithms have gotten good enough to the point that it looks OK with VGA now. With VGA you'll also see sharpening artifacts in large portions of single color with black edges (like in cartoons or line art drawings). 19" seems to be the "standard" size that companies are pouring their effort into. All the 17" LCDs are either cut down versions of the 19" or just aren't up to the same standards as the 19". Yeah the pixel pitch is coarser than on the 17" but you won't be straining to read text at the native resolution and you can set the monitor that much farther away from you (2" more really does make a difference). VGA is really on it's way out, so I really can't recommend getting a monitor with only a VGA connection even if it's much cheaper than one with a DVI.
