Displays 22" or 24" for a poor student

Hi id like any advice you can give me on buying a 22 or 24" screen. Iv got a budget up to £300 (ish) and i want to upgrade my 19" acer screen. Iv looked at most options over the last couple of months, dvi-d and vga input would be useful. Since i have used a cheapo monitor all my life i was wondering if there is actually any need to spend a lot on a high quality monitor, does it really make any substantial difference to the picture? Should i just go for the biggest cheapest monitor? e.g. http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/130842
or go for a 22" good quality one e.g. http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125099/rb/0
Any help would be appreciated thanks
btw iv got a Ati hd2900xt so hopefully i can run games at full speed on a 24"

 

Welcome to the forums elmat

I honestly wouldn't touch a TFT with only an analogue connection - you'll have issues with pixel timings and tracking, which can wander because of the VGA connection. Therefore I'd go with the 226BW... OR if you can stretch another £100, go with the Samsung 245B - it's cheap and has some shortcomings, but it's not so bad if you're just wanting to play games. If you're going to be doing image editing though, you're better spending as much as you can afford because anything that uses a 6-bit panel isn't giving you as many colours (and can often result in some funny-looking "edited" images).

 

Cheap monitors are utter, utter crap. Go for a smaller, better panel if necessary like the ones Tim's said. We've seen quite a few come and go in the office cause TR review more of them than we do.

 

Ok thanks, so im best getting a more expensive screen, am i right in saying the samsung SM226BW and SM245B have 8 bit pannels. Iv been looking at both of those for a while and they seem to have good reviews from most people. Is it worth the extra 120 for the bigger 24"?
Does anybody know of any new monitors coming out fairly soon, because i really really hate buying something that gets an updated model within weeks!

 

Personally when I was deciding, I decided to get a good 22" rather than a cheap 24", and went for the SM226BW, to sit next to my old 18" BenQ (dual monitor woop).

 

Both the 226BW and 245B use 6-bit panels, but they're reasonably good if you're not into lots of image editing. Probably the most accessible 8-bit panel at the moment is on the Samsung 215TW (1680x1050, 21"), as you can pick them up for around £240 inc (EDIT: just found they've gone up in price to ~£310... I bought one not long ago at £245 inc ).

If you want an 24" with an 8-bit panel, the best bet is the BenQ FP241W but the Dell 2407WFP isn't too bad. It's not as good as the BenQ, but it's respectable.

 

They say 8-bit but it's 6+2bit dither with the BW and B.

 

Iv just come across this HP Pavilion w2408 http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...00&lc=en&cc=de&dlc=en&product=3440923&lang=en
for around the same price as the samsung 24" , does anybody know how good this monitor is because there are not many reviews around at the moment.
thanks

 

Seems *okay*. The power draw (cited as up to 130 watts) seems peculiarly high compared to a Dell 2407WFP-HC, a more expensive 24" display.

Also take note of the single-link DVI input. You don't seem to really care about top-notch quality, so is this monitor right for you?

 

Sorry im not sure what you mean by a single-link dvi input? Id like a decent monitor but i wont be doing any photo editing etc so perfect colours are not required. Do you think the power maybe be quoted wrongly?

 

Hey, I have a sceptre 22" monitor. I use it primarily for gaming, and it just kicks ass. It has a great response time (2ms) for gaming, has dvi and vga connections, it also has built in speakers, but they are kinda crappy (who uses monitor speakers anyways? ). I don't do any image editing, except for the occasional doctoring of photos to make them same funny things . I suggest this monitor, it is super cheap for the size. The only problem is finding it in the UK :-/. the monitor is about $250US new.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112009

 

*cough* may i mention that a good screen can be picked up for as little as £150

the LG 20" L204WT TCO-03 has a res of 1680x1050 same as the 22's and has a massive 2000:1 contrast ratio with response of 5ms. and DVI connection.

however it only displays 16.2 million colours.

if you spend a tad more for £200 you can get a LG 22" LCD L226WTQ-SF, the contrast ratio is bumped up to 3000:1 and response is down to 2ms, but you get a 24 bit colour screen (16.7m)

What i have found is spending more cash on a screen dosent mean you get a better screen, most dells i have looked at seem rather dull with a yellow cast on everything, and reproduction of grey scale is poor.

i poke samsung with a stick as there banging out so many screens there build quality must be starting to go down.


dont even go near a budget 24in screen as mentioned, there SH!T

i spent close to £1450 on a pair of Eizo 24" FlexScan S2431W-BK and there soooooo sweet!

will be ordering a LG 22" LCD L226WTQ-SF soon as i can to take back to uni with me, fu*k it if i am taking the eizo's they will get nicked!

(note i travel between home and uni alot so the eizo's arent a waste! ROFL)

 

Check out the 24" Iiyama on MD - £317
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(21259)24-Iiyama-Prolite-B2403WSB1-LCD-Wide-3ms.aspx

 

i just received my LG 22" LCD L226WTQ. and it has got all the advertised 3000:1 contrast ratio, 2ms response time. and god it's huge.

the photo shows 22inch in front, 19inch CRT behind. and it's much, much bigger than the 19inch in viewing surface. but smaller in terms of space.


so i would recommend the LG L226WTQ. and save yourself £100.

 

http://www.3dgameman.com/content/view/9867/103/
SOYO DYLM24D6 24"

 

ive got a 22 and a 24 a samsung 22 and a 24 dell old one. the colours and gaming is much better on the 22. but i prefer the higher resolution of the 24

 

Iv followed your advice and bought a good 22" screen, Just to let you all know iv got a HP w2207, im very very happy with it at the moment, The shiny screen makes it look more attractive then the samsung 226BW and the quality of the screen is spot on. It was the same price as the samsung so i thought it was my best bet. Plus the fully rotatable screen with landscape and portrait mode plus 2 usb connections are a great bonus.
Thanks for all your help

 

Dell 2407WFP-HC came in yesterday. Can't say much about it since I haven't had the time to open it; inconvenient time of delivery when doing home renovations. From what I hear, it's a great monitor. Gigantic box, though...