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**Topcat** · 03-10-2007, 04:34 AM

Re: Buying a new monitor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009089

I've had that for a few weeks. It lays waste to any CRT I've seen, and I've been brought up on the best of the Trinitrons. I've always been an LCD hater until i saw this one. 1920x1200 and so crisp!! CRT's hurt my eyes now.

Probably not the most high-end display out there, but specs versus cost, its going to be hard to beat for the size and price. I can't stand to look at a puny 21" anymore... 24" or bigger baby! Widescreen does take about a day of getting used to, after that, you'll never go back.

**willawake** · 03-10-2007, 05:34 AM

Re: Buying a new monitor

the samsung will be better for gaming, its a tn+ panel (5ms)(800:1)(160x160). the eizo (16ms/8ms midtone) with MVA panel will have better colours, slightly better contrast (1000:1) and better viewing angle (178x178)

i have seen quite a few monitors lately but they always play a goddamn movie on all the monitors at the shop......the eizo stand out though and thats what my next one will be. (but i dont game)

and.....TC bought a LCD

bwahahaha who does that leave then......

**Topcat** · 03-10-2007, 06:03 AM

Re: Buying a new monitor

Originally posted by willawake

the samsung will be better for gaming, its a tn+ panel (5ms)(800:1)(160x160). the eizo (16ms/8ms midtone) with MVA panel will have better colours, slightly better contrast (1000:1) and better viewing angle (178x178)

i have seen quite a few monitors lately but they always play a goddamn movie on all the monitors at the shop......the eizo stand out though and thats what my next one will be. (but i dont game)

and.....TC bought a LCD

bwahahaha who does that leave then......

I dont game either, atleast not the games that the younger crowd seem to be into... I play Starcraft, Diablo2, and occasionally Age of Empires. None of these games are graphics intensive, and they all play perfect on this monitor. I'm not into FPS type games, so huge framerates and input lag aren't anything I'm worried about. I tried Unreal Tourney on this display, just to see what it'd do, and it looked and played just as good as my CRT.

Yea, I didn't actually plan on buying this.... One of my 24" trinitrons had a dying CRT, and it finally went (focus rail detaches in the neck of the crt, no fixing it). I had a working spare, but the girlfriend decided she wanted my PC out of the bedroom....... Long story short, after moving the desk (not a fun task, it's huge), I didn't want to wrestle that fat 110lb monitor back into the desk, hence I decided to buy a flatpanel instead.... I don't regret the purchase!

One more little side note on widescreen monitors.... If you use a widescreen resolution, nothing actually changes as far as the aspect ratio of open windows or programs. For example: My last 4:3 21" monitor used 1600x1200, I then upgraded to the 24", which used 1920x1200. Everything sized the same, but I had a ton more desktop space. I could have a TV tuner window open, a web browser window open, and a few IM's going on, and none of the windows would touch or overlap eachother (REALLY NICE)!! One thing that took some getting used to was 4:3 games on a wide monitor.... Starcraft, being old, is 640x480.... It's stretched to fit the width, and that took a couple games to get used to.... I look at it on a normal display now, and I think it looks rancid. Like I said, it'll take a day or two to adapt to widescreen, but once you get used to it, you won't go back.

**Per Hansson** · 03-10-2007, 06:40 AM

Re: Buying a new monitor

Well, I hate the look of stretched views, i.e. what you get in your example above in Starcraft Topcat...

As my dad described it "fat dwarfs playing foosball"

So that is why I want a 4:3 display... Either that or I'm gonna play the games that don't support widescreen resolutions "centered" on the screen, i.e. with black lines on the left and right, as opposed to a non-widescreen TV that displays widescreen movies with black lines top and bottom...

But then it's going to require a massive LCD to make up for those black lines, i.e. I will be missing quite a few inches if I play that way...

**stretch0069** · 03-10-2007, 06:52 AM

Re: Buying a new monitor

Hey Per...I own a Samsung 204B.......and I love it.

I went from a 19" CRT to this. I love it...especially when I have to go to OKC for a month for school. Moving the Sammy vs the CRTs......<shiver>.....the Sammy is nice.

I have had no problems whatsoever with it. I'm trying to remember, but I think I only paid somewhere around $450 for mine. I got it from BestBuy. I could have saved $75 or so by going to Newegg, but oh well.

I don't play high FPS games on it usually, but I've had no problem with Hexen II or Quake.

**Topcat** · 03-10-2007, 07:05 AM

Re: Buying a new monitor

I have a 17" sammy on my servers, syncmaster 712N... Its a few years old, works great though. Like Mikey said, I'd much rather lift on a 10lb flatpanel than a 50lb+ crt.

The 24" flatpanel weighs maybe 15lbs, the 24" trinitron weighs 110lbs, combined with being big and awkward... I cringed at the thought of having to lift that trinitron up.....

**Per Hansson** · 03-10-2007, 07:09 AM

Re: Buying a new monitor

Thanks for the info stretch!

I found the Samsung 204B at another store for 500$ now... Pretty good price I think

**Shroomie** · 03-10-2007, 01:55 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

and.....TC bought a LCD bwahahaha who does that leave then......

It leaves me, I've never actually bought a monitor, always gotten them free - so I have a small fleet of 17"s and a 19" AOC (85 Hz at 1280x, yeehaw). If I was to buy one though, it'd be a 4:3 LCD, I admit. I can't stand things stretched out either.

**Per Hansson** · 03-10-2007, 04:05 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

Okies, been doing research all day now...

I have come to the conclusion that the mess with the dead/stuck pixel warranty is a real umm, mess with all except Eizo. All other manfucaturers have complex rules setup and differences in model ranges etc etc... I'll just quote Eizo:

Pixel specifications
As standard all Eizo monitors are covered by warranty for faulty complete pixels. Furthermore will Eizo cover for sub-pixel fault (red or green or blue) with a warranty exceeding the requirements from the ISO standard 13406-2 class II. Click here for downloading our informative Eizo Pixel standard presentation (pdf: 133 Kbyte).

Yea, that's simple

Anyway, it's looking like the Eizo Flexscan S2000 will be my next monitor, but heck. I've got all of tomorrow to change my mind too

**willawake** · 03-10-2007, 04:10 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

i dont know the specifics about the dead pixel warranties. i know eizo offers zero dead pixel for 6 months here. LG offers zero dead pixel but i have read no specifics. others offer nothing like that..preferring to do the "well if it is a group of pixels in the centre of the screen.....etc"

still the only dead pixels i ever saw was on an eizo....hhahahahaha

**Per Hansson** · 03-10-2007, 04:18 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

Hehehe, nice Will

Yea, Samsung also have zero dead pixel warranties for a few models, but only 17" and 19"...

I think very few manufacturers offer zero dead pixel warranties on larger monitors, the margins when producing them are simply that much smaller... (i.e. bigger risk of defects simply because you have a bigger surface)

There are also differences in what region in the world you are I think... The Swedish Eizo page looks to offer more warranty choices for even out of warranty monitors than the US counterpart for example...

Here is a page reviewing high end monitors for gaming usage: http://peripherals.about.com/od/disp...gaminglcds.htm

And here is an (old) article over at Tom's on the pixel warranty issue: http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/03/19/penalty/

And two wikipedia pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_pixel
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuck_pixel

**willawake** · 03-10-2007, 04:26 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

i am not kidding and it was on a 18.1, a red pixel on the title bar. actually you could hardly see it and the client did not want to rma. cost about 800 euro back in those days

**Fizzycapola** · 03-10-2007, 05:47 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

I'm not sure theres a real difference between prices and brands these days with LCD's like CRT days where the bottom end screen would be a yellowish flickering blur and top end rock solid crystal clear, now they're all like that whether you spend £90 or £900.

**willawake** · 03-10-2007, 05:52 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

umm.....no you obviously have not compared enough monitors

**Topcat** · 03-10-2007, 05:55 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

lol... no love for my widescreen... I'll take some pics and screen shots soon.

**willawake** · 03-10-2007, 06:04 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

i do agree though on the diminishing returns for each $100 spent. whilst in the lower to medium range the difference is obvious, while one progresses higher there is lesser benefit each time for the amount of money spent.

still on that basis there is no reason to get a huge monitor and compromise on quality to achieve the most economical price, there are not savings that way. better to get a higher quality smaller monitor at the same price.

**Per Hansson** · 03-10-2007, 06:26 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

There is an enormous difference in quality between different LCD monitors.

I'm currently using a Dell E177FP 17" monitor, I got to borrow it from work over the weekend (for which I am very grateful) the monitor costs about 335$.
Quite a hefty pricetag for a 17" monitor... When looking at Dustin Sweden this monitor comes in at place 30 of a total of 50 17" monitors for sale when sorted > for price... (i.e. there are 29 cheaper monitors for sale than this Dell)
This monitor is brand new with no defects... It's also the worst POS LCD monitor I have ever had the luxury of using. I am running it at it's native resolution and have set it up properly but it still gives me a headache. Someone said only CRT monitors did that and that LCD's where free of this issue. He obviously was drunk...

And for gaming it's worse, heck, even surfing this forum it has problems with ghosting, and Dell brands this monitor as a, heck, I'll just quote them:

It utilizes an Active Matrix TFT LCD that displays sharp and brilliant images of text and graphics with a maximum resolution up to 1280x1024 pixels. Fast 8ms response time delivers excellent image quality in high motion applications reducing ghosting, jagged edges enabling crisp, clear images.

Yea sure, if you by "sharp and brilliant text" meaning you have to literally squint to see the text then sure...
Also the "reducing ghosting, jagged edges enabling crisp, clear images."; yea sure, compared to what, the LCD from a 286 luggable laptop??

No sir thank you, the LCD display market is so full of crap products that it sickens me

Actually when I think about it, it's even worse than the PSU market, because they can atleast genuinely lie about it because no-one will ever know. But when you buy a LCD like this one you sure will notice right away!

I should maybe mention that I have problems with most cheap CRT monitors too. If I run a CRT at 75hz I do get a headache, 85hz is ok but it still feels even better when I bump it up to 100hz..
Some people are much less sensitive than this...

**Topcat** · 03-10-2007, 07:19 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

Originally posted by willawake

still on that basis there is no reason to get a huge monitor and compromise on quality to achieve the most economical price, there are not savings that way. better to get a higher quality smaller monitor at the same price.

I have to disagree with that, sorry Will. This panel isn't the most high-end out there, yet it doesn't even compare to my old 24" trinitron, which in its time was extremely high end (damn thing cost $2200.00 new). I can't even look at that old Trinitron now without wanting to gag. For what I use my PC for, I'll have no trouble with it. A hardcore gamer might not like it, but since I'm not a gamer, its all fine by me.

I'd rather have a mid-range display with a lot more real estate than a top-end small display. I can't even stand looking at a 17" now. I sit far away from it, usually 4~5 feet, which I couldn't do with anything smaller. Mine looks great up close too, but there's nothing like kicking back in the recliner with the kb and mouse on a board across the arm rests, and moving a group of carriers through a Zerg town.... LOL

**Spacedye69** · 03-10-2007, 07:21 PM

Re: Buying a new monitor

My biggest monitor is a 17"!

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