f13.net

Yeah, so my 19inch CRT is dying and widescreen flat panels are finally getting to the point where I can stomach the ghosting; I've got a few models in mind, but frankly I don't feel I can trust online reviewers becuase of the shill ratio, and I'm fairly sure you are being shills for MORPGs not hardware, sooo I ask.. do I get one of these widescreens or just wait for next years model? Some general ones I'm looking at are:

ViewSonic VX2025WM 20.1" Widescreen TFT LCD - 1680x1050, 800:1, 8ms (http://www.buy.com/retail/Product.asp?sku=202310998&adid=17662)
Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP 20.1-inch Widescreen (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=2007W3Y&c=us&cat=snp&category_id=6198&cs=04&l=en&Page=productlisting.aspx)
Gateway Computers - 21" Widescreen HD LCD Flat Panel Display FPD2185W (http://www.gateway.com/programs/lcd/)
HP F2105 21" LCD Flat Panel Monitor (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000AYHY46?v=glance)

I'm looking at connecting with HDMI/DVI and I have an external sound system so I don't care about built in speakers or other, non HDMI/DVI connectors. Anything under about $800 is fair game.

What the hell, you only live once. (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/0.RSLID?mco=955BB9EF&nclm=AppleDisplays)

The big one is really really really nice. My boss has two of them on his desk. When I have some spare money to burn im gona get one.

I could get the 20 inch.. no statistics that I care about for gaming, though - contrast ratio and reaction time.... any idea how it stacks up against the other offerings?

Edit: 400:1 and 12ms apparently; I just wish I could believe any numbers people post, all the reviews basically call the manufacturers liars. I don't doubt they'd be awesome for an office enviornment, but I'm more interested in how they stack up in WoW or dark corners of the earth (the two games i'm playing now)

IMO the only real way to decide on a monitor is to go and look at them. Some just "feel" better.

SAMSUNG 204B-Black Black 20.1" 5ms LCD Monitor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226)

I purchased 6 of these earlier in the year to get the family off of CRT's finally.  At the time, Fry's had them on special at $529.  Newegg has them here for $440.  Not widescreen or HDTV'ish, but they have a rich color and really look good in 1600x1200 with a ATI 1900XTX and/or a nVidia 6600 (highest cards we have).

Yeah; I'm STRICTLY in the market for a widescreen. If I weren't, and was just looking for a solid gaming CRT, this is my baby: Viewsonic VP930b (http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktopdisplays/lcddisplays/proseries/vp930b/). I find it REALLY frustrating that companies seem to have the 4:3 down to where I'd buy it in an instant, but the widescreen is still lagging behind by a year or two.

For around $800, you absolutely cannot beat the Dell 2405FPW.

It's an amazing monitor. The only caveat is that 1900x1220 resolution will pwn most slightly older systems when trying to run recent games.

I bought one of these a few months back, and each of my friends who have seen it in person have had to go buy one for themselves. That much screen space is very immersive for games, as it fills your vision nicely.

FYI, for much less money, the 2007FPW is highly regarded. Several coworkers here have that monitor, and it looks great.

I don't really see the allure of a widescreen monitor.  Hell, if need be I've got the Sky setup going where I can just switch over to my HDTV if I want widescreen gaming, but for most of my stuff I just play on my 19" square LCD monitor while I watch TV simulataneously on the bigscreen.

Besides which, there are a lot, and I do mean a lot, of games that don't really support widescreen well.  Keep that in mind when you contemplate going with widescreen as your permanent choice in monitor.

Correct. Dell 2405FPW of the Dell 2007FPW.

Just buy one, don't look back.

We have 3 2007s (well, the precursor - the 2005FPW) sitting in the room I'm in now.

Edit for Gulp: You'd be surprised how much more usable real estate comes with just going widescreen. Also, Eh, I've learned to cope with stretching old games to fit the screen.

Problem is that they aren't all "old" games.  F.E.A.R., for one, doesn't support widescreen.  I can sort of cheat it on my TV by going to a little bit lower resolution and playing with the aspect ratio on the TV, but it's definitely not perfect.

I anticipate most game companies supporting widescreen more heavily in the future, but for right now I'd really be leary of owning a widescreen monitor.

I play WoW on my laptop some times, its a Apple 17 inch, so its wide screen. Its amazing just how much cooler a game feels in wide screen than square.

MMOGs really do benefit the Most me thinks. HoMMV should benefit well also.

Oh, and Dreamfall has the best support of Widescreen on the market. It does all the ratios, including 16:10.

I'm still playing ~15-20 hours of WoW a week, so I'm looking widescreen mostly for that. It'll hurt my wallet a bit, but I think I'll go with the Dell 2405FPW on your recommendations. I'll let you know how it goes!

They speak true.

My roomate has one, and every time I walk by his desk I have to fight off the urge to buy one.  I've got a Dell XPS2 laptop, the screen is awesome, but the monitor wins.  Very rich picture for a flatscreen.  Makes the game look better than my 19' Viewsonic CRT.  When I get the money, I am getting one.

The only flaw I've found (and it's minor) is every once in awhile you can see some tearing.  Since you are getting it for WoW (mostly), it has an option under the interface that can fix that for the most part.  So... no real problem.  WoW looks great in the 1900x1200. 

I keep hoping the deal he got it for will resurface, so I don't have to pay full price.

Um.

I have the Dell 2407 FPW.  It's beautigorgeous. I paid $650 for it.  Because f13 posted the discount link.

With the lowest price for the links posted to date I could create a surround visual with three of them.

Please to send me the difference rather than overpay. I PROMISE I'll share a "fair" percentage with SchildCo.  Really.  In a Signe-sorta way.

I'm still clinging desperately to my CRTs so everything that follows is just stuff that I've read rather than practical knowledge.

It's been some time since I lasted look at the state of LCD display technology so I did Googling to see if things have gotten any better and unfortunately it looks like they have not. You still either have to choose between okay color (or incredible color if you are willing to pay for the very expensive LED illuminated LCD panels) or fast response times suitable for fast action gaming. Things have actually gotten worse in some ways since many of the "fast" panels actually look worse for gaming than some of the slower panels because of various hardware trickery that ends up causing artifacts in the visual display when playing games which makes buying LCDs based on marketing specs problematic. DVD playback is also still a problem on LCDs as well with color artifacts galore. My recommendation is to buy an LCD from a place that has a liberal return policy so you don't get stuck with something you don't like, not to mention it makes it easier to exchange if you get one with annoying dead or stuck pixels.

Here are some links for recent LCD reviews:

Tom's Hardware 16:9 LCDs review (http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/31/do_you_want_a_16_9_lcd_monitor_now/)

Tom's Hardware LCD Spring collection review (http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/27/the_spring_2006_lcd_collection/)

BeHardware 19" LCDs review (http://www.behardware.com/articles/572-1/comparatif-lcd-19-4-6-8-ms-tn-ips-va.html)
Their English isn't the greatest but they have good coverage of the gaming suitability of the monitors they tested. They didn't test any widescreen monitors but the review will give you an idea of the LCD panel technologies that are commonly used today and the tradeoffs between them.

Edit: nice summary of the common panel types here:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1039222

Yep, my guild is going nuts over these. They're all finding each other the cheapest deal and buying two each.

Yep; it's good enough for now, since my CRT is dying I need a new one anyway -- I did choose the dell 24 incher, total was $814 with shipping, (3 day select) and you'd better believe I'll be at home waiting when it's listed as "out for delivery"

I just got the 20" dell widescreen for work (running on my mactel), it's a great monitor, paid about $430 for it.

Dell is shipping super fast on things as end of quarter is next week. Better be ready to get home in a hurry because you don't want it sitting around.

I didn't get it directly from dell, they wanted $850+shipping, i went with a third party retailer who was offering it for a hundred bucks less. (easttrades.com)

I have a lot of money burning a hole in my pocket, and I went to look for a good gaming LCD.

One is not to be found for under $600. All the ones with the good response times are 6-bit panels or worse, and the 8-bit panels have worse response times. There are a few that meet my standards, but they cost $600+ and I'm not willing to pay that.

Okay not to totally freak you out or anything but:

LCD input Lag problems: new tests of 2405fpw and 244t (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1026393)

I came across this article on the Register today: Dell 24-incher has problems (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31352), which lead me to here (http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3240&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=350), and then here (http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=78), which has a few threads on input lag on the 2405 like the above and also:

how bad is the lag on 2405? owners please vote! (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1033464)

and

2405FPW lag shots (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1047842)

Note that this lag isn't about image "ghosting", it's the delay between when you move your mouse and when the cursor moves on the screen. This is analagous to the situation with console gaming on HDTVs where your controller inputs aren't immediately reflected on screen because of the video processing lag that might be taking place within the HDTV (some HDTVs have a special setting to minimize this problem).

The 2007 (the one you were looking at originally) also apparently has horrible banding problems.

Yeah, that'll suck; Hopefully it's as the one guy said goes away after it warms up, I'll be able to tell immediately if there's a lag issue and if there is I'm going to cry. Maybe it was just a batch of them that had the issue... I guess we'll see.

That's some major nitpicking.

I own this monitor (about 3 months), my brother owns it, and two coworkers own it. We've never had any of the problems described. I've heard nothing but raves. If you do belong to the class that will micro-analyze a product you buy to find faults, then I am sure you'll find some. In that case, stick with the monitor you have.

well, it *is* hardOCP... and my monitor has a tracking number. details to follow...

I was contemplating upgrading my 2nd screen to LCD but then some dumb corporate fuck at the office next doors threw out Viewsonic PT813 21” in perfect working order. That thing is so massive that I didn’t even fit in the trunk of my car. WTF would you throw away something like that?

The monitor is so awesome. It makes me happy in my pants. It was seriously worth the money.


There's no delay when in native resolution, I can detect a slight (SLIGHT!) delay in non-native resolutions that's presumably caused from the upconversion. We're talking slight, I'd say adding an additoinal 15-25ms. Definately nothing to lose sleep over.

Quick note, though there was no real lag on the desktop and in the first few games I played (WoW, etc.) , the lag was pretty noticible playing other directx games.. I looked in the forums and did what they recommended - turned off vsync. After that, it went away and everything is fine now.

The DellUltraSharp 2007WFP 20.1-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor  (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=2007W3Y&c=us&cat=snp&category_id=6198&cs=19&l=en&mnf=694&Page=productlisting.aspx) is on sale for $449.65 from Dell.

I'd almost be interested in this, but it has a 16ms response time. Who's gamed on one of these?

I game on the precursor to that monitor. It's fine. I'm actually playing console games on an LCD with, I believe, an 18MS refresh time and it's fine.

Pay the extra $250 and buy yourself the 24 incher. you won't be sorry.

The Dell 20.1" widescreen just went on sale for $358:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&oc=2007FPW

I game on the 24" Dell and the 23" Cinema Display HD. I have nothing bad to say about either. Maybe I'm not the best judge on response times, but I've never had any problems popping a few sniper caps into random heads in PS or Quake 4, and on the various and sundry MMOs, they run like a dream.

I will say though that playing FEAR on a widescreen has given me motion sickness for the first time in my gaming history. That's gotta be good for something.

Here's my new Dell 2007WFP:

(http://gallery.7mph.com/albums/userpics/10002/normal_new_monitor.jpg) (http://gallery.7mph.com/displayimage.php?pos=-857)

Good man, you definitely won't be disappointed.