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what to look for in an LCD?

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ashenfang

The Jet Man!
Joined
Feb 25, 2003
Location
Indiana
I am VERY new to the LCD scene. I currently have a samsung 19" flat CRT monitor which I like, but would like to get into the LCD's. I have been looking at mostly Samsung LCD's, but not sure whats good and whats bad. Something's I noticed are

Contrast, 500:1, 1000:1, ect.
Brightness
Response time
Resolution

I see that there are both widescreen and regular. I will be using this mostly for gamming, so i need to know what to look for and what to watch out for. Are there problems with running say 1440x900 for games, does it stretch it out, make it hard for vid card?

Here is one I found, any suggestions?


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ategoryId=pcmcat104900050011&id=1149205183966

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ategoryId=pcmcat104900050011&id=1149205183814



What amazes me is the fact the cost of these are what I paid for my CRT just a couple years ago.
 
800:1 is good for contrats brightness usually 300 is good response time -8ms resolutions depends 4:3 or 16:10
 
How much are you looking to spend, are you a member of costco, and what games do you play?
 
we don't have a costco around here, we do have a sam's club. I play BF2, 2142, CS:S HL2, ect. Looking at around $250
 
With widescreens you get more screen real estate, and movies look awesome, but sometimes its tough to get games running at the native resolution, which can make things look wonky. This site has more info about running games in widescreen and some WS monitor reviews. Otherwise, Dell's tend to be good monitors IMO, as do Viewsonics, any other brand you'd have to ask someone else.
 
Im very happy with my westinghouse monitor. LG is another good brand. dell is good when their having a sale. dell and apple use the same LG panel from what I hear.

I know 8ms is the benchmark, but dont put TOO much credit to those that say 5ms, in almost all cases they fudge the numbers by doing grey response instead of white or black or whatever is/was standard. in reality their all probably near the same from 5ms to 8ms.

contrast, higher is always better. thats true of plasma, lcd, everything. difference between whites and blacks, makes it look more vibrant without looking washed out by cranking brightness.
 
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