Buying a new monitor

Well, I just got a new PC all put together, disconnected my old one to move the new one in, and discovered to my horror that the new one won't work with my old monitor!

So, now I'm in the market for a new monitor, and I've settled on the following three:

A) ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers -- At $180, this monitor appeals to the cheapskate in me, plus it's got a 5-egg rating at NewEgg with 1400-plus reviews. Only drawbacks are the lack of USB hub support and the stand, which offers tilt adjustments only.

B) HP LA2405wg Black / Silver 24" 5ms Height/Pivot/Swivel adjustable Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 3000:1(1000:1) -- At $300, the big draw of this monitor is the 1920x1200 resolution, its USB support, and its fully-adjustible stand. However, the dynamic contrast ratio is only 3000:1, and that worries me. Lacks HDMI, but it's got a DisplayPort adapter, which my new graphics card handles.

C) ViewSonic VG2428WM Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 100,000:1 (1,000:1) Built-in Speakers -- At $240, this monitor might hit the sweet spot. It's got the fully-adjustible stand, the USB support, and an impressive dynamic contrast ratio. However, the resolution is maxed at 1920x1080. Lacks HDMI and DisplayPort.

D) SAMSUNG 2443BWT-TAA-1 Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DCR 20,000:1 (1,000:1) -- At nearly $350, this monitor is really scratching my price ceiling. The stand has height and pivot adjustibility only, and it lacks USB and DisplayPort support. But it has the 1920x1200 resolution with a more reassuring dynamic contrast ratio, which is the only reason I'm even considering it.

So I guess the questions I have are:

1) Is USB support from the monitor that big a deal? I guess I could always buy a separate USB hub.
2) How critical is DisplayPort support? I hear that DisplayPort will eventually replace DVI and HDMI.
3) Is there a substantial difference between 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 -- particularly as far as CoH is concerned?
4) Is a low dynamic constrast ratio of 3000:1 reason to be alarmed -- again, particularly as far as CoH is concerned?
5) How useful is the ability to swivel your monitor 90 degrees so as to put it in "portrait" mode? This is something I've only heard of, never actually seen in practice.

I have a pair of the Asus VE245 24" monitors and they're very sharp and clear without detectable lag. They lack the speakers of the unit you're looking at but I've been pleased with them. Heck, I've a 7.1 surround sound setup anyway so I wouldn't be using those speakers even if I had them.

I don't see any real use for USB on the monitor, just get a good USB Hub and you're fine. It's currently out of stock but I've a couple of these and they're great units. 13 USB ports on your desktop; you'll never miss the ports on the monitor. Heck, speaking of monitor USB ports I've 3 high end Samsung 24" monitors on my editing machine with the built in USB... I find them highly problematic. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't... and these were $1,000 apiece monitors 5 years ago. Just shell out $40 for a decent hub and if it goes south simply replace it.

I can't answer on the display port but DVI ports were the "next big thing" several years ago and most monitors (all I've seen recently) STILL have a VGA port alongside the DVI port. At a guess the DVI port won't be going away anytime soon and when it does you'll probably be ready for a new monitor anyway.

On resolution 1920x1080 is just fine, one of the major drawbacks to going up to 1920x1200 is you're asking the graphics card to push more pixels causing lower framerates all other settings being equal. Heck, 1920x1080 is still a lot of pixels to push with CoH's... um, not really optimized render engine.

My editing machine has those three high end Samsung units and they do swivel portrait/landscape. Frankly I don't see any real benefit and I've never swiveled them. On stands there's any number of mounts that you can attach to your desk and then attach the monitor to if you need more adjustment. I've had my eye on this unit for some time.

I've worked with cheap Samsung monitors that were pretty poor, especially in the stands. The pair I previously had on my gaming machine ended up breaking and forcing me to lean the screen against the stand. I did that for about 6 months until one of them quit with a puff of smoke and I replaced both with the Asus. Based on that I'd be a little concerned about Samsung's cheaper line - the high end stuff is fine however.

Item B is now only $199 according to what I saw. I can't say for sure about the quality of the image - but my understanding of "dynamic contrast ratio" is that it is pretty much a useless number. There is no "standard" for dynamic contrast ratio, so one man's 3000:1 could be another man's 30000:1 for all we know. For me, response time is important ... 5 ms is ok, my 22 inch Samsung is 2 ms, and is very smooth.

After some consideration, I think I'm going to go with this one:

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewScrapper D) SAMSUNG 2443BWT-TAA-1 Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DCR 20,000:1 (1,000:1) -- At nearly $350, this monitor is really scratching my price ceiling. The stand has height and pivot adjustibility only, and it lacks USB and DisplayPort support. But it has the 1920x1200 resolution with a more reassuring dynamic contrast ratio, which is the only reason I'm even considering it.

My main concerns were that I really wanted the option of running the monitor in portrait mode, and that made the increased vertical resolution a big draw. Plus the better DCR means I shouldn't have to worry about the light-greys as a couple of reviews on Option B were warning -- I just spent $1400 on a new PC that is supposed to take anything CoH can throw at it and more, so I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by cheaping out on the monitor.

Still, if there's anyone out there who's thinking, "Bad idea! BAAAAAD idea!" please let me know. Right now I'm checking out the other monitors on NewEgg that are in the $300-$400 range just to make sure there isn't a better monitor in that price range. Thanks!

For me, I have two 24" monitors, both Samsung, one is 1920*1200 the other 1920*1080.

IMO the 1920*1200 is worth it. I like it much better. The extra desktop space while slight is noticeable. After all your computer can be doing COH *all* the time.

As for the suggestion it will bog down your GPU, It isnt that much more pixels. Worse case scenario you play the game in windowed mode which takes a band away top and bottom from the rendering space. I play in windowed mode just so HeroStats can put its overlay on screen with the vista/7 driver model.

Keep your old monitor and use it as extra desktop space. You'll be happy you did.

Display port is supposed to be nice and better clarity, and able to run much larger resolutions then 1920*1200 with one cable/port. The next question being does your GPU even have a display port out?

Having a hub in the monitor can be nice for some items like web cams, for me it isnt a critical feature though.

Just ran across this: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1593108

22" for $125.00 you could get two or three at that price.