New monitor for my PC

domestic_goddess

Hi

I am after a new widescreen monitor for my PC. I use my PC mostly for gaming and am after a good monitor for this.

Can anyone help with some recommendations, I know Amazon have some good used ones but am a bit lost on which one to go for.

Thanks

Mr Sickofhavingnomoney

BillScarab

Budget? Size required?

Remember if you buy a huge monitor you'll need a monster graphics card or two to run it at high resolutions. You really need to match your card to your monitor.

domestic_goddess

About 150ish pounds and 20/22inch

i have an alienware pc with duel core 2.66
2gig ram and a 8800gts with 320mb card

[Deleted User]

This would be a good purchase, Samsung really do make good monitors. It's worth going for a quality panel, rather than buying the biggest your money will extend too.

An 8800GTS will have no problems with any size monitor, so don't worry about that.

totalsolutions

Samsung panels are good as are Viewsonic, get the most expensive you can afford. Treat your eyesight. 22" and upwards. The wide screen will need a graphics card to match the standard resolution 1680 and beyond 2400 pixels for the 30". DVI interface and go for the high spec. prosumer types.
PS huge screens don't need monster graphics cards, Bill

iyiarz

The Samsung 'Pebble' that be_alright mentioned, while a good monitor, can be a little unstable because of its tiny support. I read comments on forums and reviews. I bought this one instead. Its cracking. It has a larger support but is virtually the same.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4PGF&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=Samsung+SM226CW&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

domestic_goddess

What contrast ratio should i be looking for, I am not sure what that means

Seagull

I've been beaten to it, just wanted to say that Samsung quality is well worth the money.

BillScarab

totalsolutions wrote: »

Samsung panels are good as are Viewsonic, get the most expensive you can afford. Treat your eyesight. 22" and upwards. The wide screen will need a graphics card to match the standard resolution 1680 and beyond 2400 pixels for the 30". DVI interface and go for the high spec. prosumer types.
PS huge screens don't need monster graphics cards, Bill

The oP wants to use it for gaming. You need a good card if you want to play modern games at a large panels native res with the details turned up and a decent framerate. And it's a bit pointless having a nice monitor is you're not going to use it to it's best advantage.

Samsung are good monitors but not the cheapest but well worth it if you cna get one. I've seens oem good reviews of Benq monitors and a colleague at work has a 24" one and is very happy with it.

john_s_2

totalsolutions wrote: »

... DVI interface and go for the high spec. prosumer types.
PS huge screens don't need monster graphics cards, Bill

I learnt most of what I know about graphics card a month or so ago when I bought a new monitor and upgraded my onboard graphics to accommodate it. I was posting on here at the time!

The gfx card I went for (which was good enough for my purposes but I daresay far inferior to the OP's - Sapphire X1550) can display VGA at a far higher resolution than its maximum DVI output. I just checked the box but it's not on there, but I remember noticing it at the time, wherever I saw it.

So my advice, FWIW, is to check very carefully that the specs of your card will support your monitor using DVI if that's what you plump for.

[Deleted User]

sickofhavingnomoney wrote: »

What contrast ratio should i be looking for, I am not sure what that means

The contrast ratio is the ratio of how many times darker the black is compared to the white on the panel. The problem is the tests to get this ratio are so misleading and not how you would actually use the panel that it just ends up another marketing gimmick to try and set the panel aside from the others, leading too "well bigger must be better" which it often isn't.

If it's for gaming then you'll want to keep the response time as low as possible. I'd definately recommend not looking at anything that doesn't have a response time of 2ms.

What graphics card do you have at the moment?