20.1" Gaming LCD reccomendations

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|oR|Spetsnaz

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Jul 20, 2004
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Hey guys, I currently have a 21" Trinitron aperture grille flat screen CRT. I absolutely love the picture. The problem is its starting to crap out on me and it needs replacement. I have never been a big fan of LCD's as I have not seen one that I thought matched or outclassed a high quality CRT. I am a big stickler for image quality and notice differences that most people wont. I was hoping you could tell me if there is an LCD that fits my needs or if I should just buy another CRT. I like the idea of less desk real estate and less heat emission, so I am open to the idea. I spend equal amounts of time playing games, surfing the web, and watching movies. I would like to have something that would work well for these activities.

Looking at my options for LCD's, I would like to have:

20.1" viewable screen
Standard aspect ratio (no widescreen)
DVI connector
***Excellent scaling of resolutions***
very fine pixel pitch
no more than $500
viewing angle not a big deal

I was looking at the Samsung 204B and it sounds like it might fit the bill, but I wanted to ask you guys first.

Here at work, the computer next to me has a Samsung 730B. They run the monitor at 1024x768, while its native resolution is 1280x1024. Even with clear type on, the text looks like ass to me. I want a 20.1" screen, and I know they all have a native resolution of 1600x1200, but I like having my desktop at 1280x1024 and I like playing my games somewhere between 1152x864 to 1280x1024. Is this going to be a problem with any LCD I get, or is there something out there that will scale without all the heavy aliasing?

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, I searched around but decided I should probably make my own thread.

Thanks for your help!
 
Just so you know, 20.1" is widescreen. And if you primarily surf the web and watch DVD's then i would strongly recommend a widescreen LCD. HD content is in widescreen format so if you watch it in 4:3 its not going to look as good. Widescreen also makes web browseing more enjoyable because you can spread out the windows and read articles better. Widescreen is a more natural format to the human eye then 4:3. Widescreen gaming for games that support widescreen like Oblivion is also unmatched. 1280x1024 is also not a standard 4:3 resolution. 1680x1050 is the resolution ran on 20.1" widescreen LCD's and i think its almost perfect. Its a high enough resolution that you have a decent enough amount of desktop real estate and its not so small that you can't read the text and see the icons. Its also about the ideal gaming resolution if you have a decent video card. As for recommendations there are several good widescreen LCD's available in the 20.1" spectrum but i like the new Dell 2007wfp myself. Dell fixed the banding issue with a firmware update so the monitors shipping here in a few more days should all have the update. If not you can just contact the guy on the Dell monitor forum and they'll get you a new replacement. I'm getting mine replaced that i got a week ago just cause i want a perfect one but the color quality on this one looks pretty damn good for the most part. The banding is minimal so you can't really notice it unless you're running color gradient tests. I prefer Dell LCD's because they look great, and have the really nice full tilt/swivel and height adjustable stands. They also carry a 3 year warranty with advanced replacement and you can usually get a replacement for whatever reason you come up with. Other manufacturers a lot of times will just tell you to forget it unless it has like a dozen dead pixels and then you'll get to pay the return shipping cost and wait for a replacement. I just read that the DVI port on the new 2007wfp is HDCP-compliant as well which is a big plus.
 
I appreciate the advice so far.

burningrave101: Just FYI, there are widescreen 20.1" LCD's and there are standard aspect ratio 20.1" LCD's, such as the Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP vs the 2007FP.

I really dont want a widescreen LCD. I'll definately take another look at the 2007FP since the banding issue has been resolved tho.


Zymic: Why do you reccomend the LG L2000C?


dtess17: I dont think I can afford a 2001FP.
 
|oR|Spetsnaz said:
burningrave101: Just FYI, there are widescreen 20.1" LCD's and there are standard aspect ratio 20.1" LCD's, such as the Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP vs the 2007FP.
Click to expand...

I guess you're right about that. I havn't looked at the standard 4:3 displays much and i guess a few of them are measured as 20.1" instead of 20".
 
Not a problem.

Some people have complained about the 16ms response time of the 2007's being too slow to play games. What do you guys think?
 
|oR|Spetsnaz said:
Not a problem.

Some people have complained about the 16ms response time of the 2007's being too slow to play games. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Reported response time a lot of the times is mostly irrelative for the most part because you can have a 16ms display thats better for gaming then an 8ms. Its just a matter of how the manufacturer measures the response time. I havn't gamed much on mine yet but i havn't noticed any kind of severe ghosting issue. The review i just read a minute ago on the 2007wfp said they didn't notice any ghosting when playing games and watching DVD's.
 
you can usually find the 2001fp for sale in the 300 range.. i think that;s an awesome deal
 
I have the 204B and I love it. You need a powerful video card to run it at the native 1600X1200 resolution if you are going to game. I play a lot of FPS games including Battlefield 2 and the monitor runs smooth for me. I occasionally watch DVDs and they look good to me.
 
I ended up finding a seller on ebay that was selling grade A Dell P1130 21" Trinitron's with aperture grills for $125 shipped. But it turned out they are in the same town as me, so I went to their business and picked up two for $95 each. Best deal I've gotten in a while. They have flawless images. I guess LCD's will go to the backburner again....I really wasnt looking forward to buying one anyways...
 
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