Best bang for the buck

[The18thLetter]

Alright, I'm in the market for a new widescreen LCD monitor thanks to my tax returns, and I'm wondering what's the best bang for the buck?

I'm not looking to spend more than $300 and I don't need a humungous screen, either.
I currently have a 15" Dell LCD Monitor, and I'm quite content with it, honestly. My only complaint is that the maximum resolution is 1024x768 . I'm looking for a jump to 17 to 20", depending on what I can get for the price.

What caught my eye, though, is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824009073
Problem with this one, though, is that it only supports an analog RGB connection. No DVI here.

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116373
Yay DVI! lol but then this one has speakers on the bottom that I really, really don't need, won't use, and will quite possibly get in the way of my central speaker (I currently have my speaker set just under my monitor, and am aiming to have the same setup with my new monitor)...

So... what's the verdict?
Which of these two is the better choice for the $$$ or if you have a better suggestion, what is it?

Thanks!!

 

[Lawdog]

I have the Viewsonic VA1912WB on my secondary system and am very pleased with it. It's a good value and great image quality. It does passably well on games too, but that is not its primary use on my setup. Great for surfing, clear text, nice blacks. I think you would be very happy with it.

 

[The18thLetter]

I have the Viewsonic VA1912WB on my secondary system and am very pleased with it. It's a good value and great image quality. It does passably well on games too, but that is not its primary use on my setup. Great for surfing, clear text, nice blacks. I think you would be very happy with it.

Alright. Well that's 1 vote for the Viewsonic...

 

[DamienThorn]

I have the Viewsonic VA1912WB on my secondary system and am very pleased with it. It's a good value and great image quality. It does passably well on games too, but that is not its primary use on my setup. Great for surfing, clear text, nice blacks. I think you would be very happy with it.

I've been eying the monitor, and plan on using it for Office related stuff and watching movies and TV. How does it fare when you're watching movies on it?

 

[SharpieFiend]

DVI is essential on a LCD monitor, the image quality is far superior over analog. Your 7600GT has DVI, so go for it.

 

[Gaiden133]

Another vote for the best bang for the buck widescreen monitor: ViewSonic VA1912wb. Went ViewSonic then Mitsubishi CRT's, and back with ViewSonic for their LCD's. Am very pleased for the amount i spent on this monitor. Arrived with no dead pixels and amazingly great clarity. Don't regret it at all. +1 Vote for VA1912wb

 

[Lawdog]

I've been eying the monitor, and plan on using it for Office related stuff and watching movies and TV. How does it fare when you're watching movies on it?

To be candid, I've only watched a couple on it and they were more for background noise while I was working. I did recently have the animated movie Robots going on it. In my casual watching, I thought the colors were good and vivid and I didn't see much blurring in the faster moving parts.

I bought it for my wife's system, but make sure it was going to be good enough, I did "test" it on my main rig for a couple weeks. I liked it a lot, but for my gaming rig I will get a bigger widescreen down the road sometime. For her use, and for what you're proposing, it would be fine. It's a good value for $280 or less that it seems to be going for now. Hope this is helpful.