Recommend me a 24" LCD Gaming Monitor
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 - 9:14am
I think I'm going to blow my stimulus check on a new 24" LCD - I have no idea what to get. I want it primarily for gaming, I play games like Battlefield 2142, Company of Heroes and Half-Life 2. I would like one that rotates to portrait mode; USB or other type of connections/hubs are not important to me. I want something good, I don't want a cheap model that I will hate 6 months down the road.
Anandtech has a few options. Personally, you don't need to great a display for gaming and Samsung and BenQ do two fine models atm, the Syncmaster 245B and the G2400W that are cheap and do the job perfectly well . If top quality is your bag then Dell really is very hard to beat but I believe people have recommended Westinghouse for some cheap deals as well.
If I was pinning colours to the mast I would go for the G2400W but only that I've seen it in action and it ticked all the boxes for me but I'm not going to watch any films on it or do any designing so take from that what you will. The thread on Hardforum is also fairly gushing.
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I just picked up the Gateway FHD2400 last week. Circuit City had it on sale for $449. I love this monitor. As much as I loved my old Dell, It blows my old Dell Ultrasharp 20" widescreen away. I was planning on getting another Dell but after reading some so-so reviews of their new 24-inchers, I did some research and settled on this Gateway.
http://www.gateway.com/accessories/product/1541351R.php?seg=hm
Things I like:
glossy screen (you may or may not like this but I think it makes everything look sharp and clean compared to the usual matte screens)
DVI/HDMI/VGA/S-video connections (for all your video imput sources)
Full 1080p HD Support
2 USB connections
Sturdy construction
PIP (great if your running two computer on different video imputs or an xbox or something)
EZTune Software makes adjustments a breeze
Swivels to portrait view
Having said all that, this monitor could possibly offer more than you want to pay for if all you need is a widescreen 24-inch monitor with a single video imput.
Thanks for the short review, Cope. I've been eying that monitor for months.
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I have the HP 24" monitor and it is similar to the gateway. I bought the HP for about $100 less than the gateway but if they are of similar price I'd get the gateway without hesitation. I think the build quality on the gateway is better, it has more inputs, and the touch controls are really much cooler. That said I really like my monitor and I love the glossy screen. When I first got it there was not any backlight bleed that I could see. Now, though, there is. It is noticeable on a black screen but I don't see it at all when watching movies or playing games. It has a great response time as well.
Note that both the Gateway and the HP only have a 1 year warranty. Pathetic.
I also have the cheaper 24" dell (used for a tv) and I like it, too. It has no backlight bleeding and is a solid monitor. You can find them for under $400. It comes with a 3 year warranty. Solid, no frills monitor.
You can often find the soyo 24" monitor for about $300. My understanding is that it's a great monitor for the price. I looked at one in the store and was not impressed at all. A lot of that was due to the way the monitor was set up. It was on a splitter that ran from a dvd player. So they took a standard def dvd and split the signal out to all their monitors. It looked like crap. It has gotten a lot of compliments from people,though.
If I were to buy all over again I'd put the Gateway at the top of my list. The multitude of inputs, nice stand with tilt and swivel, build quality, and glossy screen are a wonderful combination. I think it is worth the $449 that Copingsaw paid for it. I would also consider the Soyo. It's cheap but still decent quality. No frills but the panel is good. I'd put the HP on my list as well. Mostly because it has a glossy screen, nice stand with tilt/height/swivel adjustments, and hdmi. I'd also consider the dell due to it's consistency and the 3 year warranty.