I need a new monitor

[drclark]

Hey all,

The 19" LCD monitor that came with my Dell 5 years ago seems significantly dimmer and has a flicker that comes and goes. So it seems it is time to purchase a new one. (I've read about how it is possible to replace either the inverter or back light but really don't want to go through the effort at this point)

I am currently looking at a 23" widescreen type LCD panel (both CCFL and LED backlit). So far I am looking at Samsung, ACER, ASUS and Viewsonic.

The only real requirement is that the monitor cavity on my desk only has room for a monitor about 21.75 inches in the horizontal dimension so I am trying to stick to 21.5 inches or less. That pretty much limits me to a 23" diagonal or less (and some 23" class screens are too big as it is).

First, any recommendations on brand? I know samsung makes pretty decent large screen TV's - does that translate into the smaller monitor class screens as well? Any other issues with the other bands I mentioned? Any specific brands to stay away from?

Second, The current setup I have uses VGA connector (I run two PC's through a KVM switch that only supports VGA). Is there any possible issues running setup thru VGA vs DVI or HDMI (if supported by monitor)? Will I get as good a picture using VGA?

Third, Does anyone have any experience with LED based backlights screens? Do they last as long or longer than the CCFL backlights? How much service life can I expect out of an LED screen vs a CCFL screen? I know the led supposedly draw less power but the screen I have now only seems to draw about 20W per my UPS readout.

Forth, the PC the monitor is connected to is fairly old and only has an Nvida 6800 vid card in it. Will it be able to drive a widescreen monitor in 1920x1080 resolution? (Current monitor maxes out at 1280x1024)

thanks,
drc

[blakdawg]

In my office we currently have 4 Samsung widescreens, 1 Hanns widescreen, and 1 Viewsonic 17" in the old 4x3 format - I'm happy with all of them. Lately I've leaned towards Samsung for new monitors, but I had 4 or 5 19" Viewsonic LCD's in the old 4x3 format and they were fine. In the past few years I've purchased 2 Viewsonic 32" TV/monitors - one is still working fine, the other died (I think it blew a bunch of capacitors, suspect they were some of the bad ones) and it just ran $250 to get a new board installed. I'm not wild about that but I decided that if I could buy that monitor for $250 right now I'd do it, so I fixed it.

We also bought my mother-in-law one of the big cheap Hannspree monitors and she loves it.

I wouldn't expect an older PC to run 1920x1080 very successfully.

LED backlights haven't really been out long enough to have a lot of great information about expected lifetime - but I am assuming they'll last longer because the technology is more durable, and they're even lower power, which should mean lower heat, which should mean longer life. Even so, I've been finding that I outgrow LCD monitors faster than they die in the past few years; except for that one large Viewsonic, all of my name brand monitors seem to hang around for plenty of time that I don't feel like I got hosed on the deal.

[JDay]

I got the Samsung BX2335, it's a really nice monitor. Whatever you get make sure it has LED back lights, the CCFL ones get dim over time. This monitor is $189.99 on Newegg. Samsung makes some of the best monitors around, this is because they are one of the LCD panel manufactures so they use the best panels in their monitors. Samsung, LG and Sony are the only manufactures of LCD panels iirc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001419

Second, The current setup I have uses VGA connector (I run two PC's through a KVM switch that only supports VGA). Is there any possible issues running setup thru VGA vs DVI or HDMI (if supported by monitor)? Will I get as good a picture using VGA?

You're going to want a digital connection (DVI, HDMI) and make sure the card has HDCP support.