Help Decide, Good 17" LCD or a cheaper 19"?

[krupted]

For my bro's new system. hes 13, so all he really does is game.

going for the best value i can get without sacraficing much picture quality.

i dont want to spend any more then $250, but if there is a really good 19" for $300 i may consider.

its gotta last years, this rig is gonna keep them set for at least 4 i hope, it should it may need a vid card after that time....

any suggestions? the samsungs seem pretty reasonable

is it that much better picture on 17" lcd's today? i see most of them have the same ratings as the 19", would lead me to believe that a 19" would be slightliy more 'pixelated'... true?

[AMDnut]

I love the Samsung 17" models, they have been good for me. I have a 172n that is about 2+ years old now and works great.

Recently went to the Hyundai 19" L90D+ from NewEgg for $335 and it ROCKS! If you can pop for the Hyundai, it is worth the extra coin. The 19 is no more pixelated, it is a better image than the Samsung by quite a lot. The color is excellent too.

[SexyMF]

19" CRT will be superior to LCD for a good while yet. 17" is too small for SXGA+ resolutions.

CRTs are servicable and can be picked up cheap second hand. I would think that when LCDs go they are a throw away items.

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

I think SXGA is perfect on 17" LCD (rather similar in size to typical 19" CRT anyway) and I would always choose good 17" LCD over mediocre 19", though the one AMDnut suggested is probably worth considering if budget allows.

I agree SXGA+ is too much for 17", let alone those crazy 15" and even 14" laptop screens , but he is getting typical 17" SXGA and for gaming thats perfect.
Higher res monitor wouldnt at all be superior IMO, since he would more likely then not, had to invest consideribly more to enjoy up and comming titles with AA and AF in UXGA.

.. would lead me to believe that a 19" would be slightliy more 'pixelated'... true?

one of the reasons why I prefer 17" LCD.

[Moraelin v2.0]

Well, I'd get a good 19" or even 21" CRT for the money a 17" TFT costs, but then that's just me.

If the choice is between TFTs, I'd go with a good 17" instead of a mediocre 19" too. They'll both have the same 1280x1024 resolution anyway, so on the 19" you only get bigger pixels.

From there, it depends what you want it for. If it's for photo editing and to some extent for movies too, get a good MVA or PVA monitor. The colour quality and viewing angles are _the_ strong points of VA monitors. (And the viewing angle counts not only for looking at it from the side, but also even to not see a colour gradient between the centre and the corners.) Reaction time, however, is the slowest, so they're not that great for gaming.

BTW, don't get fooled by "8ms" overdrive PVA panels. They have still just as much afterglow as the 25ms ones, they just add the disadvantages of overdrive without any real benefit.

For a good compromise between reaction time and image quality, I'd get a good super-IPS. The most recent Philips panels look almost as good as MVA (a little less contrast, though), have almost as large viewing angles, but have considerably faster reaction times. These top at 16ms, which isn't perfect, but it's playable. (Anything lower and you just get the twinkling effect of overdrive, and still the same afterglow.)

And for pure gaming, and assuming you don't mind some image quality loss, go TN. TN are the fastest panels, but also have the narrowest viewing angles and AFAIK almost all are 6 bit panels with dithering. The fact that almost all have some massively overkill overdrive nowadays, doesn't help either. You can easily recognize a TN panel by looking at it from below. If the image quickly turns black as you lower your head and look upwards at it, that's a TN panel.

[MuFu]

I take a good 17" over a mediocre 19" too. S-IPS is great but rare on smaller models (LG do a 17" monitor with a S-IPS panel but it's widescreen). Here's a farily recent round-up of 17" LCDs:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth.../17inch-6.html

BTW krupted, what monitor do you have? Maybe you could try the old hand-me-down stunt and get yourself something new and shiny.

[krupted]

haha, i was going to do that origonally mufu but the only reason i wanted the lcd was so it would 'wow' my little bro a bit more then just a newer 19"crt.

also, if im now going to wait another year for a big overhaul i figure i may be able to snag an oled, or more likely sed

damn, that hyundia is the one i was really eyeing as well, my bro would flip if he saw me pull out a 19" lcd. hell his tv in his room is only 13 looks like i may just have to get it...

maybe i should just ask person_98 of what he would want

[grover]

I say go for the 19" over the 17"; chances are you probably won't be able to tell the difference in quality anyhow, I certainly can't, which is why I'm using a cheap 19" LCD right now and enjoying it

Of course, temper that with what you'll be using it for- you don't want to game on an LCD with a terrible refresh rate, but if you'd doing CAD or watching movies, it doesn't matter.

[krupted]

well ill probably snag that 19" hyundai, its a bone more then i wanted to spend but i figure this thing could last beyond the life of the pc. also, im not sure if one would want a screen much larger than 19, even my crt 19 is a lot to focus