17" TFT help please (purchasing)
 

I am looking at purchasing a pair of 17" or 19" tft monitors for my computer (replace my current 17" tft with a matching pair).

I was looking at the viewsonic VP171b or a couple of the sony professional monitors.

Any suggestions for monitors (for the UK) for £350 (or US if it can be shipped cheaply, ~$580) a monitor or as cheap as possible really (while retaining quality, quality more important than cost... :thumbsup: )

Thanks

I love my Viewsonic 19". I'd put it up against most of the good LCD's out there.

Both Sony and Viewsonic make great monitors.

My only suggestion is to get one with both DVI and D-SUB connectors. There are some 17" less than $300 that have both. I've had some problems with analog cards synching properly with LCDs. Not sure if it was the fault of the LCD or the video card. But DVI is the way to go. And dual monitors too, which is what it sounds like you are doing. Wish I had the money to do that!

For a "cheap" TFT, I'd still suggest one of the bigger brands (Iiyama, LG, Samsung, Sony, etc). Simply look around for some good offers. There are good-quality Iiyamas on sale for 350 Euros.

Just remember to look for the vital statistics: if you're gonna play games, you need a fast monitor (response time <16ms, 10ms might be a bit overdone). For photo-editing, you need a good contrast-ratio (>450:1, perhaps as high as 600:1). IMHO, Samsung monitors are pretty damn good and cheap, having the right stats in the right places.

If you're gonna go for dual-monitors, remember to get a "small" TFT, instead of a 17"-er with huge areas of plastic around the edge. Samsung's 173X is a good one for that. (Iiyama 435 series, and the LG 1730S might be good options too)

As for DVI/D-Sub: I have yet to see the difference, but if you can get DVI for little or no extra cash, get it just in case. Just remember that some companies do NOT include the DVI cable in the TFT package, which means you'd have to buy a pair of 15 Euro DVI cables seperately.

The Sony and Viewsonic 17" and > monitors (pro versions) have less than an inch of surround, which is what brought them to mind. is it worthwhile ordering over the net or better to do it in person (I really hate dead pixels), is there a way to ensure that the monitor has no dead pixels and 0-1 artifacts at most?

Depends on where you buy it. Some shops will have a zero-dead-pixel warranty, some will charge you for the "service" to check it, while some offer no extra warranty whatsoever. It might be worth it to pay a slight checking fee, just to ease your worries. I'd say dead pixels aren't that much of a problem these days; I sell dozens of TFTs every month, and rarely get a complaint about the pixels (even with our *free* 8-days warranty!)

I returned 7 monitors to pcworld cause they had dead pixels... the staff were upset, apparently its not broken with <5 dead pixels, however they had no signs up to say that so I went through their entire stock of tfts to fins one without dead pixels... found none so went and bought my current sony...

Does anyone know a good uk site who offers ixel checking before shipping?

is it worth going to a 20" screen with 1600x1200 res? vp201b?