[lug] Picking a monitor.

stimits at comcast.net stimits at comcast.net
Wed Jul 28 08:57:52 MDT 2010


...
What do you look for if you were buying a new monitor these days?

When I bought my last one (not quite 10 years ago), it seemed relatively easy to find something that 
was a reasonable balance of quality, performance, and price, and to find the sweet spot in size.

I suppose today you'd get a flat screen, perhaps wide aspect ratio and that you could certainly find 
something cheap.  Are flat screens a commodity and you just get the cheapest in the size you want? 
Or are there other performance factors to consider?

I guess I don't currently have any DVI video cards, will I have to upgrade my card too because VGA 
is going the way of ATA?
...

Monitors with DVI often come wiith a VGA adapter...if they don't, you can find one for around $10 on the Internet. Maybe up to $15 locally. If you get new video which put out DVI, you'll have better results, but it isn't mandatory. If you want to deal with the surrounding issues for playing high def movies on windows, you'll want HDMI (and new video card).

One thing I'd add to requirements for a new monitor, if want to play games, is latency (response time). 5 ms is really good. 8 ms will work for many purposes. I would not want to buy a 10 ms monitor, even if I were doing only text like spreadsheets, for many reasons. One reason is that if you do get a slow enough monitor, even movies (flash online, DVD, etc) might tear or have some artifacts. Another reason is that 8 ms cost and 10 ms cost won't be much different, I doubt you'd save much.

Here's a fast, well-rated and cheap monitor without HDMI...5 ms response:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005155

Similar monitors with HDMI add about $100.

I suppose you might be interested in contrast ratio if you are interested in graphics, including movies...higher is better. Viewing angle will matter if two or more people will be watching it from non-center.

D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/pipermail/lug/attachments/20100728/aafbd43b/attachment.html>


More information about the LUG mailing list