Have you checked ebay?

I have the same monitor as is being sold, and it's amazing. But I've been thinking about switching to an LCD. It would be nice to have a monitor that weighs less than a cinder block and doesn't take up so much of my desk space.

Quote: Original post by Don Quioxte
Have you checked ebay?

I have the same monitor as is being sold, and it's amazing. But I've been thinking about switching to an LCD. It would be nice to have a monitor that weighs less than a cinder block and doesn't take up so much of my desk space.

The problem with ebay is that there aren't really any warranties. Most refurb places will at least give 30 days, minimum, and that is the lowest I'd want to go because it can take a while for some problems to manifest =-/

Quote: Original post by Extrarius

Quote: Original post by OrangyTang
[...]I've got an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 which does 1600x1200 @ 85Hz, which was about as good as I could find a few years ago without spending silly amounts of money.

I agree 100%. The retail price on the P225FB was around $400 several years ago when I was checking out what I would get next, and even today you can't get an LCD that even supports the same resolution for less than $1000, and the scaling will still be worse since LCDs have fixed physical pixels while CRTs do not. =-(

You can't find an LCD that supports 1600x1200 for less then $1,000? If you're simply looking at refresh rate you're chasing ghosts. It's pretty much a meaningless measurement for LCDs since they don't refresh the entire screen at once, only the pixels that change.

I have a samsung 226bw which is a 22" widescreen with resolution 1680x1050.
I has a response time of 2ms and 1000:1 contrast ratio it says it has a dynamic constast of 3000:1.Anyway I'm pretty happy with it I bought it for 400$.
The only downside with it is the viewing angles it gets darker if you look from down or up.
Side angles are much better.

Quote: Original post by tstrimp

Quote: Original post by Extrarius
[...]I agree 100%. The retail price on the P225FB was around $400 several years ago when I was checking out what I would get next, and even today you can't get an LCD that even supports the same resolution for less than $1000, and the scaling will still be worse since LCDs have fixed physical pixels while CRTs do not. =-(

You can't find an LCD that supports 1600x1200 for less then $1,000? If you're simply looking at refresh rate you're chasing ghosts. It's pretty much a meaningless measurement for LCDs since they don't refresh the entire screen at once, only the pixels that change.

The P225FB supported 2048x1536 @ 79HZ, and the closest LCDs I can find do indeed cost over $1000. Sure, 1920 is close to 2048, but the widescreen resolutions give up a lot of vertical resolution that is far more useful to me.
The refresh rate at each resolution matters quite a bit, because if the maximum refresh rate is 60, I can get at most 60 frames per second in games. While that is enough to be smooth, it isn't as good as the 80+ I can get with a CRT. I'm not sure how it matters that it only updates changed pixels, since either way a 60hz refresh means maximum 60 fps.

Black Knight: I want something that is at least _*1200 so I don't lose on what I already have.

If vertical resolution matters that much to you, why not just buy a normal widescreen LCD and then run it in portrait mode? All of the Dell ones support that, and the Samsung ones do too, with an accessory base.

Quote: Original post by Ravuya
If vertical resolution matters that much to you, why not just buy a normal widescreen LCD and then run it in portrait mode? All of the Dell ones support that, and the Samsung ones do too, with an accessory base.

Are you sure? I don't see any mention of the stands supporting portrait mode, and that is the important part (since video cards can do the image rotation themselves). I was under the impression that "Tilt" meant you can rotate it a bit up/down/left/right and "Pivot" was the support for turning it sideways. Also, with LCDs, isn't the viewing angle typically much better side-to-side than top-to-bottom (despite identical numbers) such that rotating it will significantly change the characteristics?

Hrmm, I also notice that the stands for the larger sizes don't list that they're adjustable, which would be a big deal since it looks like they stand rather high.

Quote: Original post by Black Knight
I have a samsung 226bw which is a 22" widescreen with resolution 1680x1050.
I has a response time of 2ms and 1000:1 contrast ratio it says it has a dynamic constast of 3000:1.Anyway I'm pretty happy with it I bought it for 400$.
The only downside with it is the viewing angles it gets darker if you look from down or up.
Side angles are much better.

I also have a 226BW. I highly recommend it. I bought mine in August and was able to snag it for $320. I came from a very nice 19" ViewSonic CRT, with which I was very pleased. I haven't looked back.

Quote: Original post by Extrarius
I don't see any mention of the stands supporting portrait mode, and that is the important part (since video cards can do the image rotation themselves). I was under the impression that "Tilt" meant you can rotate it a bit up/down/left/right and "Pivot" was the support for turning it sideways. Also, with LCDs, isn't the viewing angle typically much better side-to-side than top-to-bottom (despite identical numbers) such that rotating it will significantly change the characteristics?

Hrmm, I also notice that the stands for the larger sizes don't list that they're adjustable, which would be a big deal since it looks like they stand rather high.

Is this for Samsung, or Dell? Samsung requires an accessory mount; the standard one for my 931BW only does landscape. I think both monitors will support a VESA mount if you can find it, so that's another option.

According to Google, the SyncMaster 245BW can pivot to portrait mode out of the box; you just have to remove a locking screw from the base and then reattach it once the monitor is pivoted.

Quote: Original post by Extrarius
The P225FB supported 2048x1536 @ 79HZ, and the closest LCDs I can find do indeed cost over $1000. Sure, 1920 is close to 2048, but the widescreen resolutions give up a lot of vertical resolution that is far more useful to me.

I mis-read that and thought you were just talking about 1600x1200.

Quote: The refresh rate at each resolution matters quite a bit, because if the maximum refresh rate is 60, I can get at most 60 frames per second in games.

That's only true with games that cap the refresh rate. LCD's only emulate refresh rate so that games and applications that require that information can use it. The refresh rate on LCDs really don't matter unless you're limiting frame rates based on them which most games I've played recently don't do by default.

Here is one of the many resources available on the internet explaining why refresh rate is pretty much meaningless for LCDs unless vsynch is on.

The Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide

Do you turn vsynch on for all your games? My laptop runs CS:S at around 200fps just fine. It's not restricted to 60hz at all.