In the market for a 24" or bigger LCD monitor

[schmosef]

Hi Guys,

I'm building an extra home PC for use in embedded systems programming. I'm going to build something mid-range with a lot of I/O ports on it.

I'm thinking of getting one of those 24" Wide Angle LCDs for it. My budget for a monitor is about $1000 CAD.

Those 24" Dells are tempting. Somehow, I've only ever heard about Dell monitor sales here. So I just wanted to encourage everyone to let me know when another sale happens.

[az]

Have a look at the Samsung SyncMaster 244T. It's relatively cheap, but very good and fast, has (crappy) video and HDMI inputs, a USB hub and I think it can be rotated.

[Tjalfe]

http://www.costco.ca/en-CA/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?prodid=10294318&whse=BCCA&topnav=&ec=BCCA-EC780-CatHome&pos=8

Just a couple of weeks ago they had a coupon on it also, not sure if you can still make them match it.


From dell it was on sale for $850 back on june 16th, so it may be a little while before it goes on sale again.

check out www.redflagdeals.com for new deals on it..

[schmosef]

Yikes!

My cost price on a 244T is about $1700 CAD.

If I bought that I couldn't afford to keep |mehen| in hamburgers!

Seriously, it's not a $ thing, it's an ROI/depreciation thing. New/cheaper/better tech comes out too quickly for me to justify spending more than $1000 on a monitor ever again.

My first monitor over $1000 (the first monitor I ever owned) was a Samsung 17GLsi. I paid $1500 for it. It had a dead pixel and the focus was never perfect.
My second such monitor was a Sony F500-R. I paid $2400 for it. It had a slight convergence problem in the top left corner and an overall focus/brightness/contrast/saturation problem that Sony refused to fix.
My third such monitor was a Cornerstone p1750. I paid just over $1000. I love it. It's perect. I will miss it when it goes.
My fourth and fifth such monitors were Samsung 191T+'s. I paid about $1200 each. They both had one dead pixel.

Over the years I've had plenty of monitors that I paid less than $1000 for that I was quite happy with. It's only the monitors that I overspent on that I feel I didn't get what I paid for. And I've had especially bad luck with Samsung.

And because those monitors were so expensive I hesitated to replace them when cheaper/better models came available.

I won't go down that road again.

[az]

FWIW, I still use my first Monitor since Feb '97. The Iiyama SyncMaster Pro 17 cost 1500 DM back then (about 780 EUR), still has a sharp picture with vivid colors at 1152x864, after constant daily use and two moves, one of which very rough. Sadly, they dpn't make 'em like that anymore, especially not Iiyama.

[schmosef]

Yeah, I've heard good things about that brand.

It's not widely available here.

[dZeus]

FWIW, I still use my first Monitor since Feb '97. The Iiyama SyncMaster Pro 17 cost 1500 DM back then (about 780 EUR), still has a sharp picture with vivid colors at 1152x864, after constant daily use and two moves, one of which very rough. Sadly, they dpn't make 'em like that anymore, especially not Iiyama.

I can talk about that.. my Vision Master Pro 454 was a POS with massive ghosting which appearantly was a fault in the entire model line. Sold it off because I didn't want to bother about expensive RMA procedures and got TFT instead. Iiyama started selling cheap shit when their brandname had a firmly established association with 'high quality'.

[az]

Yep

[Mehen]

I vote Dell. I know there are probably better ones out there, but the price/performance/size ratios are just too good.

17 $100 hamburgers or 1 LCD... hrm, I would choose the hamburgers. (I'm thinking I might go see a shrink about that though)

[KvHagedorn]

Yikes!

My cost price on a 244T is about $1700 CAD.

If I bought that I couldn't afford to keep |mehen| in hamburgers!

Seriously, it's not a $ thing, it's an ROI/depreciation thing. New/cheaper/better tech comes out too quickly for me to justify spending more than $1000 on a monitor ever again.

Just wait then. And don't readjust downwards what you "think you should have to" spend. Look, better stuff costs more, and too many people set their budgets based upon the cheapest shit available. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. I got this monitor (24" Sony WS CRT) 4-5 years ago, and have been very happy with it since then. I have no reason to change in the forseeable future. It's what I wanted at the time, so I ponied up $1799 USD for it. I DID shop prices and got the best deal I could, but I would not compromise on the item itself. Forget the money, just get the best and prepare to be satisfied for a long time. I can justify this purchase because I spend lots of time using it.. think about it that way.

Now, if you are willing to wait for just a bit longer, there will be 32" LCD monitors with 1080p resolution. Not sure if they would be good as computer displays, but it proves the tech is still improving. Also, prices in large LCDs have not stabilized yet, so if you find one that fits your quality demands, just expect it to go down in price later and don't worry about it, because you will be enjoying it longer as an earlier adopter.