Decent midrange 17" LCD for Gaming and general apps.

[Concillian]

Alright, one of the things on my girlfriend's list for birthday / christmas is a 17" LCD monitor to replace her 10 year old 15" CRT.

I'm probably going to get this for her despite it being the most expensive on her list (though not by much) for a few reasons, but one of the most important being that when we get married, it will eventually become the monitor for my secondary PC (which is currently an old 17" CRT that sometimes turns itself off), as that PC will become hers to replace her old FC-PGA Celeron/SDRAM machine.

So I'd like it to be decent for gaming, but not necessarily the captain-insano best EVAR gaming monitor.

I've been looking at things in the $300-500 range, with an obvious preference towards the lower end of that range. My real target is $400-ish, but I know the importance of a good monitor, and can move up if needed.

In that range I'm finding:
Samsung 172X (top of range)
Samsung 710N
Dell FP1703 (can be had on major sale if I wait long enough, I've seen it as cheap as $350)
Viewsonic VP171s

Has anyone used these with a FAST FPS game like UT2004? Something that would really test out the ghosting. Something with mild ghosting I could live with, since this wouldn't be on my main gaming rig, but I don't want to end up with a monitor in my house that is totally unusable for gaming.

Any other suggestions.
DVI is a plus, but I figure it's not totally necessary.
I'm mainly posting this because I know that LCD ratings for response times are largely unusable information, and looking for subjective opinions. If there were a place I could go and play UT2004 on 5 or 10 different LCDs I would, but you can't tell much from floor models running barebones windows.

 

[Elcs]

Well, I love my LG1710B. Its the best LCD Ive used but that doesnt say much... Ive only used about 3 in total. DVI and VGA, 16ms response time (although that doesnt say that much anymore). I think its around $350. It was ~£250 over here when I got mine.

I havent pushed it with games like UT2k4 yet and Ive had it for a few months. There just hasnt been an FPS Ive been interested in recently. Farcry/Doom3 just didnt grab my attention as being a game to play.

If I can wangle the time, I'll dig out UT2k4 and have a little test for you.

 

[jiffylube1024]

If you're looking at the 172X then definately check out the 710T - same screen with a different base for cheaper; still 12ms, TN+film, DVI and VGA and great scaling at lower resolutions.

If you want to save a few bucks, the 710N is the same thing as the 710T minus DVI.

 

[imported_Harbinger]

i have LG1720B , nice monitor, nothing to complain about and no visible ghosting at all (i dont really think 12vs16ms matters anyway ...)

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
If you're looking at the 172X then definately check out the 710T - same screen with a different base for cheaper; still 12ms, TN+film, DVI and VGA and great scaling at lower resolutions.

If you want to save a few bucks, the 710N is the same thing as the 710T minus DVI.

Yeah, I actually had the 710N in my list, but I got the numbers reversed and called it the 170N
I'm not sure that DVI is worth what they're asking for it. If I do I'd go all the way for the 172x with all the 'style' features as well.

I didn't know that tehy were the same screen as the 172x that certainly brings the 710s into strong consideration.

 

[Aso]

I purchased a Dell 1703FP for 350 this last week and I havent seen any ghosting in UT2k4 or Far Cry. I am really tempted to purchase another one to run dually.

 

[McArra]

Benq 767-12 is great option.