[FINISHED] My first LCD for gaming and image editing

[MiSP]

I'm considering upgrading from my 21'' CRT to an LCD. It will be used for both gaming and graphics editing. I'm looking for opinions on which monitor to buy, as well as gaming experiences on the two monitors listed below. Here's the limitations:

[*]Resolution: 1680x1050. Don't want less, and more will make my gaming rig struggle with the newest games out there.
[*]Size: 22''. Larger and the resolution goes up, smaller and the screen will actually be smaller than the one I have now.
[*]Response time: Low enough for more-than-occasional gaming. I'm not a "pro gamer", but I play a lot of action and FPS games.
[*]Input lag: Unsure about this one - I don't know how much I would notice, neither whether I could get used to it and not notice it in the end.
[*]Color reproduction: Good. I'm a hobby photographer, and while I don't have professional needs, I need at least somewhat correct colors. Good colors out of the box is a plus, but I am able to rent a colorimeter for cheap to calibrate my screen, so it's not vital.
[*]Viewing angle, backlight uniformity, backlight bleed: Perhaps they aren't the most important ones for picture quality itself, but I think "errors" here would be a great source of irritation in the long run, so they are important to me.

I do hope there's some monitors out there that meets my needs to a certain extent (the resolution is perhaps the only thing I want exactly as stated here; everything else becomes a compromise between quality and speed - I could even go for less than 22'' if there's a 21'' or 20'' that's otherwise perfect).

I've looked at two monitors which both excel in image quality - the HP LP2275w and the Eizo FlexScan S2231WSE. Any experience on gaming with these (including input lag) would be greatly appreciated.

Price is secondary at this stage, but below 600 USD would be great (I think - I'm in Norway, and prices don't convert directly; there's a lot of additional costs of import and such). Not that I've seen 22'' selling for much more than that anyway.

Thanks in advance for all answers, I'm not able to do this without some forum help!

 

[Brutus04]

MiSP,
For well under $600 you can have a NICE LCD. I prefer Samsung...here is a link:


Samsung at Newegg

All the best!

 

[BlueAcolyte]

He says he's from Norway... Do you know of any online retailers in Norway (or close countries, Sweden, Germany, etc.)

 

[severus]

OP, in all honesty and I don't want to discourage you, I upgraded to a 19" LCD from a 19" CRT and I regret it. I game pretty heavy and I notice the skipping even on this 2ms LCD, I'm seriously considereing switching back to the CRT on my main computer even though the highest res it supports is 1280X1024. I'd go to a local store an check out the LCD's there before you buy.

 

[MiSP]

Originally posted by: Brutus04
MiSP,
For well under $600 you can have a NICE LCD. I prefer Samsung...here is a link:


Samsung at Newegg

Thanks! I googled it, and I only found reviews saying "great design, mediocre feature set", and that isn't too appealing...

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
He says he's from Norway... Do you know of any online retailers in Norway (or close countries, Sweden, Germany, etc.)

I'll take care of that, you just give advice on which monitors to buy.

Originally posted by: severus
OP, in all honesty and I don't want to discourage you, I upgraded to a 19" LCD from a 19" CRT and I regret it. I game pretty heavy and I notice the skipping even on this 2ms LCD, I'm seriously considereing switching back to the CRT on my main computer even though the highest res it supports is 1280X1024. I'd go to a local store an check out the LCD's there before you buy.

Problem is, the shops rarely have exactly the monitors I want ready for testing. However, in Norway, we have this law saying that whenever you buy something not in the store (e.g. over internet, phone, etc.), then you may, within 14 days, return it and get a full refund. Maybe I'll just buy the three monitors that seems most promising, and return two of them (or all three if I'm not happy with any of them).

Care to tell me which LCD monitor you have?

 

[MarcVenice]

Image editing = s-ips panel or a m-pva, you don't want a tft-panel. Here's a decent monitor for it's price: HP LP2475w. It still needs to be calibrated to give good colour accuracy though, but it also has fast response-times for a non tft-panel.

I think the 22" HP LP2275W doesn't have an IPS-panel btw.

 

[MiSP]

I stumbled upon another monitor - the NEC LCD20WGX2. With an S-IPS panel the viewing angles are good, color reproduction is good (at least when calibrated), and the response time is on par with 2ms TN panels. Bad thing is, it's only 20''. Opinions on/experiences with this?

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Image editing = s-ips panel or a m-pva, you don't want a tft-panel. Here's a decent monitor for it's price: HP LP2475w. It still needs to be calibrated to give good colour accuracy though, but it also has fast response-times for a non tft-panel.

I think the 22" HP LP2275W doesn't have an IPS-panel btw.

Thanks for the tip. I suppose when you say TFT panel, you mean TN panel. (TFT is the common denominator of almost all LCD monitors.) I'll read some reviews of the LP2475w. The 2275 (as well as the Eizo I mentioned) has S-PVA panels.

 

[severus]

I personally have a 19" LG Flatron W1952TQ. I'm not a big fan of it. It's great for movies, but if you're a heavy gamer I'd stick CRT.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Honestly, if your CRT isn't giving you problems then keep it. If CRT's were still made or I had one bigger than 17" I'd buy/use it. LCD's just aren't good for motion, they are great for text though and are very sharp with a DVI connection. Hopefully, SED will finally come out.

 

[Winterpool]

MiSP, you may want to wait for the Dell 2209WA. If CNET Australia are correct, and other regions' models match the Australian specs (IPS panel!), then it may prove the best-value monitor Dell has provided since the old Dell 2005FPW. $300 in the US (Dell Small Business).

 

[MiSP]

Originally posted by: severus
I personally have a 19" LG Flatron W1952TQ. I'm not a big fan of it. It's great for movies, but if you're a heavy gamer I'd stick CRT.

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
Honestly, if your CRT isn't giving you problems then keep it. If CRT's were still made or I had one bigger than 17" I'd buy/use it. LCD's just aren't good for motion, they are great for text though and are very sharp with a DVI connection. Hopefully, SED will finally come out.

I wouldn't be in this mess if CRT wasn't a problem for me. It's just to bulky, meaning I can't get it crammed further back in the corner, and I've realised lately that I'm sitting way to close to it (with no possibility of sitting further away).

Originally posted by: Winterpool
MiSP, you may want to wait for the Dell 2209WA. If CNET Australia are correct, and other regions' models match the Australian specs (IPS panel!), then it may prove the best-value monitor Dell has provided since the old Dell 2005FPW. $300 in the US (Dell Small Business).

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep an eye on it. Do you know when it's available? Or when more reviews will be published?

 

[MiSP]

I ordered the HP LP2475w. Will get back later with thoughts, feelings and perhaps some measured results. Thanks for the help!

 

[BassBomb]

20WGX2 is a god if you could actually find one.

 

[Leyawiin]

Buy from a retailer you can easily return it to, take it home and give it a try. I learned from experience last summer than even highly rated models can have their problems and can vary from one individual panel to another within that model. I had a bad run of luck and took back a half dozen from Samsung, HP and ASUS with problems ranging from stuck or dead pixels, static and interference on the screen, pixel "crawl", very bad backlight bleeding and input lag. Cheap TN panel LCDs are a hit and miss proposition - you just have to do a little homework and don't be embarrassed to keep returning them until you get a good one. Personally, I think manufacturers of them should be ashamed at the quality control, or lack of it (and they are all guilty).

I finally got a good HP w2207h, but thats not to say the one you might buy will be good (considering the shopping experience I had).

BTW, one of the models I tried was the HP LP2275w (just because it wasn't a TN panel). It had horrible color that defied calibration and had bands of horizontal red "static" running arcross the screen when I first turned it on. I Googled the model and found a number of people had this issue.

 

[MiSP]

It's been some time now, but here's my mini-review:

Gaming: Fulfils all my needs here. Some slight RTC overshoot sometimes, but this happens rarely and is barely noticeable.

Input lag: Not noticeable. I noticed it when running my old CRT along with it, but during normal use, I don't experience any lag.

Image quality: Out of the box, quite horrible. Everything's way too red. A colorimeter is a must here. Make sure it supports wide gamut screens! I bought an Eye-One Display 2, very happy with it. Calibrated, it's almost perfect (deltaE<1 for all colours). However, due to the screen being wide-gamut, everything that's not colour managed (including icons, buttons and almost all user interfaces) appear more red. (You get used to this, however.) Prepare to spend some time reading about colour managing. However, once it's calibrated and everything's set up, it's a delight to work with.

Other: It's got all the inputs and cables you'd want, including DisplayPort. However, when turning the screen on, it takes 15 seconds for it to pick up the signal (it actually goes briefly into sleep mode during this time). Quite annoying.

Bottom line: If you require good colors and responsiveness and little lag, this screen might be for you. However, prepare to spend time and money on colorimeteres and reading about colour managing. I really can't wholeheartedly recommend this to everyone (especially not as a first LCD screen), but I'm very happy with it myself.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: MiSP
I stumbled upon another monitor - the NEC LCD20WGX2. With an S-IPS panel the viewing angles are good, color reproduction is good (at least when calibrated), and the response time is on par with 2ms TN panels. Bad thing is, it's only 20''. Opinions on/experiences with this?

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Image editing = s-ips panel or a m-pva, you don't want a tft-panel. Here's a decent monitor for it's price: HP LP2475w. It still needs to be calibrated to give good colour accuracy though, but it also has fast response-times for a non tft-panel.

I think the 22" HP LP2275W doesn't have an IPS-panel btw.

Thanks for the tip. I suppose when you say TFT panel, you mean TN panel. (TFT is the common denominator of almost all LCD monitors.) I'll read some reviews of the LP2475w. The 2275 (as well as the Eizo I mentioned) has S-PVA panels.

The NEC is an absolutely amazing monitor - easily the best LCD available in your price range. I guarantee that it will blow any other monitor you look at out of the water, including other IPS's.

 

[MiSP]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
The NEC is an absolutely amazing monitor - easily the best LCD available in your price range. I guarantee that it will blow any other monitor you look at out of the water, including other IPS's.

If you see the post right above, I've already bought and reviewed (and used for some months) the HP LP2475w. I'm happy with it, absolutely. Also, the NEC is a little to small.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I love CRT's and all, since i use a nice one on my works CCTV setup, but LCD's don't degrade like CRT's do. The Sony Trinitron i have in my basement used to be an INCREDIBLE monitor, now the colors are all washed out beyond belief and it flickers like no other. The Trinitron i had for my works CCTV setup was beginning to do the same thing so it was replaced.

No LCD (even my 10 year old 15" Princeton) has these issues.

 

[btcomm1]

If you are still looking there is a pretty new montitor that has come out that is awesome LCD for gaming. It will avoid the issues that severus is having. It is not about MS response, it is about hz and this monitor has it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...1&ref=dynamitedata.com

120 HZ, which means you aren't going to get the skipping you would get on a normal LCD.

Did I mention that it's 22" and 1680x1050 just like you wanted?

 

[PurdueRy]

I would take a look at the NEC P221W-BK, I own one and love it. I have always been very satisfied with NEC quality.

EDIT: I see I am late to the party

 

[shangshang]

the HP LP2475w is a NICE all-around monitor! You made a great choice! so what if it got more lag than a 100 lbs CRT that emits more heat than the sun.... if you don't game for a living, you should give a crap about the input lag on the HP. I get a little giggle every time I see a claim like "I'm a hardcore gamer and CRT is a must". Boy these guys must still live in mommy's basement or something.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
20WGX2 is a god if you could actually find one.

Personally I think the NEC MultiSync 24WMGX³ is probably the best allround gaming LCD monitor,fast,nice viewing angles,nice colours etc and 24" .

The NEC 24WMGX³ performs well to very well in the "stopwatch test" against a CRT model, whereby it is necessary to differentiate between the various adjustment modes; Through mode did not have any effect on the input lag in our test.

We could not perceive any corona effect (white halo around a moving object, especially at a high contrast between the foreground and background) in any mode.

.