LCD: Digital or VGA port

[Bonesdad]

Is there an advantage to hooking my LCD monitor to the digital port vs the VGA port? I am building a PC for a college bound student who is NOT a gamer, but will be using it to watch DVDs and do some video work. I recommended the NEC 1760NX. We were going to use onboard video (I know, I know, but she is a NON gamer). But since the IGP is not digital, is she gonna have crap output or will it be nice and clear? How much difference is there between using the digital port vs the VGA port for surfing, Word and DVD watching?

 

[onza]

dvi = clarity and lessens ghosting... so if it comes with it use it..

if it doesnt find ones with good reviews on just analog.. cause i know some lcd's work fine w/o the dvi, but like i said try to get one with both

onza

 

[egale]

I think the monitor will more than certainly be usable but you will see a difference if you hook it up with dvi.

 

[AllDressedUp]

If you want to stay with VGA, you may want to look at some of recent Sharp LCDs. I don't know how they stack up in other respects, but the clarity of VGA on some of their panels seemed unusually good, at least to my eye.

If you can manage DVI though, it is the way to go IMO. Not just in terms of clarity either. In some monitors, pixel response/ghosting (as onza mentioned) seems to improve a bit with DVI as well, according to reviews I've read.

I have a Samsung with both VGA and DVI input, and there is a very noticeable difference in quality. The digital RGB of the DVI input is not subject to any of the degradation in signal quality of the analog VGA. The Sharp VGAs were about the best exception to this I've run across so far, in terms of consumer displays anyway. I haven't compared them to the NEC1760V/NX or Dell 1800FP though, which seem to be two of the more popular models here.