?? re: Gateway LCD display quality

[Dethoff]

My daughter needs a computer/LCD monitor for her cramped desk at college. The school encourages the students to bring Gateways... to ensure support from the college. This does not concern me too much, since I am not far away and have built our last few computers, so I can support her if she gets stuck. I do have an existing home computer which I could give her and just buy a stand alone LCD display.


I went to my local Gateway country store and checked out their 15 and 18 inch LCD displays which were being driven by a Raedon card through a digital connection. The displays looked pretty good when viewed at their native resolutions, but I was a little dissapointed in the overall display quality, especially when viewing moving images .

My daughter occasionaly plays some games and watches some DVD movies, so the LCD's capability of displaying motion is somewhat relavant. I know LCDs are inherently inferior to CRT's in this respect, but I understand some are better than others.

Having no experience with owning LCD displays, I wondered how the Gateway LCD displays compare to other major name brands.

Image quality is of prime importance, price is secondary.


So, for any of you that may have used them....How do the Gateway LCDs stack up against other LCDs?

If I do buy a stand alone LCD, I suspect I would select one of the newer (more $$) models that support both analog and DVI inputs.


Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[chizow]

My brother bought a 15" Samsung lcd b/c he lives in a studio apt in the city, and space is at a premium. He returned it after 2 days and went back to his 19" Gateway trinitron. He said the refresh rates on lcd's are horrible, and thats why they seem to stutter when displaying movement on the screen. Also, you have to view them at almost a direct angle to see it clearly (not sure if same is true for newer, pricier models). I think a few vid card makers have cited that as a reason why they don't put DVI outputs on the their newer cards. Try going to a larger retailer that carries more brands than just their line, and see if the higher priced models look better.

Personally, if I were to go back to college, I'd throw all that money into a nice big CRT (21"+), get a nice tv-out card (AIW Radeon), mate them to a DVD-Rom, Cd-RW and use that as my TV/Entertainment center instead of having a TV and a computer monitor. It sounds like you already have the comp. Get her a nice sound card and speakers, and she can easily make up the room without a need for a stereo and tv. Plus, she'll probably have a nice, speedy t1 line in her dorm room, which makes getting mp3's is that much easier.

Chiz

Edit: Gateway, like most OEM pc makers, use monitors from the brand name makers, and slap their names on them. The specs might be slightly different (lower supported resolution, slightly lower refresh rates etc.) but the guts are from well-known manufacturers.