Flat panel display for Xmas

[doug]

Starting to think about my pressy to me from me and the family. Am thinking of a budget of ~£200. Looking for a large display. Don't play games that much but would be nice. G'daughter plays games when she's staying over. Thought about the Samsung Synchmaster 913N (PCWorld were showing it for £199.9). Just saw a review that said it doesn't have a DVI socket. My graphics card is a PNY Geforce4 Ti 4200 but only 64 MB at present. Any suggestions or questions I should think about? Be grateful for replies.

[trackrat]

It looks a good monitor and with a 8ms response time it will have no trouble playing games.

I have a spare dvi vga adapter if you need one.

[djohn]

Have a read up here TFT Test doug on the model your thinking of. Reviews are not too good except for fast moving games. [Dedicated gamers tend to sit in one position and not move their head much] Viewing angles are very poor. If you move your head too much to the right/left or up/down then the display will fade, its meant for front on viewing only. The panel is a 6 bit TN one, [16.2 million colours] good for fast moving games but surprisingly not for watching DVD movies. Although it says it has viewing angles of 160 degrees this is taken at 5% and not the usual 10% reading, so its more likely to be around the 130 to 140 degree viewing angle.

For a good all round TFT you need to look for a PVA 8 bit - 16.7 million true colour panel, much wider viewing angles and some of the latest have angles of 170 degrees or higher, almost as good as a CRT type. Have a look at this site for a good range of 19" TFT's 19" TFT panels and here for reviews on them. TFT Reviews

[korgg]

You might take a look at Anandtech for some tests for LCD monitors ... And also take in consideration djohn's advice ...

[doug]

Thanks for the responses so far chaps. I'll follow those up. It's so good to get advice to make me feel more comfortable about such a large purchase.

[-pops-]

I just can't get along with TFT screens. Something about them that I dislike but I can't define what it is.

My son is the same, as are some of his artists but others would not consider anything else.

If you're not used to flat screen, doug, can I suggest that you spend some time with one before committing yourself to buy. A visit to your local computer supermarket, or even small dealer, will offer that opportunity.

[r4may]

I use a Samsung SycMaster 710V (17") which does me fine and give a very good resolution picture. It came with DVI adapter. I do'nt play many games but my son says it is marvellous.

[doug]

Am following up the suggestions. pops, although I have a reasonable 17" CRT monitor, the reason for changing is because where I'm located I suffer with reflections.The desk I use is right next to a large window, which faces due south. At the other end of the room is another very large window facing north. Built onto the northern end is a large conservatory so I not only get the light from the south but also from the north. At times I cannot pick out what's on the screen. This year we treated ourselves to a TFT TV to replace the old CRT TV. I had been browsing in our local Co-op and noticed a mixture of the 2 types on a high shelf. All the TFT units were giving quite reasonable images while the CRT units were swamped by the reflections of the buildings on the opposite side of the street. So we bought a TFT unit (on-line) and the clarity of the pictures was dramatic - virtually no signs of the reflections that we had suffered for many years. Hence the decision to replace the PC monitor.

Since the wife now does the bulk of here Tesco shopping on-line she's all in favour of the upgrade.