[LiveBrianD]

I dunno, maybe it's time for me to get glasses? I find that 1366x768 for a 13.3-14.1" screen is just about right btw.

So what do you think of the asus I mentioned above? http://forums.pcworl...post__p__552583
It has pretty good reviews on newegg.

[compnovo]

Hey LiveB,
I know you're looking for an LED monitor but if that's too much for your budget the one I got for my son is back in stock at Newegg...
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824009266

[LiveBrianD]

The thing is, I find LED looks better, plus there isn't mercury and stuff in it, so I think I'm going to wait on this a bit. Thanks for the suggestion!

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 28 November 2011 - 04:35 PM, said:

The thing is, I find LED looks better, plus there isn't mercury and stuff in it, so I think I'm going to wait on this a bit. Thanks for the suggestion!

There is mercury in damn near everything. Add to it, that the amount of mercury in a monitor is negligible - and we are back to one of those 'issues' that have been completely blown out of proportion. As for what looks better - that all depends on the monitor. LED lighting also throws off the color balance, and never allows for accurate reds - unless you have an expensive RGB LED display.

[LiveBrianD]

Sure, I'll admit that all the light bulbs in my house are CFLs. However, the thing is, I find LED ones look a bit better - after looking at my laptop's LED screen, the desktop looks a bit too yellowish. I prefer the brighter whites in general. (btw in the ATI settings, I set the laptop to 6500K, the default, and the desktop's monitor's 6500K preset is a bit off so I had to manually tweak it) Besides, power savings, longer lifespan, and the price is nearly on a par with ccfl, so I figure why not get an LED one?

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 29 November 2011 - 05:01 PM, said:

Sure, I'll admit that all the light bulbs in my house are CFLs. However, the thing is, I find LED ones look a bit better - after looking at my laptop's LED screen, the desktop looks a bit too yellowish. I prefer the brighter whites in general. (btw in the ATI settings, I set the laptop to 6500K, the default, and the desktop's monitor's 6500K preset is a bit off so I had to manually tweak it) Besides, power savings, longer lifespan, and the price is nearly on a par with ccfl, so I figure why not get an LED one?

Longer life span? I never had an LCD panel die due to backlighting... so I am not sure that is an issue either. As for color, again, quality of the panel makes up about 99% of the perceived difference. Both my Samsung and the Acer use the same lighting type, but there is a clear difference in white quality. Of course, there is a clear difference in overall quality as well.

[LiveBrianD]

Well, since the sony is 7 years old, if used for 6 hours a day (most likely less, though it has been used by other family members from working at home before), it has 15330hours on it, and they estimate 25000 for CFL, so I'm sure this has a good deal of life left in it. On the other hand, I have an old Dell display that is a bit dim, even at max brightness and near max contrast settings. It's certainly usable, but noticeable at times. I don't know what it's previous usage was like because I picked it up from a recycling center a few years ago (seriously!). I imagine it might be from 2001 or 2002 (it's kinda fat, clearly one of dell's earlier models), though I didn't look up the model number. The Sony on the other hand hasn't noticeably dimmed at all, and at backlight:90 and brightness:90 and contrast:70 it's nice and bright. However, I just checked and the 6500K preset looks all brown and redish, and the 9300K one is the same. I really don't know why, do colors drift that much?

I've heard the contrast of LED screens is better. The thing is, remember it uses a bit less energy (though all the new ones are repetitively efficient compared to the sony, rated for 60W max and I measured 45W; even the CCFL 24" ones are only rated for 30-35W, LEDs maybe 25-30W).

But again, I prefer the color of LED stuff, from my experience with it (and on my laptop's screen). I don't particularly like what's considered "accurate" color, I tried using a calibrator my dad has, and found that even at the 7500K setting it's too brown. Meanwhile, most screens by default, like the ones at school (which are set to the 6500K preset), look just about right that way.

[LiveBrianD]

Come to think of it, what do you think of this? http://accessories.u...aynote_irrank=0 24" Dell, LED, $210. Or should I go with the asus ones I mentioned? Granted, my grandfather had a bad experience with his dell PC before, plus a few years later the monitor started developing horizontal lines and he replaced it.

[LiveBrianD]

The ASUS VS248-P looks like the best one I've found so far, since there's a slightly cheaper asus that seems to have a tiny bit of ghosting (not sure that it's a huge issue; on a black screen like before the login screen loads I notice a bit of ghosting with the cursor), and with this at least it can be permanently disabled and such. I am a little worried about the stand - it looks like an awfully thin pole holding it up. However, the reviewers don't mention this, so I guess it's not an issue. By default, it seems it's calibrated to 6650K and gamma 1.9, not bad compared with the usual 6500K gamma 2.2. My samsung 914v is more like 7500K or colder, not 9300K but still annoying, and the gamma is off (3 presets, even the best one is still a bit off).

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 08 December 2011 - 09:32 PM

[LiveBrianD]

Well, I just got an acer S231HL since frys had it on sale for $130. It's amazing how much thinner and lighter these LED ones are compared to my older CCFL ones! It's just a matter of calibrating it from here.

[LiveBrianD]

As it turns out, I didn't need to do much; just messed with the settings a little. I'm getting a pretty good fps at full 1920x1080 resolution, with high (not maximum) detail. That 550ti is definitely fairly powerful.