I have a CRT monitor that is on its last leg. I really haven't dealt much with LCD screens and so I don't have a lot of screen time with them. I will buy a quality monitor but probably not the most expensive thing I can get. I am in the U.S. and will be getting a ~ 22" to 24". I could go up a little or down a little. I am not sold on a particular monitor. I have a fairly decent setup so I am not concerned with my GPU.

Any advice on a good monitor would be appriciated.

Also, besides native resolutions, what specifications should I be most concerned with?

Thanks

Cat

Some basic things other than supported resolution/pixel pitch:

Response time: lower is better.
Max contrast: higher is better.

In addition to the specifications. One of the best things you can do is go check out the monitors in person at maybe a local retailer.

Specs only mean so much, since picture quality and coloring is a very subjective thing.

If I were you I would consider a HD TV as well. The prices are pretty resonable for the screen size/resolution.

I have had good luck with Samsung monitors - they are really high quality. Great for gaming. I have 2 22" monitors now - both Samsung

Sam's club is selling a Samsung 26" 1080P LCD HDTV for $500. I don't think you can top that. In store only.

One of the most overlooked specs is the horizontal and vertical viewing angle. Cheaper monitors wil have something like 160/160 degrees. A good unit wil have 178/178. What this means to you is that you do not have to keep your head as much centered on the display to avoid a washed out screen.

I think larger is better for games. look for 1920x1200.

I think Samsung makes panels for many vendors. I would look at them first, on the theory that they keep the best panels for themselves.

I had a 22" apple lcd for a few years and loved it. Then I bought a new 24" samsung 2493hm. The only thing I will say is Wow. The difference between them is very apparent. The samsung is much brighter and much clearer. The colors are very nice and the 10000:1 contrast ratio is great. I play my games at 1900x1200 which is the max resolution with three 9800gtx's in triple sli and no matter what the display is always perfect. I would recommend this monitor to anyone looking for a great quality monitor at a good price. I paid $399 for mine.

Faster the refresh rate the better. For instance 2ms. This referes to how long it takes to refresh the horizontal lines on the screen.
Like it has been said the higher contrast ratio the better.
More Hz the better.
Look for a unit that has HDMI. If it does not have HDMI it is old stock. Besides you want HDMI, it is a better interface than VGA, DVI and RGBy.
If you are looking at the new HD TV's look for 120mhz, $$$
1080i is interleaved. (only reads every other line at any given time usually as a result of converting analog to digital or vice versa)
1080p is progressive. (Reads every line every time. True Digital HD)
VGA always analog
HDMI, DVI digital but not necessarly all the time it depends on your equipment, converters, video card, tuner card.
22" monitor @ 5ms refresh @ $200.00 and the price goes up from there.

cool. Thank you all for your responses. Sounds to me like a lot of you have had good luck with Sammsung. I will definately look at them for my purchase. Any thoughts on Asus or Viewsonic. I have had good luck with Viewsonic CRD's in the past and Asus has a good warranty for thier displays.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] =W2452T-TF Any thoughts on this one. It looks good from the comments. I'll go to Best Buy to look at the thing in person.