my screen's dieing.. :(

[killablade]

Right, so my old (it's from somewhere between 2003-2005

) 17 inch screen is dieing on me. Since yesterday it's been giving me random screen flickering and sometimes I get theres a black bar in my screen that I can't get rid of unless I turn my screen off and back on.

So I need a new screen. My budget is €200 and I'm looking for a 24 inch screen since I'm sick and tired of this small screen.

I've been looking at the LG W2453V-PF which is at the top of my budget. It's gotten some very positive reviews. Do you guys reckon it would be one to consider?

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks in advance guys!

 

[alienware]

I have a Hannspree HF237. It's an 23 inch full HDMI. I paid £135 shipped from Kikatek. Can't fault it at all to be honest. Good reviews too.

Picture is vibrant and very clear and the viewing angles are also great. This is down to its excellent contrast ratio.

The only thing I don't like is the fact that its native HDMI. Meaning even with Crossfired Radeon 5770s some games struggle to run well at that resolution. Please keep that in mind, if you don't have a very powerful GPU setup then shoving 1920x1080 around with AA on can prove difficult.

 

[alienware]

By the way. Usually when the screen is flickering it's because the backlight ballast is on its way out. I had a Belinea 15" monitor that was doing just that. Switching it off/on would get it kicking but eventually it died. However, please keep in mind that a fix is dirt cheap. All you need to do is take the monitor apart and see if your backlights are two wired 12v. Measure the power going into the ballast, not coming out. If it is 12v going in (99% possible) then all you need to do is get a cheap cold cathode and mod the ballast it comes with. Job done.

At the time I did not have a solder iron, but I did have a ballast. I'm a bit pissed I threw it out now because the monitor itself was in exceptional condition without a single dead pixel

I used to use it for monitoring temps on the second displayout of my GPU. Drag Afterburner and HWmon to it and then run your games. Gutted I chucked it now, was such a simple fix too

Keep in mind that your monitor probably has two backlights. One at the top of the screen and one at the bottom. You can probably find the original ballast you need too. Sadly Belinea went out of business so I couldn't get a simple swap out part.

 

[killablade]

Thanks AlienALX! I'll definitely keep that in mind!

(+rep for you!)

My 5770 shouldn't have that much of a problem with games at 1920x1080. Not the games I play.

I play stuff like Dirt 2, CoD4, CSS, C&C3:TW, and occasionally BC2. AA will probably be set to 2x, and I don't mind running games at medium instead of high if I have to.

 

[killablade]

Right. I've decided on the LG W2453V-PF. I can get it for €200 inc. shipping.

A friend of mine has it and I must say it's a very good screen for the money. Definitely one of the best 24 inch screens you can get if your budget is around the €200 mark.

Edit: Change of plans! I'm getting the Samsung SyncMaster P2450H instead!

It looks a lot better (imho ofcourse) and it's gotten some positive reviews.

 

[Diablo13]

Right. I've decided on the LG W2453V-PF. I can get it for €200 inc. shipping.

A friend of mine has it and I must say it's a very good screen for the money. Definitely one of the best 24 inch screens you can get if your budget is around the €200 mark.

Edit: Change of plans! I'm getting the Samsung SyncMaster P2450H instead!

It looks a lot better (imho ofcourse) and it's gotten some positive reviews.

I currently have a HannsG 28" monitor. It has a good bright screen, with HDMI and a resolution of 1920x1200. It also has a 3 year warrenty.

For it's price there was nothing to touch it and it has gone down a bit. It can now be had for £250 from Amazon.

NOW, just after 2 years it keeps randomly going to a black screen! There is no particular program that causes this, it can happen when gaming or reading emails. I have NEVER had a monitor, TFT OR CRT which has failed like this before!

I have yet to test HannsG's warranty, but I have heard net rumours that they make excuses not to cover it? That stinks to me but we will see!

I have also been looking at what I would replace it with, but up to date reviews of monitors are a bit few and far between? I notice that the modern trend is for larger screens 26" and above to boast 1080P screens, ie 1920x1080. Why is this a good thing, I would have thought 1920x1200 would be much better?

Aren't manufacturers just dumping surplus tv screens into monitors?

If a 1080P monitor is the same as a tv screen, wouldn't we be better off just buying a 1080P tv to use as a monitor, with the tuner, better speakers and multiple connections being an added bonus, for about the same price?

Like you Complex, I would love to see some tests and recomendations for modern TFT's. The Dell and NEC screens are supposed to be very good, but at £900 upwards for a monitor are well out of my price bracket!

I would also be pleased to hear anyones reccomendations on their larger screens, or could someone post a link or tell me where I could read good up to date TFT reviews?

Google has failed miserably on this one, pointing me at reviews from 2007!