LCD Monitor 4 Gaming....Help??

[TechnoWolf]

I've posted this in other tech forums out there (other sites), and what happens is that everyone responding gets into wildly technical debates and cannot give a conclusive answer, and veers wildly off-topic. I figured, why not ask the tightest, most level-headed, smartest community I can think of? Duh, DCemulation!!! Here it goes:

I need some advice relating to this particular Dell monitor:
UltraSharp 2007FP 20-inch Flat Panel (4:3) LCD with a 16MS response time. Linked below:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... u=320-4687

I am considering upgrading from my current Dell E176FP, which is a 17" (4:3) LCD with a 12MS response time. Linked below:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/m ... /about.htm

I want to go as big as I can get with a 4:3 LCD, which apparently is 20", and I've heard that the 2007FP is still among the best overall for the $ out there period.
It bothers me that I'll be losing display speed, but apparently there's no way around it when going to a bigger display?
I'm concerned that....yeah the screen will seem huge in comparison and that's all great, but will I notice the ghosting since I'm so used to staring at this 12MS 17" for so long? (I'm a big gamer, LONG LIVE DREAMCAST, BTW...and can't bring myself to get a widescreen and deal with stretched or hard to configure images on older games such as Diablo 2 which max out at 800x600. I've read that this looks absolutely horrible in stretched widescreen. Other gamers who play Diablo 2 or similar limited res games on larger widescreen, please comment on this sub-question, by the way.
Now.......Note that I'm currently running just the integrated video card of like....64mb? I intend to get a GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB PCI express card to drive everything, so will this combined with the Ultra Sharp technology yield equal or better than I'm used to now with my 17" 12ms??
Any thoughts or suggestions anyone?

[melancholy]

Wow, that is expensive! You can get a 20.1" Westinghouse from Newegg with a 5ms response time and brighter contrast ratio for less than half of what that Dell costs. It would eliminate all of your problems with response time worries, it isn't widescreen which would eliminate all your stretching problems, and it would give you an extra $200+ to get a great video card to run it.

[JellyWarrior]

With gaming, it's a tough thing to shop for because you want:
1) Good response time, target should be 8ms (16ms is ok but 8 or lower is better)
2) High contrast ratio, 500:1 or better, ideally 800:1 or higher
3) Decent brightness, 300cd/m2 or better

Because you have high requirements you will have to pay a higher price, otherwise you will have to compromise on features. Luckily these days even well featured LCD's are cheap, and usually only professional LCD's with ultra high colour accuracy are expensive.

I have heard of 24" 4:3 LCD's but don't ask me where I saw it because I can't remember.

Seriously consider waiting a little while, because shortly they're going to be releasing LCD's with LED back lighting. The advantage to LED back lighting over the current fluorescent back lighting is that they will have an even uniform light across the screen, they'll have great contrast ratios and also excellent pixel response times. I also believe that you won't have to pay a huge price premium for it either.

If you insist on buying one now then beware the "dynamic contrast ratio", companies such as Samsung (and others) will claim that their LCD's have a 10 000:1 contrast ratio, they only achieve this by dimming and brightening the screen back light, it's an annoying feature which you will almost instantly turn off. When you turn it off your wonderful 10 000:1 screen might become a 450:1 screen.

The one exception to this is LED backlit screens, they do have genuine contrast ratios which are outrageously high.

My favourite LCD manufacturers are Samsung, Phillips, Sony, BenQ, ASUS, and Dell.

[pavelbure]

too bad you werent looking a few weeks ago. i made a post about bestbuy having westinghouse monitors for sell very very cheap. i got a 19"ws for 129. i think they had a 20" 4:3 for 159 at the time also.

[TechnoWolf]

appreciate all your suggestions!
I'll probably go with your suggestion for NewEgg, Melancholy.
That would make sense, I suppose you're paying for the name "Dell" right??