Just had a broad hint from eldest son on a birthday present . His present LCD(?) monitor shows signs ( from his description ) of bleeding at the edges . As he's into gaming after work, and uses his PC for working from home, I'd suspect he's like a large widescreen one .Problem is that what I consider as "GOOD NAMES" ,e.g HP etc, are on the high price side. And then , my last monitor was a 1907HP, which lasted about three years before the video signal senser on the input decided that it didn't want to recognise a signal and shut down .

Any suggestion as for quality vs price. Just been through similar scenario with washer and professional opinion suggests that in washer/dryers you get the quality that you pay for. Not what I've found with monitors. His one was second hand and is almost an OAP.

I always thought CRTs generated a faster smoother image than LCDs when it came to gaming. Either way you will need to look at the specs of the units to determine which is a good one for gaming. You will I I guess ideally need a unit with a now refresh time, and also a good brightness rating, but I am not a game player.

A cheap Dell badged monitor might be fine for windows/general use, but rubbish for games (too blurry and slow to update/trails), while a slight more expensive no name monitor might be far superior. Research is the key here I think - once you have determined the required screen size.

I would tend to avoid extras, like built in speakers, as they are bound to sound rubbish in comparison to some proper speakers on his desk - which I guess your son has if he is already into his games.

Not sure what your budget is but IPS monitors are the best if you are looking for picture quality. There are some great ones on offer at Amazon at the moment:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LNDPPS/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-Ultrasharp-U2312HM-inch-Monitor/dp/B005MHMFJA/ref=pd_cp_computers_0

I always thought CRTs generated a faster smoother image than LCDs when it came to gaming. Either way you will need to look at the specs of the units to determine which is a good one for gaming. You will I I guess ideally need a unit with a now refresh time, and also a good brightness rating, but I am not a game player.

I would tend to avoid extras, like built in speakers, as they are bound to sound rubbish in comparison to some proper speakers on his desk - which I guess your son has if he is already into his games.

He's got a decent 5.1 sound system . Have gone for a 24" Azus (1920x1080 Resolution, 10000000:1 Contrast Ratio, 300cd/m² Brightness, 2ms Response Time, 1x HDMI, 1x DVI-D, 1x D-Sub, 3 Year On-Site Warranty, AND FREE DELIVERY) .Bonus is that it's got a three year on site warranty. Not something he's worry about, as he can get decent cover at half what folks ( not me as I'm family) pay ,through work . Bit peeved ,as in the days when Tesco were into monitors, I could have gotten same monitor for £50 less .

You want to get a screen with a low response time, so sub 5ms is a minimum.

Dell Ultrasharp's are among the best.

I have always liked viewsonic. Currently I am runnng twin 24" asus which are good and came at an excellent price from Dabs.

As said above response time is really important for gaming.

I have always liked viewsonic. Currently I am runnng twin 24" asus which are good and came at an excellent price from Dabs.

As said above response time is really important for gaming.

SO -2ms will be ok? And with the specs as above ?

Monitors ain't the sort of thing I get into the techie side of .My first LCD one was an HP19" , which decided to pack up after three years .As opposed to the Sony monitor my son gave me. It was battered, bruised and had several sections of the power supply and crt socket board resoldered as the solder had cracked. But it only died when someone dropped a a box on the neck of the tube .My present one is a £12 second hand one from cash convertors. It's not even widescreen, but it ticks the boxes for me . The Asus I've got him is the VE247H model .Hopefully he'll be moderately pleased .

Not too worried about the price,as he's on line ,at work for eight hours per day ,and has just start to need glasses.So if it lowers the pressure on his eyes, then I'm happy to spend a bit of cash,that he can't really afford . This way he might be able to get some warranty on it after the three years of Asus backup.

I have always liked viewsonic. Currently I am runnng twin 24" asus which are good and came at an excellent price from Dabs.

As said above response time is really important for gaming.

My choice ,based on opinios on here was an Asus 24" ASUS VE247H, response time 2ms . He got it today - and as a techie bloke was delighted .

One other thing I looked at ,was the fact that he is on line for a lot of hours, some at work, some after work, and his eyesight has suffered with older CRT monitors. So ,as he said, for work ,bigger is better, then perhaps his eyesight won't degrade ,and with the response time. he'll find gaming easier.

So thanks to all who inputted - he's over the moon with his birthday present. And I'm chuffed to help him . After all ,I'm gettin on in years ,and he might be choosing my care home

With CRTs you had to pay massive money to get a good one - one that would display a high resolution with a high refresh rate.

With CRTs you had to pay massive money to get a good one - one that would display a high resolution with a high refresh rate.

On that score .I'd like to know how much the one he gave me cost. It was a SONY multiscan, with a high rate refresh rate and high resolution .He bought it from a mate ,and stopped using it when it gave problems.He's had enough and got himself a LCD flat screen I had a look and it turned out to be cracked solder on the rectifier diodes. We never figured out how old it was, but it started to give problems again, this time with colour. I took back off and traced the problems to the PCB on the tube, but no sign of O/C or bad soldering, but a tap on the board suggested it was this problem . In the end missus persuaded me to get a HP 19" flat screen, and CRT was put in spare room . We never found out what happened, but one day we found that something had cracked the end of the unprotected tube. And then I saw the problem - dry joint resistors. But by that time ,it was too late. Tube was FUBAR.My flat screen HP lasted three years . I've now got a second hand ( cost £12 ) 1280/1024 ,approx 15" by 10 monitor, but if it lasts another year ,it's been a better buy than messurs HP's expensive crap .

A couple of names to put in the pot!

http://www.eizo.com/global/products/foris/fs2331/index.html

http://www.iiyama.com/gb_en/products/led/#

Manufacturers above have been at the top of there game for many years.

Dell make superb TFT's

I donated my Dell 2407 TFT to my Dad and that's now 3 years old and still running strong. Would have been 4 but had to be replaced (though was done so for free under warranty and I ended up with a slightly better model)

I bought a Dell 30" 3008WFP panel, best panel I've ever seen/bought, but not for everyones budget

Just a small point in that if you have a HDMI equipped monitor you can either use a DVI to HDMI monitor adaptor or better still make sure that the GFX card has a HDMI output, like mine, that allows both sound & vision through a single cable.

I'm running at 1920x1080 resolution it's as sharp as anything on a 23" LG monitor/TV.

Eh? What's wrong with DVI? DVI and HDMI are essentially the same in terms of connection from PC to Display...

Though admittedly you can't carry sound over DVI... (But then my monitor doesn't have speakers)