Monitor questions

[Baddass]

Hi Haly. As said above, WS would be a good choice for use with the Xbox since all the games are made for WS format. DVI is just a pure digital connection so in theory can help provide a sharper image and improve image quality. VGA is a conversion to analogue and so can potentially lead to some degradation in IQ. In pratice, this really varies from one panel to another and is also dependent on graphics card VGA output quality. Modern screens with VGA tend to be pretty decent anyway, and a lot of the time it's hard to seperate their image clarity from a DVI connected screen. Some screens do suffer some a slight loss in PQ though, so that's why a lot of people opt for DVI. Bare in mind a lot of modern GFX cards also opt for DVI only, so there's an element of future proofing to consider I guess.

My thoughts on the models posted:

OcUK Digimate L1531W 15.4" Widescreen LCD Monitor - £88, only 15"WS so not as big as some of the other models you listed, but probably the best of the bunch in terms of spec and likely performance. OcUK do tend to stock a decent monitor range, so this is probably a safe bet. All the models you've listed are TN Film technology (to cover Daz's point) so performance characteristics will be comparable really. This is a 12ms rated panel so should be adequate for gaming, esp if you dont have any issues with your current screen.

Vusys WIDESCREEN HD14W 14.1" - £70, a bit too small imo, 14"WS is prob a bit too small vertically I'd say. Old school spec too so panel is probably not nearly as recent as that on the OcUK model

Ebuyer Extra Value 17" - £99, by the look of the spec, a slightly more recent panel and the later generations of TN Film offer some pretty good improvements in terms of colour accuracy, black depth, viewing angles etc compared with the older generations. This is why i'd suggest looking at models like this and the OCuk rather than the other Ebuyer one above.

17" Yuraku MJ7C TFT Monitor - £91, same here really, newer generation and a bit better spec. sadly only a 5:4 format screen though, WS might be better


I know you were limiting to <£100, but just to open it up a bit as an idea there's a couple of very nice, and very new 19"WS models which might be worth considering. The 17" and below range are quite old models, not something which has really been developed in recent years. However, the 19"WS market has really only taken off in the last year or so, with a lot of development in new generation TN Film panels, decent specs and decent build qualities from the models offered. These would offer improved performance, so if you did want to push the budget a bit, there would be worth a look, all from OcUK:

Asus VW192S - £135
Belinea 1925S1W - £132


Might be worth a look if you can stretch a little. If not, I'd say the OcUK one you pointed out if the best of the bunch above if you want WS (which would make sense)