Since you guys were so good at answering the digital camera posts, I thought I'd try you on LCD monitors.

I need to buy probably 3 monitors in the next month or so. I have 19" CRT's right now and the display is plenty big for me. I think I remember reading that a 17" LCD is roughly equivalent to a 19" CRT.

I bought my last LCD (19" x-gen) at http://www.tigerdirect.com. They usually have something on special (right now they have an ACER 19" for 149.99 after rebate) and I've been buying stuff from them since they were just a print catalog.

As far as specific models of monitors, that's more difficult since some are set up for gaming (fast response) while others for documents (crisp display). The one thing I've noticed is that LCD monitors seem to have a bit of an "off" color if you are doing photo work.

Yep - I've used Tiger before. Great prices, good stuff.

This is mostly for business use, no need to worry about high-end photos, maybe a little bit of gaming.

I ordered a 19" widescreen from TigerDirect for under $200. For my typical uses of browsing/e-mail and some games it's working perfectly. It's a pretty secure deal going with TD since they have decent customer service and they stand behind the stuff they sell. I haven't had a problem with my "Hanns-G" brand LCD, but in the past they've been quick to fix any problems. I hear good things about Acer LCD's, too.

Dirk

I have a 17'' Hyundai L70N that I ordered from Tiger Direct several yrs ago.........works well and no problems with Tiger Direct.

Tigerdirect has worked well for me also. I have used Viewsonic for a few years, very nice.

Unless you have a LCD-ready PC (with a DVI connector) I would recommend a non-widescreen version.

The widescreens are non-standard resolutions, and a normal VGA output won't be able to run at that resolution. So you are forced to pick a different resolution, and let the monitor "scale" the pixels... You end up with a horizontally stretched image.

Given how long monitors last (vs PCs) I would recommend that you get one with a DVI input even if your current PC doesn't have that. (Anything with a DVI will also have a VGA for backwards compatibility.)

Here's my favorite online retailers.

#1: http://www.provantage.com Simply great prices, and huge selection. Shipping costs are where they trip up sometimes.

#2 http://www.buy.com/. Buy.com has a deal right now that if you use google checkout, you save $10, which you could apply to any monitor. And most of their catalog has free shipping.

#3 http://www.ecost.com has an addictive bargain countdown page with some great deals, but they generally have rebates, and they charge for shipping and a handling fee. So while they may have the best deal, you need to know the total before you know for sure.

Current price check on a Linksys PSUS4 (incl shipping & handling)
provantage - 61.37
buy - 58.26 (after $10 google checkout credit)
ecost - 68.60
tiger direct - 67.98

(The PSUS4 is a combined print server & switch I've been wanting.)

Chuck, I use http://www.pricewatch.com. I've gotten many a good deal from their vendors.

Just one note about LCD monitors: If you want readable text that doesn't give you headaches, you really want to run it at it's native resolution. LCD monitors can generally display multiple resolutions like a conventional CRT monitor. But they really only do their best job at one particular resolution. These days it seems to be 1280x1024. But when you get a new LCD, it's definitely a good idea to adjust the display properties of your video card to match whatever resolution the monitor prefers.

I got a couple of Samsung SyncMaster 204T monitors (21" 1600x1200) at Sam's club, on clearance: $600 each, marked down to $200 for the in-box and $125 for the display model.

(That doesn't help, I know -- I just wanted to brag. )

Seriously, 1600x1200 is available and well worth it for the added screen real estate.

I have a widescreen lcd on my laptop. I do not like it, the width that is.

The height is shorter than a normal monitor, so you don't fit as much on the screen (top to bottom).

I also have a widescreen TV. I only like watching high-def or movies on it. I see a normal tv and drool for some reason.

When I had a job... We had the NEC LCDs, they were awesome. Everyone that had one loved them.

I just figured that out. I was trying to understand why the 19" widescreen monitors were cheaper than the 19" standard. Simple geometry.

Given that the diagonal is the same, they should be physically the same size. But now we're discussing "marketing speak".

Strangely, it's only about a 9% increase in pixels: 1680x1050 (20" wide) = 1,764,000, vs 1600x1200 (20" standard) = 1,920,000.

I have always had good luck with Dell LCD monitors. There are usually some good coupons to be found out there, too.