Find me a monitor!

[endersblade]

I've spent the entire day off and on looking at monitors, and I'm about to pull my hair out. Apparently what I want just doesn't exist. I'm interested in:

25 inch screen
GLOSSY not matte screen
1920x1080 resolution (at the least)
under $300.

I was one of the unfortunate people to own an HP 2509m. For those who don't know, about a year after owning it, they start to flicker terribly, and eventually burn out. HP KNEW ABOUT THIS. They discontinued the monitor, and basically told the rest of us to fuck off. While it worked, I loved the hell out of that monitor. Right now I'm using a shitty little 18 inch POS that I had sitting in a closet. The upgrade to the 2509m, the 2511x, seems to fit what I'm after...I'm not seeing any bad reviews on it or anything, but after the fiasco with the 2509m, I'm extremely leery of going back to HP.

I don't care if it's over 25 inches if the price is right, but 25 seems to be about my price range. Would anyone happen to know of any good ones? All I use my comp for really is gaming and watching movies, if it makes a difference.

[Slotter11]

Asus VE278Q http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236103

27 Inch 1920x1080 with 2 ms Response Time for $295.

[endersblade]

Gloss screen though?

[Deleted]

I have no idea if any of these are glossy screens like you're looking for (why does it need to be glossy?) but either way these are the ones I'd recommend around your budget:

For fast paced FPS games (like Unreal Tournament) a 120Hz TN-panel with as little ghosting as possible (and low latency) is the best option, but for most other gamers a good IPS monitor will offer the best image as it has more accurate and better quality colours and better viewing angles.

Dell U2412M 24.0" IPS $300
ASUS PA248Q 24-Inch LED-Lit Super-IPS $308

Dell U2312HM ("only" 23" but just $225 and it's a nice quality IPS monitor)

Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" $277 (will require a somewhat powerful rig to drive, depending on the game you play)

List of 24"/1080p non-IPS/high Hz screens

24" is the sweet-spot for 1080p, I wouldn't recommend 27" at that resolution and 1440p is much more expensive.

[Neba]

For roughly that price, you could buy a 27" IPS monitor directly from South Korea. Just search for "2560x1440" on eBay and you'll find a ton of em. AFAIK they can have the same panels as really expensive Mac computers, but have laxer standards when it comes to minor deficits in image quality like backlight evenness and whatnot. I bought one a year or two back and it's definitely been one of the best buys I've ever made. There are no dead pixels or faults in the screen as far as I can tell. It had free shipping to Finland as well, although I had to pay 24% import tax here.

The downsides ofc are that the vendor is in South Korea in case of any problems, and the monitors generally have very few connection options and there's not even an on-screen menu in mine. :P
From what I've heard that actually is kind of a plus as well since having minimalist additions like that makes for a fast response time even though the screen is rated 6 ms which is technically slower than the 2 ms monitors around. The fast monitors usually aren't IPS though which is much nicer looking from what I gather. I play a lot of WoW on this and it looks great in any case.

Edit: Oh, and the monitors are usually glossy. Mine is too.

[n0cturnal]

Dell U2412M 24.0" IPS $300
ASUS PA248Q 24-Inch LED-Lit Super-IPS $308

Dell U2312HM ("only" 23" but just $225 and it's a nice quality IPS monitor)

These are not glossy.

[endersblade]

Why glossy? Because the image is so much better. I don't have any sort of glare issues in my room, so I'm not worried about reflections or anything like that. Glossy screens look a lot brighter and sharper than matte screens. I really freaking wish that matte/glossy would be listed on the websites that sell monitors, it's kind of a big sell/no sell point - lots of people don't like glossy screens, and lots of people prefer them.

@Neba, are you talking about something like this? Crossover 27Q LED Seems...interesting, I guess, shipping price is astronomical though lol. And lack of an HDMI input is kinda iffy, though I don't really need one.

@Notarget, I guess 24 inch could work too. Read around, and you're right, 24 seems to be the 'sweet spot' as you put it for 1080p monitors. But glossy is my biggest point - I'm tired of matte monitors, I got hooked on glossy and I don't want to go back! :-)

[Neba]

@Neba, are you talking about something like this? Crossover 27Q LED Seems...interesting, I guess, shipping price is astronomical though lol. And lack of an HDMI input is kinda iffy, though I don't really need one.

Yeah, that's one of them. There's a bunch of different brands, mine is a Yamakasi Catleap Q270. AFAIK there's very little difference between em, as the panel is likely the same in each one, and the minimalistic connectors vary a bit, thought I saw HDMI ones there too actually. Last I checked quite a few of em have free shipping so look around and maybe google for buyer experiences. :P

[Roblivion]

I'll be building my PC here in a couple months when I return home. If my opinion matters, i'd say check out the Dell U2412M. That's the one I will be buying.

[endersblade]

I'll be building my PC here in a couple months when I return home. If my opinion matters, i'd say check out the Dell U2412M. That's the one I will be buying.

Again, not glossy, and Dell monitors are stupidly expensive for the lackluster performance you get. I appreciate the input though :-)

So far, this is what I'm going with since I can't seem to find anything better:

HP 2511x

[Deleted]

Again, not glossy, and Dell monitors are stupidly expensive for the lackluster performance you get. I appreciate the input though :-)

So far, this is what I'm going with since I can't seem to find anything better:

HP 2511x

I'm sorry but the Ultrasharps from Dell are really not lackluster when it comes to performance. It's of course your choice that the highest priority of your monitor is it being glossy but that doesn't make other monitors like the Dell U2412M lackluster.

Did you check this list?