• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Second Monitor Suggestions Anyone?

Sign_Boy

New Member
Hey all,
I'm looking to upgrade an old monitor that no longer works with my current system. I've been using a dual monitor setup for as long as I can remember and only having one screen at the moment is driving me up a wall.:banghead:

Can anyone recommend a quality monitor?
I'm looking for something in the 20" + size range w/ HDMI.
And I'm not looking to break the bank:thumb:
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
:supersmilie:
 

briankb

Premium Subscriber
second for Samsung. I've had 3 20" 204B's for about 5 years. Each one had to have the backlight replaced but it was handled under the 3 year warranty without issue.

I would get a LED backlit 24-27". Sam's Club often has a Samsung for a few hundred bucks.
 

oldgoatroper

Roper of Goats. Old ones.
keep an eye out on Dell's site for sales on their UltraSharp monitors. Same display technology (In-Plane-Switching) as Apple monitors.

Currently, they have the this on sale, reg 279.00, on sale now for 229.00, but I've managed to snag three of these for the shop once when they were on for 179.00 each.

If you are looking for quality, ignore anything else Dell sells... the UltraSharps, though, are built well, are heavy, are adjustable every-which-way, are usually rotatable to portrait mode and usually have a USB hub with with USB plugs on the side of the monitors.

And, of course, the IPS technology gives them excellent colour and sharpness..

These are great monitors.

and no, I don't work for Dell... :)
 

choucove

New Member
I'll also second the suggestion of the Dell UltraSharp monitors. We took a jump a couple years back and bought one of the 24" models. These are expensive monitors, but now we know why. They are completely unrivaled quality in anything of a TFT panel for design purposes. Our designers loved the monitor so much that within six months we had replaced all seven of our workstations with Dell UltraSharp monitors, using either the 24" or the 21.5" versions.

They just released a new version of many of the UltraSharp monitors which are unbeatable price for their performance. Add to that fully adjustable display stand and a three year warranty and I haven't really found any other monitors out there yet that compare.

I'm not really a Dell fan, but they have definitely done something right with their UltraSharp and their Professional series of monitors. And I've sold dozens of them to many very pleased customers.
 

Sign_Boy

New Member
I've done some reading and the UltraSharp monitors have been getting great reviews.
I may have to look a little deeper on this one.

Thanks again
 

MikePro

New Member
just bought a buncha monitors for our gfx dept. for nearly nothing by shopping newegg and overstock. They're really inexpensive in the <24" range.
 

GB2

Old Member
I also concur with the Dell Ultrasharp IPS monitors. I have 2-20" standard aspect monitors, 1-23" widescreen & 3-24" widescreen models of that type and don't even think twice about looking at anything else where monitors are concerned. Just make sure they are IPS models if you look at them. I've always used a single monitor setup and I was going to use the two standard monitors in a dual arrangment but then I got the 24" widescreens and I can't imagine anything better.
 

Sideshow

New Member
I run 3 ACER H243H 24" on my design machine, I bought each from tiger direct for about 179 each.

These things are great.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
22" VG2228wm ViewSonic, 22" Samsung (entertainment only, can't remember the model number) and a 21UX Cintiq here. Happy with them all.
 

signswi

New Member
Buy the Dell Ultrasharp U2410 before they're completely out of stock. The U2411 and all future models aren't true 8bit, they're 6bit so they don't have full AdobeRGB gamut coverage. Dell is starting to cheap out on even their quality lcd lines. At least they're still IPS.

Most Samsung, Viewsonic, etc. etc. are also going to be 6bit, stay away if you do color work. If it's just for spreadsheets or quickbooks or whatever that's fine. Samsung in particular makes a great LCD, very nice saturation, just not a wide enough gamut for print design work on most of their consumer models.
 

The Vector Doctor

Chief Bezier Manipulator
TN panels are typically for gaming or consumer grade. Most IPS are professional level. So look at the specs. IPS panels won't be cheap. If you have a $200 large monitor it is a TN type of panel

That is why there are $700-1000 monitors that are the same size as $200 monitors
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Most Samsung, Viewsonic, etc. etc. are also going to be 6bit, stay away if you do color work. If it's just for spreadsheets or quickbooks or whatever that's fine. Samsung in particular makes a great LCD, very nice saturation, just not a wide enough gamut for print design work on most of their consumer models.

That's were the 21UX comes in handy. My Samsung though is decent just for entertainment. Not a bad picture, just lighted in such a way that it doesn't look right for any type of work other then Netflix or Windows Media Player. The Viewsonic isn't bad at all though, but that's mainly for email, web browsing (other then the netflix) etc. Main work that I do is off the Cintiq.
 

oldgoatroper

Roper of Goats. Old ones.
Buy the Dell Ultrasharp U2410 before they're completely out of stock. The U2411 and all future models aren't true 8bit, they're 6bit so they don't have full AdobeRGB gamut coverage. Dell is starting to cheap out on even their quality lcd lines. At least they're still IPS.

Our production manager just got one of these and he's extremely pleased with it. On Dell's U.S. site these are 599.00 reg, but keep an eye on it -- dell regularly puts them on sale.

Right now in Canada, on dell.ca, this monitor is on sale for 479.00.

It is an outstanding monitor.
 
Top