Pre-AM2 Mid-Range Buyers' Guide, May 2006

Display Recommendations

We used about one fourth of the total budget on the motherboard and processor recommendations, and we're willing to use another fourth of the budget on a good quality display. I've said it in the past: I'm done with CRT recommendations. It's not that LCDs are perfect, but CRTs pretty much target the budget market exclusively these days, not mention their size disadvantage. We wish it was possible to get a 1920x1200 LCD with a 100 Hz refresh rate, for example, but unfortunately such a resolution is not part of the DVI spec.

I also encourage people to overspend on displays if at all possible; a good display can easily outlast the rest of your system, and you're going to be staring at it every day that you use your computer. We've recommended 19 inch LCDs in the past for the midrange sector, but prices are at the point where we can now fit a 20 inch widescreen display into the $1500 midrange budget. Naturally, if you don't want to spend $325, you can skip out on the 20 inch widescreen displays, but we feel the extra $75 is money well spent.

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Display Recommendation: BenQ 20 inch 8ms Widescreen LCD FP202W
Price: $325 shipped (Retail)

BenQ's latest LCD offering has a great price, and it's a reasonable quality display as well. 16.7 million colors (no dithering), DVI and VGA connections, 8ms response times (gray-to-gray/GTG), and a native 1680x1050 resolution. You get all of that for a price of $325 - and Newegg even has a $40 mail-in rebate if you hurry. There's no pivot mode (does anyone actually use portrait mode with widescreen displays?), and a slightly more important negative point is that there's no height adjustment on the stand. The display also feels a bit flimsy, but we would still take it over a sturdier display that costs $100 more.

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Display Alternative: Acer 24 inch 6ms Widescreen LCD AL2416Wd
Price: $735 shipped (Retail)

This is the one alternative that we're explicitly listing. A 20 inch widescreen display is nice, but a 24 inch widescreen display is better! 6ms GTG response times, 16.7 million colors, and a native 1920x1200 resolution. It doesn't get much better than this, at least in the world of the LCDs. In order to keep the price down, Acer doesn't have as many options as some of the other 24 inch displays, but you probably won't miss most of the features. Integrated flash memory reader? Component inputs? The Dell 2405FPW has those, but it also costs more money - even if you can find it on sale. Subjectively, some people will prefer the look and features of the 2405FPW, but it's hard to argue with an extra couple hundred dollars in your pocket.

If you're looking for cheaper display options, check out the 19 inch standard aspect ratio LCDs. The Acer AL1951B ($257), BenQ FP93GX, and BenQ FP91G+ ($220) are some of our top picks, and all three have the requisite DVI connection. Of those, picking a "best" LCD is a matter of compromises. If you're after lower response times, the BenQ "2ms" FP93GX should deliver, though image quality may be compromised in the pursuit of response times on such panels.

For example, the Acer says it has 16.7 million colors while the BenQ displays only list 16.2 million colors with dithering. Dithering isn't the end of the world, but it can affect image quality, so if you do any form of image editing you might want a better display. Whether or not you can see the dithering depends on the individual, the display, as well as how the monitor is being used. Try looking at some color charts showing all 256 shades of red, green, and blue, and see if you can spot the transitions. Using those charts on several 8-bit LCDs, only the green clearly shows individual color transitions, and the 6-bit panel looked about the same.

Display Alternatives
BenQ 19 inch 2ms FP93GX	260
Acer 19 inch 6ms AL1951B	257
BenQ 19 inch 8ms FP91G+	210