Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm considering upgrading from my 21'' CRT to an LCD. It will be used for both gaming and graphics editing. I'm looking for opinions on which monitor to buy, as well as gaming experiences on the two monitors listed below. Here's the limitations:
[list]
[*]Resolution: 1680x1050. Don't want less, and more will make my gaming rig struggle with the newest games out there.[/*:m]
[*]Size: 22''. Larger and the resolution goes up, smaller and the screen will actually be smaller than the one I have now.[/*:m]
[*]Response time: Low enough for more-than-occasional gaming. I'm not a "pro gamer", but I play a lot of action and FPS games.[/*:m]
[*]Input lag: Unsure about this one - I don't know how much I would notice, neither whether I could get used to it and not notice it in the end.[/*:m]
[*]Color reproduction: Good. I'm a hobby photographer, and while I don't have professional needs, I need at least somewhat correct colors. Good colors out of the box is a plus, but I am able to rent a colorimeter for cheap to calibrate my screen, so it's not vital.[/*:m]
[*]Viewing angle, backlight uniformity, backlight bleed: Perhaps they aren't the most important ones for picture quality itself, but I think "errors" here would be a great source of irritation in the long run, so they are important to me.[/*:m][/list:u]

I do hope there's some monitors out there that meets my needs to a certain extent (the resolution is perhaps the only thing I want exactly as stated here; everything else becomes a compromise between quality and speed - I could even go for less than 22'' if there's a 21'' or 20'' that's otherwise perfect).

I've looked at two monitors which both excel in image quality - the HP LP2275w and the Eizo FlexScan S2231WSE. Any experience on gaming with these (including input lag) would be greatly appreciated.

Price is secondary at this stage, but below 600 USD would be great (I think - I'm in Norway, and prices don't convert directly; there's a lot of additional costs of import and such). Not that I've seen 22'' selling for much more than that anyway.

Thanks in advance for all answers, I'm not able to do this without some forum help!

I stumbled upon another monitor - the NEC LCD20WGX2. With an S-IPS panel the viewing angles are good, color reproduction is good (at least when calibrated), and the response time is on par with 2ms TN panels. Bad thing is, it's only 20''. Opinions on/experiences with this?

Also, I've looked at the HP LP2475w. Experiences with this will be greatly appreciated.

I ordered the HP LP2475w. :) Will get back later with thoughts, feelings and perhaps some measured results.

Will be interested to see another User Review. ;)

It's been some time now, but here's my mini-review:

Gaming: Fulfils all my needs here. Some slight RTC overshoot sometimes, but this happens rarely and is barely noticeable.

Input lag: Not noticeable. I noticed it when running my old CRT along with it, but during normal use, I don't experience any lag.

Image quality: Out of the box, quite horrible. Everything's way too red. A colorimeter is a must here. Make sure it supports wide gamut screens! I bought an Eye-One Display 2, very happy with it. Calibrated, it's almost perfect (deltaE<1 for all colours). However, due to the screen being wide-gamut, everything that's not colour managed (including icons, buttons and almost all user interfaces) appear more red. (You get used to this, however.) Prepare to spend some time reading about colour managing. However, once it's calibrated and everything's set up, it's a delight to work with.

Other: It's got all the inputs and cables you'd want, including DisplayPort. However, when turning the screen on, it takes 15 seconds for it to pick up the signal (it actually goes briefly into sleep mode during this time). Quite annoying.

Bottom line: If you require good colors and responsiveness and little lag, this screen might be for you. However, prepare to spend time and money on colorimeteres and reading about colour managing. I really can't wholeheartedly recommend this to everyone (especially not as a first LCD screen), but I'm very happy with it myself.