LCD Screens... what to look for?

[DJ Markus]

i think i am on the verge of buying myself an lcd screen to go with my new computer.

how important is the contrast ratio, brightness, pixel pitch etc..?
why are some monitors capable of doing digital/analog while some can only do one. what advantages are there?

this will be the first lcd screen i buy. i just want to make the right choice.

thanks in advance for the help.

so far my favorite choice is the BenQ FP783. what do you guys think?

 

[Praetor]

1. Contrast is a personal thing, most people like high contrast. I'd reccomend 400:1 minimum

2. Same goes for brightness. Be careful with the numbers, some measure in nits, some measure in cd/m²

3. Refresh rate is the biggest factor, the lower the better so try to buy a maximum of 20ms refresh. If you're doing gaming and stuff, set the bar to 14ms or better if possible

4. Your dot pitch is gonna be crap so dont bother trying to get a decent d.p. (just a reality of LCDs)

5. Native resolution. This is important if you play games. Why? because your image quality will be crap at any resolution other than the native resolution (which is physically built into the LCD) on its own this means very little but if you've got, say an LCD that has a 1280x1024 native ... you better make sure your video card can handle games at that resolution well