In the market for a monitor in the neighborhood of <$400 CAD, here's some that I think look favorabl
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So, as the title says, I'm in the market for a new monitor. This new one is going to replace my current one, an Acer S200HL, which although I'm comfortable with the ditch between 720p and 1080p known as 1600x900, it's only 60Hz. The other thing that irks me about this monitor is that it takes a STUPIDLY long time from powering it on to actually being usable as it consists of Acer's logo for around 2 seconds (that part is fine), but then a fucking annoying "we comply with Energy Star standards so we're going to show its logo!" thing for around 4-5 [I]more[/I] seconds. Unskippable, can't be disabled as you might imagine.
Here's the two things that are currently living on my current S200HL:
- The Win7 Desktop (AKA my main rig) on VGA, currently through a DVI-VGA adapter
- A 2012 Mac mini, which I flipped out since its only non-Thunderbolt display output was HDMI, but thank god Apple included an adapter to DVI
Here's the ideal setup with whatever the new monitor is going to be:
- The Win7 Desktop lives on either DisplayPort or DVI(-D)
- Said 2012 Mac mini can live natively on HDMI or it can stay on DVI-D, refresh rate is not a large concern for it
Other things to note:
- Canada, eh? So yeah, you're going to need to apply the Stephen Harper tax for how dog shit it converts to against the USD
- Desk setup only allows for up to 24" maximum - please keep things at that size or lower if suggesting something completely different
- I've pretty much decided in favor of something with 120/144hz instead of an IPS monitor - the only real benefit of going IPS would be better colors, going to 1080p, and getting off of VGA but that's about it. As it stands having both costs a fuckton
- Time to being usable from powering on should be reasonable, 4 seconds is ideal
- Switching between different sources shouldn't take a loooong time
The list below consists of the monitors that I strongly considered. I'll break down what's good and what isn't for me.
[B]ASUS' VG248QE, CA$380[/B]
+ ASUS' warranty for monitors seems to be pretty good
+ Quite common in people's setups
+ It's apparently moddable for NVIDIA's G-SYNC if I so desired instead of just throwing this away and buying something else with it
- ...but those kits don't seem to be sold anymore
- ...and it would tear up the warranty
+/- No VGA - not really necessary but useful for legacy purposes
+/- No USB hub, although it's not a must-have, it'd be nice
- Out of the box colors seem to be a bit dog shit even for a TN panel - fixable but this is something I'd rather not deal with
[B]BenQ's XL2430T, CA$380 on sale but >CA$400 after sales[/B]
+ All sorts of BenQ's own features, the specific one I'll point out being Black eQualizer - BE would be EXTREMELY helpful in CS:GO, and funnily enough I first heard of the damn feature while watching ESEA's Dallas LAN back around S8/S9/S10
+ It has a USB hub - this is nice as USB on the front of my case (Corsair 500R) has been a bit crowded as of late
+ It has all of VGA, DVI, DP, and HDMI, and goes even further still with a 2nd HDMI port (I'd prefer it being a second DisplayPort instead of HDMI but oh well, wake me when some manufacturer offers a "mix and match your own inputs" configuration thing for monitors)
+ Out of the box colors for a TN panel appear to be the best of the bunch according to Tom's Hardware and a review of a very similar unit Linus looked at
+/- It's apparently the same stuff used at IEM for its 2014/2015 season
- Caught this one just in time: prices with sales bring it within range of budget currently but is normally the most expensive of the bunch without sales because Stephen Harper tax!
[B]AOC's G2460PQU, temp. CA$309, reg. CA$360[/B]
+ Full package of inputs, minus a 2nd HDMI that the XL2430T has but that was only a bonus in the first place
+ It also has a USB hub, and one of the advertised features is that it can charge a phone slightly speedier than a usual USB port
- ...but apparently only when the monitor is in standby? That's quite a weird quirk if you ask me, or is Tom's Hardware bullshitting on this one? Bullshitting being "it will work when on but the asterisk they were implying was that it would be only at regular speeds" or "it'll work when on AND at faster speeds too".
+ Cheapest of the lot for what it offers at $309 at Canada Computers currently, but otherwise $360 at Amazon
+/- Its OSD apparently has a lot of options but some of them are weirdly labelled and/or placed
- Doesn't seem to be that terribly common in people's setups
Out of all of these, I'm leaning towards the BenQ XL2430T the most as it seems to offer the best bang for the buck of the lot at the moment.
Does anyone here happen to have the XL2430T as well? If so, your thoughts?
Otherwise, would there be any reasons to abort locking it in and going with one of the two alternatives or something completely different that I missed?
Also, if you saw that thread in FT a while ago where I laid down a bunch of options, that was non-binding and mostly for shits and giggles. This on the other hand [I]is[/I] binding so don't screw around if you saw that thread a few weeks back!
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