Quote Originally Posted by B.E.E.F. View Post
1. Find out what panel type you need. You want for gaming? Photo editing? Middle?
2. Look at contrast, and color reproduction of monitors. There are review sites.
2. Get the monitor you like best, in the price range you like best.

Obviously not. There's more than enough info in this thread, and in the LCD buyer's guide. If this is too difficult, then roll some dice.
I am looking at cheaper TN panels, I don't need MVA, PVA or IPS although I would love one eventually. I just need to get off this dim and dark CRT soon.
I game, watch videos, occasionally do some casual photo/video editing, and pretty much a little of everything.

About the review comment, be it on a forum or a hardware site they usually are not done the same way and with the same set of eyes.
In my opinion buying a monitor is a crapshoot just like buying fast food fries.
I've seen people sing the world about a certain panel and others dump on it like it's the worst product out there. I have read a lot of review sites and I have spent more time on multiple forums wading through pages and pages of threads than I care to admit.

This decision would be so much easier if I didn't live hours away from stores where I can compare them in person.
The only retail store near me that has more than 3-4 monitors have them all running through a terrible KVM switch and there are 1440x900, 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 panels all running from the same computer with a mix of DVI and analog input so it really doesn't help.
I will get the monitor I like best once I figure out what one I like best, it really all comes down to personal opinion I guess.

Maybe I should roll some dice? Can I please borrow your D&D dice?
(that was a bad joke in response to you disrespecting my Google-Fu )

But seriously, if you actually have some recommendations or first person experience with any of those aforementioned monitors or others in the <$300 range 20-24" please post again.