Please help me find the right monitor for gaming!


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Hi guys, I am so lost! The more I look into monitors the more confused I get! For Christmas I have ordered my husband a whole gaming set up: a computer desk, gaming mouse, chair etc. you get the idea. He has a custom built computer which specs I couldn't tell you and I don't know if it matters? See a total noob here. I know the case is cooler master and an asus motherboard. He has a pretty badass video card that I got him last year but don't remember what it is.

So onto the question, I want to get him a good monitor and my budget is about 149 with tax. He mainly plays WoW and League of Legends on the computer. The only thing I've really looked into is the response time so that it is 5ms or less.

Please help me out! here are a few links of monitors I am considering

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260049

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3709664&Sku=H24-23710

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4841119&Sku=A179-23000

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thank you guys for your input! It's like everytime I am set on a monitor I read the reviews and finding something negative that throws me off like: the black isn't a true black more of a grayish blue, or the led backlighting is too blue or distracting, or base is flimsy or seems cheap. I know I can't get a badass monitor for my budget I just don't want it to suck, lol. Currently he is using our flat screen tv as his monitor =)

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I would get the Acer, but that it is me. I have several Acer LCDs at home, and love them. :)

Blame you? Mom and I each have one (mine is 23" - hers is 24"); despite both being TN panels, both support 1080p *and* HDMI (and include HDMI cables) - not many sub-$200 displays do both. (That's right - neither would be $200USD today - mine wasn't that when I bought it new in 2010.) Even today, far too few 23" or 24" displays have a separate HDMI input (most have either DVI-D and D-sub or DVI-D only) - rather embarrassing when even most bottom-end discrete graphics cards support HDMI.

For that reason, I consider HDMI support a must-have (preferably HDMI 1.4a - any discrete GPU will support that).

For a display technology, LED-backlit (or LED-IPS) is the minimum you should settle for (and for the same reason you should not settle for less in HDTVs) - a quality picture should NOT be hard on either your eyes OR the electric bill. (In fact, I replaced my dying 42" plasma with a 40" LED; though it has a much better 1080p display, it's also far friendlier to the electric bill.)

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Blame you? Mom and I each have one (mine is 23" - hers is 24"); despite both being TN panels, both support 1080p *and* HDMI (and include HDMI cables) - not many sub-$200 displays do both. (That's right - neither would be $200USD today - mine wasn't that when I bought it new in 2010.) Even today, far too few 23" or 24" displays have a separate HDMI input (most have either DVI-D and D-sub or DVI-D only) - rather embarrassing when even most bottom-end discrete graphics cards support HDMI.

For that reason, I consider HDMI support a must-have (preferably HDMI 1.4a - any discrete GPU will support that).

For a display technology, LED-backlit (or LED-IPS) is the minimum you should settle for (and for the same reason you should not settle for less in HDTVs) - a quality picture should NOT be hard on either your eyes OR the electric bill. (In fact, I replaced my dying 42" plasma with a 40" LED; though it has a much better 1080p display, it's also far friendlier to the electric bill.)

HDMI is quite nice unless you have a pair of speakers or headphones that are much better than the monitor's built-in speakers, so DVI is okay. Also, HDMI provides the same video signals as DVI so not much to worry about except for the audio.

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HDMI is quite nice unless you have a pair of speakers or headphones that are much better than the monitor's built-in speakers. Also, HDMI provides the same video signals as DVI so not much to worry about except for where the audio is coming from.

There's no reason to use it unless you want to use your monitor's speakers.

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so HDMI is not necessary unless I wanna use the monitors speakers? we got separate surround sound speakers that would use for the monitor. Plus he has a headset.

Only the Dell option has HDMI, and the HP and Acer are DVI only, or DVI-D. Is there any concern if they are not VGA?

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so HDMI is not necessary unless I wanna use the monitors speakers? we got separate surround sound speakers that would use for the monitor. Plus he has a headset.

Only the Dell option has HDMI, and the HP and Acer are DVI only, or DVI-D. Is there any concern if they are not VGA?

I looked at them again and HP seems to be VGA only, Dell is D-Sub, DVI, HDMI, and Acer is both VGA and DVI.

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so HDMI is not necessary unless I wanna use the monitors speakers? we got separate surround sound speakers that would use for the monitor. Plus he has a headset.

Only the Dell option has HDMI, and the HP and Acer are DVI only, or DVI-D. Is there any concern if they are not VGA?

VGA is fine, really, but you can get DVI for same price generally.

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