My faithful 22" monitor died the final death..

Make sure you keep a fire extinguisher handy when turning on the power again if you change out any components by yourself...

Monitors in the $100 range still use very low fidelity TN LCD panels. However these days if you go up to maybe somewhere between $200-250 or so you can get an IPS panel instead with far superior color, contrast and viewing angles. There are also some Korean 27" IPS panels @ 2560*1440 rez that are VERY cheap that can be bought off of Ebay and such places. Worth taking a look for methinks!

ASUS is also bringing out a PLS panel monitor (rougly IPS-level quality) that is supposedly fairly cheap. It will be available in two sizes around 22-24 and 27 inches I believe.

 

+1 .. heard some retail stores in the US have begun to stock them as well.

 

Be careful that those IPS tvs aren't too laggy ... I bought my wife a new screen the other day because her old one only had a VGA input. It's a 22"(21.5") 1920x1080 and it compared rather well with the IPS screens that were on display to be honest. Also, at 1920x1080, for normal use I don't think I'd want much bigger, so the increased resolution of the IPS below is appealing, but then you don't want to use that for gaming too much perhaps, depending on how heavy your GPU is (mine isn't that heavy).

But for gaming also on your desk, I'm actually quite happy with the 27" TV (with passive 3D) I've got as a second screen on my desk right now. Wouldn't mind trading my own older Samsung 22" (1680x1050) for the new monitor I bought for my wife though ...

 

Some of those Korean IPS monitors can be "overclocked" to 120Hz, and from what I've seen written about them people aren't complaining about laggyness. What I've seen all looks to be extremely high value for money, and LED-lit 27" WQHD IPS for like $300, maybe less I dunno... Near unthinkable even just a year ago when ALL such screens were a thousand bucks or more.

 

My wife got this one:

http://www.paradigit.nl/paradigit/p...e_226v3lsb5_vga_dvi/226v3lsb5_00/default.aspx

Probably cheaper in USD, if they sell them there (apparently not on amazon). IPS panels did not look better to me personally, and I don't really find anything about the cheaper IPS panels spec wise telling me they are better. Maybe down the line, when resolutions go up, and they get full range color?

Built in speakers can be really nice though, the Philips doesn't have those.

 

Bah, fixing broken stuff! So passé, in this age of consumerism.

 

Have you checked out the Benq GW2450HM ? It's getting good reviews.

 

Benq monitors are super cheaply made. Last one I had used tape instead of screws to hold its innards together, and its casing was like a plastic clamshell snapped together using clips. Forget trying to fix it without breaking it when trying to open it. Also, I don't believe the claim of 4ms response time is worth the ink it's written in - and it's not written in ink, so...

 

If you can fix it, that's almost always better (also for the environment for instance).

 

Just to give you some extra faith, my 52'' Sammy TV died on the same disease - capacitors! After replacing them with some better quality ones all is well!

BTW even long after warranty period expired (2.5 years) Samsung service did it free of charge as it was deemed manufacturer fault ...

 

Here's a tip for you when looking at fixing it yourself: unplug the power first.

I'm an expert you see