Time for a new flatscreen

[Quitch]

Just picking up my copy of Windows Vista Ultimate -- hey, I'm a nerd, I'm excited about it -- and I'm getting the OEM edition so I need a cable or something. Asked my GF if there's anything she wants for her PC, and she mentioned that she was going to get a flatscreen for my birthday to replace this 21" CRT I have. It's a nice screen and all, but after being on her flatscreen for a bit I missed the crisp image and the working auto-size functions... and the deskspace, that too.

So, I'm in the market for a 19" flatscreen. Since my PC is a 3Ghz Intel Pentium 4 with a 256MB Radeon X1950 Pro (AGP) I'm looking for a native res of 1280x1024. I like my AA, and 1600x1200 will force me to turn that off in too many games. I also like old games, so superior scaling abilities would be a bonus (though whether that's handled by the graphics card or the monitor I don't know).

So, 19", one that does decent colours, and if it has an adjustable stand that'd be a bonus.

Suggestions? I need to be able to get it in the UK.

On the widescreen front (as this isn't something I've thought about before), how is non-widescreen stuff handled? Black bars, or stretched?

 

[PeterAce]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=911647&postcount=10

 

[Quitch]

It seems suspiciously cheap for the spec.

 

[PeterAce]

After reading all the last few years of LCD reviews on behardware and then then latest article I made my choice:

http://www.behardware.com/articles/643-1/19-lcd-survey-of-inexpensive-and-quality-screens.html

 

[Quitch]

I've been quite tempted by the Iiyama ProLite X486S. From the reading I've done it appears to do quite well on the image quality front, but at an affordable price.

I'm hoping someone can fill me in on the widescreen front. How is "stretch to screen" determined? Is it a monitor thing? A game thing? Or a graphics card thing? Which determines whether the non-widescreen game is stretched or barred?

That BeHardware article looks useful, I'll check it out now, cheers.