What monitor?

[Mr R.]

Guy's it's my son's birthday soon and he could really do with a new PC monitor, I've had a look but there is so many to choose from.

Size wise I'd say a 24" will do him fine, 27" would be nice but he is a bit tight for space.
Budget is around the £250 mark.

What do you recommend?

Ta.

 

[Simon998]

What games does he play and what are his base specs on his system?

I'm only asking as if he has a basic system, he wouldn't really benefit from a 144hz+ screen.

I run a Korean brand monitor for viewing videos and browsing, it's a 'Crossover' branded screen. They buy Grade A screens that are supposed to go into the Apple Cinema monitors (£700+) and put them in their own chassis. It was £240 about 6 years ago when it was new technology and it has been flawless.
It's 1440P and an IPS panel in it so the colours are fantastic compared to regular TN panelled monitors but it suffers from a 60hz refresh rate, so isn't ideal for fast paced games.

For gaming I have a BenQ Zowie XL2430 monitor. Most of the 'pros' use this monitor and it's used in all the big Counterstrike/DOTA/LOL tournaments. It was around £230 when I bought it, but is on amazon for £300 now for some reason. It's by far the best monitor I've used for gaming. It's been superseded by the XL2540 240hz version, but it's £100-130 more expensive. It's a 144hz monitor so that means gaming will appear smoother but it needs a decent card to get 144FPS+ in most AAA titles.

 

[N0ddie]

Once you go 100Hz its hard to go back.

 

[Mr R.]

What games does he play and what are his base specs on his system?

I'm only asking as if he has a basic system, he wouldn't really benefit from a 144hz+ screen.

I run a Korean brand monitor for viewing videos and browsing, it's a 'Crossover' branded screen. They buy Grade A screens that are supposed to go into the Apple Cinema monitors (£700+) and put them in their own chassis. It was £240 about 6 years ago when it was new technology and it has been flawless.
It's 1440P and an IPS panel in it so the colours are fantastic compared to regular TN panelled monitors but it suffers from a 60hz refresh rate, so isn't ideal for fast paced games.

For gaming I have a BenQ Zowie XL2430 monitor. Most of the 'pros' use this monitor and it's used in all the big Counterstrike/DOTA/LOL tournaments. It was around £230 when I bought it, but is on amazon for £300 now for some reason. It's by far the best monitor I've used for gaming. It's been superseded by the XL2540 240hz version, but it's £100-130 more expensive. It's a 144hz monitor so that means gaming will appear smoother but it needs a decent card to get 144FPS+ in most AAA titles.

Thanks for the lengthy response bud, i have no idea what games he plays. All I know is he has a normal pc so he is limited to what he can play.

At the moment he has a square Dell monitor, so my plan is to get him a better screen and if he continues to do well at school then I'll buy him a better PC/gaming PC later in the year.

 

[Darren S]

Exactly what @Simon998 says above. The key here would be finding what games he's interested in and whether or not refresh rates are that much of an issue?

If he primarily goes after games that you'd associate with plenty of onscreen movement and player reaction times (driving or Call of Duty types) - then that criteria is a whole lot different than if he plays the likes of turn-based games or footy management ones, for example.

 

[Darren S]

Another factor to bear in mind for the future, is the native resolution of the monitor in question. There's the whole buzz about 4K offerings and how glorious it looks. But from a gaming perspective, you need a potent system to keep that action on the boil, so to speak.

It's a simple case of how many pixels that need to be outputted to the screen at any one given time. My 27" monitor has a default resolution of 2560x1440 - a pretty standard size for a gaming PC these days. But if pushed to 4K resolution and still retaining its 27", the graphics card has to handle, process and output an extra 70% more pixels. In layman's terms, 4K gaming would take a considerable amount of grunt from the graphics card.

I can't imagine that 4K will be at the forefront of his criteria, but more pixels support plus higher refresh rates, invariably push the price up. And that's not even getting into the Freesync/G-Sync discussions yet....

 

[Simon998]

Thanks for the lengthy response bud, i have no idea what games he plays. All I know is he has a normal pc so he is limited to what he can play.

At the moment he has a square Dell monitor, so my plan is to get him a better screen and if he continues to do well at school then I'll buy him a better PC/gaming PC later in the year.

If that's the case, grab a lower end Acer or ASUS 24" 144hz monitor. I hate the word futureproofing but if you buy him one now, theres less chance you'll be replacing it when/if he upgrades his PC.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IG0Z0HY/?tag=cliospnet01-21

Buy that, I have it in my spare room and it's a bloody great monitor for the price (That's the lowest price I have ever seen it, I'm tempted to buy another). My only gripe is that it takes about 10 seconds to turn on.

 

[Simon998]

Doesn't look like the link posted. Try this.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IG0Z0HY/?tag=cliospnet01-21

Edit: Had mine from 2016 and no issues.

 

[imprezaworks]

I Have the Asus VS248HR and not being an expert and bought on the back of reviews and of the knowledge of CS find it spot on.

Amazon about £110.

 

[imprezaworks]

https://www.cliosport.net/threads/gaming-monitor-vs-decent-tv.818246/

 

[Mr R.]

Cheers guys for the reply, I appreciate the comments. I'm not a gamer and never have been so I'm not sure what he plays but whatever it is he will be limited by the PC he has.

As I said the budget is around £200-£250 ish (would go to £300 if I needed to) so whatever the best monitor for that budget is the one I will buy him, I think that's enough to spend for a 15 year olds birthday.
I'll have a look over the weekend at the links that have been posted and go from there.

Thanks again.

 

[imprezaworks]

Benq are supposed to be decent too.

Loads of choices, drove me mad.

Happy with my current settings on the monitor

 

[Mr R.]

Benq are supposed to be decent too.

Loads of choices, drove me mad.

Happy with my current settings on the monitor

Me to, nothings ever simple.

 

[Simon998]

BenQ are the best for gaming in my opinion.

If you're wanting to spend the top end of your budget i'd be picking between these ones -

27", 240hz, Freesync and zeroframe. - £275
Acer XF270HA

24.5" version of the above monitor - £239 (I prefer 24-25 inch for gaming)
Acer XF250QA

24" BenQ ZOWIE (One of the highest reviewed gaming monitors around) - £300
BenQ ZOWIE XL2430


If you wait around and read every review, you will never buy one. He'll be happy with any of the above, or any mentioned in this thread tbh.
Personally I would have bought the Acer I linked for £139, then spent the rest buying him some upgrades for the PC.

 

[imprezaworks]

I decided on one then spent ages looking at others.

 

[Simon998]

This may help if you're in no rush; Camelcamelcamel is a price tracker for Amazon. If you want to see if something is cheap or not. You can set up price alerts to alert you when something you want is within your budget.

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/search?sq=BenQ+Zowie

 

[Mr R.]

BenQ are the best for gaming in my opinion.

If you're wanting to spend the top end of your budget i'd be picking between these ones -

27", 240hz, Freesync and zeroframe. - £275
Acer XF270HA

24.5" version of the above monitor - £239 (I prefer 24-25 inch for gaming)
Acer XF250QA

24" BenQ ZOWIE (One of the highest reviewed gaming monitors around) - £300
BenQ ZOWIE XL2430


If you wait around and read every review, you will never buy one. He'll be happy with any of the above, or any mentioned in this thread tbh.
Personally I would have bought the Acer I linked for £139, then spent the rest buying him some upgrades for the PC.

Many many thanks Simon, you've been a great help.

 

[Mr R.]

Just to update this thread.

I've bought him this one,
24" BenQ ZOWIE (One of the highest reviewed gaming monitors around) - £300
BenQ ZOWIE XL2430

It's he's birthday on Wednesday and it's not being delivered until today via Currys.

Thanks again for all of your help.

Scott.

 

[Simon998]

BenQ/Zowie are the dog's danglies. He'll be super chuffed, especially if he's in to watching Esports. I wasn't aware that currys even stocked Zowie gear, I'll have to get down for a nosey.

 

[Mr R.]

BenQ/Zowie are the dog's danglies. He'll be super chuffed, especially if he's in to watching Esports. I wasn't aware that currys even stocked Zowie gear, I'll have to get down for a nosey.

I hope so mate, yeah I but the item number into Google and Curry's came up, they don't stock them in store so I ordered for next day delivery via DPD.

And they where £30 cheaper than Amazon.

 

[Simon998]

Great job man, hope he has a great day.

 

[Greeny.]

I've had one the original BenQ 120hz monitors from when they first came out god knows how many years ago and although I now only use it as a secondary monitor its been great for 10+ years.

The one you've bought is a great choice, he will be over the moon with it, it also helps being 1080p as it won't work his graphics card as hard as a 1440p equivalent.