New monitor

[deckster]

16:9 vs 16:10 is pretty irrelevant when you get down to it. In general, more area is better and I'd be surprised if you could tell the difference between the aspect ratios unless they were side by side.

My bigger concern would be that 25" is a bit small for a 1440p monitor - on the desktop, text and icons are going to be tiny unless you increase the size, which sort of renders the extra resolution a bit moot. Added to which, as you mention gaming you will need a beast of a PC to get good framerate and quality at the resolution. GTX980 or equivalent is entry level for a good 1440p gaming experience in my book.

Your mileage may vary, but for my money I'd stick at 24" and 1920x1200, or go to 27" and 1440p.

[tenohfive]

deckster said:

16:9 vs 16:10 is pretty irrelevant when you get down to it. In general, more area is better and I'd be surprised if you could tell the difference between the aspect ratios unless they were side by side.

My bigger concern would be that 25" is a bit small for a 1440p monitor - on the desktop, text and icons are going to be tiny unless you increase the size, which sort of renders the extra resolution a bit moot. Added to which, as you mention gaming you will need a beast of a PC to get good framerate and quality at the resolution. GTX980 or equivalent is entry level for a good 1440p gaming experience in my book.

Your mileage may vary, but for my money I'd stick at 24" and 1920x1200, or go to 27" and 1440p.

Thanks for explaining that. Is it just in the sense of desktop icons that I'd notice an issue, or in all applications? I spend little time on the desktop - either my browser or Lightroom is running. If all menus etc are going to need fiddling with then I think I see what you mean.

If I were to rule out the 25" options then I could chuck the BenQ GW2765HT into the mix. As you say though I'm going to need to consider GPU specs...I'm currently running an old GTX470SOC which is more than a little bit dated. But the PC is due for an overhaul in the next year or so and I doubt I'll be playing anything particularly graphically intensive in the meantime.

So it's back to quality vs. quantity again. Out of the box the Dell on colour accuracy pips it, but longer term the extra size screen could be a real boon.
Anyone able to talk me out of the BenQ 27" before I pull the trigger?

[Bikerjon]

I recently bought the Dell 25". I have to say it's a very good monitor and I deliberated between that and the 24 just like you're doing! The resolution is quite high for the size, but being a 25" screen you can still sit quite close to it without having to move your eyes/neck much to see all the screen. I've found this to be quite an important factor.

I do have a couple of apps at higher zoom settings, but overall a very good screen. For absolute comfort I suppose the 24 might be better (especially for my ageing eyes!), but I needed more resolution as I need to run a lot of windowed apps at the same time and didn't want a second screen.

Only downside was that last week I had a customers 5K iMac right next to the Dell and having them side by side just proved how amazingly good the the iMac screen is - but that's another subject!

[craig1912]

I bought the U2515 and love. It suits me fine and is great for photo editing or having two applications open side by side through my Mac mini.

[Marcellus]

I've just bought a pair of these for my new set up; http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/monitors/24inch...

Good quality and within budget!