Some of you might remember the long string of problems I had with my monitor last year, an amusing tale (for others at least) of strange failures, shoddy repairs and mainly me using a crappy 15" instead of my 17". Needless to say I got the thing fixed 3 times for the same problem in the space of 3 months, and it was out for almost 3 weeks each time; finally out of sheer annoyance I called up the company and asked for a new monitor, which they happily sent me (Though I doubt they were happy about it). That new monitor lasted all of 2 months and by that point my warranty had expired and I was screwed.
For various reasons I didn’t have the money to buy a new monitor so I managed to borrow an old one from someone (who “borrowed” it from work, but they were going to through it out anyway so who cares.) However I never really liked that one and I decided to buy a new monitor when I had the money for it. It was about that time that the first nice LCD models became readily available, they looked sleek and sexy, but the 1k + (CND) price tag was neither as sleek nor as sexy. So I waited and waited for the prices to come down, until this summer when my mother gave me $700 to buy a new monitor after finishing my DEC (CEGEP diplomat, you only get that in Quebec, its like the last year of high school and the first and/or second of university all rolled into one.) So here I was with a wad of cash and I said to myself why not? I shopped around for a while and I finally found what I was looking for, a nice black Samsung 17" LCD monitor, on sale for $579 at office depot, regular $679 with $100 worth of rebates.
So this morning I went down to the store and picked it up, and so far I must say its worth every penny; the monitor has a nice look and feel to it, the image is crisp and clear and best of all no reflections. I used to have to lean forward a little to read smaller text on my old monitor, but right now I’m sitting even farther than usual and I can still read the smallest text clearly. The fact that I don’t have to degauss it constantly is a big plus, my PC is a fairly massive monster taking up a 400 watt power supply and using 2 power bars, needless to say there’s enough background EM interference in here for my speakers to crackle constantly if I unplug them.
I have to admit I was a little worried spending so much on a monitor, but I think its a good investment considering how much time I spend working at my PC. Sure they’re about 50% more expensive than regular monitors and about 20% more expensive than regular flat screens, but there’s just something nice about an LCD monitor (maybe its the slight ripple effect when you touch the screen 
). There’s also the fact that on LCD monitors the viewable area is much larger, a 17" monitor is really 17", not 15.6".
For those of you looking to buy a new monitor in the near future check them out, but since they are more expensive I suggest picking a few models you like and checking the fliers regularly to see if you can get any of them on sale.
