17IN TFT MONITORS

Ask any gamer, graphic designer or movie buff and most will tell you they're still using a CRT monitor as their main display. And it isn't because they're short of cash - it's down to the ongoing belief that TFTs still can't match a top-notch CRT for fast-paced action games, photo editing and watching films.

But TFTs have come of age. Well, 17in TFTs at any rate. Take any one of the eight monitors on test, place it next to a 19in CRT and you'll find that its quality is far better than you'd imagined. Quite apart from the pin-sharp focus and perfect geometry, these new TFTs have response times as quick as 10ms, which means that the lag associated with older TFTs is all but gone. And since prices are also continuing to drop, there are few reasons not to switch to a TFT, or add a second one.

Look at the back of your PC and you'll probably find that your graphics card already has two monitor outputs. If you haven't already experienced a dual desktop, you'll be surprised at just how much more usable your system becomes.

The latest generation of TFT panels are brighter, and have better contrast and far superior viewing angles than panels from only 18 months ago. In fact, almost every TFT here is a respectable piece of kit in its own right. However, quality is only part of the equation. Features can't be ignored - some displays can pivot 90 degrees, while others have height-adjustable stands and multiple inputs. Then there's wall mounting and built-in speakers to consider. Lastly, we haven't forgotten the price, warranty or pixel fault tolerance in our calculations. Picking a winner wasn't the easiest task we've ever been faced with, but we've done the hard work so you can sit back and find out which screen should be gracing your desk.

Rating the quality of any monitor is a relatively subjective affair. Which is why you should be glad you've got Custom PC's expertise on tap when it comes to sorting the great from the trashy. Fortunately there isn't any trash in this Labs test - you'd be hard pushed to find a really bad TFT screen these days.

We could have given you the breakdown of our technical findings from our DisplayMate tests (www.displaymate.com) but the reality is that these don't mean that much in the real world. They don't explain how well each screen copes with playing back DVD movies and fast-paced gaming action, so we've gone to the trouble of breaking the results down into those two categories, plus a separate one for general everyday use.

All tests were carried out after using DisplayMate's setup screens and the monitor's menu settings to obtain the optimum brightness and contrast. The everyday tests were done at the native resolution of each TFT, 1,280 x 1,024, as focus and sharpness wouldn't be so good at a lower resolution. This isn't such a problem in games and movies, but text will be fuzzy at anything other than the native resolution.

Our test rig ensured that the TFT was being fed the highest quality signal. It comprised a 3.2GHz Pentium 4c, 1GB of Corsair XMS 4400, an Nvidia GeForce FX 5900XT graphics card and Windows XP.

DVD MOVIES

As you'd expect, we scrutinised the quality of DVD movie playback, looking for any ghosting or blurring of fast-moving objects, general colour accuracy of skies, grass and skin tones, and any annoying artefacts that shouldn't be there. We used the 1/4-mile race scene and another outdoor scene from the Superbit version of 'The Fast and The Furious' for testing.

GAMES

Solitaire isn't going to tax any display, so we looked to Doom 3 to provide us with a more demanding test. We played the game for a number of hours on each TFT and gave each screen a rating based on how well it coped with the dark conditions, taking points away if there was too much loss of detail.

We also marked down any screens that caused too much blurring during fast movement, such as turning 180 degrees quickly. Generally (but not strictly), the faster the monitor's response time, the less lag there is, but we aimed to weed out any screens that bucked the trend.

EVERYDAY

As you're very unlikely to use your TFT just for gaming or watching movies, we awarded a proportion of the quality points to how they performed in everyday use, such as browsing the Internet, checking email and editing photos.

Geometry isn't a factor, as TFTs have fixed pixels, so we looked for pin-sharp focused text. TFTs without digital interfaces can suffer from timing issues, which can cause a lack of focus. We also fired up Paint Shop Pro and looked at a variety of digital photos to compare the colour reproduction and brightness of the different monitors.

Viewing angles vary considerably across the group, so we also checked the actual angles against the manufacturers' claims to find out if they were at all realistic. Horizontal viewing angles tend to be better than vertical angles, and you can see this when you tilt the screen and the colours aren't even - they actually invert when you tilt too far.