How to Choose a Monitor for Your Computer

If it's time to upgrade your old monitor, learn what to look for in buying a new one.

Things You'll Need

• Computer

Instructions

1. Style: Find the monitor that fits your personality best. Look through as many monitors as you can.

2. Brightness: The higher this is, the brighter you're monitor can be. Don't worry about getting one that's too bright. You can always turn the brightness down.

3. Connector: Check the back of your computer for a blue connector in the shape of a trapezoid. This is a D-Sub. Is it a white, rectangular connector? This is a DVI. If it looks kind of like a USB port, it's an HDMI. The monitor you buy needs to support the connector on your computer.

4. Speakers: They sound bad, look bad, and take up space--don't get one with speakers!

5. Contrast Ratio: The difference between the whitest white and the blackest black. The higher this is, the better.

6. Response Time: This is how fast a pixel changes colors. Unless you're a gamer, you don't have to worry about this. If you're a gamer, get a monitor with an 8ms or lower response time just to be on the safe side.

7. Color: Black and silver are the most common. Black is good for watching movies and playing video games in the dark.

8. Adjustable: Tilt, swivel, and up and down, are all ways to adjust a monitor. The more adjustments the monitor supports, the more expensive it is. Most support tilt.

9. Screen Size: Larger screens give a lot more room on the desktop for moving windows around, but is more likely to cause eyestrain. If you're a gamer, you already know the importance of screen size. If you watch a lot of movies on your computer, a big screen is good to have too.

Tips & Warnings

• Some manufacturers cheat when determining the contrast ratio by making really bright monitors, which just washes out the color. Read reviews or try the monitor out before buying.

• If you're considering a monitor over 24" and less than 30", realize the resolution is likely going to be 1920x1200, which is the same as a 24" monitor. This means you're getting a bigger screen, but the image quality isn't getting any better. The result is a screen that doesn't have any more extra space on it than a 24". The resolution does increase from 19" to 22" to 24", and again once you get to 30".