Your monitor can make a huge difference in your computing enjoyment. The factors to consider are connections, resolution and size.
Monitor Connections
Be sure your display adapter and monitor connection is digital. Otherwise, signals are created in digital in the computer, converted in the display adapter to analog and then back to digital again in the monitor. Even though most LCD monitors come with both VGA (analog) and DVI (digital) inputs, low-end PCs still come with VGA output and require installation of a DVI adapter to keep it all digital. If your computer has only a DisplayPort for the monitor, that is digital as well. See VGA, DVI and DisplayPort.
Monitor Resolution
Common wide screen resolutions today are 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1366x768 and 1680x1050. For example, 1920x1080 means there are 1,920 columns and 1,080 rows of pixels on screen. The higher the resolution, the more material is viewable on screen; however, a high resolution on a small screen makes text very small.
Be sure that the flat panel display's maximum resolution is the one you want to work with all the time. The sharpest resolution on an LCD display is its maximum resolution (see flat panel display).
Monitor Size
Choose a 24" or 26" monitor with at least 1920x1200 resolution, and two Web pages or documents can be displayed side by side like two sheets of paper. For example, most Web pages are 800 to 1,000 pixels across. If the budget allows, 27" and 30" monitors provide even greater resolution, allowing more information on screen at the same time. Better yet, put dual monitors side by side and view four documents simultaneously. While this may seem extravagant, consider how you look at papers laid out on your desk. Supported by all major operating systems and created by plugging two display adapters into the computer or one adapter that supports dual monitors, two monitors only begin to recreate the usefulness of paper pages on a real desktop. See dual monitor and flat panel display.
These are the common wide screen resolutions. The higher the resolution, the more information (pixels) can be displayed on screen.
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