Monitors have come a long way from 14inch screens where you could barely see your Word document. Now large LCD screens are both reliable and affordable and use a lot less energy than the old CRTs. Two of the monitors here use the older VGA standard while the other two use VGA and DVI, which will soon be the standard for graphics cards until it, too, is surpassed.

Acer 22" LCD AL2216Wsd The Acer is a no-frills 22" LCD which will suit the general of"ce PC or home computer. Unless you are a purist and someone that wants the best-quality monitor around, this will easily meet your needs. It has VGA only input and is good value for money.

Price: Euro289 from Komplett. ie Review: http: //url. ie/4ae "For movies, the internet, strategy games and even FPS (if you aren't too demanding), these economical monitors have the best current quality / price ratio."

Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22in LCD A jump in price from the other models, the Samsung is both DVI and VGA. It's an excellent model with a crisp picture that will keep even the staunchest display enthusiast happy.

Price: Euro360 from Dabs. com Review: http: //url. ie/4af "As far as looks and adjustments go, this thing has it covered in all the spots, except for pivoting. The softwarerelated features are really good too. . . You can change how the picture looks a bunch of different ways, and you can make the screen perfectly auto-adjust to "ll out your monitor "awlessly. . . If you're in the market for a big, widescreen monitor, and you think 22" will be big enough, then I'd say you should maybe consider getting this one."

TOP OF THE PILE Iiyama ProLite E2200WS New enough to the market, this model delivers a high-quality picture at an affordable price.

While you can get better-quality monitors, you will pay a lot more for them. This is a good, value-for-money monitor that rewards you with its high standards.

Price: Euro 330 from Dabs. com Review: http: //url. ie/4ac "The Iiyama ProLite E2200WS is designed for the stereotypical budget gamer, who'll be using it for a bit of movie-watching, daily desktop and internet "ddling and, of course, gaming. On all those fronts this monitor performs above expectations. The icing on the cake is the price.

Despite using Photoshop, having multiple programmes running along with dozens of web pages I "nd I can operate quite adequately within the con"nes of the 22 inches and 1680 x 1050 resolution that this monitor affords."