i have a viewsonic 19 inch lcd, (vx900) it was for 800 so you can imagine how good it is. but some of the things that you want to look for in a monitor is the contrast ratio, the black level, text resolution. my ratio is 900:1 and i think thats pretty good. these are just a few things, and id highly recommend waiting untill you have the money to get a good monitor, these lcds are not much better than your old crt. this is what i did i waited untill i had the money to get the good lcd. in my opinion you will regret getting these lcds when playing games or anything, i mean why spend soooo much money on graphics, and games, and a gaming computer when you have to watch it on a crappy screen.
just my two cents.