whatever monitor you chose, make sure you don't HAVE TO pay $100 for the cable : )
(Dell is fine, I have a 22", I think : )

this looks nice (I don't have one):
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=211914#CustomerRat ings

this looks expensive for no apparent reason:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Belkin-10-DVI-D-Dual-Link-Cable/sem/rps m/oid/213360/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do?cc_fm=Accessories+Mod

What's with buying cables?

My Dell monitor came with its own DVI cable. So did my primary Eizo.

Every monitor I've purchased has come with a cable.

Edit: I should have said that both flat screens have come with a DVI cable.

I use the 24" Dell ultrasharp for my main monitor. It's been great so far and I've had it for almost 2 years now. If you buy one, get the extended 5 year warranty. It's cheap.

What ever you do, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM VIEWSONIC!

The cable is important, as the bandwidth requirements for proper resolution are much greater than VGA. With cheap cables you will see, for instance, in an Excel spreadsheet, ghosting of the narrow lines and smearing of the edges of the type. This because of timing errors between the color information and the luminance signal causes skewing.

The quality of the electronics to which the cable connects is vitally important as well.

The upshot of all this is you may see artifacts and resolution problems that are not due to the image, but due to the connectivity. Therefore, trying to sharpen with little improvement may in fact be a systemic problem. (Based on the 1920/1080 screen resolution)

Don't go beyond 10'in length. The signal losses mount quickly. 10' is the ideal length.

This is compliments of a friend who is chief engineer for a company that makes the display setups for the likes of Circuit City etc who have to have clean, properly setup connections to each and every monitor or TV. When they go beyond 10' per set, differences are introduced which compromise the comparison test. The cables they use are first class.

So, if you are going to spend hundreds of dollars for the monitor, go ahead and spend the extra bucks for the high end Belkin.

C'mon, JJ

>Don't go beyond 10'in length

Don't go beyond 10' in length = Don't go beyond 10 feet in length

you can't get your head round ********
(and grab at any opportunity you don't understand)

Ramón G Castañeda's advise was sound technical advice. Don't go beyond the 10 foot. That rule also applies to lines to your router.

Ana, the advice was Larry's
(Ramón only demonstrated attention to detail and quality, this time "round" : )
[unlike arrogant/negative/pompous/useless/angry/totalitarian/boring jj]

Unfortunately, the audio debacle spilled over to the digital world.

JJ, here's the story technically.

At the frequencies necessary for proper digital communication, we resort to transmission line theory, which, for audio made no sense at all given the cable lengths.

Transmission lines require termination in a load which matches the characteristic impedance of the line, typically in the order of 50 ohms unbalanced and up to 100 ohms balanced. If you think that 10 feet is inconsequential, consider that the Intel Core Two Duos have what is called a Front Side Bus, which is on the order of a few inches, and is rigorously controlled, as to line impedance and termination. It is directly involved in the marvelous performance of those devices, matching and exceeding that with which AMD competes, and AMD doesn't have a front side bus! If the FSB was not controlled we would all be either running AMD or running behind.

Think of it this way. The pulse which corresponds to, say a "one" is like a golf ball, a steady stream of golf balls heading for a target. Now, if the target is somewhat soft and thin, the ball gets through and lands on the space waiting for the signal "One" or "Zero". Now, consider a target is hard. The ball hits the target, bounces back and Uh oh!, it's heading back to the source. But wait! There is more! Another ball is heading to the target, it gets hit by the returning ball, and in this case, is a zero ball. The two cancel, and a pixel location gets the wrong info.

I have worked with transmission lines for years, both RF and digital. At Intel, I was responsible for measurements involving FSB performance on CPU to MCH (Northbridge) connections.

Since I have no recent experience with the practical notions of DVI cabling, I went to my source, who detailed it for me, far more than I have written here.

Anyway, take it for what it's worth. You can do as JJ suggests and try before you buy. And buy from a dealer that allows returns, should you decide for you, it makes no difference.

One more thing: The electronics has to terminate the cable correctly. If it doesn't, no amount of cable upgrade will improve performance!

You get what you pay for.

Hopper, set the screen resolution to max. The monitor should set itself properly.

Use the cards recommended as tested by Adobe.

Oh, and Hopper, if you use the VGA connections, which are slower, there is less pressure on cables and terminations, but the display will not be as crisp either.