I was wondering what experiences GBers had with Catleap, ShiMian, Crossover and other Korean budget monitors?

I’ve been looking to get a monitor for a HTPC and been curious about these monitors because of the price and screen/resolution. ~$500 for a 27” IPS monitor (2560×1440 resolution) that can be potentially overclocked to 120hz, this seems to fall into the category of too good to be true.

After doing a lot of forum research the consensus seems divided and I am skeptical since these are monitors built from screens technically rejected for an Apple Cinema Display. However, the complaints that are offered ( >5 dead pixels and LED backlight bleed) don’t seem that bad. I’ve also read conflicting reports about the build quality, lack of onscreen display, and shoddy stands.

I plan to use the monitor primarily as a second display during gaming. I may do some light graphic design work, word processing, web browsing, but I have an iMac for that. I was looking at a Dell Ultrasharp 24” as an alternative. This display would sit next to a HDTV in my living room, but I plan to use it for playing FPSs that require a keyboard and mouse.

Do other GBers use these monitors? Have you had bad experiences importing them from Korea?

I found an American company (?) Overlord offering the same monitors with a 1 year warranty, but they are out of stock. Any experience with this site?

http://www.overlordcomputer.com/

If you want to get a Catleap that's guaranteed to work at 120hz, check out http://www.120hz.net

Although, they seem to have gone up in price. I think the only IPS monitor I would truly recommend for gaming would be one of the eIPS ultrasharps, as they have minimal ghosting/input lag. The more color accurate IPS panels like H-IPS and P-IPS have pretty bad ghosting and input lag. Also know that it's pretty hard to get good FPS (60+) on recent titles at 2560x1440, and you won't be getting the full benefits of 120hz unless you're running at 120 FPS. So there is also a hefty hardware investment that comes with 120hz. It will still look way smoother at the 80-100 FPS range though.

But honestly, 120hz monitors are the way to go if you just want a monitor for gaming. At least, in my case since I've been using 100hz since CRTs.

Handily there was a Tested guide on this exact topic recently: 
 
http://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/449537-korean-monitor-guide/ 
 
I have been quite interested in these monitors for a while but I am having a hard time justifying owning one so I haven't got one yet. I probably will at some point next year once I start working full time in summer again.

@WilltheMagicAsian I considered that I wouldn't be able to fully utilize 120hz of this resolution playing FPSs. That's why I'm on the fence. Part of me thinks I should just get a Asus VS247H (even though its not 120hz I imagine the better response time makes up for it and its cheaper.) My HDTV outputs 120hz which is the reason I use it as my game display, its just a pain the in ass to sit in front of the TV with a keyboard and mouse which is why I want an adjacent display with a traditional hookup.

@Ben_H Thanks for the link, I couldn't find this link last night but I had read the Swiftworld link referred to through. Both reviewers recommended the monitors but this doesn't pass this gut check test. Something is a bit off about it.

I'm inferring that both of you are in the same boat as me, don't own one but very interested and can't bring yourself to pull the plug.

I'm very curious to hear others experience in importing these since as the Tested article points out you can see they manufacturers definitely cheaped on components.

@djou said:

@WilltheMagicAsian I considered that I wouldn't be able to fully utilize 120hz of this resolution playing FPSs. That's why I'm on the fence. Part of me thinks I should just get a Asus VS247H (even though its not 120hz I imagine the better response time makes up for it and its cheaper.) My HDTV outputs 120hz which is the reason I use it as my game display, its just a pain the in ass to sit in front of the TV with a keyboard and mouse which is why I want an adjacent display with a traditional hookup.

@Ben_H Thanks for the link, I couldn't find this link last night but I had read the Swiftworld link referred to through. Both reviewers recommended the monitors but this doesn't pass this gut check test. Something is a bit off about it.

I'm inferring that both of you are in the same boat as me, don't own one but very interested and can't bring yourself to pull the plug.

I'm very curious to hear others experience in importing these since as the Tested article points out you can see they manufacturers definitely cheaped on components.

But isn't TV 120hz just interpolated? It doesn't actually output a 120hz signal. The 120hz monitors output a non-framedoubled 120hz signal. Although I may be wrong, I don't own a modern TV, I just use my monitor.