I just did my first build and I'm wondering what are the best monitors for gaming?
A real gaming monitor would be a CRT, I keep saying this but no one seems to listen, suit yourself. You don't know what your missing, if you are so serious about it.
It's cheaper, and you get the contrast, no motion artifacts, faster response time, better blacks, smoothness of shapes (although there is geometric distortion). CRTs are best for rapid movement and changing images, there is no input lag. Also you don't loose sharpness by using a lower than native resolution, an added plus for multiplayer gaming.
But if you want your shiny fake 120hz LCD, go ahead, give them your money. Please consider this, if your a serious gamer, if not, just buy a good quality IPS pannel, don't buy 120Hz, they're not as good as they appear, and have terrible motion smoothing, looks horribly unreal compared to a CRT. A movie on a CRT moves better than on a 120Hz LCD. So if you want a clear, good contrast display for fast games, go for a professional CRT like EIZO, viewsonic, Sony, ADI, Phillips Brilliance.
Or buy the 120Hz if you know it's good quality AND it's <4ms response time, the only advantages over that would be sharpness at any resolution and still better contrast, but a fast IPS like 1ms beats CRTs in many regards.
Thanks!!