21"+ plus is great, if it's not a laptop there is no reason to be below 21"

For general use, any brand will be fine. Make sure it can be returned if you have ANY dead pixels. Some sleazy return clauses require you to have ## dead pixels or they won't accept a return.

Newegg.com is an excellent place to buy from, but if you want to go brick & mortar they can still be used for reviews. If you're worried about shiping, remember the screens go via truck to best buy, etc.

If you want free/cheap call around to local businesses/ schools/ recycling centers. They often ditch working monitors when the new machines come in.


Unrelated:

If you're overheating you probably just need some thermal compound.
Arctic Slver 5 is under $20 and will fix your issue.

ALL non-custom laptops come with horribly insufficient cooling. Any make or model, any age will benefit from some AS5

Never had a problem with my Macbook, my Asus netbook, my various Thinkpads, or my Asus fullsize shutting off due to heat. My mother's HP did have that problem before we chucked it and replaced it with an Asus fullsize. It lasted less than three years before many things went wrong with it.

Shutting down from overheat is equivalent to a car's engine siezing from overheating. The stock systems keep them within spec but definitely not ideal, With any stock system you're going to notice increased lag and heat during heavy usage.

Applying silver (or diamond) thermal compound is akin to adding a larger radiator and transmission cooler to an engine that starts to run hot while towing up hills. It's not absolutely necessary, but it definitely makes a difference.

What is a custom laptop?

Generally one assembled by a small company to customer spec, for gaming, hard core video editing, things like that:
Custom Built Laptops by Maingear | Customize Yours

Oh man, I could twitter so hard with that thing!!

I went with the Acer from post 14. I was also looking at some similar Samsungs priced a bit higher, but they only come with a one year warranty instead of three. It should be here Friday or Saturday.

Monitor installed.
 

And the first thing I looked at was this:

F1 Onboard 2011 - Spa-Francorchamps - N.Rosberg - YouTube

I'm quite impressed.

I recenty bought this one IIyama ProLite XB2776QS

With the zoom function of the new Microsoft natural ergonomic keyboard it compensates for my not to perfect eyesight.

Rob