5
i can't fault my viewsonic 19" widescreen monitor.. it's far better than i expected for £160
if you plan on purchasing an LCD TFT, then make sure you read the reviews for it. you might think that sounds a bit extreme, but reviews are a good way of telling you the cons & pros and reliability of them.
you need to look out for warranties and guarantees against dead pixels.
dead pixels are common and even new monitors can have dead pixels, but it's nothing to worry about if it does have a few.. manufacturers will only replace monitors with dead pixels if there is more than just a few of them.
also, i would recommend making sure you get a monitor with a response time of 8ms or faster.
and be aware that usually 17" & 19" monitors share the same native resolution. so this in itself means that a 17" monitor will usually have a lot sharper & better image quality than a 19" (if it's image quality you are prioritising more)
