Acer...Belinea...
I've been checking out 19-20 inch monitors for a potential mini purchase--including evaluating over a dozen different brands in a hands-on capacity where I work--and Acer and Belinea seem to be great values in terms of reliability and image quality for the price. The Acer 1916 and 2016 are great, and at a slightly higher pricepoint the 1951 rules, and I like all the Belinea models. They both make great widescreen models too. All the above are widely available in France, so I imagine they're plentiful across the channel too. Oh, and I've had a look at fireball's Viewsonic, and I wouldn't kick that one out of the house either; this is another brand that seems to provide good bang for the buck, or in your case the pound.
In my view, the trick is to not buy a monitor online until you've seen it in person...every LCD that comes through our department has a different look to it, different footprint, different set of controls, mat vs glossy screen, different height/angle adjustments, different feng shui
, etc., and I think it's risky to buy without a good long look.
And about compatibility: ANY monitor with DVI and/or VGA input should work. There have been several attempts to track success rates with different brands/sizes/models, none of which seem to reveal anything except that there are occasional communication problems between video cards and monitors, and that no model is 100% good or bad in this capacity.
Good luck, and let us know what you buy!
