Thought I'd post it in here since it's the most suitable forum I could find.
Been looking at monitor options for a few days; I gather that the S-IPS panel ones are the more desirable ones for a reasonable price. Found a place selling Dell 2007FP monitors guaranteed to have the LG S-IPS panel (some versions came with a Samsung panel) for $249+shipping. With the current 8% live.com cashback that's around $229+shipping for a pretty damn decent 20" S-IPS monitor.
Worth a look if you are looking for something useful for photo editing while on a budget.