1280*1024 and 19" works perfectly fine if you ask me but I do not stick my nose against the screen 😀 The somewhat odd aspect ratio dosnt bother me.

I would test both screens and take the one with the best colours.

These 5:4 screens are a very good compromise. The image is close to 4:3, monitors are cheap and plenty around, they still make new models and most have decent enough response time and image quality.

I've got both sizes. For my test bench I prefer the 17". They are smaller, take up less space, are lighter and DOS games look nice on it. 19" are quite a bit bigger, they got the vertical height of a 24" 16:10 screen. So tbey are very nice for a permanent setup and when you're not sitting to close. As for large pixels, well yes, the pixels will be larger 😀

I'm going to get a few more screens from work. They have a ton of Asus, LG and a few Samsung. The Samsung are the best ones, with height adjust, pivot, DVI and VGA. The Asus I won't take as they don't have an auto button at the front. The LG are also great, lighter than the Samsung and simpler. Might get one or two each 😀

Depending on what you're going to play, the response time might be important to consider. For fast paced games, favor the 19" one.

If they're the same AR, the same distortion may occur. That said - I've yet to actually come across a 17" 5:4 that doesn't preserve AR on a variety of non-5:4 inputs (and I would assume 19" monitors are similar, if not identical, in this behavior). I agree with seeing which one appears to have better color, is in better condition, or seems to have the better response time as better criteria than just size.

Cool, I'll go with the 19"
I thought it may be the winner but wanted to double check first as I wont be able to test it beforehand.