What's the best 24" monitor for photographic editing?

I've read various notes here on the topic, here and elsewhere, and I haven't really seen a consensus on the best 24" monitor for this sort of application (and a good general purpose monitor too). I was leaning towards the Dell Ultrasharp u2410 monitor, but I've read so many bad reviews lately that I'd have big reservations about getting that monitor. One review that compared a number of these monitors rated the HP w2408h as the best choice. Price will be a factor for me, but for now, I just want to know what the best options are and what the pros use. Then I'll figure out what I can afford. Thanks!

I dunno but am curious about this as well.

In particular, I would like to know what specifications one should look for on a monitor and what they mean to photographers.

What budget?

An Eizo or Quatto is nice, but an entirely different price then the U2410...

$250-$450 budget but honestly, I just do not know what makes a good monitor for photo editing so if I were educated on what to have and why its important then I may be able to justify spending more.

I went through this same decision process just a few months ago. I had bought an HP that I thought would be good but was disappointing. After doing some initial research I was between Lacie, NEC and EIzo. I ended up going with NEC as a compromise between cost (less than the Eizo) and quality (better reviews than the Lacie). On the budget end the new Dell panel has gotten some good reviews but has seen lots of complaints about quality control.