I ended up with the gateway 24" - I love it - its noisy and I dont trust the color, but for focusing its fantastic! I will say though for 720 material its not the greatest, I only use it with a 1080 signal though.
Did you adjust the monitor?
PM USLatinContent and ask him what he thinks about the Dell vs Gateway. He's always honest and will tell ya what he thinks. I'm not sure if he's happy with the Gateway, but that's a good way to find out if you made a better choice.
I turned off all the post sharpening so it doesn't expose the HVX's noise so much. Component from a real HD source looks so much better, I tested it to make sure that it was just the HVX's common noise and not the screen. I.E PS3, BluRay, and even Broadcast HD.