I'd go with performance and reliability over looks. I also agree that integrated sound is not near as good as a real sound system, as well as some of the cheaper sound systems will generally be better than integrated speakers with display. With integrated speakers on all displays I have experienced of years past, they lack range and are lots of trebble without a bass range, so playing music sounds like its coming out of a $12 alarm clock, and explosions in games etc sounds like a low end TV set speaker set. This is why its best to just have a sound system seperate.
For myself, I dont really care much for looks. When I game the area of the screen I become one with and everything else in view disappears, so even if my monitor was ugly as sin, as long as it played the games perfectly, then there is no problem. I think the only ugly as sin display I ever had was a 14 inch CRT VGA monitor with a 1989 date code on the back of it that was propped up in a window from a prior owner, and it had a dark yellow tan transitioning to beige plastic, and that was back around 1995 with not much money and new computers still above the $1000 price tag in which I almost bought a Tandy Computer for $1495, but stuck it out with mixed and matched computer parts that I got cheaply or free. I think I had a total of $120 out of pocket tied into my computer and most of it was assembled from good parts from dead systems mixed and matched together with the 486 motherboard costing me $40 of the $120. This system definitely wasnt one to show off to friends to brag about back then, especially when most friends parents bought them whatever the newest model was, but I didnt have such luxury and this ugly system still allowed me to still game with them over dial-up connection or serial cable if computers were brought to each others houses etc such as Diablo when that first came out sometime in 1996..LOL
