If you're a bit paranoid about quality/support for some of the cheaper 27" monitors out there a good compromise is to wait for the Dell U2713HM to be on sale. It's regularly 30% off which brings it down to ~$500 (+ GST in Australia, AUD and USD are comparable). I'm happy with mine!
I've got a Dell U2711 which also has the same panel as the Apple Cinema displays and yet was only about 2/3 of the cost...
3 years warranty (though i've heard they replace your broken display with returned ones which might or might not be faulty) , color calibrated and no-dead-pixel-guarantee...
Edit: Ah, seems the display mentioned by parent has LED backlighting compared to CCFL in mine - of course i'd prefer the LED too ;)
Be sure to do a coupon google search if you're using the Dell Store. Everything that I've bought from there has had some 10% or 15% discount voucher which works ON the sale price also
