I use a Asus 19" monitor and an ACER 23" monitor I got from Newegg. They're pretty good as long as you calibrate them. I use the Spyder 3 elite.
IPS is the best, but eh, I get great results from what I have. If you consider most people's will not have an IPS monitor to even view your images at there best, Why bother?
This is an excellent point and often overlooked. Not to belittle the importance of monitor calibration, but it is important to remember what your final output is going to be.
Like most things, color accuracy is a "garbage in, garbage out" situation, so you do want to start with the most accurate rendition you can, but frankly I agree with RL that there is no point in obsessing over it unless you are working in a professional environment that demands absolute color accuracy (product photos for advertising for example)
If your images are going to be viewed primarily on the web you can't very well go around the world and adjust everyone's monitor before they go to your website.
If your final product is printed with a CMYK process be prepared for colors that are much different than what you see on your screen. You will need to adjust your images accordingly and if color accuracy is critical, you might want to consider letting a professional color house do the final adjustments.
BTW, I've been know to go around Best Buy and Apple stores and pull up my website on every device I can find, just to see how it looks under different environments. Particularly important for websites. Some of the clerks get a bit annoyed, but most are good-natured about it.