Have a look at komplett.ie you find loads of 17" and 19" monitors in that price range.
Theres no way to recommend a single monitor - there are several parameters to look at and trade offs between them brightness, contrast ratio, refresh rate, viewing angle, resolution, aspect ratio.
From a useability point of view too low a viewing angle is a disaster - as you move your head from left to right / up and down the colours change. If the family crowds around to look at an photo or an email, a low viewing ange makes things difficult.
Also there are standard v. widescreen. I have a widescreen monitor which is great for watching dvds and playing games but to be honest a standard monitor is better for most other applications.
Then theres the input on the monitor does your husbands PC use D-sub or DVI?
D-sub looks like this: [broken link removed]
DVI looks something like this:
http://www.fu-yao.com.tw/Product-200567145631.jpg
Some manufacturers will quote their specifications at the lowest resolution to make the figures look good - you have to look at the actual full specifications.
PCPro recently did a labs test on 17" monitors the review will give you an idea of what to look for:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/144/17in-monitors/products.html
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/144/17in-monitors/introduction.html
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/144/17in-monitors/how-we-tested.html