Recommend a very good monitor? (I'm *toying* with Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP...)

S

ship

Hi

My trusty Iiyama CTR has finally blown up and I need a replacement.
Any strong recommendations for Web Design work?

Budget:
Not sure GBP300 to GBP500?

Resolution:
I normally work at 1280x1024 - but I am toying with the idea of going
up to say
1680x1050. My concern is that in windows the text may be too small,
unless
you increase it manually - at which point various applications (e.g.
Dreamweaver)
many not work very well...

Size:
At least 19 inches

Type:
TFT, I presume - CRT are now presumably pretty much dead.

Use:
Web design (Dreamweaver / Xara Xtreme / msOffice / Photoshop etc.)
I will still have a backup CRT...
No, I won't be playing games nor watching movies on it.

Existing graphics card:
GRAPHICS CARD: Matrox Millenium P650 PCle 128
- 128Mb Dual DVI/VGA PCI Express X16

Quality:
I am self employed and want to get something GOOD - (the justification
being to reduce my eye-strain/fatigue, and to protect my eyesight.)

Brands:
For *many* years I have used Iiyama, (which always seemed to get the
great reviews) but the recently the TFT Iiyamas that I've used I
haven't liked!
I think it's something to do with the way they handle
colour/saturation/contrast.
I cant quite put my finger on it - but frankly I've not been impressed.

I have had a look at http://www.pcpro.co.uk but nothing particularly
leaps out
other than the "Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP" which at £589 (£692 Inc.
VAT)
is really a tad outside my budget. (It would need to be really REALLY
good to
justify that sort of cash). Their "6*" review is here:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/90543/dell-ultrasharp-2407wfp.html
[Features: 24inch desktop, 1,920 x 1,200 resolution]

Now, PC Pro don't normally give 6 star reviews so it's pretty tempting
I admit.

But what do you guys think?
I mean 1,920 x 1,200 is rather scary to get wrong - and I know
that TFT screens look shocking if not run at their native
resolution...!

Plus I have never been much of a fan of Dell.
(Customer service ancedotes that I have heard have been well, let's
just
say "very mixed" !)

Hmm... well so what else is out there ?


Ship
Shiperton Henethe
 
J

Johanna

Hi,
I am in the UK too, and I use the applications you mentioned at home.
Lately I've spent a lot of time in DW and Photoshop.
I simply have to recommend the monitor(s) that I have, because I think
they were a good buy.

I've got a 20" and a 24" LCD screen from Acer. Not the most famous name,
but I think they'll get there.
They are great value, great quality and have a picture that is pleasant
to view and can be configured very easily.
I really don't see what could make the picture better. No dead pixels.
You'd get both these for the price of the Dell Ultrasharp.....!

I am super-sensitive to flicker and poor quality with monitors, so I
really wouldn't praise this unless I felt it was pretty much faultless.
Very easy and intuitive to use and to install. After install you tweak
the monitor settings, then the settings via the graphics card drivers.

If you are very keen to use your DVI cable, this would not be the
monitor as it takes VGA only. That doesn't bother me at all - I have a
top quality picture and I really don't think there's any difference to
what I'd get with DVI.

I got mine when they were on a 10% offer at Overclockers.co.uk. Fully
happy with their service, and if there should be any problems, they do
not put up any obstacles to returning the goods. They've got good offers
on monitors from time to time, so you might want to check.

Remember that the Frequencies don't matter with LCDs - for example I'd
never use 60Hz on a CRT, but I do now....
You also need to feel happy that your graphics card matches the
performance that you would like to see. For example, setting the highest
available resolution might mean that you get a slower refresh and
performance. Perhaps you should take the opportunity to upgrade both?

I use the 1360 * 768 resolution which I think give me an reasonably
large screen area. I don't want to go higher.
I adjusted the fonts and a few other things to make the screen
super-comfortable to read. (+40% and this did NOT mess up Dreamweaver -
are you sure it does for you?)

Hope this helps
Johanna
Hi

My trusty Iiyama CTR has finally blown up and I need a replacement.
Any strong recommendations for Web Design work?

Budget:
Not sure GBP300 to GBP500?

Resolution:
I normally work at 1280x1024 - but I am toying with the idea of going
up to say
1680x1050. My concern is that in windows the text may be too small,
unless
you increase it manually - at which point various applications (e.g.
Dreamweaver)
many not work very well...

Size:
At least 19 inches

Type:
TFT, I presume - CRT are now presumably pretty much dead.

Use:
Web design (Dreamweaver / Xara Xtreme / msOffice / Photoshop etc.)
I will still have a backup CRT...
No, I won't be playing games nor watching movies on it.

Existing graphics card:
GRAPHICS CARD: Matrox Millenium P650 PCle 128
- 128Mb Dual DVI/VGA PCI Express X16

Quality:
I am self employed and want to get something GOOD - (the justification
being to reduce my eye-strain/fatigue, and to protect my eyesight.)

Brands:
For *many* years I have used Iiyama, (which always seemed to get the
great reviews) but the recently the TFT Iiyamas that I've used I
haven't liked!
I think it's something to do with the way they handle
colour/saturation/contrast.
I cant quite put my finger on it - but frankly I've not been impressed.

I have had a look at http://www.pcpro.co.uk but nothing particularly
leaps out
other than the "Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP" which at £589 (£692 Inc.
VAT)
is really a tad outside my budget. (It would need to be really REALLY
good to
justify that sort of cash). Their "6*" review is here:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/90543/dell-ultrasharp-2407wfp.html
[Features: 24inch desktop, 1,920 x 1,200 resolution]

Now, PC Pro don't normally give 6 star reviews so it's pretty tempting
I admit.

But what do you guys think?
I mean 1,920 x 1,200 is rather scary to get wrong - and I know
that TFT screens look shocking if not run at their native
resolution...!

Plus I have never been much of a fan of Dell.
(Customer service ancedotes that I have heard have been well, let's
just
say "very mixed" !)

Hmm... well so what else is out there ?


Ship
Shiperton Henethe
Click to expand...
 
S

ship

Johanna said:
I've got a 20" and a 24" LCD screen from Acer. Not the most famous name,
but I think they'll get there.
They are great value, great quality and have a picture that is pleasant
to view and can be configured very easily.
I really don't see what could make the picture better. No dead pixels.
You'd get both these for the price of the Dell Ultrasharp.....!
Click to expand...
Which Acer models are you using & when did you buy them?

I am super-sensitive to flicker and poor quality with monitors,
Click to expand...
Me too.
But now irrelevant to LCD/TFT monitors, yes?
Remember that the Frequencies don't matter with LCDs - for example I'd
never use 60Hz on a CRT, but I do now....
Click to expand...
So... so long as the graphics card can do 60Hz at the resolution
required
at full colour... then that should be fine, yes?
You also need to feel happy that your graphics card matches the
performance that you would like to see.
Click to expand...

My card is a "Matrox Millenium P650 PCle 128 "
which claims:
DualHead up to 1920 x 1440 per display
Dual-DVI up to 1920 x 1200 per display*
*Compliant with vesa display monitor timing standard v1.0, rev.10.

So the resolution should be high enough.
(Though if I've still going to run my CRT that would need to be at a
lower resolution -i.e. 1280x1040 or so - and I'm not completely clear
that the Matrox can handle two different resolutions at once on two
different screens simultaneously...)
I use the 1360 * 768 resolution which I think give me an reasonably
large screen area. I don't want to go higher.
Click to expand...
Out of interest why not?
Is that the native resolution of the screen?
(If not dont you get horrendous blurring of text)
I adjusted the fonts and a few other things to make the screen
super-comfortable to read. (+40% and this did NOT mess up Dreamweaver -
are you sure it does for you?)
Click to expand...

Not sure about DW8 to be fair, but MX2004 used to moan like crazy.
You also get assorted weird effects on misc windows software and
various websites - some of which can make fixed size popup boxes
unreadable - and thus the thing becomes unusable!


Ship
Shiperton Henethe
 
J

Johanna

On the top of my 24" it says AL2416W. Made a quick google on it and
some widely varying UK results came up... It's still on sale, but I
really didn't pay as much for it as the prices I saw. Not sure what's
going on. I bought it in May I think.

Here is a selection of screens that are guaranteed to be good
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/20_Inch_LCD_Monitors.html
It's a company that basically sells nice gear only. Doublecheck to make
sure that the prices are ok though - you never know!

My reason for not having a larger resolution: Applications start looking
too small and things are out of proportions. Software developers don't
expect people to have much over 12xx * 7xx I am sure lots of
designers actually do, but they probably develop a way of dealing with
that. I felt there was simply too much on the screen and I didn't like
it. I still had to take up the font size quite a bit to be happy.
Jo
 
J

Johanna

I should mention that I have a fairly high-performance nVidia graphics
card, and I could probably get twice the resolution, but I really don't
know how anybody could work in that mode! Perhaps it's for playing
games, which I don't do....

One more thing: Don'f forget to take into consideration that most larger
screens are now widescreen. You get more horizontally but less actually,
vertically. Takes a bit getting used to, then you don't want to go back
( I wouldn't.) But a lot of apps and websites are currently expecting a
standard screen. This will change though.

The details of graphics cards and their suitability are not my forte,
but there are some in this group who know all there is to know about
them. I wouldn't know about your card - I am just aware that you don't
want to get too out of synch when it comes to the spec of components
that are supposed to work together (such as a monitor and a graphics
card). Else you may be throwing pearls at the pigs or however the
expression goes.
Jo
 
J

John Doe

ship said:
Hi
Lo

My trusty Iiyama CTR has finally blown up and I need a
replacement. Any strong recommendations for Web Design work?

Budget:
Not sure GBP300 to GBP500?
Click to expand...

What's that?
Type:
TFT, I presume - CRT are now presumably pretty much dead.
Click to expand...

Strange but apparently true.
 
J

justin david

Hi

My trusty Iiyama CTR has finally blown up and I need a replacement.
Any strong recommendations for Web Design work?
Click to expand...
I have had a look at http://www.pcpro.co.uk but nothing particularly
leaps out
other than the "Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP" which at £589 (£692 Inc.
VAT)
is really a tad outside my budget. (It would need to be really REALLY
good to
justify that sort of cash). Their "6*" review is here:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/90543/dell-ultrasharp-2407wfp.html
[Features: 24inch desktop, 1,920 x 1,200 resolution]
Click to expand...

If you want to buy a Dell monitor, I would suggest going to the Dell
site and check out their newsgroup pertaining to Dell monitors. After
you read about the problems you might want to try else where. I
wouldn't want to steer you away from Dell, but I bought a Dell, a
2005fpw based on some of the professional reviews I read and the
price, and I wish I bought the HP.
 
J

johns

When I first saw a wide screen 20 inch lcd monitor set to native
resolution,
I was pretty sure I would never own one. Then I got to playing around
with
my nVidia graphics card, and discovered that I could dial in a custom
resolution that was merely a percentage reduction of the native
resolution,
and I got nice size fonts that had nothing to do with the "font" setup.
I also
tried Clear Type to smooth the fonts, and I was very pleased with that.
You find that setting under the advanced tab in the display properties.
So, I reduced my native resolution from 1680 x 1050 to 1240 x 800,
and I have a nice readable screen. As for what you are working on ..
that is not very demanding of video quality. Maybe what you really
need is quantity. Cloned dual monitors might help in showing you
how your web pages look in different browsers in both 4:3 and 16:9.
Of course, your Matrox card is going to fail to do overlays properly
in a dual monitor setup like that. You need to move to a high quality
nVidia card ... simple as that. I like my 7900. As for all kinds of
excuses about color in Photoshop, most of us out here could not
care less. Same photo on 3 different monitors will look 3 different
ways ... all 3 of them being pretty nice to us. We don't care.

johns
 
T

Terry

On the top of my 24" it says AL2416W. Made a quick google on it and

...
Click to expand...

A quick google shows the native resolution is 1920 x 1200. If you are
running 1360 x 768, I don't see how the image quality could be very
good, as the monitor is doing interpolation.

Terry
 
S

ship

John said:
What's that?
Click to expand...

300 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland... Pounds
300 GBP = 560 USD (although everything is more expensive over here!)


Ship
Shiperton Henethe
 
J

Johanna

Hi Terry,
Thanks for the feedback. The resolution that I have looks great....
I tried 1900 x 1200 and you are right - that looks good too, but
everything is tiny on the screen!
I prefer things bigger (fonts, icons etc).

I don't know what interpolation means - can you explain?
Also, what exactly is Native resolution and why would it be better to
use that?

Jo
 
S

ship

johns said:
When I first saw a wide screen 20 inch lcd monitor set to native
resolution,
I was pretty sure I would never own one. Then I got to playing around
with
my nVidia graphics card, and discovered that I could dial in a custom
resolution that was merely a percentage reduction of the native
resolution,
and I got nice size fonts that had nothing to do with the "font" setup.
I also
tried Clear Type to smooth the fonts, and I was very pleased with that.
You find that setting under the advanced tab in the display properties.
So, I reduced my native resolution from 1680 x 1050 to 1240 x 800,
and I have a nice readable screen. As for what you are working on ..
that is not very demanding of video quality. Maybe what you really
need is quantity.
Click to expand...
Not sure what precisely you mean?
Cloned dual monitors might help in showing you
how your web pages look in different browsers in both 4:3 and 16:9.
Of course, your Matrox card is going to fail to do overlays properly
in a dual monitor setup like that. You need to move to a high quality
nVidia card ... simple as that. I like my 7900.
Click to expand...

What do you mean about "failing to do overlays properly"?

Will my Matrox be able to run two completely different monitors at
two completely different resolutions - any idea?

As for all kinds of
excuses about color in Photoshop, most of us out here could not
care less. Same photo on 3 different monitors will look 3 different
ways ... all 3 of them being pretty nice to us. We don't care.
Click to expand...

Most of you guys arent web designers!

With thanks


Ship
 
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