Is the 2405FPW worth it even at it's current price?

Soldato
Joined
24 Feb 2004
Posts
14,211
Location
St.Andrews
I really really rather fancy one of those beautys sitting on my desk but I can't really decide if it's worth it at ~700 quid or so.

I currently use 2 x 17" TFT's so although I would lose a little width of screen I would gain more height. Also I have begun to notice the limitations of twin screens with the bezel down the middle so I have been considering a change :o

I will have an oppertunity to pick up one of these lovely looking monitors in person next weekend as I head south for a LAN so you guys have till Thursday night to help me decide :D

Go! :>
 
Associate
Joined
29 Feb 2004
Posts
132
Location
Wickford, Essex
Go on, treat yourself! I can honestly say that it is the best thing I have ever bought in connection with PC's. The sheer size of the thing is amazing and the resolution is liberating. The brightness and clarity of the screen is far better than I was expecting. It has just about every sort of connector you could want (with the exception of a HDMI connector, but that didn't bother me) and even the stand is good.

Having said that, I was lucky enough to get one without dead/stuck/blown pixels (touch wood!).

Get one and enjoy.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2005
Posts
10,535
Yeah its worth it especially considering it was over £300 nore a few weeks ago but consider that you need either GTX SLI, Xfire, 7800GTX512, X1800/X1900 to run anything @ the native 1920x1200 smoothy and even then some games lag a little when a lot is happening onscreen.

For max FPS X1800 or 1900 Xfire or GTX512 SLI is required to future proof a little. A 7900 dual GPU would probably be enough also.

Trouble is that without vsync enabled tearing is very noticeable due to the siz of the screen so you end up being limited to either 30/60FPS. Depending on the game some like FEAR struggle unless you have a very high end setup allround.
 
Associate
Joined
2 Jan 2006
Posts
82
Consider also that soon you won't be able to buy one new from anywhere but the manufacturer (to avoid naming names ;)) themselves, and look at their prices.

There are so many pixels in the beast, I just hope none are bad :-/
 
Associate
Joined
4 Oct 2004
Posts
485
I have to agree with everyone else - best thing I ever bought and had no dead/stuck pixels or any problems what so ever with it. Saying that this is my third Dell TFT and never had any problems with any of them.

As long as you have a good graphics card you will be ok but the display does a good job when not running at native rez as well.

Get it now while you can as they are going to be brining out a newer version soon
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2005
Posts
10,535
They are definately an amazing TFT and mine was perfect as in no dead/lazy pixels or backlightning issues. Build date was Oct2005 and got it Dec2005 from OCUK so should imagine they are getting the best stock as it also had a vga cable connected so someone (dell perhaps) must have pre-tested for dead/lazy pixels.

Do not let the computer power required to drive one totally put you off as obviously newer faster kit is coming out all the time and this TFT is probably one of the last ones (from Dell) to include all the inputs. You can always game @ a slightly lower than native 1920x1200 res and it still looks ok just not quite as sharp as native (which is very clear making other res look poor in comparision but still better than most other TFTs anyway!)

If you have a PS2 or Xbox then this monitor looks very good via the component inputs. Some PS2 games which have native progressive scan look very good on it.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Sep 2005
Posts
10,001
Location
Scottish Highlands
AWPC said:
Yeah its worth it especially considering it was over £300 nore a few weeks ago but consider that you need either GTX SLI, Xfire, 7800GTX512, X1800/X1900 to run anything @ the native 1920x1200 smoothy and even then some games lag a little when a lot is happening onscreen.

For max FPS X1800 or 1900 Xfire or GTX512 SLI is required to future proof a little. A 7900 dual GPU would probably be enough also.

Trouble is that without vsync enabled tearing is very noticeable due to the siz of the screen so you end up being limited to either 30/60FPS. Depending on the game some like FEAR struggle unless you have a very high end setup allround.


Not quite true. I can run COD2 at 1920x1200 with 4X AA on my 6600gt in SLI, even on just one card I get perfectly fine framerate. But I agree on things like FEAR etc, then yes you will need a beast of a GPU to run at native res.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
24 Feb 2004
Posts
14,211
Location
St.Andrews
Hmmm been pondering about this all day and still not come up with a firm decision. Worse still people are trying to talk me out of it on IRC....However I can see the USB Ports being handy and the memory card reader could also be hugely useful too...

Technically there is nothing wrong with my current setup so no reason to change. I don't do any webdesign or any 'work' so to speak so it would end up being used for games. Will it hold up to gaming OK?

I have a 7800GT and could SLi it if I run into problems so system power isn't an issue...
 
Associate
Joined
23 Oct 2004
Posts
1,884
Location
East Riding of Yorkshire
I am an avid gamer and once too was dubious and worried about making such a purchase. I succumbed to the temptation and can hand on heart say it has been the best purchase I made for my PC. I play Battlefield 2, FEAR, Quake 4, Counter Strike Source, Natural Selection, Command & Conquer, etc etc. This monitor handles them fine. It just takes a lil getting used to such a big screen but once you do you will never go back to anything less than 24" - thats the only drawback imo. Jus make sure you have a decent gfx card.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Apr 2003
Posts
6,518
Location
hOme
i paid £530 for a 6 month old one and its fantastic

quality peice of kit, put my imagequest Q17 to shame in ever area

i can run BF2 on ok settings on my 6800, dont let the high res put you off, tis a stunning monitor

four.jpg
;) go on, you know you want it :D
 
Back
Top Bottom