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Any Monitor suggestions for the new mac pro w 8800GT?

Hey everybody,

I was hoping that people would give some ideas about what display to get for the new mac pro. I am leaning towards a 24" or bigger non-apple display the first time because A) Apples are old technology (specially for gaming) B) they are not the bang for your buck.

Hannspree 28" and Samsung 245bw are 2 options for me right now.

Any comments, recomendations, good/bad experience appreciated. maybe we can create a good display opinion pool here.

M

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1.25GB RAM

Posted on Jan 31, 2008 5:36 PM

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25 replies

Jan 31, 2008 8:25 PM in response to REINMIRT

There's a number of recommendations in the Final Cut Pro forums for the Dell 2407WFP. The current version is actually 2407WFP-HC. It has a USB hub and memory card reader built in. If you search the forums for "2407" you'll find the posts. That display was $599 as of 1/30/08 because of a $100 off special but I just looked and its back to $699.

In the time its taking for my Mac Pro to arrive with the 8800 graphics card I've been waiting for Apple to finally update their displays. Barring that, I may go for the Dell.

Jan 31, 2008 8:49 PM in response to REINMIRT

i wouldnt hold your breath for a new apple display, they were built pretty future proof and are still better than a lot of newer and current displays out there.
even the good ones still have drawbacks and i wouldnt just pick up a bang for your buck monitor either, they also contain some problems.

for one, that "Hannspree 28inch", which i take it is really the Hanns-G 28" monitor, avoid that like the plague!
Might have a nice price tag, but its not even worth that much.
you can see each backlight lamp on the four sides of the display, and the center is completely dead darker then that outer radius around it, even calibrating it or using a color matching profile in the SysPref does nothing to give it a good quality, uneven backlighting horrible for graphics/gaming/profressional work.
not to mentionsome weird "overscan" issue. like if youre viewing variants of greys, yellows or blue backgrounds (perfect example; dashboard, the greyish overlay you could see interference like diagonal lines) it has noticeable diagonal scan lines on macpros (my new acd 30" does not), so it does not have accurate pixel matching for high end graphics cards.

sorry for that rant but i just returned mine the other day because though it was a nice display it just lacked quality.

id prefer,m hate to say, the Dell 24" or perhaps even this one looks and appears to be not bad and a good price for a 24"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824255001
westinghouse is becoming quite a good display manufacture lately.


if not HP and viewsonic are also good backup options with consumer friendly prices....they have a wide variety of professional grade displays without the premium

here are some 24" displays:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020+130982132 8&name=24%22

and some larger displays:
(note: displays over 24-26" do not accurately display resolutions unless its an oddball type...the max resolution for a 24" display will be the same on a 26"-28" display, fyi ~ ie; Hanns-g)

26: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020+130982386 7&name=26%22

27: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001233

28: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116084

30: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020+130982515 1&name=30%22


has a lot of competitive pricing and usually most dsplays by Samsung are a great deal regardless of size.

goodluck! hope that helped!

Jan 31, 2008 10:04 PM in response to solsun

The current Cinema Displays were introduced in 2004. Since then the only changes have been price drops and LCD panel changes. The external case design is much the same.

The last change was in April 2007 when the prices were dropped without any change in specs.
The previous change to that was in Aug 2006 when the prices were dropped and the LCD specs were improved. That's 1.5 years since the specs were changed which is a long time in the technology world.

Jan 31, 2008 10:19 PM in response to solsun

There is nothing bad about the Apple Displays.
They look great, are stylish. They ARE more expensive than other brands - so there you go.
But unless you 'need' HDMI or multiple inputs, they are just fine.
I have the 30 inch Apple and I love it - I would buy the same thing again today if I had the choice. It's very good quality, great colour consistency, big. I am not looking for 2 ms faster response for gaming, but overall quality. Again, they are not really price competitive, but it's worth it to me.

Check one out in teh Apple store!

D

Feb 1, 2008 6:03 PM in response to REINMIRT

I bought a Westinghouse 24 inch monitor that has VGA and HDMI. It is somewhat interesting because I can run video out to the unit using the HDMI, or I can use the DVI to HDMI from the Mac Pro. I bought this unit as a low cost holdover in case Apple had come out with new monitors at Macworld. Turned out they did not do any monitor upgrades yet, so I wound up keeping the Westinghouse. I really like the aluminum look of the Apple Monitor, however, I also paid half of what I would have paid for an Apple monitor. The response time of this monitor is really good, and I can also plug in a Playstation, or an HD-DVD player to the HDMI and enjoy HDTV. Good luck in your choices.

Feb 3, 2008 6:56 AM in response to REINMIRT

I think it really depends on what you're using it for. If gaming and/or movies are a high priority, then response time is important. If you work with graphics then color is important. True color representation is generally what's going to cost you, if I'm not mistaken. I bought a Samsung 226BW not long ago and, as I knew beforehand, the color was pretty bad from a professional point of view. Very heavy on the blues, and I haven't been able to tweak it to look nearly as good as my PowerBook's colors (a 3 year old laptop monitor). But I don't work with graphics and other than the color, which I no longer notice, it's a good looking monitor and it was cheap. So decide what's important and do your research. There are plenty of tests done on popular monitors.

Feb 3, 2008 8:58 AM in response to REINMIRT

I splurged a couple months ago and bought 3 of the Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC 24-inch Widescreen monitors. They list at 699 a piece, you can get Dell to drop the price if you buy more than one. I normally don't like Dell, but these things have amazing picture quality.

I know it's a bit extreme, but I love having a center screen and 2 flanking screens across my desk, angled inward. Sometimes I'll watch TV on the right hand screen, use the center one for my work PC(s) (via KVM switch), and use the left one for my old Sawtooth G3. When I get my new MacPro (on order now), I will use the DVI inputs of course on all 3 from the new Mac, and have a 3-wide extended desktop for my Mac - brought to you of course by the use of 2 8800GT cards.

I actually thought about going with 2 of the 30 inch apple screens, but really wanted to have 3 monitors, with one dead center and 2 flanking. The fact that my KVM switch for my servers would not display correctly on the 30 inch apple screen put the nail in the coffin of that idea as well.

Just some thoughts FWIW.

Feb 5, 2008 10:39 AM in response to REINMIRT

I also hate to say it, but I have a Dell 24" monitor. I replaced an Apple Cinema Display that lasted about 5 years. When I bout the Dell, the Apple 24" was about $300 more. The Apple monitor is prettier, but I'd rather spend that 300 elsewhere. And I actually use the card readers on the monitor quite a bit. And all and all, its not a bad looking monitor.

Feb 5, 2008 9:55 PM in response to REINMIRT

I have the Gateway XHD3000. It's a $1700.00 30" LCD with a DVI, VGA, HDMI, Component, Composite, S-Video, detachable speaker bars with dual headphone input, 6 USB ports, remote control, picture in picture, and a big hunking power supply 🙂

It's color display is around 76%, not quite as accurate as the Apple Cinema Display but the response time is really quick and the scaling engine is pretty good. Basically, it does an excellent job at displaying anything less than 2560x1600 resolution at full screen.

I spend my typical work day with my Mac Pro on DVI and my VGA work laptop on the PIP. I'll also switch the PIP input to HDMI while on my Mac so I can catch a little bit of DirecTV HD shows.

I just couldn't find another monitor to meet my needs. The new Dell 3008 HC monitor is close but the XHD3000 offers more of the options I was looking for, mainly the built in speakers and remote control.

Not trying to convince you to buy the Gateway but I have to say that other than an occassional 1 second blackout (while it adjust to DVI input), it's a pretty good monitor an has made me happy. The Blackout issue I think is related to the imaging engine adjusting to the DVI port as it doesn't happen anywhere else and only occurs after I switch to DVI. I also heard in other sites that it's a timing issue that could be remedied by making timing adjustments in your video card BIOS. Don't ask me how this is done because I have the ATI X1900XT on my Mac Pro and I don't know where that is adjusted. Good luck.

Feb 7, 2008 1:36 PM in response to apeguero

Gateway XHD3000 is awesome, indeed. I've just had it for 3 days, and it feels so wonderful just looking at the screen. I don't experience any blackout though, hopefully never.. 🙂

On a side note, I have a question. Does yours flicker during boot? Mine does, and it's kinda annoying when you're on the selection of Mac or Windows (for Bootcamp). How to get around this?

Thanks!

Any Monitor suggestions for the new mac pro w 8800GT?

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