Best monitor for CAD

Guardsmon · 22 Nov 2010 at 22:19

Hi,

I'm being asked about what screens someone should use for a new CAD computer. I don't know the exact type that she is working on but I was told that she uses a lot of CAD 2008 and Photoshop. She's been using Macs at work but is looking to work from home and looking at the alternatives.

Due to the price of a Mac Pro workstation she has asked me about windows based solutions.

No I've got a Dell 2407WFP which I love and have been reading about the U2410 and the S-IPS panels over the last few months so was thinking going down the Dell ultrasharp/pro route would be a good idea.

I'm budgeting £200-300 on the screen preferably, but if the U2410 is far better then I can probably push to that.

My real questions are how do the following fair against each other and should I be looking at alternatives?

Dell Ultrasharp U2211H (this is certainly the smallest I'd want to recommend)
Dell Ultrasharp U2311H
Dell P2411H LED (I've not looked at these before, but a lot of people are going on about the LED monitors now for gaming, should I be looking at this?)
Dell U2410
HP ZR24w

Any help would be great. Thanks

crackerbear · 22 Nov 2010 at 22:37

I think considering it's going to be used for CAD and Photoshop, you're going to need as much screen estate as possible, so I'd say only look at the U2410 or the ZR24w on that list - both of which are 24" and have a native resolution of 1920x1200.

Read TFTCentral's review on the U2410 and the ZR24w if you haven't already. In particular this bit from the conclusion section of the ZR24w review:

Price-wise, the HP is very attractive. At the time of writing, the screen retails for ~£330, with competing models like the Dell U2410 and HP LP2475W retailing for around £450. This is a big price difference and apart from a few extra features and a wide gamut, there isn't really a lot in it I don't think. You've also got to keep in mind that this is a standard gamut screen, which I think it going to be one of the key differentiaters between this and the other models we have discussed. If you want an sRGB gamut screen and do not want extended colour spaces, this would be an excellent choice, especially given the price point. Of course, if you want extended colour spaces then the Dell U2410 and HP LP2475W would be a better option in this area of the market.

Personally if I had the money and were to choose, I'd go for the U2410, however there have been reports of tinting issues (see this long thread) although the newer revisions (up to Rev A02 now) have apparently less or none. With your budget though, the ZR24w would be the one to get.

Guardsmon · 22 Nov 2010 at 22:41

thanks crackerbear.

What do they mean by extended colour spaces? I don't want to jump to a conclusion and then find I should have considered something else.

PCM2 · 22 Nov 2010 at 22:45

Does your CAD work use a particular colour space, such as sRGB or Adobe RGB? The U2410 has a broad-spectrum backlight (i.e. an extended colour gamut) which allows it to display a greater variety of colours than the ZR24w. If you must work within the sRGB colour space then this will be of little advantage to you and you will be paying a premium for something you don't need.

Guardsmon · 22 Nov 2010 at 22:50

I'll make sure to ask when I speak to them tomorrow. Thanks

crackerbear · 22 Nov 2010 at 22:54

Guardsmon said:
What do they mean by extended colour spaces? I don't want to jump to a conclusion and then find I should have considered something else.

Have a read through this: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=723315

What is a wide-gamut monitor, and why should I care?

In brief, a wide-gamut monitor is a monitor which is capable of displaying a wider range of colours than a standard gamut (sRGB) monitor (more on this later). At first this sounds to be advantageous, who wouldn't want more colours? The ability to reproduce larger parts of the optical spectrum is surely a good thing right? More colours would mean more life-like photos, more realistic movies, and better more vivid games right? The answer is yes, but... what happens if the software and hardware are unaware of these extra colours? Well, this would mean that the colours sent to your monitor would be displayed inaccurately. Since this new outburst of wide-gamut monitors is only recent software is still used to sending out standard gamut colours so the displayed colours are “stretched”. This leads to games, movies and just about everything looking overly colourful, and bright. But who cares right? what's a little colour between friends, well some people (myself included) much prefer that their computer be able to accurately reproduce the original colours of source materials (in games or movies etc) I prefer that people's faces don't look red in movies or on facebook, and I prefer that the colours I experience are exactly what the author had intended. Now that you're aware of some of the drawbacks, lets look at methods for combating this.

As PCM2 says, depending on what you need (i.e. what colour space) the ZR24w is usually more than enough for most users. If they're doing professional Photoshop work, you'd probably want the wide-gamut found on the U2410.

Somnambulist · 22 Nov 2010 at 23:43

Just bought the ZR24W myself. Haven't really had a chance to play with it as I'm waiting for the rest of the hardware to turn up, and I know I'll need to calibrate it to get the best out of it (read the TFT Central review), but it seems like the business!

16:10 is waaaaaaay better for design and stuff since the extra height does make a difference. I've been using a 16:10 laptop for years and couldn't face dropping down to 16:9. I won't be needing anything other than standard gamut either.

Got it for just under three hundred notes, not including p&p, but that was under a tenner.

EDIT - a few poop iPhone photos to tease you:

crackerbear · 22 Nov 2010 at 23:57

Somnambulist said:
a few poop iPhone photos to tease you

Nice, but why are they black and white? Are you trying to be arty?

Somnambulist · 23 Nov 2010 at 02:21

I fancied a change from using the 'Print' preset in Mill Colour! Proper photos will be in colour when I have it all set up. This also reminds me to keep posting so I can get my hands on that calibrator, as reading the review again just reinforces the knowledge that it's only 'good' out the box but can be 'great'.