Decisions decisions...

[Vidar]

Hiya guys,

I'm due to build a complete new system either at the end of March or shortly after and am in need of a monitor.

I had the Dell ultra sharp 22" monitor with my last system and thought it was a fantastic monitor, however I'm looking for something a little bigger than that now and have been considering an ultra sharp in the 24" flavour....

Trouble is the new Benq XL240T 24" looks like a fantastic monitor and is a damn sight cheaper, cost isn't a major issue with a budget of £2,600.00 however getting the best monitor I can is important, savings here could go elsewhere in my new system

What would you guys recommend?

 

[cmndr_andi]

If you are mainly playing games, then the XL2420T seems to be the one to go for, here is a really in-depth review which looks at gaming performance.

Though if you just want a larger, higher resolution version of your 22in Dell then I would look at the Dell U2412HM. It is about the same cost as the BenQ, but since it uses an E-IPS panel then it isn't quite as suited for fast paced gaming as the BenQ (though it is certainly usable and should be as good as your current monitor) but it will give you better colour accuracy and wider viewing angles - which will be mainly appreciated outside of gaming (here is an in-depth review of the Dell).

If your budget is substantial then you may also want to consider one of the IPS panel 2560x1440 resolution 27in monitors, though you will need to take into account the framerate hit for going to such a high resolution and how it affects your graphics card choice.

 

[Vidar]

To be honest gaming is going to me more of an after thought these days, I will play games I'm sure but its more for photo editing, web design and learning CAD etc....

 

[cmndr_andi]

Ah, in that case I would get the Dell U2412HM then, as I mentioned above (and discussed in the review) the image quality is really nice and the resolution is a bit larger than the gaming monitors (1920x1200 vs 1920x1080) so there is a bit more desktop real estate to play with (specifically more height) as well as slightly more viewable area (since it is 16:10, not 16:9). Plus, for gaming this monitor will generally be fine, especially if you are already happy with the gaming performance of your current Dell Ultrasharp.

 

[Jake_C]

If your budget is that large then I'd say get the Dell U2711 1440p resolution gives you much more screen real estate and better ppi than 1080p 24" monitors. I use CAD (Solidworks) on a 1080 monitor, I wish I had more space. I've been tempted by the higher res monitors but can't really afford it. I'd also prefer the glossy finish on the Hazro and Apple displays, but thats down to preference.

 

[Vidar]

Thanks for the advice guys, With the system components and peripherals etc I've chosen I'm already pushing the limit of my budget, am looking at a I7 3930k etc for when I start the CAD evening course in September at my local college...

 

[Paul11]

i agree on the 27" if you can afford it

i went for a hazro non glass and love it to bits

so much better than 24" 1080

 

[Jake_C]

Thanks for the advice guys, With the system components and peripherals etc I've chosen I'm already pushing the limit of my budget, am looking at a I7 3930k etc for when I start the CAD evening course in September at my local college...

For CAD I'd go with pure clock speed over number of cores. My work PC has 2 Xeon processors clocked at about 2.6GHz each which gives 16 threads, but I'd much rather have 1 overclocked Sandybridge i5 or i7 quad core. Solidworks can only use one thread so basically I'm getting about 6% CPU usage when it's going as fast as it can. This is fundamentally how the program works so I'm gonna assume that other CAD packages work this way too.

If you really want an LGA2011 CPU I'd say get the 3820k since it has a higher clock speed and it's a lot cheaper. Otherwise get an i5 2500k or a i7 2700k.