DELL 2407WFP questions pls....

[kirkster]

Numpty questions I know but I am a bit unsure.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-009-DE&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

Firstly, I really like the look of this monitor but I also like the HP 2207. Can you tell me why I should spend £200 more on this than the HP other than mere size? I really llike nice monitors, they really set off the PC and make them a joy to use. However, £430 is a lot of money. Some help justifying it to myself would be great pls !!!!!!

Will a 8800GTS drive the monitor at a high level of detail at the native resolution (which I believe is 1900 x 1200)? I only have a 6600GT in my current home computer at the minute. Will this feeble card at least run windows on the 24 inch monitor? I know it won't run games very well but general windows work for a few months until I upgrade my computer?

The ads say it has digital, analogue and S video inputs. Does that mean
that I can connect seperate devices to each of these inputs and select which one I want from the menus on the monitor? For example, I'd like the DVI connector to go to my home PC. However, when I am working from home I'd like to connect my laptop to the analogue conector. Is this possible? I assume yes but want to check.

My works laptop is 1400 x 1050 resolution at 4:3 ratio. Does the monitor automatically scale the image up to fit the full screen or does it make it put bars where it can't dispaly the 4:3 ratio of the laptop?

Finally, some of the reviews mention "banding" on the display sometimes. What does this mean and does this monitor suffer from it?

If you had to rate the monitor from 1 to 10, based on 1 being a piece of junk, 5 being usable but nothing to write home about and 10 being the best computing piece of kit you ever bought, what would you say?

I want the monitor for general windows work, editing my videos and pictures, my studies and gaming (though games are not the highest prioirty).

Many thanks for answering these numerous questions. If the answers look good I am gettng one!!!

Best regards, Steve

 

[Corasik]

It's inputs can all be wired to different devices, a button on the screen lets you switch between sources, or if only 1 source is turned on it will switch to that source automatically.

Scaleing you have a choice of 1:1, full screen or zoom. 1:1 would give black bands top bottom and side, as the screen is 1920x1200, so higher res in both directions, full screen would display fullscreen, no black bands, but also distorting the image as its stretching more horizontally than vertically, and zoom would zoom the image until the top/bottom bands disappears, but the sides would still black band.

Of course you could just tell the lappy to use a 16:9 resolution on the external display. Aynway, however you want the scaling it will do it.

The banding issue was resolved in the A03 revision, and we're now up to A04's. Well, thats mostly true. If you run the monitor in 'desktop' mode there is no banding. If you try 'Gaming' or 'Multimedia' then the banding can return. Personally I leave my screen in 'Desktop' mode all the time, and its perfect for gaming and more mundane work applications. I dont particually like the look of 'DVD/Video' on it, its ok but bascially I dont like LCD for video anyway. I have a plasma TV for that. Its not a 'flaw' with the screen, just personal dislike for LCD 'video' displays.

However for video editing I would say its fine, for general windows work its great, and for gaming very good as well.

9/10

 

[Agent0range]

I bought my 2407 around Christmas time and I would definitely rate it as a 9 out of 10. Even at the price I paid for it back then I would recommend it. I bought mine as a general purpose monitor, so I could play on my 360 at 1080i and enjoy HD movies on my PC. I have not been let down at all. Like Corasik, I leave my monitor in "Desktop" mode all the time, I very rarely use the other modes.

Regarding the inputs, you can basically plug inputs into each of the sockets, so a VGA device, a digital device, analogue etc and switch modes between them, running them all simultaneously. The 2407 also has a Picture in Picture mode which isn't too useful but pretty cool sometimes.

Your 6600GT shouldn't have a problem displaying a desktop image at that resolution or doing basic tasks like surfing the web/watching movies etc, but you will definitely struggle with gaming. An 8800GTS will cope with games at 1920x1200, but you have to remember that gaming at this resolution is incredibly demanding on your hardware so don't be disappointed if you have to sometimes turn the graphics quality down slightly to get playable frame rates at 1920x1200. I had to do quite a lot of tweaking with ArmA to get it to run smooth, you can't just think an 8800GTS will cope with absolutely everything on max at that res.

If you aren't going to be using a 360 or something similar that displays images at 1080i or p then the HP 22" would probably suit you better. I would still totally recommend it, the extra size, inputs and multi-card reader make it a great purchase, whatever task you plan to use it for.