Nice LCD for SW

[Theophilus]

OK, I finally replaced my 80-pound, 21" ViewSonic CRT for an LCD. I've been sifting through reviews to find a great monitor and settled on something that surprised me:
Gateway FPD2185W 21" wide-format LCD

Useful reviews:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1910534,00.asp

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1921881,00.asp

Otherwise, I've not seen this reviewed at Tom's Hardware, but the users there seem to like it.

I'm using the DVI cable connection with my nVidia FX-1400 (PCI Express), and it's great. Since this cable isn't included with the purchase, I got it at Fry's Electronics for less than half of what I could find it anywhere else (~$35). You need a DVI-D, if I remember right--not the same as other DVI cables for entertainment systems.

No dead pixels, great to have the wide format with SolidWorks and expansive room for toolbars--which is something that concerned me with the 16 x 10 format previously. I love it.

Another concern was whether I could properly see good image quality, since I do a lot of renderings and use Photoshop, etc. extensively. The included software really helps to dial-in brightness, contrast, etc. to make the most of the display's settings. Just did some great renderings the other day and the monitor worked better than I expected in providing the right feedback.

This could be a bit of a sleeper product, so I thought I'd post it here for reference. I've not seen anything Gateway reviewed within the CAD realm before.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[J-C]

I've beent hinking of getting an LCD but been worried about faster moving images like for gaming. Any ideas on how this monitor would perform?

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[J-C]

Nevermind, one of the reviews said that it displayed no ghosting while gaming. $600 is a killer price.....gee I remember the first 21" monitor my company bought for my first Solidworks workstation....$1500 for the monitor...$10,000 for the computer (Dual 300mhz P2 with a whooping half gig of memory.)

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[Theophilus]

Yeah, my first client had an almost identical system and cost for running SW 97. Crazy how things change.

With the DVI cable, waranty extension and tax, it's really quite close to $700.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[SBaugh]

I bought this monitor with my new Dell 9100 -

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3094&page=1

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[Theophilus]

Yeah, I looked at that and it looks great--a bit too big for my desk space and wallet, though. How do you like it?

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[SBaugh]

I love it... SW rocks on that monitor! And I got it for a very decent price... with the system I got it for $350 - 50% off of what you would normally pay with a system.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[ctopher]

Jeff,
I have the same monitor. I love it.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[Theophilus]

Chris, I think you're the only one I know of who has the same monitor.

Scott, that's a tremendous deal. Dell seems to do that fairly commonly.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[EngJW]

I bought a digital flat panel monitor from Dell and it looks great with SW. Also works good with things like Flight Simulator 2004 and Nascar Racing 2003. There is much more room on the desk, which is not necessarily a good thing because now the cats climb around it more.

 

[ctopher]

Jeff, you are the only one I know of also.
I don't use the rotation part of it. No use for it yet.
But, the size and the wide screen is perfect.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[Theophilus]

EngJW, get a three-legged cat like mine--that way getting up on the desk presents a lot more of a challenge.

Chris, I tried the portrait mode too, but really don't have much use for it either. Maybe if I was a writer or something. .. Meanwhile, I was amazed that I actually love this aspect ratio. I'm going to add tool buttons to my previously-squeezed tool bars now.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[ctopher]

I have about 90% buttons displayed on all programs, still enough room to work. I love it.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks Pro 06/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[djw2k3]

Why don't stand alone monitors come in the WXGA flavour without getting so large?

Those using laptop with this screen 1920x1200 resolution will know it has a huge amount of real-estate. All squeezed into a 15.4 inch widescreen display. The nearest I have seen in a standalone monitor is 24 inch.

Is there no demand? I know you generally sit much close to a laptop screen.

 

[rfus]

I've got that dell 24, 870 for a refurb off the site. Great monitor, although finding the right mouse sensitivity to cover all that area was a bit of a challenge. I have a 17" LCD for dual display next to it. Lots of screen.

I also have the SAMSUNG SyncMaster 213T 21.3", 1600 x 1200.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitor/LCD_Digital/NB21BSAB.asp?page=Specifications

Really nice LCD for those who are not so keen on the 1900 x 1200 Widescreen Ratio on the Dell 24.

RFUS

 

[Theophilus]

djw2k3, I think it's just as you finally said--probably no demand. If you've got such capacity for pixels, why not make them bigger such that a monitor can easily sit near the rear of a desk to use instead of close (covering work space).

Also I'm seeing a big push to make the monitors into TVs and used for other sorts of "media center" applications lately. ..meaning they are now trying to span the divide between big monitors on a desk and perhaps big enough TVs on a wall--merging them into the same SKU perhaps, down the road.

My monitor has about every possible connection on the back for this sort of thing. So companies probably don't want to risk marketing a monitor of that resolution limited to use at a single small distance, given the trends.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[foxbat1979]

I'm using a HP2335 23" widescreen panel. I can genuinely recommend it to you.

Design Engineer
Solidworks 2006/DBWorks 2006 user