Received my 20" Dell 2005FPW - *updated*

[SirOblivious]

Hey all,

My new Widescreen LCD got here last night. Just a few remarks here.

1. Dang it's heavy. My 15" LCD weighs considerably less. The dell comes in at over 24 pounds.

2. Can't get the dang VGA cord out of the input of the monitor. It's kinda a tight squeeze and my fingers are to big apparantly. I'm using DVI so it's kinda useless sitting there attached to nothing.

3. Very slight backlight bleed in the top right corner, but you really have to look for it. Its not at all major and I don't notice it while gaming. Not a big deal, just mentioning.

4. My old crap Geforce4 MX can't keep up very well at 1680x1850 (i think the 1st # is right) resolution in WoW. No biggie again. My BFG 6800GT OC is ariving today w/ my new PSU.

5. Very crisp and bright picture quallity. When I first woke up this morning to pull up my browser(default at google which is nothing but white), it nearly blinded me.

6. Don't notice any dead pixels anywhere.

7. The USB connector on the sides and under the "wiring panel"(where everything plugs in under the monitor), I find quite useful.

Overall I'd give it a 8/10 rating, but my opinion of it will probably increase to a 9/10 as the time goes on and i get the stupid VGA cord out.

 

[imverygifted]

out of curiosity when did you order it and what revision is it?
edit: and try a screw driver to get the VGA cord out, they usually have ends you can unscrew w/ a screw driver

 

[SirOblivious]

It's the first model, A00, I believe. I ordered it on 1/4/05 and received it yesterday 1/10/05 @ 2:45.

*feels like a complete dunce* - screwdriver... duh?

 

[buckZor]

Hey, Im considering the same model, and I also play primarily WoW. Are you saying that WoW supports the native awkward resolution of it???? Please respond, more info!!!!

 

[SirOblivious]

Originally posted by: buckZor
Hey, Im considering the same model, and I also play primarily WoW. Are you saying that WoW supports the native awkward resolution of it???? Please respond, more info!!!!

Sure does. WoW supports the maximum resolution of this monitor in Wide screen. While playing it appears you get about a 1/3 more horizantal viewing space. Some funny things WoW does in WS mode though is:
1. the map now doesnt cover the screen. It doesn't stretch to a rectangle. It remains a square and the world view is visable at its ends.
2. The bar w/ your spells, bags, ect doesnt fill the entire bottom. It is centered.

I went through and helped a friend last night with VanCleaf in westfall and was thoroughly impressed with the monitor. Even with my crap g4 MX card with all picture qualities at minimum, it was still beautiful.

Can't wait till tonight when i get the 6800GT so I crank everything to max.

You recall what server you play on? I don't but i'll post mine tonight.


Edit: Tonight I'll take some screen shots and see about posting them (haven't done this before, ne1 know of a tutorial and web hosting service?

 

[BlamoHammer]

When I play WoW on my lappy I use the 1680x1050 resolution and I love it. I can imagine it would be even better when played on a 20" rather than a 15.4". <drool>

In any case, anyone play on Deathwing server?

 

[devildog45co]

wtf, i ordered mine on the 3rd, and you already got yours? dell says expected shipping on mine to be on or before the 14th. BS.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: devildog45co
wtf, i ordered mine on the 3rd, and you already got yours? dell says expected shipping on mine to be on or before the 14th. BS.

Same estimated shipping date for me...I ordered on the 5th. I can only hope that they're doing a new manufacturing run or something, a new revision that clears up the problems I've been hearing about (backlighting mostly).

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: devildog45co
wtf, i ordered mine on the 3rd, and you already got yours? dell says expected shipping on mine to be on or before the 14th. BS.

same here

 

[nitromullet]

2. Can't get the dang VGA cord out of the input of the monitor. It's kinda a tight squeeze and my fingers are to big apparantly. I'm using DVI so it's kinda useless sitting there attached to nothing.

Use a flathead screwdriver to carefully unscrew the thumbscrews, the notch is there for a reason. My fingers are too big to get in there either - I actually used a butterknife to loosen the VGA cable and tighten the DVI. it doesn't have to be tight, just snug.

This screen paired with a 6800GT is sweet, you will not be disappointed. Not sure if you play FPS games, but HL2 is amazing on the 2005FPW, and it supports widescreen out of the box.

 

[grunjee]

Not to clutter the thread, but I ordered mine on the 1st... and it still says "In Production" on Dell's site

Anyway, glad you're enjoying it... I only have my imagination at this point.

 

[amol]

mine has been in "pre-prduction" since 1/3/05 . .. .

 

[SirOblivious]

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I spent a good portion last night filddling around in WoW (oh Khadgar server btw). I received my new PSU - Antec True Power 430Watt and the BFG 6800GT OC yesterday. I installed them both, configured the card and started up WoW. A bit dissapointing. It seems that it actually runs slower than my geforce4 mx ran it. With all quality at medium or low grade(some only have high/low) and 1680x1050 res I get an average FPS of about 30. When I'm flying a gryphan... falls down to about 5fps and sometimes 0(bad stuttering). I've had windows installed on my computer for about 1.5 years now. I think I'll start fresh and wipe one of my smaller drives and use it clean. After I have a fresh copy of XP and 0 unrelevant drivers I hope it will clear up. I'll post my system specs below to see if you all think it might be my CPU/mem that may be causing the bottle neck, but I don't think it should be that bad.

P4 2.4gHz on "some" mother board (must be generic POS, can't find any brand markings other than the VIA chipset)
512Mb of memory - Not sure what type, bought it so long ago. my bios says it runs at 100Mhz which says to me PC100 SDRam?. Thinkin this is the bottle neck if anything if thats the correct info
2x80GB and 1x120GB PATA drives
BFG 6800GT OC vid card
Antec 430W True Power PSU
Pioneer X16 dvd/cd burner

Within a month I plan on buying new MB/CPU/Memory. So if the fresh copy of WinXP doesn't fix, I would certainly hope that would... MSI neo2 Plat/A64 3200+ s939/ 1gb corsair value ram is what I plan on going with.

 

[grunjee]

SirOblivious --

I can tell you this... from my experience with my XFX 6800 GT, a lot of performance problems are due to the drivers. From reading on various forums, the consensus is pretty unanimous on the issue -- the driver quality for the 6800 cards just isn't there yet.

I would highly recommend guru3d.com. They have lots of beta and modified drivers... I have been pretty happy with modified drivers, the Savage and XtremeG (think I spelled it right) in particular.

Also, as you mentioned... motherboard, cpu and memory also play a huge role in performance... a generic board can really hold you back.

 

[fowen]

SirOblivious: Where are you located?

 

[SirOblivious]

south alabama

 

[iceperson]

I hear that WoW is seriously CPU and memory intensive. I was playing with a 2.4 P4 (533Mhz system clock) 1.5GB of RAMBUS and a 6800 and my frame rate wasn't nearly what it should have been. Just for grins I dropped in a 3.06Ghz P4 and turned on hyperthreading and the difference was like night and day. I don't have my 2005FPW yet (still waiting for it to ship), but it runs flawlessly and 1280*1024 on my 19" CRT.
iceperson