Which monitor BL3200PT or XL2730Z

[RussianSensation]

RS, have the BL3200PT on my 5960x rig and the Achieva Shimian on my 3770k rig. They are not hooked up to the same rig.

kk, thanks for the reply guskline!

Did you get a great deal on a 5960X CPU? That's a $1K piece.

 

[MattL]

Well I didn't realize how bad this company was. Hopefully we get lucky.
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Woot

So I ended up ordering on Amazon, figured I'd be safe, especially since I was ordering two (might have risked it on one)... also I have Amazon Prime so getting it by Sunday was very tempting.

Now the next temptation is a new video card... will be good to see what the new AMD cards are this month.

 

[guskline]

kk, thanks for the reply guskline!

Did you get a great deal on a 5960X CPU? That's a $1K piece.

RS, I bought the Newegg combo of the Asus RE5, 5960x/16G-Corsair DDR4-2800 ram. Was my 64th Birthday present!

 

[MattL]

So my wife and I got our new monitors yesterday and absolutely love them. 32" is amazing for gaming, especially loving it in Dragon Age: Inquistion, just makes you feel so immersed. Thanks for the help.

My 7970 is getting me about 30-35 fps in Ultra (with MSAA turned off), which isn't bad at all. My wife and I are running nearly identical hardware so might snag a 290X or the refresh/rebrand of it with the new cards, whichever we can snag for the beset deal for her and then I'll crossfire our 7970s... Should hold me until next year and maybe I'll take a big new leap in video card hardware.

 

[RussianSensation]

So I ended up ordering on Amazon, figured I'd be safe, especially since I was ordering two (might have risked it on one)... also I have Amazon Prime so getting it by Sunday was very tempting.

:thumbsup: I should have done the same, didn't realize that was an option when I placed the order. Mine still hasn't even shipped. :thumbsdown:

RS, I bought the Newegg combo of the Asus RE5, 5960x/16G-Corsair DDR4-2800 ram. Was my 64th Birthday present!

Nice! Awesome b-day present. I guess for your 65th, the more important milestone you are going all out with dual 980Tis or Fijis?

So my wife and I got our new monitors yesterday and absolutely love them. 32" is amazing for gaming, especially loving it in Dragon Age: Inquistion, just makes you feel so immersed. Thanks for the help.

Did the monitors look used, or nearly brand new? Also, what cables came in the box? How are the black levels, contrast ratio, viewing angles and refresh/response time (blurring)?

 

[MattL]

Did the monitors look used, or nearly brand new? Also, what cables came in the box? How are the black levels, contrast ratio, viewing angles and refresh/response time (blurring)?

So I just bought them new off Amazon at $600, still a great price for such a good quality 32" 1440p monitor.

The black levels and contrast are amazing. In Dragon Age I can see so much more detail than my 23" old Dell TN monitor (that has an odd resolution of 2048x1152). I'm actually going down in ppi a bit from about 102 to 92, but very close, just a *lot* more screen. I see a lot more detail in the darker areas of the game, such as caves, inside castles, shadowed areas etc... and at the size it looks amazing. Also since the ppi is similar in the game I just see a *lot* more of the world, I notice taller buildings and grander areas in Dragon age a *lot* more now, such as entering Skyhold is more of a grand experience. I noticed the same while playing Old Republic (the MMO), I notice the tall and grand areas a lot more since I don't have to deliberately look up to see more. Really enhances the games far more than I expected.


Viewing angles are superb, which was very important for me since I'm sitting pretty close at about 1 1/2 feet away (EDIT: from 1 foot to 1 1/2 feet actually). I can imagine a monitor this size would cause a lot of problems if viewing angles and uniformity were bad.

I haven't noticed any blurring/ghosting at all actually. Despite coming from a fast TN panel (though still 60hz). I did fire up a session of TF2 and definitely notice tearing more. I'm sure this is purely due to the larger monitor now and possibly the higher demand (so lower FPS but don't think I'm running into FPS issues in tf2) so I just see it more now. I think with my smaller monitor it was just harder to notice tearing.

I realized getting this I was choosing image quality over tearing (especially if I went with a freesync monitor and waited to ugprade my video card) and I'm very glad I did it. TF2 I think is a worse case scenario since I was rocket jumping with the beggars which can mean chains of jumping, speed pogoing, and rapid spinning and view movement, far more than pretty much any other FPS. Despite taking time to adjust and the increased obviousness of tearing after adjusting my mouse sensitivity to match the new resolution better I was securing #1 place. I definitely move my eyes and head a lot more but I can see a lot more too. I'll have to experiment with V-SYNC some more too to see which I prefer, the tearing or stuttering, but in the end it doesn't matter... I noticed no tearing in Dragon Age, even when moving my camera rapidly, only in first person in TF2 moving quite rapidly.

Maybe in 2 years or so I'll upgrade to a 4k monitor + Freesync + 144hz+ when they have VA or IPS panels at this size and with those features and gaming hardware can keep up. Until then I am more than satisfied...

Really happy my 7970 (reference too since I had planned, though never got around, to setting up watercooling in my favorite piece of my rig, my caselabs ST10-X tank of a case) is keeping up well. Pretty confident I can drop $250-$300 and snag a 290x for my wife and double up the 7970s and be perfectly fine for a while and jump up in Dragon Age from 30-35 to the 50s+ in FPS.

 

[guskline]

Great news Matt. What a great monitor overall!

 

[kami]

Been using the BL3200PT for about 8 months or so, I love it. Image quality did improve noticeably when I calibrated with my Spyder4Pro. Can probably find calibration profiles online as well, but it's nice to calibrate it at your preferred brightness (which is 140 cd/m2 for me). It's amazing how tiny and insignificant my old 27" looks. Can't ever go back to a small monitor.

The stand is outstanding, and 4 USB ports + inclusion of every display cable imaginable makes it really feel worth the money. Not to mention that cool little puck thingy to change settings. Just a quality product.

 

[MattL]

Been using the BL3200PT for about 8 months or so, I love it. Image quality did improve noticeably when I calibrated with my Spyder4Pro. Can probably find calibration profiles online as well, but it's nice to calibrate it at your preferred brightness (which is 140 cd/m2 for me). It's amazing how tiny and insignificant my old 27" looks. Can't ever go back to a small monitor.

The stand is outstanding, and 4 USB ports + inclusion of every display cable imaginable makes it really feel worth the money. Not to mention that cool little puck thingy to change settings. Just a quality product.

Thanks for sharing, great to hear the longer term usage of a product like this. I'm loving mine. The 32" size is amazing, I am glad I didn't go 27" even if it meant a faster monitor or gsync/free sync. It really fills my field of view and makes gaming so much more immersive. It's hilarious to see my 23" monitor sit beside it, such a size difference.

Seeing BenQ show off the XR3501 at E3 almost made me a bit jealous... 35" VA panel with 144 hz... except seeing that it's 2560x1080 I'm definitely happier with my 32" that is 2560x1440. I wouldn't want to give up my vertical real-estate, it makes a huge difference in immersion. Especially in games like Dragon Age where there's huge buildings and great scenery, I see so much more of it now without having to look up.

 

[MattL]

The stand is outstanding, and 4 USB ports + inclusion of every display cable imaginable makes it really feel worth the money. Not to mention that cool little puck thingy to change settings. Just a quality product.

Forgot to +1 on this point. Love all the cords and the wonder stand. For such a large monitor it is amazingly stable and adjustable. When you slant it to be vertical it ridiculous how tall it is lol.

 

[guskline]

MattL have to give a "shout out and thank you" to AdamK47 who originally steered me to the BenQ BL3200PT.

 

[beginner99]

I guess it also depends on the game and level you want to play at. XL2730Z main advantage is also strobing mode eg. low to no motion blur. That's very beneficial in FPS, it's not only the hz that matter. However strobing at 100hz+ at 1440p also requires serious GPU power or lower settings.

But if you just a casual FPS gamer and don't mind getting your ass kicked online, then does it really matter? No. And in other games were landscape is more important a VA/IPS panel has it's advantages. IMHO these "gamer panels" are mainly meant for "competitively" playing FPS online. If that's not your goal and you really like VA I would say choose the VA. (Note I myself will probably buy the XL2730Z but I do care about my KDR, so there is that).

EDIT: Ok I should read the whole thread before answering but it seems he followed my recommendation.

 

[SniperWulf]

My wife and I buy from woot pretty regularly. Our experience has been great, and it improved when Amazon bought them out some years back. Of all the things we've purchased (new and refurb), I think we've had to make maybe 2 returns/exchanges.