Windows Dell 2405FPW: Good for PC gaming?

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sn...s&show_summary=False&page=productlisting.aspx

I know strictly speaking this could have been posted elsewhere, but I really wanted the opinions of anyone that uses such a bad boy for PC gaming purposes. I've seen a fair number of reviews but so few actually mention playing games like say, HL2 on this thing. I want it to be a dual purpose monitor, for my Xbox 360 and also PC, however I already have a 22inch Hitachi CRT and I'm worried I'm not gonna feel the benefit on the PC front if I have to play in 4:3.

As a side note, my PC is solely a games machine.

Anyone have an opinion on this?

 

ure 6800 gt should be just about enough to play hl2 in the tft's native res. and i tell u its very sweet, at first i was a bit uncomfortable with it, i didnt get the distance between me and the monitor correct, but when i sat in the right position, it was terrific.

id say its great for pc gaming.

 

depends whether you like black blacks or not.

I'm sure it's fantastic apart from that though.

 

Can I say, use a lower res than the native for widescreen? Does it allow the user to select it? Obviously my PC is reasonable, but nothing special and I don't want to have to make a major hardware upgrade just to play games in a crazy high widescreen resolution.

 

£938.83 No way

£489.00/£574.58

 

Have you used that site before? Might be safer than chancing eBay...

 

No... I haven't... but I'd prefer to buy something of such value from anywhere other than eBay

 

overclockers have it at the 600 mark ish i think with 4 yr dell warranty.

yes you can choose from lots of resolutions, hl2 supports quite a few 16:10 res's, and resizing is not as bad on these tft's as some others ive seen before, but older games do not have support of 16:10 res's so u have to use 4:3 res with black bars either side or u can choose to stretch the image to fit.

 

Thanks for the tips chaps.

I found this place: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/

Seems like they got just about everything covered, now I just need to buy the thing for myself >_<

 

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1971

Wooow, good for PC gaming, crap for HD console gaming

 

Oh, about half way down that page, those claims are basically discredited as incorrect. Seems many people are infact successfully using component inputs on it from a 360 (scroll halfway down for the pics of the dashboard and Kameo):

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=973982&page=2

And more here:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=973982&page=3&pp=20

Even so, the VGA lead would solve any HD problems (and some people mentioned might even give an clearer picture with reports of the monitor inserting coloured lines into some video on component). Although there is some debate as to what the monitor is actually ouputting. I've seen quite a few photos of this monitor running 360 games too, and they look stunning at such a high res.

 

www.sterlingxs.co.uk is where i got mine from

look at it this way, ive got one, and im an addicted gamer, i play all the time... i wouldnt buy any other tft on the market, as soon as i saw how good the 2405 was i HAD to get it (it was either a single 2405 or 2 2005's... i chose the 24" cause its sooo damn good for movies, and games play on a single not both... so yeah, its deffo worth it

ok, so the whole black thing is slightly noticeble (unless you play with the settings TONS - like i have)

this monitor absolutely pwns all others, its just soo damn clear and crisp, playing fast games like nfsmw and cod2 (during intense fight scenes its madness) and to be honest, I LOVE IT, i wouldnt trade it for anything, it just works sooo damn well...

as for the component input, ive used mine with my ps2 (ok not hd or nout, but its composite in) and it looked good cant wait to get a 360 and a ps3 the badness

plus, if you watch films its amazing, im trying to expand my dvd collection by a quite a bit, cause they just look sooo damn awesome, the quality compared to tv is just mad!

edit:

on the widescreen issue front

you can FORCE all games to play in 16:10, i cant remember how, i will find otu sometime soon, just google it, if you find it lemme know, i just know you can cause my neighbour did it on his 2405 but sold it due to the fact his pc died....

 

I know it will do HD gaming through VGA but i was intending to use the VGA for computer input and Component for console. Im still wondering whether I should save up for a 24" Dell or get a 26" Dell TV :/

 

hum.... use dvi-d for the pc? it pwns quality wise

you could use the component... its high enough quality anyhow

id say get the 24" as its multipurpose tv's suck for gaming

 

Aw man I'm having the same dilemma. The 26" Dell LCD HDTV looks really good value, but the 25ms response time is putting me off. But it is cheaper and bigger. Like you I wanted to have my PC and Xbox 360 independently connected to the same monitor. Hopefully it'll still be doable, although I may have to look into DVI and VGA instead of component.

Reading the posts on the 2405, it seems component works fine on the LCD, but that some people question whether the Xbox is upscaling or not instead of pumping out at the higher picture quality on this monitor - whereas the VGA does what it ought to. The people at Dell don't seem to know or care what the LCD is doing, although looking at the closeup pictures it looks fantastic whatever the output is.

 

True for any TFT though.

I LOVE my 2005FPW, and the 2405 is just a bigger version, same response time and brightness and contrast I think. For games that can run widescreen (such as HL2), it's superb. For games that can't, it's superb with a bit of wasted space on the sides.

As for Xbox upscaling or whatnot, set the display to "1:1" mode - it'll black box around everything outside the normal res. There's stretch (regardless of aspect, fill the screen), aspect (keep aspect ratio filling as much as possible) and 1:1 (no scaling at all, centered).

Considering my PS1 looks great over S-video, I'd imagine it running an Xbox (or 360 or any console) would look that much better. Remember though that it's inputs don't include component, "just" DVI, VGA, S-, and composite.

Scratch that if the inupts are different than the 2005fpw, I'm just assuming they're the same. I seem to remember reading that they are. Often times people confuse composite and component too, composite is the one yellow cable and component is the YPrPb 3-cable setup (more or less a standardized VGA)

And DEFINATELY use the DVI for the PC. Analog looks terrible imo, text just seemed distinctly off (strange, as my 15" dell LCD looks perfect over analog, though it's not digital so I don't have a choice). Looked OK for a while, but I think I changed something and it went wierd, and the autoadjust didn't seem to make it better.

 

Nah I had a look at the connections on the back last night on some review site, and it defo has component input aswell as composite etc.

 

Yep, that's just guessing on the specs for ya. If I ever save up for one of those bad boys, it'll be the last display I'll need for a while I'd think. Well, till that HDCP crap, but I'd bet that'll go the way of the sony rootkit. I just wish the 2005fpw had component... svideo looks horrible from my DVD player (the PS1 looks FAR better... unfortunately that doesn't do me ANY good as it's not a DVD player... I almost wish I spent a tad more and just got a slim ps2, but I hate sony with a passion right now)

 

Crap. Dell have dropped the price on their 26" HDTV... AGAIN!

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/lcd_w2600?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Now I'm mad tempted. Just such a massive price difference between this and a 2405....

 

Just remember that the TV's native res is 1280 x 768 at 26"... You'll have to sit back a good meter from the TV. Since this is "solely for gaming" purpose I wont mention how pixelated windows and text will look at 26" at that res.

If it was me I'd stick with the 2405FPW... I love mine. Its perfect. I wouldn't use anything else at this point in time for PC gaming.