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Displays Dell 3007WFP vs Dell 3008WFP

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by roosauce, 20 Sep 2010.

  1. roosauce

    roosauce Looking for xmas projects??

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    Hi All,

    I have my eye on 30" monitors - second hand ... I need to decide whether the Dell 3008WFP is worth an extra £300-£400 over the 3007WFP.

    • My priority is gaming - good colour, no ghosting, decent black levels.
    • I'll be able to drive it at native resolution normally, but would like the option to output 1920x1200 and have it scale up either via the GPU or monitor. Any ideas on best method and/or panel here would help.
    • The 3007 is the older model and has a lesser colour range, but I suspect it's fine for gaming?
    • I'm currently on a BenQ FP241W - which is fairly old now, but top of the line in 2007. That might give you a sense of my point of comparison.

    Any thoughts are appreciated ... I've seen some reviews for the 3007, but they are thoroughly out of date.

    Thanks :D
     
    Last edited: 20 Sep 2010
  2. Jedra

    Jedra Supermodel

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    Hi, I have had the 3007WFP (in fact I have two) for a number of years now. I find it an excellent monitor for working, gaming and watching the occaisional movie. The 3007 does not have any internal scaling - it all has to be done by the input device by the way, so if you want to run an XBox on it, you will need to buy an up-scaler as well (which I did and it works well).

    I believe that the 3008 has more connection options (the 3007WFP only has DVI-D) so that may be a consideration. The 3008 is also newer, so you will possibly get more life out of it. I believe they also added scaling to the 3008, but you will need to check that.

    If you are buying second-hand, make sure you see the monitor working first. Check the light is consistent across the screen and check for dead pixels. Also make sure there is no flickering which could indicate a shorter than expected life.

    Regards
     
  3. Rofl_Waffle

    Rofl_Waffle What's a Dremel?

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    Both the 3007 and 3008 uses the exact same panel from LG.Display and the same backlight.

    The difference is that the 3008 has an internal scaler and the 3007 doesn't. The color is the same on both monitors.

    The 3007 has a single DVI input so you can't plug many things into it and it has no video scaler so it can only take display at 2560x1600 or 1280x800 unless it is plugged into a computer can scale it for the monitor. Basically it won't work on a xbox or BD/DVD player.

    The 3008 has every connection, from component to display port. Thats the main difference between the two monitors.

    Also the 3008 because it has a scaler. It has input lag. It needs time for the signal to bypass the onboard scaler before it can be displayed. It would be 1 frame behind, typical to most monitors. Even TN panels.

    While not many monitor can claim zero input but the 3007 does. It has no onboard scaler what so ever giving it an edge on input lag. But to be honest 1 frame worth of lag isn't all that much.

    If you want to connections go for the 3008, if you don't care. The money is probably the better part.

    Im using the LG version of the 3007 scalled the LG W3000H. Same panel made by LG of course and the same W-CCFL backlighting without any scaler. The colors are great but the black levels are only mediocre. It beats a TN since it doesn't have to employ dithering and FRC to get the correct tones but as an IPS panel it gets beat by S-PVAs.

    I just ordered the U2711, I can tell you how that goes when I get it. Though it might be out of your price range since you are going for second hard.
     
  4. roosauce

    roosauce Looking for xmas projects??

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    Thanks for the input guys.

    I am pretty happy with one DVI input, and I certainly no longer have a twitch response that would be impacted by 1 frame delay :) - so the big thing seems to be scaling. Does anyone have a view on how effective scaling is when done locally by the PC before flowing to the monitor? I haven't ever had to configure like this. Is scaling done by the monitor preferable to scaling by the PC?

    Thanks again. Roo.
     
    Last edited: 21 Sep 2010
  5. AstralWanderer

    AstralWanderer What's a Dremel?

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    Graphics cards can scale images perfectly well - the only time you may encounter problems is with driver bugs (like this one involving Nvidia 8800GTXs, which does have a workaround).

    I picked up my WFP3007 from MCSCom (though they don't currently have anything similar listed) and can recommend them as a source of refurbished goods.
     
  6. Jedra

    Jedra Supermodel

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    Hi,

    As for the scaling issue, I have had no problems whatsoever with regard to any scaling bugs. I used to to 2xGTX8800's in my old PC and now a HD5970 in my new PC. Both cards could output 2560x1600 natively so I have had no problems.

    I work in illustrator and photoshop as part of my job (amongst other things) and have seen no real issues with regard to colour levels (although I am working for web and not for print). Maybe the blacks aren't as black as they should be, I don't really know - it hasn't affected me if they are slightly out!

    I got my upscaler from Gefen and used that to upscale the signal from my Xbox 360 to work on the monitor and again, I didn't notice any problems.

    I would say that if you are mainly running from the PC and your graphics card can output 2560x1600 and you are happy with a DVI-D only input then then go for the 2007 as it is more budget-friendly. Please, please go and see it working first though!

    Regards
     
  7. roosauce

    roosauce Looking for xmas projects??

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    Cheers all.

    Seems that GPU upscaling is perfectly fine and there's not much value in spending more on the 3008 - as long as I can find a 3007 that I can look over properly before purchase.
     
  8. Rofl_Waffle

    Rofl_Waffle What's a Dremel?

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    Thats right, the scaler for the 3008 is only good for non-computer devices.
     

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