Dell 2005fpw

[Kaido]

I'm looking at picking up a Dell 2005fpw 20" widescreen monitor for use with my laptop via VGA. Is this still a pretty good monitor? My 19" VGA-only Dell LCD is giving me some serious eye strain (running at 1280x1024 vs. 1280x800 on my 15.4" laptop widescreen) and I figure having a higher-quality monitor at a higher resolution might do the trick. About $400 new at Dell right now with a 3-year warranty. What do you think?

 

[Operandi]

Its one of the best 20" widescreens on a DVI connection. I have no idea how it is on a VGA...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Operandi
Its one of the best 20" widescreens on a DVI connection. I have no idea how it is on a VGA...

Yeah, unfortunately my laptop only has VGA

 

[aniruddha23]

Originally posted by: Kaido
About $400 new at Dell right now with a 3-year warranty. What do you think?

Works great on VGA too.

Just dont forget to grab a $ 35 off coupon from ebay.

 

[Jiggz]

It should work but I'm not sure if your laptop video can support the higher native resolution to ran the 20.1" . So the eye strain could still be there.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: aniruddha23

Originally posted by: Kaido
About $400 new at Dell right now with a 3-year warranty. What do you think?

Works great on VGA too.

Just dont forget to grab a $ 35 off coupon from ebay.

Dell 25% off select LCD monitors: $396.75 for the 2005fpw
Ebay coupon from seller "ponpongirl": $1.98 for $35 off orders over $300 in Dell Home (instant delivery)
Sub-total: $361.75
Shipping: Free 3-5 days
Tax: $21.71 for Connecticut

Total: $383.46

Thanks aniruddha23

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
It should work but I'm not sure if your laptop video can support the higher native resolution to ran the 20.1" . So the eye strain could still be there.

Nah, it will do it natively just fine. I believe the maximum external resolution is 1920x1440. If I do get eye strain, I'll just send it back to Dell. Wish me luck, heh.

 

[CapaJC]

I've read that Dell's next version of this monitor will change practically nothing about the specs. A good sign that this is a pretty good monitor. Personally, I love mine. I rotate it 90 degrees for MAME games, and it's like I'm in front of a giant arcade machine.

No eye strain yet, but I do get ghost "burn-in" images after a month or so. I reverse it by running an all-white screensaver 24/7 (when I'm not using it) for a few days. Works fine.

--James in S.D.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: CapaJC
I've read that Dell's next version of this monitor will change practically nothing about the specs. A good sign that this is a pretty good monitor. Personally, I love mine. I rotate it 90 degrees for MAME games, and it's like I'm in front of a giant arcade machine.

No eye strain yet, but I do get ghost "burn-in" images after a month or so. I reverse it by running an all-white screensaver 24/7 (when I'm not using it) for a few days. Works fine.

--James in S.D.

Great, thanks for the tip! I'm looking forward to doing monitor rotation...most of my work involves designing web pages and using Adobe InDesign for documents. Not to mention a fair amount of surfing the web

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: CapaJC
I've read that Dell's next version of this monitor will change practically nothing about the specs. A good sign that this is a pretty good monitor. Personally, I love mine. I rotate it 90 degrees for MAME games, and it's like I'm in front of a giant arcade machine.

No eye strain yet, but I do get ghost "burn-in" images after a month or so. I reverse it by running an all-white screensaver 24/7 (when I'm not using it) for a few days. Works fine.

--James in S.D.

I have never had burn in issues with my 2005fpw, how did you find those? I don't want them to be there and I just don't notice until it is too late to fix them. thanks!

And to the OP, this monitor is great and looks beautiful. Plus for us desktop gamers it's 1680x1050 res plays great on most GPU's unlike those with the 24" or 30" models who need SLI to play modern games smoothly.

-spike

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: CapaJC
I've read that Dell's next version of this monitor will change practically nothing about the specs. A good sign that this is a pretty good monitor. Personally, I love mine. I rotate it 90 degrees for MAME games, and it's like I'm in front of a giant arcade machine.

No eye strain yet, but I do get ghost "burn-in" images after a month or so. I reverse it by running an all-white screensaver 24/7 (when I'm not using it) for a few days. Works fine.

--James in S.D.

I have never had burn in issues with my 2005fpw, how did you find those? I don't want them to be there and I just don't notice until it is too late to fix them. thanks!

And to the OP, this monitor is great and looks beautiful. Plus for us desktop gamers it's 1680x1050 res plays great on most GPU's unlike those with the 24" or 30" models who need SLI to play modern games smoothly.

-spike

My laptop has a 64mb 9600 Radeon in it, so I can run HL2 well at, oh, 800x600. Oh well. At least it will look good for everything else! I hope Gateway releases a model like mine but with DVI output instead of VGA (7405gx).

 

[Kaido]

Wow, that was fast, got it in today. Gave it a dead pixel test and it passed with flying colors. Looks pretty good with VGA, but I'm curious to see if it will look better on DVI. At any rate, my laptop drives it just fine, it just remains to be seen whether it will give me eye strain or not. Man this is a wide screen, I don't even know if I want to upgrade to the 2405fpw in the future...