Help dealing with LCD screens

[AgentCipher]

Ok, I posted this in the Video section a few hours ago, but unfortunately didn't get the response I was looking for... instead I just got two people saying 'I love the 2005FPW!" Maybe someone here can give me more detailed help... Here's the original post:

/quote

I am currently looking to buy two flat panel monitors; one for my parents who are primarily looking for increased desk space, and one for myself, a gamer, since my dorm room doesn't really allow for my 19" CRT. While reading Anandtech's reviews, I found that the highest recommended type was always a dell ultrasharp, and the best of those is apparently the 2005FPW.

However, considering that I've never really used flat panel monitors before, I'm quite the newbie when it comes to understanding much about them. Pretty much the only thing I know is that if you don't run at the native resolution, it looks terrible, and that's what I'm most worried about.

The 2005FPW's native resolution is remarkably high at 1680x1050, and I was wondering if I'd have to run that constantly on either computer. Now, I'm building my parents a new computer since they happened to make the old one go 'boom.' so I could build up to that monitor if needed. My current rig that I have in my dorm has a 7800GT, so I'm pretty sure I could support that resolution. However, if I were to run that monitor for gaming applications, would I have to run the game in a windowed mode since I can't hit that resolution?

Any help would definately be appreciated. My father is telling me to click the 'buy' button because it's remarkably cheap and "it's the best," but I'm always cautious about the lesser known details on computing products. Any recommendations and/or information on what I should look for?

Thanks!

/endquote

LCD have many more details to look for than a simple CRT, so I'm naturally confused. My main worry for my gaming rig is that if the resolution on full-screen games is less than the 'natural' resolution of the monitor (which at 1680x1050 it'd have to be) it'd look absolutely terrible and I would've just wasted a lot of money. Also, it's currently cheaper than the 2001FP, so I don't know why I'd get that instead.

Please help, and sorry for the length of the post. I figured that the more info you know, the more you might be able to help. Thanks!

 

[Vageetasjn]

I've seen the 2005fpw scale to lower resolutions in games and, coming from a person who does not have low quality standards, it really doesn't look bad... at all. If for some reason you don't like it, however, returning it should be no problem. Dell has a good return policy for the first 21 days (no re-stocking fee).

edit: also, I don't really see why people tend to prefer the widescreen over the 2001fp. I watch a lot of tv shows on the computer (4:3 ratio). Watching 4:3 content on the 2005fpw would really be like watching it on a 17" monitor. Also, webpages do not really benefit from the slightly (we're talking 80 pixels here) wide res. I really don't get people's fascination with it.