So, my NEC FE991SB 19" CRT is getting a little old and the text seems to be getting a little blurry. It never had the clearest text to begin with and I think I'm ready to switch to LCD. I'm thinking of getting a 19" standard or 20" ws monitor.
The Dell 2007WFP looks pretty good to me, but one of my big concerns is how easy on the eyes reading text will be. I do some gaming and multimedia creation, but the reality is that I'll use it for reading text more than anything else.
One of my concerns is whether 1680x1050 might be too much on a video card (I'm currently running an ATI 9600 Pro, but plan on a new system fairly soon, but not running a video card more than $150). Also, the text might be easier to read on a 19" 1280x1024.
I know the answer to finding the right panel is to try before you buy, but in my experience this is easier said than done. I went to Best Buy (you know where this story goes...) and they had their big wall of monitors all running a picture slide show at 1024 X 768. I asked an employee if I could demo the Samsung 215TW and he asked me why. I explained that I wanted to see it at the native resolution and he told me that it's going to look pretty much the same. Rather than argue with him I explained that I also wanted to work with text on it. He said that he would hook it up for me, but he didn't see any point.
I really didn't have much time and didn't feel like playing around, so I had him set me up on a Gateway FPD2185W that was already hooked up to system. The monitor was running on VGA at native resolution, but looked like crap to me. I don't know if the monitor had been abused or if it was a hardware thing, but it was really bad.
The whole point of the story is where do you guys go to actually try out monitors? Do you just buy them from places that will let you return them (not even sure what general policies are on this) and demo them on your system at home? I have no idea where I could try a Dell 2007WFP. Does Dell let you return a monitor that you buy and don't like?
Sorry about the rambling post, but I would appreciate some insight.
The Dell 2007WFP looks pretty good to me, but one of my big concerns is how easy on the eyes reading text will be. I do some gaming and multimedia creation, but the reality is that I'll use it for reading text more than anything else.
One of my concerns is whether 1680x1050 might be too much on a video card (I'm currently running an ATI 9600 Pro, but plan on a new system fairly soon, but not running a video card more than $150). Also, the text might be easier to read on a 19" 1280x1024.
I know the answer to finding the right panel is to try before you buy, but in my experience this is easier said than done. I went to Best Buy (you know where this story goes...) and they had their big wall of monitors all running a picture slide show at 1024 X 768. I asked an employee if I could demo the Samsung 215TW and he asked me why. I explained that I wanted to see it at the native resolution and he told me that it's going to look pretty much the same. Rather than argue with him I explained that I also wanted to work with text on it. He said that he would hook it up for me, but he didn't see any point.
I really didn't have much time and didn't feel like playing around, so I had him set me up on a Gateway FPD2185W that was already hooked up to system. The monitor was running on VGA at native resolution, but looked like crap to me. I don't know if the monitor had been abused or if it was a hardware thing, but it was really bad.
The whole point of the story is where do you guys go to actually try out monitors? Do you just buy them from places that will let you return them (not even sure what general policies are on this) and demo them on your system at home? I have no idea where I could try a Dell 2007WFP. Does Dell let you return a monitor that you buy and don't like?
Sorry about the rambling post, but I would appreciate some insight.