Jason Turley Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 Does anybody have any recommendations for a decent LCD display that are suitable for CAD use. We are Mac users looking for either a 17" or 19" LCD's to replace some old 21" CRT's. We are open to suggestion but DVI is a must!!! Thanks Jason... Quote Link to comment
Peter van der Elst Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 Just take a look at the beautifal Apple monitors!!! Quote Link to comment
alanmac Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 The Apple monitors are very nice, if a little pricey. If you can bear to have their name staring at you from the bezel, Dell monitors use the same screens and are always doing promotions. I've seen plenty of people who recommend these on other sites, in cg work. They are doing a promotion on the 20" widescreen here in the UK which is just under ?400 in comparison to Apples price of ?545 for their 20" widescreen. I believe the Dells also have tilt/swivel facilities should you need them. If you want to push the boat out they do the 24" for ?880 but ebay have these for around ?600. I know somebody who has just purchased two 24" monitors to work side by side dual screen!! If its CAD work I guess colour accuracy is not an issue which is always brought up with regard to TFT's, and I must admit can be a problem for the rendering of designs. For my home use I purchased a LG Flatron L1915S which is very good. Late night working in Vectorworks no longer gives me eyestrain or headaches as before. I got mine at a local retail outlet for ?210. About the same area as my very old 21" CRT. for that price you could get a good dual screen set up. Of course all this depends on your country location. The widescreen Apple 20" at work is great, put all your palettes to one side to give you clear drawing space. I just noticed your comment on DVI, the LG is anolog, putting aside the technological differences why is "DVI a must" for CAD work? Alan [ 08-01-2005, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ] Quote Link to comment
Jason Turley Posted August 1, 2005 Author Share Posted August 1, 2005 I have more than 40 PowerMac G5's all with DVI so having a DVI ready display seems sensible. I know I can use the DVI to VGA adaptor but why go to the trouble. The Apple displays are beautiful but I can't really justify spending ?549 per display. I'm looking to replace 20 x 21" CRT's with LCD displays so was looking for something a little more affordable. Samsung do a few 17 and 20" LCD's with DVI which are about half the price of the 20" Apple LCD. Jason Quote Link to comment
alanmac Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 With those sorts of number you should be talking to people about quanitity discounts, and getting maybe a dealer in with a sample I'd have thought. Wouldn't harm to buy in one anyway to see how well it works for you if the investments that high. I doubt if you can get the Dell 20" down to half the price of the Apple, but it's worth the call. The trouble with all of the manufacturers, Samsung, LG, Philips, etc. is they seem to do different models within their ranges of the same sized TFT but on the face of it you don't know what the differences are, and when you do know your not sure if its of relevance. Would response time matter, for example if you didn't play games or watched films on it. In which case would a monitor with a higher native resolution figure but lower response time be better.... hhmmm. LG do a L1950 as well as my L1915, both 19" TFT's and the only difference I can see is cosmetic, the 1950 is silver with a different button arrangement, unless I missed something the specs are the same. But mine was ?50 cheaper - old model maybe, don't know. Good luck Alan Quote Link to comment
Jacques Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 At the moment the Dell 2005 FPW is on special in the UK for ?390. Thats about ?150 cheaper than the 20" inch from Apple...Bargain! -Jacques. Quote Link to comment
matto Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 quote: Originally posted by alanmac: I just noticed your comment on DVI, the LG is anolog, putting aside the technological differences why is "DVI a must" for CAD work? Alan Try getting a demo of a few screens side by side, a saw Apple (which uses full digital signal right to the LCD) against an Analog LCD and against another DVI that converted into analog before running the LCD. The difference is remarkable, the same drawing dragged half way between the two at a time. For CAD crisp line work is the best you can get. I'd say DVI was a must. That said the difference between the Apple DVI and the other DVI was noticable but not sure if by enough for the price difference. Hey but given the quanity being talked about it would be worth a few calls to see who's keen for the sale. Quote Link to comment
alanmac Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Iboymatt Whilst I'm not to up on the technical stuff, you may well have seen a marked difference in your demos, but did they also go into detail about the resolutions settings etc on each monitor? No offence intended but I wonder if the demo was loaded somewhat so as to convince you to buy what was the most expensive. Correct me if I'm wrong but TFT's not only come in different sizes but different resolutions, native resolutions I think they call it. I know its not a great example but wander down the line of screens on display at any large PC outlet, notice a difference in screen quality between monitors of equal size being feed no doubt from the same signal. Whilst I would not argue that a product designed to work using the same technology should work better than a conversion to another the aspect of screen resolution, dot pitch and settings must also play a part. Agreed that any conversion is not the best thing to be doing in the world. I'm not at work so can't look at my G5 but if it's only got a DVI output then yes DVI is the obvious choice. Alan [ 08-01-2005, 09:25 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ] Quote Link to comment
Kevin Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 According to some on-line reviews that I have read, the 20" Dell widescreen is the same LCD as the Apple 20". Cost is less and variable with various coupons and discounts. Dell warranty is better too. Quote Link to comment
Clas-H Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Check out the new ViewSonic 19" VX924 LCD MSRP: $499.00 The specs look good and its DVI. Quote Link to comment
matto Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Alanmac, Indeed i agree the test could be rigged in various situations. In my case i had a good connection with in the store I was buying from and had a good control of the test. Indeed I'd avoid big retailers for the reasons you note, and well the good small guys will be more willing to give quality information, and at the quanities talked about here, a good deal too. Matt Quote Link to comment
Jacques Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Jason, Whilst there are things to look at like veiwing angle and contrast / brightness ratios, make sure the monitor you get has a fast response time...Don't go for anything less than 16ms. You may notice ghosting if you choose a monitor with slower response times. Take the Viewsonic mentioned above, it has a FANTASTIC 4ms response time...The fastest I've seen to date! And yes, go for DVI. Good hunting! HTH. Quote Link to comment
alanmac Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Originally posted by Jacques: You may notice ghosting if you choose a monitor with slower response times. What in Vectorworks or other CAD work? This is for a working office is it not, "suitable for CAD use" was the posters description. Different in context to a screen connected to a multipurpose machine or such, running games or watching movies which is where the comments about ghosting originate from. Most new screens these days seem to be around the 16ms anyway so it shouldn't be an issue. Quote Link to comment
Matt D Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Is anyone using a 30" Apple Cinema Display?? I am wondering if the size is worth the price?? Working in landscape architecture, I am thinking that seeing more of the site in plan would be a great advantage. Any comments? Quote Link to comment
RubenH Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Check in what rersolution does the monitor support. You can have the same screen size with different resolutions suport. The 30' lcd its magnifficent for site plans. Quote Link to comment
Travis Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 You'll pry my 30" Cinema from my cold dead fingers! I like it much better than my old 2-screen setup. Been worth every penny as far as I'm concerned. And I don't even do landscapes! Good luck, Quote Link to comment
J. Johnson Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 I use an Apple 23" and find it to be just right. We have a 30" apple screen in our office that we ended up giving to our new hire to use because it looked TOO big for the rest of us. Granted, I haven't worked on it much myself, but that thing even looks big from across the room. Quote Link to comment
Jacques Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 alan, Yep, ghosting, what about playing back an animation of a fly-through? It's not going to nice to look at your 160 mb rendered animation that took a whole day and a half to render and then have ghosting artifacts! Multimedia is playing a bigger and more inportant part in todays architecture office. We move with the times or fall by the wayside. edit: We had an el-cheapo Samsung LCD that the planners used and you should have seen the video playback on that...Pathetic. But yes, >16ms is most common, or the norm these days. but you'll still find the cheap and nasties. [ 08-04-2005, 05:11 PM: Message edited by: Jacques ] Quote Link to comment
Tom Spriggs Posted August 5, 2005 Share Posted August 5, 2005 We have some NEC multisync LCD1970NX at the office and they are nice to use, seem clear and sharp, (i havent compared them to a apple display) but they are buit well, take up minimal space etc and are fully adjustable. they accept both DVI and analogue ( and i think they will accept them both at the same time as there is a button on the front to switch inputs - which would mean being able to run two machines on one monitor! ( eg a pc and a mac) Quote Link to comment
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