Dell 2001FP 20" LCD Monitor Review

[Fox1]

I have a PC TV card and the TV is great..I don't know how it would look though using an externasl input

[idx]

Would you consider this a superior display for TV viewing?

Not that I'm qualified [yet] to make this determination, but anandtech had an interesting review on the Samsung 213T and how it relates to the 2001FP.

http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=1974

The points that were most interesting were the dvd playback notes (matrix screen shot) vs gaming shots. They conclude that the 213 is the superior ultra high-end unit for workstation use, but the 2001FP is the LCD for gamers. (so they're apples and oranges)

(not to mention the 213 is over $1000)

-r

[thisisnuts]

Thanks guys. I just took a glance at that article. I'm not a gamer, But I'm in the market for an LCD TV. I do spent a lot of my free time on line (gotta stop...need a life). I have a Matrox eTV card, so I figured why not combine the two. But it seems that the Dell 2001FP might not work well for TV viewing. My 19'' iiyama vision master 450 have lasted me for 4 years now and seems to display tv and dvd well.

I guess $709.00 for a space saver monitor might be just too much for me at the moment. But then again it such a sweet deal.

I think I'll swing on over to buy.com for that Canon s410 for $305.00. Seems to be cheaper than the Dell deal.

[Zatar]

But I would just about guarantee that you would be able to do so, otherwise, why would they put both connectors on the card?

So you can use the card with either a regular VGA monitor or a DVI monitor. That has no bearing on if a card actually supports dual monitors. I wouldn't expect it to. I would expect a card that supports dual monitors to have two of the same connector, the one I have that does has two D-sub outputs.

As for gaming input, yeah, composite input looks pretty bad at full screen. It looks great in PiP mode though, if you want to play it on a really small screen... :)

I haven't tried svideo output for consoles yet, or VGA (waiting on my xbox to VGA converter to come back).

I hooked up a DVD player and it looked pretty bad through the composite input but it was significantly improved when I hooked it up through the svideo input, although still not great. As always, this sort of thing depends on your tolerance for artifacts. I think you need to see it yourself to decide if it's usable or not.

Hint to those buying this monitor: You can avoid sales tax by going through the "home" sales section instead of the "small business" sales section. For some reason they charge sales tax to small businesses but not individuals. The problem being that the coupons aren't accepted in the home sales checkout online, right? Try calling Dell on the phone and going through the home sales department and using the coupons there, it worked for me on my 2nd monitor; I got the coupon discount and no sales tax.

[CAG]

Originally posted by Beedeebede
Whew, it wasn't my card. Seems that the one replacement DELL sent that I had chosen somehow got stuck in power saving mode. I tried all I could do to get it back but no going. Worked fine in VGA mode. Wonder if the monitor got fried by a spike or something?

The backlight on the working one isn't as good as the broken one, but then again it's working.
BD,

Here's (http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=33721) Dell's fix for the power save mode issue on ATi and nVidia cards...it works for most panels...I have an ATi 9800 and had the power save mode issue...this fix cured it completely.

[curiousz]

Just got my 2001FP.

Impressions:

Very large, obviously. Even coming from a 19 inch CRT.

First thing I did after powering it up was to test for dead pixels....I found 5, I believe. Two of which are located at the very extremities where they aren't noticed at all, and one I can only see under certain conditions.

The two other ones are located on the left of the screen and don't bother me too much. Knowing the horror stories of people shipping their monitors back and getting worse (refurbed) replacements, I'm not sure if I should send it back to try and find the perfect monitor, which I likely won't find anyways.

Right now, I suppose I'm content with the dead pixels...

I think of it this way...For a similarly priced 19 inch CRT, I would have roughly 609,280 dead pixels :) (I think I did the math right).

Can't even notice them if I sit back at a regular distance.

SDE is easily noticed, even at 2 feet away, hopefully I'll get used to it.

Problems I've had:

Running dual monitors. I can do it, but I've just had settings problems (i.e. I want the start and task bar to span both screens, etc), still going to have to mess with this some....

Overall, I'm pleased, and if I have any serious problems there's always the 3 year warranty, which is nice.

[curiousz]

WOW.

I just played UT 2004, and I'm freaking amazed.

This looks TONS better than my CRT for games.

No noticeable ghosting AT ALL..

Very smooth. Very crisp, and the colors REALLY come alive.

I may just have to update my graphics card for this...DAMN.

For some reason though, it seems as if my VGA signal (on dual monitor) is of degraded quality when running with DVI as well....DVI signal is fine, but the VGA looks blurry for some reason. Now, maybe I'm just imagining things, or my LCD looks that much better sitting right next to my CRT, but can this happen?

[Beedeebede]

CAG,

Thanks for the link. I had found that one with a google search, but the monitor is locked in powersaving mode. It is a flaw with the monitor and nothing would fix it. So, back it goes. I have 1 perfect monitor (by my reckoning) and 1 mediocre monitor. The other two were flawed. I am awaiting another shipment.

I do have to hand it to DELL. They are going all out to get it right.

BD

[Fox1]

Well after using this LCD for a couple of days I now have stck pixl..s dead ones. NBD so I am no even thinking about replacing it. Is this expected? It was perfect when I set it up

[Fox1]

Sorry for the mistype..2 stuck pixels, no dead ones

[Zetto]

Got 2001fp in the $709 deal. Was happy for while, until I got the thing. It has 5 or 6 stuck pixels, tilted monitor stand (it's not completely horizontal in either landscape or portrait mode) and non-working s-video in, and some big problems with the USB hub (when I plug the mouse thru the monitor's hub, the CPU usage shoots up thru the roof)... I'm very upset about this piece of junk. Fortunately, the Dell's customer care was very nice to take care of me and send me a replacement (thanks a bunch, Christine!)

[CAG]

Sounds like it must have fallen off the truck :eek: Anyway, welcome to the forum, Zetto :)

CAG

[Zetto]

thanks... this seems to be most comprehensive thread on 2001fp, so I guess I had to get one more registration to the long list I already have :D I mean that I am posting on so many forums, I am losing track of it all ;)

[CAG]

I know what you mean. BTW, if you run into any other CAG's in your forum travels, they're probably related to me ;)

[firstadopter]

But Zetto this is by far the best forum on the net right? Coolest, smartest, and nicest people by far.

[iansmith]

For anyone who is keeping track, I just got a new 2001FP with one dead pixel, a red one near the bottom of the screen.

I'm going to keep it, as I don't feel like rolling the dice again and getting more than one bad pixel.

Oh.. and earlier in the trhead I read about someone talking about how many pixels are on the screen. They forgot that each pixel is axtually three, so the real count is...

1600x1200x3 = 5,760,000 pixels.

So my monitor is 99.99998% perfect. :-)

It's been said before, but this is a great monitor. The 90 degree swivel is usefull, and it positions easily any way I want it. Lots of input options, a bright screen, wide viewing angle and fast refresh.

My only complaint is the PIP controls are annoying to use. I wish I could control it via the computer or at least have dedicated buttons for it. Having to navigate into the menu structure is a pain.

--
Ian Smith

[iansmith]

For anyone wondering about the SDE (Screen Door Effect) here is a closeup of my old Dell CRT and my new 2001FP LCD. The scale of both pictures is the same.

CRT:
http://www.ian.org/Remote/Dell%20Trinitron%20B.PNG

LCD:
http://www.ian.org/Remote/Dell%202001FP.PNG

The LCD produces a much sharper details because the pixels really are square. The CRT is very blurry close up, giving the picture a softer look.

The screen door can be seen easily in the closeup. The CRT has fine lines between each color which is not as distracting as the wider spaced ones on the LCD, which also has horizontal lines as well.

I can see them at 2 feet away, but having used laptops for years it doesn't bother me.

[CAG]

Thanks for the review and great comparison pics! Now I know what a gnat sees when it lands on my panel.

Welcome to the board :)

CAG

[Necromancer98]

I have been reading this thread all day after discovering it through a Google search on the Dell 2001FP. It's a great forum so I decided to join. With the impending release of Doom3, I knew the time had come to upgrade my "ancient" system, a Micron Pentium II 400Mhz with a NVidia Riva TNT II card. I know some of you probably are not good of a historian to remember these machines, but it was fine for good old Quake II, Unreal, and Diablo.

However, I am now waiting for my new PCI Express system, a Voodoo RAGE with a Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Extreme Edition and eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra. So I need to get rid of my old Hitachi 752 19" CRT for a nice lightweight LCD panel. I was going to order the Dell now but after reading the problems some of these panels arrive, it may be best to wait till my new PC is close to shipping to order the panel so I will have the appropriate hardware to test it. I have also contemplated the Viewsonic VP201.

One question..I am so comfortable with 1024 by 768 on my 19" CRT that I decided to raise the resolution to 1600 by 1200 to get an idea of the life I will have at this native resolution on the Dell and I kind of felt "lost" in all that space with tiny fonts and smaller windows. Anyone had the same experience or does the larger panel size of the Dell make this more comfortable.

[monkeydust]

Hi, Necromancer98.

Remember that a CRT has about 2 inches less of vieable space than an same size-rated LCD. So, a 22" CRT has about the same viewable area as a Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD.

I didn't notice much of a difference going from 1280x1024 (my normal resolution back then) on my 19" CRT versus 1600x1200 on my 2001FP.

I love the higher resolution for doing work (running MS Visual Studio .NET 2003).

[CAG]

Originally posted by Necromancer98
I am now waiting for my new PCI Express system, a Voodoo RAGE with a Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Extreme Edition and eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra.
Welcome to the forum, Necromancer98. Post some pics of your Voodoo Rage when you get it (I always like to see how the other half...the rich half...live). :)

CAG

[Necromancer98]

Thanks Monkeydust. Spent some time at a local electronics store and I see what you mean. Unfortunately, they don't have the Dell 2001FP to see it first hand.

CAG..thanks; it would be my pleasure to post an image of the RAGE when I get it. As you can see from my current humble PC, I have had plenty of time to top off many piggy banks for the Voodoo

[Zetto]

Originally posted by Rendition
But Zetto this is by far the best forum on the net right? Coolest, smartest, and nicest people by far.

I'll reserve my judgement for now :D Just kiddin, yeah, you guys are nice... I got to admit that SDE is bothering me, it comes into focus every now and then, esp. when reading black text on white background, and even though I am sitttin at some distance from the monitor (about 18-20"). In fact, I have troubles seeing SDE up close and personal, it more noticeable at a distance. Looks like it depends on angle at which u r viewing the monitor.

Another problem discovered: slight backlight bleedin on top left.... Man I am so pissed... this thing is expensive and so screwed up... Got to note that the box was torn at one corner, so CAG might be right about someone dropping it somewhere :(

[CAG]

Let's see, Zetto...dead pixels, backlight bleed thru, SDE you can see across the room, bent stand, fried USB hub...yea, I'd say it either dropped off the truck or was run over by it.

[Zetto]

I'll wait until I get the replacement. If it's same quality, I'll prolly return this monitor for refund, and wait until Samsung puts out the 16ms 20" monitor on the market this fall, and prolly get it. I just wanted to see what a 6800gt can do on LCD of this size :D

[cocobeli]

I started on page 1 only a few days ago…wow, what a trip.

Necromancer98, you asked a question that was near and dear to me as well. Like you, I’ve been using a 19” CRT (Samsung 950p) at 1024x768. I sprang for one of these 2001FPs, leaving it to hope that I’d be able to get my aging eyes to adapt to the screen. I’ve only had the 2001FP couple of days, now.

I was completely unprepared for the crispness on the 2001FP. I use trifocals (need new one, too) but even so, I find the combination of the larger face and that crisp display make the unit usable without any real fiddling (so far, anyway; no large icons, no 120dpi fonts, etc.). I’m still just using the analog input, too. I expect things can only get better when I move up to a video adaptor with DVI.


Some quick observations:

The unit arrived with 1 dark pixel. I pressed ever so gently on the screen at that position; the little pixies inside woke up and the pixel has been fine ever since. Hooray! Even had the pixel remained dark, since it was about 1/8” above the bottom rail and near the center line of the unit, right where the Taskbar normally would be, it wouldn’t have been too big a deal in any event.

I was impressed with the Dell’s display when used at 1024x768 – a little soft, but not bad at all.

My secondary monitor is a 17” LCD unit native at 1280x1024. (I might note that it looks like a sad dog sitting beside the Dell.) I was happy to see that the size (in inches) of a window on the 20” Dell is very nearly the same size as it shows on the 17” secondary monitor, even as I had expected (almost identical pixels/inch).

I guess my visual acuity isn’t up to detecting the SDE, although I do see a little bit of speckle, a little like a sandblasted glass screen.

[firstadopter]

Welcome to the forum cocobeli, glad you like the 2001FP. :)

[tangernu]

I stumbled onto this forum last night as I was busy googling 'reviews Dell 2001FP'. I scrolled through about 45 pages before deciding to go to read the last 15 pages and be done with it. I must say, this is, by far, one of the most comprehensive forums on the 2001FP that I have read to date. Not to mention the nicest, in terms of the people who post. Great job, everyone!

So, I've been looking to buy an LCD for the coming fall semester (college student) and hoping to leave my gargantuan 19" 70+ pound NEC-Mistubishi CRT at home.

Having no experience with LCD panels whatsoever, I've been interested in a Sony (reviews say they suck, though), the Samsung 193T, a Princeton panel (can't remember the model) and a Planar panel (also can't remember model). Lately, I've been looking at the Dell 1901FP, which, at ~620 when Dell has their usual 20-25% sale, seemed like a great deal. Plus, my friend just got one, and he says he loves it.

But now that I've read most of the posts on this forum, and hearing all the great things that you all have to say about the 2001FP, I just don't know what to do! I mean, the 2001FP sounds like such a great monitor - I dabble in FPS, particularly CS, and I also play StarCraft, WC3, some Wolfenstein and I've just started playing BF1942 - that I simply don't know which direction to go in anymore.

I've heard really good things about both the 1901FP and the Samsung 193T. I can't remember everything I read in the forum, but I seem to remember someone saying that the Samsung's are better for everyday 2D use, while the 2001FP is by far the superior gaming panel? Is this right?

So, I'm in a bind. On one hand, I could get the Samsung, on the other hand (for quite a bit cheaper, when on sale), I could get the 2001FP. But then again, I could go for the $620 1901FP.

I really want to get this right on the first try, since I don't have much money to throw around (feel sorry for the poor college student here). AND, I just missed the Dell sale, which I'm pretty disappointed about. What to do... what to do...

[firstadopter]

If you play games and want an LCD, wait for the next sale and get the 2001FP. You will be glad you did. Welcome to the board Tangernu. Join us on the other threads on the forum too.

The sales come around every 2 months or so, I bet it will come around soon. No doubt about it.

[Whitlam]

Have placed an order for a 2001FP - but am having doubts.

The dead pixel & screen door effect seems a bit of a worry.

Currently have a 17" Image Quest (Hyundai) LCD and its perfect.

How does the 2001FP go with HDTV?

Have a Fusion (Dvico) HDTV card

[Dekko]

On my LCD using the DVI input on a Radeon 9800, I can't get it to display very good blacks. It's annoying when playing games like battlefield vietnam. Since no one else has mentioned this problem, Is there something wrong with my panel or this normal behavior for LCDs.

Of course I've adjusted the gamma, brightness and contrast with no improvement. When you change inputs is it normal for it to display a slightly grey blank screen monentarily.

[firstadopter]

Lack of perfectly dark blacks is the main negative for all LCDs. I would visit a local Best Buy or Circuit City and take a look at the blacks at the LCD monitors they have on display to compare, to see if your monitor is defective.

[firstadopter]

Whitlam welcome to the forum. True HDTV is 1920 x 1080. The 2001FP can do 1600x1200. That being said, there aren't many LCDs out there that can do 1920X1080.

Almost all plasmas and LCD monitors can NOT do true 1920x1080 HDTV.

[Beedeebede]

I have now had in my hands 4 total 2001FP monitors. None have had any dead or stuck pixels, ever. I also don't have any screen door effect.

I have had sub par backlights that bleed thru annoyingly unevenly. One is perfect without such problem and the other one I kept is tolerable. The two I sent back (still awaiting a good replacement for the one subpar) were horrible...must have been refurbs.

All in all I wouldn't hesitate to get this monitor. Just be very critical of it when you do and bug DELL to replace until you are happy.

BD

[joe361]

I just got my Dell 2001FP and I must say that it wasn't love at first sight. First off, this is my first LCD monitor and have been using a Hitachi 19" CRT for about six years. I have been very happy with it but it started to develop a one-inch wide wavy strip near the top of the screen. After being annoyed by this for about two months I decided to look at new monitors. To make a long story short I bought the Dell for $709, including shipping, and got it Aug. 2.

After being impressed with the size of the Dell I connected it to the DVI port of a Radeon 8500, installed the Windows XP driver and set the resolution to 1600 x 1200. I haven’t noticed any dead pixels but I did pickup on the screen door effect people have mentioned. At first I was concerned but then I adjusted the brightness down from the maximum to 20. That seemed to help and I’m starting to adjust to the screen.

I wondering what other people have their brightness set to and if they needed time to adjust to such a large monitor, thanks.

[Rogue]

Joe361,

I was pretty overwhelmed by this panel when I first got it almost two months ago. Honestly, it took me about two weeks to get used to it. I almost got a sunburn when I turned the thing on because it was so bright. I am currently running with my brightness all the way down.

I tried awfully hard to hate this thing (cause I paid $800.00 for it), but can't.

I love this panel and would not trade it.

[firstadopter]

Welcome to the board Joe. I too have the 2001FP in the low 20s for brightness, I find that the 50 level is way too bright for my eyes.

As for screen door effect, it doesn't bother me, but other people take issue with it.

Be glad though you don't have any dead pixels.

[Zetto]

Does any1 use the ICC color profile for 2001fp? When I use it, it screws up all colors, it all looks too bright and washed out... It's located in win/system32/spool/drivers/color/ dir and, as I suspect, was installed as part of the monitor's drivers.

[Whitlam]

Confirmed my order with Dell today - should get it soon.

Interesting to see how it goes.

[ss284]

Originally posted by iansmith
For anyone wondering about the SDE (Screen Door Effect) here is a closeup of my old Dell CRT and my new 2001FP LCD. The scale of both pictures is the same.

CRT:
http://www.ian.org/Remote/Dell%20Trinitron%20B.PNG

LCD:
http://www.ian.org/Remote/Dell%202001FP.PNG

The LCD produces a much sharper details because the pixels really are square. The CRT is very blurry close up, giving the picture a softer look.

The screen door can be seen easily in the closeup. The CRT has fine lines between each color which is not as distracting as the wider spaced ones on the LCD, which also has horizontal lines as well.

I can see them at 2 feet away, but having used laptops for years it doesn't bother me.


This is not a good example of the screen door effect. This is more of a picture of the grid of separate pixels on all lcds.

The screen door effect seems to be a slight greyish dotted criss cross pattern over the actual screen. It shows itself in blueish/greyish pictures.

This is not present in all lcds; my 1800fp did not suffer from this problem in such a magnitude. I will attempt to take pictures when I get home.

In the meantime, I'll be requesting a replacement because of uneven backlightning

-Steve

[idx]

woot!

Just arrived a bit ago and here are some first impressions:

Packaging:
- Everything seemed newish, but the analog cable was already attached to the monitor while the DVI was in plastic. Is this standard? Might not be anything, but my gut feeling was "refurb and they forgot to disconnect the cable".

General:
- wow. Freaking huge.

- Looks great - very sharp picture and the fonts still look good even without cleartype. (no XP for me)

- SDE was noticed (especially with tan/grey colors.), but not a big deal. Monitor sits 2-3' away and is only very noticable at about 1-1.5'.

- Backlight bleed in the upper-right corner. Only really makes a difference with black, but still annoying.

- Monitor test (http://www.monitorsdirect.com/toolkit/index.shtml) seems to show a few dead pixels/sub-pixels (hard to tell - I'm not very adept at looking for this). None seem stuck, but I can see a few tiny dark spots (~3) if I look close and hold my head at the right angle. Not very noticable with red or blue.

- Love the USB ports on the side. Certainly not a deal-breaker if it didn't have them, but its very handy.

CS performance:
- HOLY CRAP! :D

- I figured my old PC would chug under 1600x1200, but I was wrong. It was running a steady 60fps with 32bit colors. My CRT was pegging 99fps (@1024x768), but 60 is still pretty good for me.

- I tried 1280x1024 to see if it would go any faster, but it was pegged at 60. (also adjusted the aspect - no change)


Overall its great and I'm going to go with it for a few days before deciding to return it. Sounds like you need to return 3-5 before getting one you like..

edit: oh yeah - the DVI cable seemed pretty thin. Could just be me.

-r

[MailManX]

QUOTE: "...the analog cable was already attached to the monitor while the DVI was in plastic. Is this standard?"

I don't think it is. When my monitor arrived, both cables were detached and in bags.

Michael

[ss284]

My monitor arrived with the vga cable attached like you mentioned. Maybe they use it for testing before they send them out (haha!).

-Steve

[idx]

Originally posted by ss284
My monitor arrived with the vga cable attached like you mentioned. Maybe they use it for testing before they send them out (haha!).

-Steve

testing?!? what's that? :)

r

[AJK1]

...chewing my fingernails! Hey there, this is my first post, even tho I have been reading this wonderful forum/thread since last week. Last Friday, I took the plunge and bought the 2001fp...and my tracking # says it is on the truck for delivery today. I am quite nerve-wracked about this! Dead pixels, refurbs, SDE, etc...sheesh! Maybe I'd best stop reading until it actually arrives! :) Anyway, I just wanted to say I love this forum and it's great to see so many positive reviews. You guys swayed me in the end! I'm sure I won't regret it!

AJ
(still nervously waiting for UPS)

[Beedeebede]

All of the monitors I have received from DELL ( 4 total 2001FP's) have had the standard cable already attached. I think it's the way it ships.

BD

[iansmith]

My monitor had the VGA cable attached as well. I also thought it was odd.

But it works great.. very happy!

[Zetto]

got 2 as well, both with vga attached. No bigge. The bigger problem is that with new monitor, I am still having the problems with dead/stuck sub-pixels. The first one I got had 5 stuck pixels, 0 dead. With new one, 1 stuck(green) & 2 dead (red and blue) subpixels. THe monitor stand is actually is level, that's an plus. However, I am still having problems with the USB hub, when I use either one, cpu usage goes up like crazy. Any ideas how to fix that? or is it still a bad monitor? gah, I am stompted. TO keep or not to keep, that is the question.

[joe361]

My 2001FP had its VGA cable attached. While I did a quick look for dead pixels, I didn't use a fine-tooth comb looking for them. I figure if I were to find a bad pixel my attention would be drawn to it. In this case ignorance is bliss. My option of the screen door effect is that maybe people have the brightness too high. I have the brightness set very low and, I don’t notice it as much as when I got the monitor, which arrived with the brightness turned to the max out of the box.

[idx]

Yes, I noticed more SDE when I changed the monitor to the user defined settings. (50/50/50 - pretty damn bright) I changed it back to normal and things were fine. I'll probably fiddle around a bit more, but it works for now.

-r

[Zetto]

IDX - it's funny, I am actually using the dvi cable that came with 1800fp... looks much more solid than the one that came with top-of-the-line 2001fp... I didn't even try it.

Another question: have u tried the usb hub on 2001fp yet? whenever I plug something into it, cpu usage goes thru the roof. For example, when I use my usb mouse thru mobo, cpu usage is like 2-4%, when I use the same mouse thru the usb hub, the cpu usage shoots up to 60%, when I move it very fast - and there is nothing else is running in the background.

[idx]

So far I've been ok with the USB hub. The only thing I have attached is my telex h-831 mic, but I think I have a usb mouse lying around to test with.


Also: just got bitten with the sleep/standby-mode+DVI+nvidia bug. Monitor was blank FOREVER until I did a few blind reboots and it magically came back.

I thought I remember some links on this, but this thread is so long its hard to find stuff. Anyone have any tips?

(maybe we could setup a 2001FP FAQ thread with all the useful links in one place.)

-r

[CAG]

idx,

This is what you're looking for http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=33721

CAG

[AJK1]

Well, as I reported earlier this afternoon, my 2001fp was in the process of being delivered today. It came around 5:45 pm. Of all the days for UPS to be running later. Anyway, I set it up after dinner...and I am truly loving it. I want to thank all the forum members here for helping me make such an informed buying decision.

So far, I don't seem to have any pixel problems and SDE is not noticiable to me. I find the text clear and sharp. Birightness was way to high on factory set, as reported by others. I found the colors too greenish, so I set it to USER and now they look perfect to me.

Games: I've tried playing Call of Duty and Far Cry, both at 1600x1200. I have an ATI X800 Pro video card, so I max out the setting for both. While I don't notice any ghosting in CoD, I do see some in FC. That is, when I turn quick, the picture is slightly blurred for a quick second. It is probably something I will get used to, but I did notice it right off. Maybe because I have everything maxed for detail. Got DOOM3 coming tomorrow, so that will be a good test.

I love the size and the 1600x1200 native resolution! This is my first experince with an LCD. I am upgrading from a 17" Viewsonic CRT running in 1024x768, so I certainly notice the excess real estate on my desktop now! What to do with all that space? :D I haven't tried watching a DVD yet to see how it preforms there.

On that topic, I have a question. I have an old hardware decoder card for DVD playback, but it only outputs in analog (go figure). It uses a loop thru cable from the video card. Right now, I have the 2001fp hooked up directly with the DVI cable, and my question is, is there much image loss using the monitor via VGA instead of DVI? Since I would need to use the VGA cable instead to re-hook up the decoder card.

Thanks! Very helpful forum!

AJ

[CAG]

Congrats, AJ :) My experience is that DVI quality is better but you may not see that much of a difference w/VGA.

[Dekko]

I can't believe I didn't notice that the minus button is where you adjust the brightness, I'm not usually that dense. That does help. Now would someone please tell me where is the button to fix the dead pixels.

My Microsoft mouse also works badly using the built in usb ports, which is a shame since it would have reduced my cable clutter slightly.

[idx]

Originally posted by CAG
idx,

This is what you're looking for http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=33721

CAG

Thanks CAG, I"ll give it a try. The weird thing is that since it came out of the sleep mode, it works fine during boot. I can't see the full bios messages, etc..

Probably should do the fix anyway though.


-r

[CAG]

idx,

If you can't see the bios messages, etc., on boot, the problem likely still exists. I had the same symptoms with my ATi card (standby mode, no bios messages on boot, etc.). I used Dell's fix for the ATi card and it cured it.

CAG

[tangernu]

oh no, dell has lowered the price of the 2001FP to 899. then, the small business area is having a sale, which lowers the price further to 764. what to do, what to do!

i hadnt planned on purchasing the 2001FP until later in august, so i wouldnt have to pay until november (when i have the cash), but now that the price is down to $764, what should i do?!!!!

i need advice, so please, offer any suggestions. should i pull the trigger and get the panel, or should i hold out, and hope that there's a sale later in august?

thanks guys.

[idx]

Originally posted by CAG
idx,

If you can't see the bios messages, etc., on boot, the problem likely still exists. I had the same symptoms with my ATi card (standby mode, no bios messages on boot, etc.). I used Dell's fix for the ATi card and it cured it.

CAG

Man, I really need to get some new contacts to proof-read these posts. :)

I meant to say that I CAN see the bios and boot messages unlike before. Nvidia drivers were already up to date, so maybe coming out of standby mode torked it back into shape.. Doing the dell fix is probably a good idea though.

-r

[iansmith]

Originally posted by Zetto
Another question: have u tried the usb hub on 2001fp yet? whenever I plug something into it, cpu usage goes thru the roof.

No CPU problems on mine. The hub works with the mouse as well as card readers and other portable devices I have tried.

One annoyance I found is that when you turn off the monitor, the USB hub goes away too. This cause the computer to beep at me about devices getting unplugged and then found again.

This might be standard operating procedure for monitors with hubs but I find it silly. At the very least it should be able to run via power from the USB cable. I don't plan on using the hub due to this.

[CAG]

Originally posted by idx
Doing the dell fix is probably a good idea though.
Hold off...if it happens again, go for the Dell fix.

[CAG]

Originally posted by tangernu
oh no, dell has lowered the price of the 2001FP to 899. then, the small business area is having a sale, which lowers the price further to 764. what to do, what to do!
Applying all discounts and coupons, the lowest I think I've ever seen the 2001FP go for is around $705. Don't know if we'll ever see that price again but you'll probably see $764 again...but who knows when. Of course, any real American would do what has made this country great: buy what you can't afford and pull the trigger now:)

BTW, welcome to the forum, tangernu :)

CAG

[Zetto]

Originally posted by iansmith
No CPU problems on mine. The hub works with the mouse as well as card readers and other portable devices I have tried.

One annoyance I found is that when you turn off the monitor, the USB hub goes away too. This cause the computer to beep at me about devices getting unplugged and then found again.

This might be standard operating procedure for monitors with hubs but I find it silly. At the very least it should be able to run via power from the USB cable. I don't plan on using the hub due to this.

Yeah, well nothing u can do about hub being powered down, when u shut down the monitor attached to it :D

Anyways, what are the special steps to fix the USB hub cpu usage issue? second monitor, still have same problems - if anything is hooked thru the monitor hub, cpu cycles vanish into a thin air. Whats up with that?

[Zetto]

ahh, finally found the problem with the USB hub... Turns out, it MS Winxp screwed up, not the monitor. I d/led some hotfix and reinstalled mouse drivers. Everything is normal now, and I can use the hub without huge CPU usage penalty. :D

[AJK1]

I have an ATI X800 Pro video card running Cat. 4.7 drivers, Win XP Pro, and I am using the monitor with the DVI cable. So far, I have not experienced this problem. My 2001fp boots from standby as it should. I see the BIOS POST etc.

I was just wondering, because it's not mentioned anywhere in the ref. sheet Dell includes in the box, if anyone else installed the Dell monitor drivers on the CD? I did. Maybe this is the trick.

Maybe this will help someone,

AJ

[Fox1]

AJK1, you don't need a separate DVD decoder as the X800 as well as older ATI cards have hardware DVD decoder built in. Lose the old decoder and enjoy DVDs in digital.

[idx]

Originally posted by AJK1
I was just wondering, because it's not mentioned anywhere in the ref. sheet Dell includes in the box, if anyone else installed the Dell monitor drivers on the CD? I did. Maybe this is the trick.

Maybe this will help someone,

AJ

Yes, I installed the drivers first thing. I experienced the standby weirdness afterwards, then it just stopped doing it.

Now I've rebooted several times over the last few days and its fine. (although I haven't tried standby again.. )

-r

[CAG]

Off-topic but I noted that a number of us are from the "Sunshine State" :cool:...just an observation...carry on...

[Beedeebede]

And I was born and raised there, for 22 years. I hope to return some day.

BD

[AJK1]

Re: Florida: yeah, north central FL here. Strange how we're one of the few states where Dell charges sales tax. Or about +$50 to the cost of my 2000fp!

[AJK1]

Thanks for the tip, Fox1. I'm losing the decoder card and keeping the DVI input. I tried playing a DVD and I could not see any significant difference by not using the decoder.

Well, arrival day +4 and I am loving my new monitor even more than I did when I first set it up! :D

[idx]

Originally posted by AJK1
Re: Florida: yeah, north central FL here. Strange how we're one of the few states where Dell charges sales tax. Or about +$50 to the cost of my 2000fp!

No kidding. As luck would have it I jumped in on the last $709 deal ($758) so the extra $40 off basically just helped with tax..


SW central FL here - clermont.

-r

[Fox1]

Yep, had it for 10 days now and have absolutely no regrets. I fact the text is so sharp I do not need my glasses as I did with the CRT. Also with the CRT after many hours on the web I would get headaches..not so with the Dell.

[idx]

Still debating on returning my first one due to bleed.

Here are some pics:

http://instantox.com/2001fp/bleed.html

Its only noticable when the room light is off and the screen has a black background. How bad is this compared to some of the others?

-r

[idx]

...also the power brick gets super hot after being on for a few hours.

[AJK1]

I personally have not noticed any bleeding anywhere on my screen, like what you have in your photos. Nothing. Also, my power brick gets 'hot', certainly more than 'warm' but I would not call it 'super hot.' Hope this helps.

[TheAngryIntern]

maybe i'm not looking at the right thing, but the only thing i could see wrong with the monitor was the dead pixel in the lower left hand corner. What exactly is "bleeding"?

[idx]

I think the pixel in the lower-left is just an artifact from the camera. (maybe not, but I can't see it in person)

See the top-upper-righthand portion. There seems to be some backlight bleed.

-r

[TheAngryIntern]

that just looked like how the overhead light was hitting the monitor to me. I guess i'm just not that picky

[Dekko]

Your backlight bleedthrough is about the same as what mine has. I'm also debating wheather to try and get another one. I also have some black level issues, wonder if the two are related.

I called India today, but the woman I spoke to didn't seem to really understand what I was talking about, and then she hung up on me.

Dell should really start giving their customers short wave radios to contact their tech support. It's about the same experience as using the phone to call India.

[Zetto]

Damn SDE is gettin on my nerves.... It's very pronounced when I use the monitor in portrait mode. If I can't use all of its features, what is it good for? gaming *only*?

I am gettin a little dissapointed.

[joe361]

Originally posted by Zetto
Damn SDE is gettin on my nerves.... It's very pronounced when I use the monitor in portrait mode. If I can't use all of its features, what is it good for? gaming *only*?

I am gettin a little dissapointed.

Have you tried turning down the brightness? I had to turn the brightness down all the way on mine.

[Whitlam]

Got my 2101Fp today - its going back tomorrow

No dead pixels, some back light bleeding, noticeable SDE - although not too bad.

But stuck on the outside of the screen are what appears to be either 2 pieces of plastic or glue. Can't remove them - one is quite large, the other smaller.

Quite disappointed with this - pre delivery quality control obviously doesn't exits in the Chinese factory.

Apart from that, its ok. Resolution hard to get used to, especially the really small text on forum web pages (like this one).

HDTV great - exceptional picture.

Cable tidy thing at the back a silly design.

Disappointing lack of quality control.

[MailManX]

Originally posted by Whitlam
Resolution hard to get used to, especially the really small text on forum web pages (like this one).

Sorry to hear about the quality problem.

As for the webpage text, you can resize that independent of anything else in windows. For example, if you are using IE, do the following:

1. In the Menu at the top of the screen, click on VIEW.
2. Scroll down to TEXT SIZE.
3. Click on one of the larger text sizes to see how it looks.

This takes affect immediately and only affects the IE browser. There are similar text resizing methods in other browsers.

Michael

[AJK1]

Quality control does seem to be an issue. The only fault I can find with my 2001fp is that the top edge of the plastic casing has a buckle in it. So when I look at the top "line" of my montor, it has a bump about in the middle. But since this does not effect prefomance, and since I can't find any other faults, I am keeping it. It's just interesting how many problems there are with 'quality control'.

Running in 16x12 is hard to get used to at first, but I would not go back to my 11x7 now! I'm sure you know, but you can also changed Windows settings to "large fonts" and turned on "Clear Type," the latter which really helps at lot on LCD screens!

Btw, I use Mozilla Firefox for a browser, and changing text/font sizes on different websites is as easy as "ctrl +" or "ctrl -". It's a nice feature to use on the fly.

Also a question: is the built-in USB hub on the monitor 1.0 or 2.0? I'm only getting 1.0...but I'm connected thru an external hub. If the monitor hub is 2.0, then I'll reconnect it straight to my computer. Just thought I'd ask before I go to the hassle of getting knee deep in cable hell!

AJ

[CAG]

AJ,

Here's (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/2001fp/en/index.htm) the User's Guide for the 2001FP. Somewhere in the "Specifications" it says it supports USB 2.0.

CAG

[Fox1]

Universal Serial Bus (USB) Interface


This monitor supports High-Speed Certified USB 2.0 interface.*

Data Rate Power Consumption
High speed 480 Mbps 2.5W (Max., each port)
Full speed 12 Mbps 2.5W (Max., each port)
Low speed 1.5 Mbps 2.5W (Max., each port)




USB Upstream connector

[AJK1]

Thanks CAG and Fox1. Now I gotta rewire... :)

[CAG]

AJ,

Hope you're out of the way of "Bonnie" and "Charlie"...for the last couple of hours we've been getting some pretty heavy rain bands from one of them.

Stay dry,

CAG

[Terminator_uk]

wow!! This monitor is awesome :)

After reading all the replies on this thread, I decided to go and buy one and I wasn't disapointed!

I picked one up for £545 off eBay which was a great price that also included a 3-year warrenty.

I have used a new 20" Apple Cinema display (the new aluminium ones) and it was very good with no defective pixels, awesome response time (16ms/no ghosting) and great colours and constrast but the cost was £999.

This screen is half the price and is probably not *quite* as good constrast but the pixel response is right up there (absoutely zero ghosting in the fastest scenes and I'm very fussy!) and the 1600x1200 native res is very impressive.

The only downside is made screen came with 3 dead pixels - two dark and one bright towards the middle of the screne which I'm not prepared to put up with. Also the box looked used before and had no DVI or USB cables and lacked the CD that was meant to come with it ; it was sold to me as 'new'.

I attempted to 'repair' the dead pixels using the massage method (this actually worked on the Apple Cinema Display I had) but I have made it worse now ; the pixels are still dead and there are nasty feint grey circles under where I have rubbed :(

I have RMA'ed it and will be returning it for a replacement soon.

Don't be put off ; this was probably a with the reseller, not Dell.

After seeing 'the best' and then using this, I can honestly tell you that you are wasting your money on more expensive Flat-Pannels ; this screen is absolutely superb!!

[CAG]

Welcome to the board, Terminator_uk :)

Thanks for the Apple comparo...The reviews I've read said they are great panels but I've just never been able to get used to the design...matter of personal taste. I was trying to calculate what you paid for the 2001FP and convert USD to British pounds...but I was doing it in my head :eek:, a useless exercise in more ways than one. Sorry to hear about the pixels...make Dell to get it right. But that's Dell's saving grace...they'll replace something rather than argue about it.

Keep posting,

CAG

[Terminator_uk]

The reseller sent me a 'dead pixel policy' document and it doesn't look like I'm eligable to return it :(

I tried the massage method to repair the pixels but I've made things worse as you can see grey rings under where I put the pressure if you are viewing an all-white screne so now I want to return it more than ever!

Basically paid $1,000 for it but that's good considering it costs more over here anyway then you have to pay VAT at 17.5% on top of it :(

The display is so nice but not perfect which I would have expected from a screne that costed that much.

The box looks like it was used before and missing all the accessories which was frustrating. I haven't any documentation about the Dell warrenty either which is very anoying.

I'm a lot happier about the colours/constrast now I have set the colour ratios to 50:50:50 rgb than what the 'normal' mode was meant to be (those colours were fubar!).

The email the reseller sent me stated that the screne was checked and was actually found to have one always-red pixel.....but they still sent it to me!

After paying all that money, I find the current situation unacceptable.

[firstadopter]

Terminator_uk, sorry for your situation. That truly sucks. I hate eBay resellers, that's why I resolved never to buy anything that is expensive on eBay.. EVER. You never know who you are going to buy from.

For new buyers of 2001FP, stick will Dell Direct. Big companies tend to be much more forgiving and liberal about returns.

[Terminator_uk]

Well the thing is, it was £200 cheeper from the reseller and they had such good feedback that it was hard to refuse.

They told me that the 3 year warrenty is with Dell so I should be able to resolve something.

I mean I keep looking at the screne and it does look really awesome but it's not *quite* perfect and that annoys me.

I'm currently waiting for a reply about what they will do for me.

Prob is that I think they are expecting me to ship it back to them which is gonna cost a fortune :(

[Whitlam]

Got my new monitor - its perfect. No dead pixels, DSE not too bad.

The text size is still an issue on the web (and yes my browser is set to larger text) - some text is ok, some looks really small.

But, apart from that its great. HDTV is stunning on it, as are movies.

Love the fact that thumbnails of pictures fill the screen - you can see a lot more at a glance - I have thousands of digital pictures.

Doesn't get too hot. Like the adjustable screen height. Don't like the cable tidy at the back - silly design.

The only real gripes I have about (apart from the quality control issues) are: cable management / text size on the web.

Its a great monitor - hate having to use the crappy 15" I have at work after using the Dell at home.

[Terminator_uk]

My RMA request got approved :)

The courier is picking it up today and, providing they are satisfied with my claims, they will give me a refund for the monitor (as they have no replacements).

Really hoping they don't just send it back to me saying "there is nothing wrong!"

I found another seller on eBay (I never learn :P) who has got 14 of them at the same price and has actually stated on the auction that they have been checked and found to have no dead pixels and if they do ; he'll replace the unit !!

Fingers crossed I'll get my money back :(

[Fox1]

Whitlam
In internet Explorer, go to tools/Internet options/general tab, go to Acessability, then check the box to "ignore font sizes specified on the web".

Right click on the IE toolbar, select customize buttons, add the AA button to the bar. Now you can set any font you want on an internet page by pressing AA

[MailManX]

Originally posted by Whitlam
I hate having to use the crappy 15" I have at work after using the Dell at home.

Just get them to spring for a new Dell 2001FP. I'm sure they'd love to do that for you after you explain to them how it will increase your productivity.

[Whitlam]

Originally posted by Fox1
Whitlam
In internet Explorer, go to tools/Internet options/general tab, go to Acessability, then check the box to "ignore font sizes specified on the web".

Right click on the IE toolbar, select customize buttons, add the AA button to the bar. Now you can set any font you want on an internet page by pressing AA

Excellent - thanks, worked well

[Whitlam]

Originally posted by MailManX
Just get them to spring for a new Dell 2001FP. I'm sure they'd love to do that for you after you explain to them how it will increase your productivity.

Would do, except I work for the Commonwealth Government & they only buy crap in bulk!

[Terminator_uk]

Well my panel got picked up today and is being evaluated, currently stuck on a crappy old, 15" crt which looks terrible!

Really hoping I get a refund ; got my deal pixel-free replacement for the same price lined up :)

[CAG]

Hope you make out OK on this, T._uk.

[Terminator_uk]

Well the guy has evaluated my screen and says that he can't find fault with it apart from the 2 dead pixels which he says is inside Dell's policy.

After some 'well-worded' emails (I feel a bit guilty now as I was a bit agressive!) he is going back to Dell to see what they think.

Fingers crossed they'll just replace it to send to me but the guy says that process could at upto 30 days :( ; I'm still not garanteed a replacement at the end of all this.

Still, I'd much rather sit it out in the hope of a good replacement than have to put up with dead pixels for the several years I intend to keep it !

[AJK1]

That's really harsh, T.UK. I hope it all works out for the best for you.

AJ

[CAG]

@ Dell SB...$719.20 HERE (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=320-1578&c=us&l=en&cs=04&category_id=5194&first=true)

[AJK1]

Cool CAG! I wish I had enough $$ to buy another one, but I haven't paid for the first one yet! ;) Actually, if wishes were, I'd buy 3 for a full wrap around desktop effect...

AJ

[AJK1]

Whoa, anyone intersted in the deal posted by CAG might want to check out this page of Dell coupons. There's one there for "up tp $300 off" Dell LCDs! Not sure it applies to the 2001fp, but wow! Oh yeah, act fast, it expires 8/25.

http://www.dailyedeals.com/free_online_coupons/dell.htm

AJ

[robstocktonjr]

I bought a Viewsonic through Dell last year without doing any research and had to return it due to ghosting.

I have been researching 17" models, but not happy about losing a little bit of real estate coming down from a 19" CRT. I always shied away from the Dell monitors as they never really give enough details in the specs and the sales reps are somewhat ignorant of the specs as well.

The reviews I have read are few and far between.

Believe it or not I read all 86 pages of info at this site and I like what I have read. I added one to my cart today at work at once I get home will complete the purchase. Was gonna purchase one of the new ATI cards (X800 I believe) through Dell but they don't show up in the graphics cards section anymore :-(

My 9800 Pro should do the trick. I mostly play City of Heroes and a little Far Cry when I feel the need to use my Army Training to hunt bad guys in the Jungle. My version of stress relief.

Wish me luck on the dead pixels issue....

BTW I am from Sarasota on the Gulf Coast... followed the money to KC.. been trying ever since to get back..

[CAG]

Welcome to the board, Rob :) Let us know what you think of the 2001FP...any dead pixels, etc., you can't live with, get it replaced...that's what's nice about Dell. I have a 9800 np and won't be upgrading until I upgrade my whole system. But, after reading this article (http://the-inquirer.com/?article=18029) in The Inquirer, I may be giving nVidia a look.

Again, welcome

CAG

[Terminator_uk]

Well I some good/bad news on my case...

Dell will not replace my screen however, they said they will 'discount' it by £100.

I do hope that means I'll get £100 back in cash ; if it's a discount voucher for that ammount I won't be happy.

Other from that I have basically been forced to keep the original screen that has 1 bright pixel and 1 dead pixel :(

However, the reseller is supplying me with the DVI and USB cables that were missing which will be good :)

If indeed it meant the *slightly* defective screen I got was for a total of £450 overall, then I'll be ok with that.

Cag : buy a GeForce 6800 GT mate. I just got one recently so that all my 1600x1200 res stuff would run very smoothe. You won't be disapointed, the framerates are awesome and games like Halo and Doom 3 just blow you away! (I have been playing Doom 3 on Ultra setting at 1024x768 with no fps loss at all under the 60fps cap the game has ; awesome stuff!)

On a P4 3GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1gig Kingston 433MHz (PC3500) and GeForce 6800 GT, I got 10558 3D Marks in 3DMark '03 !

[Rogue]

All of a sudden, I feel a whole lot better about my nVidia 6800 GT card purchase. An Ultra would have been nice, but I have yet to see an Ultra in person. For all I know, it may just be a rumor. The 6800GT is a reality and it is here - Stuck into my AGP slot...............
And I am killing Imps and Zombies. Oh yeah, on my 2001FP (had to add that to make it relevant to this thread).

[Dekko]

I recently called Dell about my 2001FP, the called was going so badly that the person monitoring the call had to break in and take over. Anyway, he agreed to send me a refurbished panel so I could look at both and decide which one I wanted to keep.

A replacement panel arrived the next day, which didn't have any backlight bleed through along the top, but had 3 dead/stuck pixels and some very deep scratches on the back. Black levels were identical on both displays.

It was a tough decision but I decided to keep my original panel since it really wasn't much worse than the refurbished one and at least mine was new.

[robstocktonjr]

Placed my order this morning...

Called the Small Business number.... got 2 guys who I could not understand. Got a third who I could, but got hung up on while he was asking if I could use my Dell Preffered Account.

Called the Home side and got an Indian girl named Flo (go figure) who was extremely pleasant. I mentioned the small business price ($719.20) and she was able to get it for me. This means no restocking fee if I don't like the monitor.

I went ahead and paid a bit extra for 2 day service as I would like to have it before the weekend.

Wish me luck on the whole dead pixels issue...

[CAG]

Originally posted by robstocktonjr
Called the Home side and got an Indian girl named Flo (go figure) who was extremely pleasant.
I read an article somewhere where the Indian out-sourcing companies are training their employees to sound more American-like when speaking on the phone.

[everydeal]

NEW DEAL: 20% off all Dell LCDs at Dell Home

Deal Info: http://www.gottadeal.com/deal-info-id-3775-store-dellhome.html

Dell Home is giving 20% off any Dell branded LCD monitor with coupon (see link above for code and links). Expires 8/26 (Thursday). Free shipping included as well. No tax in most states. Here are some of the great deals to be had:

Dell UltraSharp 2001FP 20" Flat Panel LCD Monitor w/ DVI - $899 - 20% coupon = $719 shipped
Dell UltraSharp 1901FP 19" Flat Panel LCD Monitor w/ DVI - $679 - 20% coupon = $543 shipped
Dell UltraSharp 1703FP 17" Flat Panel LCD Monitor w/ DVI - $499 - 20% coupon = $399 shipped
Dell UltraSharp e172FP 17" Flat Panel LCD Monitor - $449 - 20% coupon = $359 shipped

[CAG]

Thanks for the link, everydeal, and welcome to the board :)

CAG

[Terminator_uk]

Great news!

I am getting my original pannel back (with 1 dead and 1 stuck pixel) tomorrow (yay at last!!!!) with all the accessories in the box + the £100 off was truely a £100 rebate, not just a discount voucher!

Overall, I'm quite happy with a 2001FP (which is stunning btw) that is only *slightly* less than perfect for a mere £450 net after the reduction! (that's about $800 which is unheard of in the UK!)

Just glad the ordeal is over now, gonna hug my 2001FP and not let it outta my sight ;)

[CAG]

Great, T._uk. :) Just don't hug it too tight...I don't think those types of things are covered under any warranty ;) Enjoy...

CAG

[ProphZG]

Just got this monitor yesterday, for the $719 deal at Dell small business. I was very worried at first, because I'd just finished dealing with 2 Viewsonic VP201S's in a row that were defective (1st had busted DVI port, 2nd had a dozen+ bad subpixels!) and got a refund. After much indecision, I broke down and ordered the Dell 2001FP when I saw the low price. I'd paid $400 more for that Viewsonic... Luckily I got all my money back (CompUSA has a good refund policy).

Result: this is the BEST monitor I have EVER seen or owned!

It's perfect, and has so many cool features - I'm blown away. The picture-in-picture and various video inpuits for example - I didn't expect all that. Really good stuff. And the display is far better than the 2 Viewsonics I had - the Dell is very evenly lit, and has no bright spots.

VERY happy. :)

One little complaint...

The stand can't go down further. The way my current desk and chair setup is, I wish the panel could be dropped down closer to the bottom of the stand. The Viewsonic could go all the way down. :/ As it is, the screen is about 3 inches too high for me.

But that's a minor complaint. Everything else is pure gravy.

[CAG]

Welcome to the forum, ProphZG, and congrats on your 2001FP :). Sounds like you got a perfect panel. From what I understand, the 2001FP and the VP201 both use the same panel although their controllers are probably different...Dell uses the Genesis controller which gives you all the bells and whistles you mentioned.

Glad to have you on board,

CAG

[Terminator_uk]

Got my screen back today....mixed feelings.....

Pros -

- I have my 20" FP back!! :D
- Everything is bright crisp and clear
- Things look awesome at 1600x1200
- I have all the accessories and the DVI makes a big difference to text

Cons -

- Those damn grey rings are still there :(
- The 'screen door' effect looks terrible, I really noticed this after switching from a CRT
- The screen seems almost 'too' big
- 1600x1200 really takes the edge outta the speed I had on 1024x768 :(
- The mouse seems 'laggy' again in apps and games

Suppose i'll have to get used to it again but the screen almost looks like its interlaced :(

[ProphZG]

Thanks CAG.

I feel really lucky, my 2001FP is a superb specimen and better than I'd hoped. Monitors are always tricky purchases, especially LCD's. I was very apprehensive about ordering one online becasue of this, but I'm so happy I did now.

Terminator - I haven't seen this screen door effect people mention, not on the Viewsonics or the Dell. I really have to wonder if display cards have anything to do with this?

I'm currently using a GeForce 4 4200 Ti card. The image looks astoundingly good on this monitor at 1600x1200, and even at lower resolutions with the monitor scaling things. I've looked at the picture very close, with my nose nearly against the screen and I don't see any lines.

Not saying the issue isn't there - I'm sure it is. But I do wonder if maybe it's not always the monitor at fault. Then again, from the sounds of things and also my own bad experiences with the Viewsonics, there probably are just some percentage of screens out there with screen door effect.

[yao]

i just got my 2001fp, and have noticed 1 dead sub pixel (red is always on) and 1 dead (always on) pixel and one more pixel i think is also always on, but i'm not sure since it looks smaller than the other two. maybe just light leaking through? the thing is, all three of these are right next to each other (within a 1 inch from each other) and slightly above center and about 75% to the right. it's fine for web browsing, since the monitor can display white no problemo, but if i'm playing games, i'm thinking it may be noticable...?

will dell allow me to ask for a new one?

if so, do they send me one, allowing me to use the old one while the new one comes? then i could compare the new one and choose the current one if the new one is worse...

don't know what warranty i have... i just bought a new PC with the monitor, from the homePC place (not dell small business).

Thanks...

[ProphZG]

yao,

I'm pretty sure you can't get another one without first sending one back.

Also, 3 dead pixels/subpixels is well within the accepted limits for a 1600x1200 LCD. One with every single pixel 100% working is going to be _extremely_ rare. Most "perfect" screens you hear about aren't really perfect - it's just that their flaws are so incredibly minor that the user never notices or cares.

I'm a good example of that...

When carefully scrutinizing my monitor - I can see maybe 3 dead subpixels on a totally black screen. But I have to hunt for them, with my nose nearly against the screen. Two are microscopically tiny. And none are fully dead pixels, just subs.

To me this screen is "perfect" - especially after experiencing LCD monitors that were much worse. Example: one of the Viewsonic VP201's I had had around _20_ dead subpixels, with about a dozen or so lined up like a constellation in top left. It was UGLY.

My advice - only do an RMA if it's truly driving you crazy after a week of regular use. Usually if you don't think about finding dead pixels, the few you might have disappear among the millions and millions of good pixels. :)

As far as an RMA goes - Dell may say no anyway, because 3 is well within the accepted limits for LCD's. And you always take the chance that you get a monitor with an even worse problem.

[Terminator_uk]

Yeah, ya gotta be careful....now I've had mine back for a day, I'm getting very used to it and really enjoying using it !!

Make sure you don't have the screen as close as a smaller displays as you'll find yourself getting confused (especially with moving pictures) - move the screen back and it'll 'feel' nicer + you notice minor defects less.

[CAG]

Originally posted by yao
will dell allow me to ask for a new one?

if so, do they send me one, allowing me to use the old one while the new one comes? then i could compare the new one and choose the current one if the new one is worse...
Dell will allow you to replace your old one (as long as you make the request within the "Total Customer Satisfaction" period...I think its 21 days from the date of shipping) and you'll be allowed to keep your old one until the replacement arrives (actually, you send the old one back in the box that the replacement came in) That way, you can compare the old with the new.

BTW, welcome to the forum, yao :)

CAG

[robstocktonjr]

When most of the Dell Reps spoke not only English.. they spoke American....

I placed my order on Tuesday. I paid $69 extra for 2nd day shipping. SHipping date was 8/25 according to the status check page. I also noticed that it said it was shipped UPS GROUND. So I called today to find out why I was charged for 2nd Day but they used Ground instead.

The lady I spoke to put me on hold for a few moments. She came back and said UPS made a mistake on the tracking page and that it was shipped 2nd day. I told here it was rare for them to have those types of issues with tracking and explained I paid for 2nd day.. I expected 2nd day not ground. While I had her on the line..... I checked the other part of my order (Logitech MX510 mouse) come to find out it was also shiped ground via Airborne. Needless to say I asked her about that and she put me on hold yet again. She came back with the same answer. I chuckled at the audacity of this lady and hung up on her.

Then after 7 calls..... I finally got a person who actually sounded like they might be here in the good ole USA. I explained to him what I was told. I also told him I had called UPS and they said it was not a mistake and that my shipment had not even been picked up as of 9:00AM CST on Thursday.

The Dell Rep created a ticket and basically "promised" that if my order showed up with "GROUND" on the label that I would be refunded the $69 I paid for the 2 day service. The day I placed the order.... ground shipping was FREE.

The mouse has arrived via AIRBORNE GROUND today. As I write this my monitor still does not show as being picked up by UPS.

As much as I want this monitor, I am kinda pissed at being lied to by the 1st Dell Rep.

Now I will be paying special attention to any defects I may encounter with this monitor... and will have no problems returning it on a whim.

I sure hope it arrives Friday and in good condition. Apologies for the rant.. I just tend to get cranky when I have to deal with outsourced Sales and Service Reps.

[CAG]

Originally posted by robstocktonjr
Apologies for the rant.. I just tend to get cranky when I have to deal with outsourced Sales and Service Reps.
No apology needed...we've all been there.

[TheAngryIntern]

isn't AIRBORNE GROUND a contradiction of terms??

[MailManX]

Originally posted by TheAngryIntern
isn't AIRBORNE GROUND a contradiction of terms??

Heh, heh! Maybe it means flying low.

[Terminator_uk]

Ya know what? I am being waaayyyy too picky.

After having this screen for a few days, yes I may notice a *slight* screen door effect, yes I have a bright and dead pixel in annoying places and yes I have made dull grey rings behind them by trying to massage them back to life.....

I just tidied my desktop up and got a new HL2 background and it looks so sharp, clear and awesome ; I don't notice the slight defeats at all.

Here's a pic of my screen in all its glory :) (reduced size and quality for knuckle-dragging CRT 1024'ers :p)

http://img47.exs.cx/img47/7199/Desktop32.jpg

[TheAngryIntern]

Sweet background!!! where did you find it?

[AJK1]

Oooh, yeah, I think I want that wallpaper too!!! :)

AJ

[chaddc33]

I got this monitor about February of this year and it's incredible. It's hard to go to work and use a regular 17" CRT after using this bad boy. The weird thing is that regular 20" CRT's actually seem bigger screen wise because the footprint is so small on this! I do see the screendoor effect everyone mentions, and at first I was paranoid about it, but it lessens big time over time. You get used to it :)

Two questions here. Does anyone notice that this monitor makes a really high pitched whine when you turn it on, and to a lesser degree when it's on? I suppose that is normal with LCD's, but never having one before I have little to base it on.

The second question - should I turn my LCD off every night and time I'm away from it for a long period? I always do because I read where it's bad to leave them on all the time. Most people leave their CRT's on, because of power-saving - which this one has too I believe, but with such an expensive monitor I didn't want to take a chance. I just wonder if the power switch is going to be able to take that much on/off/on/off?? Maybe it's not a big issue? Just curious - thanks!!

[Terminator_uk]

Do a google search for "Half Life 2 Wallpaper" and then click on the 'images' tab and scroll though, the one I got there looks great because it is actually 1600x1200 (i.e. the native res of the monitor). :)

About the screen door thing ; when you first move from CRT it does concern you but kinda disappears over time to your eyes.

As the LCD heats up, I find the image gets sharper and more colourful.

As regards the leave on or off thing, it's upto you but remember that leaving the screen on w/o a screensaver doesn't harm the panel as it isn't tracing a ray onto the same point and 'burning' an image in like a CRT does.

As a matter of practise, I always turn my monitor off when I'm away from it for any length of time as this will increase the lifespan of the backlight which is the most likely thing to go wrong anyway :)

[CAG]

T._uk, I like the way you arranged your desktop icons around the logo :cool:

[idx]

Originally posted by CAG
I read an article somewhere where the Indian out-sourcing companies are training their employees to sound more American-like when speaking on the phone.

Did you see the show (dateline, or 20/20 maybe?) about it? They had one of their reporters go to india and view the various facets of outsourced call centers, the very poor areas and the classes that trained them to speak more american and british.. (also how it was changing the youth of india vs the elders)

Pretty interesting especially when the instructor switched from her native indian accent to american then to british - repeating the same line.

....if only the people at IBM's call center would speak more american'ish... At times I can barely understand them. (not to mention the 1.5s delay + echo)

-r

[yao]

Originally posted by chaddc33


Two questions here. Does anyone notice that this monitor makes a really high pitched whine when you turn it on, and to a lesser degree when it's on? I suppose that is normal with LCD's, but never having one before I have little to base it on.

i don't notice a high pitched sound... all of my CRTs did make one though. this monitor seems silent compared to them.


The second question - should I turn my LCD off every night and time I'm away from it for a long period? I always do because I read where it's bad to leave them on all the time. Most people leave their CRT's on, because of power-saving - which this one has too I believe, but with such an expensive monitor I didn't want to take a chance. I just wonder if the power switch is going to be able to take that much on/off/on/off?? Maybe it's not a big issue? Just curious - thanks!! [/B]

? people leave their CRTs on for power savings? that seems kinda counterintuitive to me...

if you're worried about the physical power switch, you could just change your power settings to turn off the monitor after X minutes of inactivity.

also, i didn't think that LCDs could be burned in, but believe it or not, they CAN! i had always thought it was a problem for CRTs only until i came across some computers at a lab at school where someone had forgotten to adjust the auto off settings and the "Press CTRL ALT DEL to logon" screen was burned into the LCD screen. This was maybe 2 or 3 years ago on 17" screens... i don't know if manufacturers have fixed this or not.

[CAG]

chaddc33,

First off, welcome to the forum :) As far as leaving the monitor on, review this thread http://www.firstadopter.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=247 I have my powersave enabled and when I'm finished with the pc for the day/night, I shut the monitor off...I don't think that you'll ever wear out the on/off switch.

CAG

[AJK1]

Term_UK, thanks, I found the wallpaper,! Sweet!

AJ

[Terminator_uk]

Hehe good isn't it? :)

Yeah Cag, the backdrop looks awesome on this monitor and is great for arranging desktop icons around it ^_^

Can't wait for HL2 ! ;)

[CAG]

I noted that the regular price of the 2001FP is now just $899. With the glut of LCD's on the market predicted in this article (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18176), maybe we'll see even lower prices :)

[robstocktonjr]

Well it arrived last Friday.. I was too excited about it to log on and write something...

In a nutshell! This monitor kicks ass!

So far I have tried out Doom III, Tribes Vengeance Beta, and City of Heroes on it. Doom III looked a tad darker than my CRT did, but looked great when the flash light was on. City of Heroes looks plain awesome on it and running in 1600X1200 gives me a ton more viewable area as the menues and such are much smaller. I noticed a tiny bit of ghosting at first but now it is barely noticable. I have not had to change any of the brightness settings. For the record I have one bad pixel which seems to be mostly noticable with red type colors. Manufacture date for my monitor was June 2004.

Web Sites look nice as does video. I watched Queen of the Damned on it the other day while I was messing around with other things at my desk.

The amount of space I have recovered on my desk is sweet. I still plan to go wireless with keyboard, mouse, and network to recover even more space and clear some clutter and cables from my desk.

I owe everyone of you a bit of thanks. I have been waffling on the purchase of a nice LCD for quite a while and was a bit shy about even considering a Dell branded product. In a recent e-mail conversation with a Dell Sales Rep I mentioned this thread and told him that Dell owes you guys a lot. More folks need to purchase items and place information like this in forums. Most reviews don't do products justice. But we/us as reviewers are end users with everyday use of the products. I would take the comments/suggestions/tips from a site like this over any sort of review site.

Thanks for any/all info posted. Hopefully I won't have to come back here any time soon and post anything negative about this monitor and purchase.

Rob Stockton
Kansas City, Missouri

P.S. They refunded my $69 2nd Day Shipping fee. It arrived in 2 days via Ground so I complained that even though it did arrive in 2 days... They shipped it Ground so I thought it should be free as Ground shipping was free on the date I placed my order.

[Blackhat00]

So it's been a long time, a bit over three months since I got my 2001FP.

I had some problems, mainly the DVI was not working at all and I promised a more thorough review of the monitor including some gaming goodness from the standpoint of someone that doesn't really care about FPS that much.

Well, things happened. Mainly my wife died shortly after I got the monitor. That isn't some kind of call for sympathy, she had a two year fight with a brain tumor and we all knew it was coming unfortunately, just not then.

So that aside, not that anybody was emailing me everyday asking what my thoughts were or anything, I have a slightly more up to date review.

The DVI problem was fixed with a new DVI cable and the latest ATI drivers. I opted out of the "You want how much for that cable?!" Monster cables and went for the more generics figuring I could return them. Fortunately the generic worked out. Oddly enough the new cable (bought at Fry's) seems less sturdy than the one provided with the monitor, less thick, couplings dont' seem of the quality but it works and that's the main thing.

Gaming: I just haven't been in the mood to game much. I have tried a few times and can report that Warcraft III looks fantastic at 1600x1200. There is some blur if you speed scroll across a map but nothing that affects gameplay. Truth be told that blur might have been there on a CRT and I just never thought to try that or look for it.

Playing the FarCry demo some more and then playing it at a local store made me realize that I'm not getting good framerates, and hooking up my old CRT (miserable colors and all) made me realize that it looked slower on the Dell than on a CRT. I think is due more to my ATI 9600 than anything else and I've marked aside some funds to get a 9800 Pro at some point in the nearish future and see if that livens things up a bit.

Okay so it wasn't the extensive review I had planned many months ago but I work with what I have.


Overall: Pretty much the same as my initial overall impression:

If you gotta have a big monitor, and you gotta have a flat panel this is the one to get. Value wise for it's size and performance it's heard to beat.

If you're hardcore into gaming and you just want a flat panel for the novelty, don't bother. You gotta have a vid card that can post impressive numbers at 1600x1200 for the best picture. Given the latest crop of games, that isn't going to happen.

If you really want a LCD and you're really into games, I personally would go with a 17" panel with the 12ms response times, they cost less and are supposedly faster.

All in all I love this monitor. Is it worth nearly a grand? For me, no. I still like it though. Yes it does have the screen door effect (if I look really really closely I can see it but it doesn't bother me) it does have a couple dead pixels which I have to hunt for everytime, but I still love it.

[TheAngryIntern]

Well, first of all, my condolances on your loss, blackhat00. I'm sure that this has been an extremely difficult time for you and we are glad that you are still with us here at FirstAdopter.

2nd of all, I've been playing in the World of Warcraft Stress Test beta the past week or so. The game looks so sweet on the 2001FP. i'm running at 1600x1200 with all the visuals maxed and it looks awesome. Did anyone else here get into the beta? Too bad it's over on thursday, cuz it's been a lot of fun.

I've had my 2001FP for about 4 1/2 months, and I'm so glad i got one. All my games look awesome, especially the ones i can play in 16x12. Haven't had any problems yet with it, other than my little ole 1 dead pixel that i don't even notice anymore. Even the games that i have to run at 1280x1024 look great, and i'm not using the 1:1 scaling.

[Fox1]

My 2001FP is really great, games look good, everything looks good. The only issue I have found with it (other than the 1 stuck subpixel) is that when the computer comes out of Hibernation the monitor looks like confetti..rebbot and all is fine again. have no problem coming out of Standby though

[firstadopter]

Blackhat00, I'm sorry for your loss. Hang in there.

[captainkrusty]

Hey everyone

I was wondering if anyone comes across a sale or a coupon that can be used to buy the 2001FP that they give a shout.

I know everyone is really good about it, but Ive definately decided that this is my next monitor and want to get one durning the next sale.

Thanks for the help and all of the posts so far, its definately made it an easier decision.

JC

[CAG]

JC,

Dell Small Business has them on sale now for $719.20 HERE (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=320-1578&c=us&l=en&cs=04&category_id=5194&first=true)...Don't know how long the sale will last and that's a very good (low) price...so, you may want to pull the trigger now.

CAG

[captainkrusty]

Originally posted by CAG
JC,

Dell Small Business has them on sale now for $719.20 HERE (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=320-1578&c=us&l=en&cs=04&category_id=5194&first=true)...Don't know how long the sale will last and that's a very good (low) price...so, you may want to pull the trigger now.

CAG

Thanks for the heads up CAG

What is the difference of buying from the small buisness side or the home side of the site?

Thanks again for all of the help

JC

[CAG]

No real difference. When you set up an account with Dell Small Business, you may have to give them some sort of company name. I have 2 account nos. with them...one for Home and one for Small Business.

[Mime Fighter]

I have had mine since Sunday. (We sold the company I work at so finally the stock is paying off. Guess what the first thing I bought was ;-) ) Awesome monitor. This monitor was reviewed a month or so back by Maximum PC magazine and was one of only 2 LCD monitors that they considered worthy of buying (out of 12). The others simply were not good enough for gaming and failed thier tests. At work, we have bought a few of these where it was necessary to show off for the customer so I have been seeing them around for a year now. None of ours have had any failures per se. We did have an 1801FP fail but Dell replaced it. I have a monitor switcher that I use to go from one PC to another (Linux to XP) and it looks good on both. Unfortunately, this is done through analog and not digital. Is digital that much better? Should I for go the monitor switcher? Can I hook one computer up with DVI and the other with VGA at the same time and switch using the input switch?
Don

[arogan]

I currenty have a 4 way kvm with 3 of the computers hooked up through analog vga through the kvm and then the kvm to the 2001fp via analog.
Then for the 4th pc which is my main gaming pc I have the video hooked up directly through dvi. This way you can still use the kvm for the mouse keyboard and siwtching video among the 3 analog video sources.

You just have to "double switch." Switch to the right slot on the kvm and then switch to either dvi or analog on the 2001fp. It all works great.

[CAG]

Welcome to the board, Don :) The 2001FP display is noticeably better on DVI.

CAG

[Mime Fighter]

Thanks,
I don't mind double switching. So, DVI it is. BTW, I have about 18 of these monitors at work and have had 0 problems with them for the last 6 months. (I am the IT manager) None have been returned and I have seen no bleeding or stuck pixels on any of the 18 at all.
Don

[firstadopter]

haha 18 2001FPs for gaming.. errr.. work purposes. Well maybe you work for a gaming company, who knows.

[CAG]

Originally posted by Mime Fighter
BTW, I have about 18 of these monitors at work and have had 0 problems with them for the last 6 months. (I am the IT manager) None have been returned and I have seen no bleeding or stuck pixels on any of the 18 at all.

Do you think the co. you work for would consider selling a couple of them...or donating a few to a worthy charity (me)? :D

[firstadopter]

0 for 18 in terms of dead pixels is pretty amazing.

[sHAZBOT!]

Well you sunzabeaches just got me to spend $800 bux on this thang...I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!

I get it ~Oct 1 according to Dell. Actually I've been spying this monitor since the Anandtech review, and I just found this review/forum yesterday. I wanted to make sure it was great for my FPS games (Call of Duty, Doom3, HL2, Stalker, etc). The many positive gaming user reviews on this forum, and the 20% off for small bus. purchases thru Dell pushed me over the edge.

I'm pretty excited, and just wanted to say thanx.

sHAZBOT!



oh, btw, I like this site...i'm a tech nut and like knowing about the emerging cutting edge stuff.

[firstadopter]

Welcome aboard ShazBot. We can use more people contributing like you.

[sHAZBOT!]

thx.


OMG....I'm a farm animal! Bah...Bah

[CAG]

Originally posted by sHAZBOT!
thx.


OMG....I'm a farm animal! Bah...Bah

I'll add my "welcome" to Rendition's...Look on the bright side, sHAZBOT!... life is good for farm animals...they get fed regularly, have a warm place to sleep, and get plenty of exercise...:D

[sHAZBOT!]

sweet...i'll look forward to my free grinds!

[Fox1]

Originally posted by Fox1
My 2001FP is really great, games look good, everything looks good. The only issue I have found with it (other than the 1 stuck subpixel) is that when the computer comes out of Hibernation the monitor looks like confetti..rebbot and all is fine again. have no problem coming out of Standby though

Anybody want to answer this?

[CAG]

Fox1,

Go HERE (http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=33721) and follow the directions for the make of card you have. I have an ATi card and had the same problem...used this fix and it worked.

CAG

[LordStryker]

Well, im bitting the bullet. After extensive research i've decided on buying the 2001fp. The screen door effect had me worried for awhile, but i've decided i'll be one of those who it wont bother too much. I've heard too many good things. Unfortunately i missed the last sale thing. Im not about to pay $900 for it when i know i can get it for little over 700. Just gonna have to wait until dell puts it on sale again. Hope it isnt too long.

[CAG]

Welcome to the board, LordStryker :) Keep checking the Dell site, both Home and Small Business, for a sale...it will be on again. Let us know when you pull the trigger.

CAG

[Lumpydog]

OK - I have a 20 inch CRT that's over the hill (going on 7 years).

Question - just to see what the 2001FP is like at 1600X1200, I set my 20 inch CRT to the same resolution.

My take - "you've gotta be kidding me". With a 20 inch monitor, why shrink everything down to that size (I'm runing my current monitor at 1024X768).

At 1600X1200, web pages are microscopic. Font (even with my display setting set to Extra Large Font) is miniscule.

So - if I ordered the 2001FP, am I going to experience the same thing I do if I set my 20 inch CRT to 1600X1200?

It seems like a real waste - the reason I like my 20 inch CRT monitor so much is because it's so big, I can site back 2-3 feet and conforably view/read what I'm working on.

I know I can set the 2001FP's screen resolution to a lower res. I also know that I don't like the fuzzyness that results due to interpolation.

I'd buy one of these 2001 FPs in a second if I knew I wouldn't need a maginfying glass.

[idx]

The text seems fine at 1600x1200. I typically sit 2-3ft away and don't have any problems reading the screen. (even though my eyes suck) Fonts are regular size, so I imagine they would be even friendler if set to large.

I was really surprised that it was as readable as it is. (that is coming from a 19" CRT running at 1280x1024 - anything higher was too small)

-r

[CAG]

Welcome to the forum, Lumpydog :) This may be my last post before the power dies here in South Florida but you really can't compare a 20" CRT with something like the 2001 FP. I have a 21" CRT and its garbage vs. the 2001FP. Scan the ~1,000 posts in this thread and decide for yourself.

Again, welcome aboard,

CAG

[Lumpydog]

Hold on tight down there!

I keep wondering what Florida did to deserve all this!? Payback for the harsh winters we endure up in Mass?

Seriously - I hope everyone (including family I have down there) stays safe.

-C-

[Fox1]

You won't need a magnifying glass because you can increase the font size and icon size quite easily in windows. For XP, Just right click on the screen and select "Properties" then "appearance" then "advanced" and you can change everything. There is no interpolation with the Dell and at 16x12 it is sharp as a tack

[Fox1]

Oh yeah for web pages, go to IE select "tools", select "internet options" select "accessibility" then check box to "ignore Font sizes specified on web pages" then you can have web font sizes as big as you want.

In IE right click the tool bar and add the Font size icon to the bar

[tav]

I just want to know if your ac adapter on your dell 2001FP is very hot or is it just warm to the touch.Because my ac adapter is very hot not warm to the touch. And I don't no if its the way they all are. Thanks

[Rogue]

Tav,

My power brick does not get hot, just a bit warm and welcome to the forum.

[Fox1]

same here, warm not hot

[tav]

Thanks for your reply, does your ac adapter get hot when your monitor has been on for a couple of hours. Mine gets very hot but doesn't burn you. I called dell and they sent me another one and it gets very hot to. When I called them back they told me that its ok that it gets very hot, and don't worry about it.

[Fox1]

Well after a couple of hours it does get very warm..but not Hot. I would define hot as almost too hot to hold.

[tav]

Thanks fox1, I can hold it and it doesn't burn me but its really hot.

[sHAZBOT!]

So I finally got my 2001FP. YAY....It's beautiful. Bigger than I thought it would be, and NO dead/stuck/weird pixels!

Anyway, it plays games great. Even at 1280x1024 it's pretty good. But I'm having an issue playing a DVD. I put Saving Private Ryan in to test how it would play and for the most part it plays nicely except for a few scenes that display bizarre vertical lines that stretch the images that they go thru. The scenes I remember being messed up were of burning bunkers, and it looked awful! The fires were streched from top to bottom of the screen!However, the next scene also had burning bunkers that were displayed perfectly?? It plays perfectly on my CRT.

Anyway, I have an ATI 9800 pro with Omega Cat 4.9 drivers, and I'm using the DVI-D connections. I have three different DVD player softwares (Cyberlink Power DVD, Real Player, Windows Media) that all display the same issues at the exact same scenes. This happens when hardware acceleration is enabled or not and also when the DVI Frequency reduction option is checked or not. The only thing I didn't try was running it on the Analog D-SUB connection. I guess I'll try that tonight.

Any thoughts before I continue my goose chase?

When I figure this out I'll be VERY happy. Well, to tell ya the truth, my system doesn't necessarily like 1600x1200 in Call of Duty:UO with settings on high. It's playable with settings on medium, and also at 1280x1024 with settings on High. I guess I need a new VGA Card...6800GT or X800XT???? hmmm....

[LordStryker]

Ok well found this on slickdeals.net

http://www.slickdeals.net/?pno=5245&lno=1&afsrc=1

through dell business you can get the 2001fp for $674 before shipping and tax with BVNRRP6FNDWPM$ code. Expires tomorrow.


with shipping and tax, it brings me to $742.35 which seems pretty good.

My question is am I still able to buy this for myself and not through a business? Seems like i would have to enter in business address, tax codes etc. Dont really wanna pull a fraud deal with dell just to get the monitor.

[sHAZBOT!]

nah dude, i got mine thru small business. Just enter any business name. mine was Shaz's PC...LOL

[Rogue]

LordStryker


I got mine thru Dell Small Business too. No problems what-so-ever. I even had to exhange the first one. Go for it you won't be sorry!!!!!

[Rogue]

sHAZBOT!


I am running a 6800GT and everything looks beautiful @1600x1200 on my 2001FP. I was waiting for a X800 Pro to be found and couldn't wait any longer. I'm very pleased with the card and I saved over a $100.

[sHAZBOT!]

Rogue, where you get your $100 discount on 6800GT?

[Rogue]

No discount - $399 @ CompUSA. For some reason I typed X800 Pro, I meant X800 XT - sorry, my bad. Still it is worth every penny. Although 2 weeks after I bought the thing they had it advertised with Doom 3 for free, so I guess getting the card and Doom 3 for 400 bucks wasn't such a bad deal. Just had to talk with the manager.

[LordStryker]

Well i did it. Ordered it a few minutes ago. Bottom line came out to $742 and change. Not too shabby. Should be getting it beginning of next week. cant wait :)

[sHAZBOT!]

Originally posted by LordStryker
Well i did it. Ordered it a few minutes ago. Bottom line came out to $742 and change. Not too shabby. Should be getting it beginning of next week. cant wait :)

SHWING!

[idx]

Originally posted by tav
Thanks fox1, I can hold it and it doesn't burn me but its really hot.

That's about how mine is. (think I posted that around page 70 or 80) Feels surprisingly hot, but I can still hold it. (not by much though)

-r

[Lumpydog]

Dell is doing the 2001FP for $719 deal again. Shipping is free for Home and Home Office customers. Use your Dell preferred card and get an additional 2% off!

My total for a brand new 2001FP shipped: $704!!!!!!

-C-

[Lumpydog]

Using coupon code: HBTVJZKDLSN91$

I saved $30 bringing my total down to $674 shipped!!!!!

I realized this coupon was available after placing my order and had to call it in - you should be able to get the same deal on-line.

-C-

[LordStryker]

oh man...i just paid $742 for mine a few days ago...no free shipping or tax. oh well I guess

[kz1m9w]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let you know that all the information posted here has been extremely helpful to me. The most recent post about the discount coupons sent it over the edge for me and I finally broke down.

I ordered a pair of them from Dell to be used in my music studio. I run a dual-head machine and I can't wait to see these side-by-side. It sure will be my current 19" + 15" CRT monitors.

I'm looking forward to...
- Higher resolution (I can't WAIT for 1600x1200 on both)!
- Less heat in my studio - this should help
- Less space consumed - more room for my music gear

The only think I'm uncertain of is if I'll have any disappointment using the analog inputs (not DVI). My graphics card is a Matrox G450 dual head. I just now started considering upgrading that card to one that can do dual in DVI - any suggestions. My requirements would need to include "no fan" (must not introduce any noise).

Anyway, thanks everyone. I'm excited!
Randy

[SlipperySnowman]

Originally posted by Lumpydog
Dell is doing the 2001FP for $719 deal again. Shipping is free for Home and Home Office customers. Use your Dell preferred card and get an additional 2% off!

My total for a brand new 2001FP shipped: $704!!!!!!

-C-

I was just about to purchase one myself, but then closed the window.

1.) Does Dell run these sales often?
(from the looks of this thread it sure seems so)

2.) Is Dell preparing release of their next flatscreen that is going to trump the 2100fp ? What do you expect the lifetime on this product to be?

I made this mistake when I bought my 3rd gen ipod just 7 days before 4th gens were released along with a price drop and added features ... ::DOH::

[CAG]

Haven't posted in a while but since it seems that we won't be hit by a hurricane this weekend (just checked the Weather Channel), I figured it would be safe...

I'd like to welcome tav, kz1m9w (Randy), and SlipperySnowman to the board :) . If there are any new members that I missed, please forgive me (and pm me to let me know).

To answer some recent questions:

1. Randy...The 2001FP, like virtually all of the high-end LCD's, has substantially better display qualities with DVI. I'm not familiar with Matrox but, if you are considering upgrading your video card, you may want to give us the rest of your pc's system specs as this may influence the recommendations.

2. SlipperySnowman...Dell has these sales often...Like you, I agonized thru a few of them back in February (when Dell was having them less often) before I pulled the trigger...best decision I ever made (monitor-wise, that is). And don't worry about buying old technology...about the only thing you'll see any time soon will be screens the size of the 2001FP with higher native resolutions and faster (12ms) response times...at a much higher price, of course. In any event, I think you'll be OK for quite a long time...look how long CRT's have lasted.

CAG

[SlipperySnowman]

Originally posted by CAG
Haven't posted in a while but since it seems that we won't be hit by a hurricane this weekend (just checked the Weather Channel), I figured it would be safe...

I'd like to welcome tav, kz1m9w (Randy), and SlipperySnowman to the board :) . If there are any new members that I missed, please forgive me (and pm me to let me know).

To answer some recent questions:

1. Randy...The 2001FP, like virtually all of the high-end LCD's, has substantially better display qualities with DVI. I'm not familiar with Matrox but, if you are considering upgrading your video card, you may want to give us the rest of your pc's system specs as this may influence the recommendations.

2. SlipperySnowman...Dell has these sales often...Like you, I agonized thru a few of them back in February (when Dell was having them less often) before I pulled the trigger...best decision I ever made (monitor-wise, that is). And don't worry about buying old technology...about the only thing you'll see any time soon will be screens the size of the 2001FP with higher native resolutions and faster (12ms) response times...at a much higher price, of course. In any event, I think you'll be OK for quite a long time...look how long CRT's have lasted.

CAG

Thanks for the welcome ;)

Hm, it just scares me to jump into a 700$ decision when as you said 12ms technology is just budding.

On the older 20" model which I almost bought about a year ago, used samsung as their OEM. Now Dell is using Phillips and ofcourse boasting better specs. Any roadmap or ideas as to when Dell might decide to produce their next crop of fp?

:) As I said before..I'm still feeling the burn of 100$ lost in 7days due to my non-"market awareness"... Oh how I want one of these precioussss fp though...

I'm a student of multimedia and cgi, so a nice dual display crt + lcd would be perfect for me...

[LordStryker]

Well I just got it and so far its a big step up from my old 21" CRT. Tried playing a couple games and dont really notice ghosting so much as it seems to just lag. Like im playing an internet game and there's a lousy connection, even in single player mode.

Do notice the "screen door" effect, but only on greys. Everything else looks great. I got a dual monitor setup going right now. 1 is my old 21" CRT and the other the new 2001fp. The CRT's test looks so blurry now I cant believe I actually used it.

So far, after about 5 minutes of using it, im a happy camper.

[CAG]

SlipperySnowman,

They've had 12ms for a while in small displays (i.e., 17"). Don't know when you'll see it in larger displays. When it gets to bigger displays (i.e., 20"+), the cost will be probably pushing $2K. Anyway, I've had my 2001FP for ~9 months and every time I boot my machine, I'm amazed at how good the monitor looks. Even if something faster came along, I'd never get rid of the 2001FP...you really have to see it to know what the rest of us on this board are talking about. What you may want to consider is buying the monitor and, if you're still not comfortable, return it...Dell has a very liberal return policy.

[idx]

Well said CAG (and glad you made it through Jeanne :D I'll be having roof fun today). Still love my monitor even with the screen door and a slight amount of backlight bleed in one area. Looks better than anything I've owned or use at work.

For $700-800 you just can't beat the price. There's no way I'm spending $2k on a monitor.

...now if I could just get work to buy one for me. :)

-r

[CAG]

Originally posted by idx
For $700-800 you just can't beat the price.

You said it best, idx...The monitor is an absolute steal even at $900...Folks who don't have one don't know what they're missing or what we're talking about.

[kz1m9w]

As some of you may have read previously, I ordered a pair of 2001fp's from Dell. Thought I'd chime in with an update...

To my surprise, they arrived yesterday afternoon (slightly less that 48 hours after I ordered them. That was quick.

I now have them side-by-side on one of my music studio's computer (dual head Matrox G450). LOTS of screen real estate!

I had previously mentioned that I was considering upgrading my dual-head video card to something that could do dual-head in digital (since my current Matrox G450 is dual ANALOG). This was mainly because I wasn't sure how happy I'd be with the quality.

However, I'm happy to report that even in analog mode, these displays are a big improvement over my former CRT combo. They are working great for me.

If anyone is interested, I really don't need (or even want) a lot of power in my video card. I want it to work flawlessly and be completely silent - that is the highest priority for me. This isn't a gaming machine I'm working on - purely DAW.

So, bottom line - I'm VERY pleased with them. Occasionally, I'll be trying to find flaws with either of them, but a quick look at any of the other handful of my CRT's I have in use quickly reminds me of what an upgrade these displays truly are. Love 'em.

Now a question (or two)...

I have not ruled out getting a third 2001fp and upgrading to a 3-head video card in the near future. To do so (at elast for my purposes) would mean running them in portrait mode (i.e. turned sideways).

I had heard there is some download utility that is required for doing so. Does anyone know anything about this tool? Is anyone running in portrait mode?

Thanks as always for the all the help and advice. 2001fp rocks!

[SlipperySnowman]

Yargh, went to buy it tonight but the 40$ + freeshipping didn't end up showing up...instead a total price of $814.25.. I checked the offer page..only good till oct 03, guess the sites on a different time zone than myself...(even though I still pay tax...?) :(

I guess I'm waiting...

[Robert]

Hi all,

After reading the many positive threads on both Anandtech, Neowin and Firstadopter, I purchased the 2001fp here in the UK and received it yesterday.

First impressions when opening the box were...it's all silver! Yes, the Ebay seller had the all silver version instead of the usual black one seen on the reviews.

I connected it to my 9800pro (Cat 4.9) with the DVI cable and started the PC. XP loaded and it looked quite nice, but I wasn't as blown away as I thought I would be. I don't think my colours are quite right, so if anyone can suggest some settings or ICC profiles then I'd be most grateful. I've set the brightness at 25, but may raise this as I believe the brightness can affect colour depth.

Setting a desktop wallpaper at 1600x1200 looked fantastic, so I realised my problem was not colour range or definition. What must have been bothering me was the fact that any images such as those found on websites, are shown with all their compression and low resolution qualities. So I've discovered that high resolution can have it's drawbacks, if the original source is not designed for 1600x1200.

I was overall impressed by the screen size, and it does make web browsing more pleasurable. Once I can get my gamma corrected I can see myself getting very used to the LCD.

I'm coming from a Formac Pro-nitron 17inch CRT, bought with my first Mac almost seven years ago. My only reason for upgrading was the small screen size, but a 19inch CRT would probably have been too bulky. I had the intention of getting a 17inch LCD, but thought the 20inch would be a greater experience.

The most important aspect of this purchase was gaming. I'm currently playing Battlefield 1942:Forgotten Hope on most evenings, and I'm still amazed at how beautiful Battlefield still looks. Starting a game up on the 2001fp however, I was immediately drawn to the issue mentioned above. The game engine may run at 1600x1200, but it seems other aspects such as option screens and in-game maps were not designed for this. Therefore in-game text, maps and selection buttons are all pixelated and blurry. Another problem was textures. Gone were the rich realistic textures, to be replaced with blurry, flat colours. Something I found out was that you have to enable anisotropic filtering, otherwise there's just a shimmering blur in front of you. I think this boils down to Battlefield 1942 not being intended for 1600x1200.

Loading up the newer Battlefield Vietnam did drastically improve the graphics quality, so I would say don't get this monitor to play older FPS games. As everything is so sharp at this resolution, I also found that 4xAA did make a difference, whereas I never noticed any improvement on my CRT. Weapon definition was amazing, almost life like. The problem is textures, but hopefully the next generation of games such as HL2 and BF2 will shine on this monitor.

Something which I didn't understand, was when I switched resolution during the games. On my CRT, when I select a higher resolution the game area becomes bigger, with smaller maps and buttons etc. However, on this monitor all it seems to do is make the image sharper. Therefore I was left feeling that I could probably have achieved the same effect by using a 17inch LCD situated closer to me. I'm hoping that some setting in my setup is wrong here, and the fact that 800x600 resolution is the worst of them all for blurring. I thought it was supposed to be sharp, so I hope I'm doing something wrong. It would be great if someone could send me a screen grab of Battlefield in play, so I could see if it was the same as mine. I also don't know how to use the pixel reduction technique, that leaves you with borders when playing at lower resolutions, hopefully that might help my older games. It would also be great if anyone could suggest any colour profiles that can be used with the 9800pro, in the colour tab on the settings menu of the ATI control panel.

Regarding ghosting, it doesn't seem to be much better than the 25ms LCD I use at work. Quickly turning in a helicopter playing Battlefield is going to take me awhile to get used to. Again, I hope this is more of a texture problem than a ghosting one. The reason I'm thinking this, is that the crosshair doesn't seem to ghost, but maybe that's because it's small and I notice it less.

The final thing to mention for now, is the backlight leakage. In a dark room it's very obvious. I tried pressing the case but it didn't seem to help much, but it's only present on dark games or images. When I woke up this morning to have a quick look at the monitor, I couldn't see the leakage, so this must just be a problem when using the monitor in a dark room.

Any feedback would be most appreciated, and I'll post another report later, seeing if I've got more used to it.

Robert.

[Stainless]

My laptop just died, so I'm being forced to get myself a new 'puter.

It's hard to describe how much agonizing I do when confronted with a big ticket purchase. I like to research things to death.

Fatwallet.com has a coupon code for 25% off of Dell home systems. The 2001FP is a $560 upgrade, so I figure with the coupon code I would be getting it somewhere between 400-500 bucks.

I've used LCD's at work, but I've never felt they were as sharp as a CRT. An ex boss had a 23" Planar. I thought it looked like $hit.

I can upgrade to a 19" Dell M993 CRT for 50 bucks.

Based on prior posts I'm sure this is a stupid question, but what would you do?

I'm going to be making this purchase before midnight eastern to take advantage of Dell's current incentives.

I'm going with the 3.6 Pentium 4 XPS, 1 gig of Ram, 256mb ATI Radeon X800 and a 74 gig, 10,000 RPM Western Digital HD.

I don't do much PC gaming, but I've never really had a very good home system. I've always had laptops. I'm a hardcore console gamer. I'm going for a machine geared more towards gaming because I'm sure it will be more than sufficient for any application work I'll be using it for and the likelihood that I will be doing some PC gaming is very high.

Should I get the 2001FP?

[Robert]

Yesterday I managed to sort out the majority of my problems, and it seems they were driver based issues.

I removed the Catalyst 4.9 drivers and replaced them with the new Omega drivers. Before that I used Drivercleaner to get rid of everything ATI that I could find. I'm not a great fan of the Omega drivers, so I'm not sure if they helped or the good clean out did.

I think I may have had some alternate pixel centre problem. When I loaded up Battlefield 1942 again with the new drivers, it was back to the way it used to be on the CRT, I was soo pleased! There is still some minor ghosting, but not as much as previously, so it must have been some kind of texture problem.

Yesterday morning I came into work and compared it with the 17inch LCD we have here, and I could believe how small it looked. I also compared quality and the 2001fp is far superior. I think I must have been having one of those days when I first received it!

The only problem I'm left with is the backlight leakage, and from other forums I'm not sure this is always resolved through replacements. It seems to get worse the longer the monitor is left on. I would be upset if this was going to be used for watching DVD's or mainly dark games.

[kz1m9w]

Stainless,

I recommend the 2001fp. I've been very happy with both of mine. Its one of those things where I think to myself "I should have done this a long time ago"!

Yes, it's a significant cos, but it sounds like you will be getting it at a terrrific price.

Someone previously had claimed that the only advantage the LCD monitor had over a CRT, aside from the obvious "cool factor" was the reduced size. That may be true from their perspective, but from mine, it seems very narrow and presumptious.

So obviously, I do not agree with that perspective. Here are a few additional reasons I had for going with the 2001fp (to replace my old pair of CRT montiors)

1) Reduced Heat: In my recording studio, there is a TON of gear and it all adds up to keeping the room pretty hot (about 10 degrees F hotter after a few hours compare to when everything is turned off). A big contributer to the heat rise were the CRTs. Going LCD has helped out at least some in this area.

2) Reduced Electromagnetic Field: If you've ever held a single-coil pickup (i.e like that on a Statocaster) up near a CRT monitor, it causes a LOT of noise. Not good for recording. The 2001fp has reduced that tremendously for me. Big difference in my recording studio.

3) More Adjustability: My CRT's were pretty much wherever they were sitting. There wasn't much room for re-orienting them quickly. These LCD monitors can be turned in any direction quickly. In addition, they can be raised to be MUCH higher than a CRT sits. Most impressive, they can even rotate into Portrait mode. Try any of that with a CRT! This flexibility is great for me.

4) Increased Inputs: I've never had a CRT that was capable of using a DVI Signal, a VGA signal, an S-Video signal, or a Composite Video signal. The 2001fp allows me to connect up multiple sources in my studio and I just have a button press or two to swith input is displayed on the screen. Again, never saw a CRT with that many input possibilities.

5) Reduced Weight: For some people, this goes along with size. But since weight wasn't specifically mentioned, it should be considered. These monitors are a lot lighter than same-sized CRTs. This means I'm able to place them on a shelf that is much less robust than what would be required for my CRTs.

Again, there is clearly more than just "cool factor" and size when considering these flat panels - at least from my angle.

In addition, My older CRTs were not so crisp and clear running at 1600x1200. That is a HUGE selling point for me FOR these monitors. I REALLY wanted the increased real estate that would provide for my music applications. Running two of them in dual mode gives me 3200x1600 resolution!

Just a few things to consider...hope this helps,
Randy

[Stainless]

I took the plunge. I spent more than I intended. Considering what I ended up with, I think I got a pretty good deal. I'm sure most people here would have built their own machine, but I've never built one and needed something fairly quickly.

I hope I'm as impressed with this monitor as most seem to be. I would much prefer to fall into the "love it" camp. We'll see. I'm very picky.

[CAG]

Originally posted by Robert
The only problem I'm left with is the backlight leakage, and from other forums I'm not sure this is always resolved through replacements. It seems to get worse the longer the monitor is left on. I would be upset if this was going to be used for watching DVD's or mainly dark games.

Welcome to the board, Robert :) and thanks for the detailed posts. Unless the backlight issue is something you can't live with, keep the panel. There's no guaranty that the replacement won't be worse...and maybe have a couple of dead pixels.

CAG

[CAG]

Originally posted by Stainless
I took the plunge. I spent more than I intended. Considering what I ended up with, I think I got a pretty good deal. I'm sure most people here would have built their own machine, but I've never built one and needed something fairly quickly.

I hope I'm as impressed with this monitor as most seem to be. I would much prefer to fall into the "love it" camp. We'll see. I'm very picky.

I'll say you took the plunge :eek:...very nice rig and an excellent deal! Post back when you get it and give us a review.

Welcome to the board :)

CAG

[Stainless]

Originally posted by CAG
I'll say you took the plunge :eek:...very nice rig and an excellent deal! Post back when you get it and give us a review.

Welcome to the board :)

CAG

Thanks for the welcome. I was hesitant to post the order. I didn't want it to come across as, "Hey. Look at me". The last "workstation" I owned was the original IBM PC. I hope all the pros here won't slam my Dell.

I'm glad I found this site. I sat here last night and read this thread right up until the time I placed the order. When I originally began looking last week, the 2001FP wasn't even an option. If I weren't lucky enough to stumble across that 25% discount code, I never would have considered it. I configured the same system today, with 2 day shipping, and it was 800+ more after a $200 mail in rebate. Believing I got a good deal makes it easier to stomach.

I'll definitely post my impressions of the monitor. I hope it looks better than the last LCD that I had much exposure to. That was about 1 1/2 years ago. It was a Sony, but I'm not sure of the model. I'm guessing it was probably a 17" inch. I really wasn't very impressed. I used it for 9 months while working on a project for the Georgia state government. The manager of the department I was working for had a 23" Planar, I think. I liked it even less than the Sony. I really felt that the Planar had poor image quality. I'm guessing the 2001FP has a higher resolution than those models, which will be a plus. I'm looking forward to checking it out. I hope I like it and that I don't find any dead pixels, because I will obsess over that. I sent a Dell laptop back earlier this year with a dead pixel. Once I found it, I couldn't help but stare at it.

[CAG]

Stainless,

I won't slam the Dell...I've got two Dimension 8300's and an old 4100 which just keeps chuggin' along. I think you'll be impressed with the 2001FP...things have come along way since the old Sony you were using.

CAG

[Rogue]

Stainless,

Actually, this is the First Adopters Forum, so don't worry about the "hey look at me". Somehow, I don't think any of us would be offended by that. I think that is what this place is all about.

BTW, Great System!!!!!!!!

and welcome

[firstadopter]

This monitor sure looks familar in Counterstrike: Source. :)

http://img32.exs.cx/img32/553/office1.jpg

http://justinmg.home.comcast.net/cs/office1.jpg

[CAG]

How about that...a 2001FP and its right next to a "Beefy" (Dell Dimension) PC...must be a "Beefy" 2001FP ;)

[cvoytek]

Quick question. I have been mulling over getting one of these to replace my 19 dell trini. One thought was to get this around xmas time or 2nd thought to get the samsung 712 (12 MS) or even 2 of them for less. Any pros or cons on this dilemma?

I will game alot on this machine and have an FX 5600 256 card which supports 2 monitors I believe. 700 bux just sounds like an aweful lot for a monitor when the 12 MS 17 inchers are down near $300 or so.

[CAG]

Welcome to the board, cvoytek :)

A suggestion...buy each monitor, compare them, and return what you don't like. Dell has a very liberal return policy and I'm sure the mfg's of the other panels you're looking at have the same. This may not answer your question but, if you've read through the posts in this thread, you'll get about every opinion (good and bad) there can be on the 2001FP.... you'll just have to judge it for yourself. Having said that, I also have a Dell 17" 1702FP...its about a 1 1/2 years old, 25ms response time, 1280X1024 res, and 860:1 contrast ratio (yes, you read that right...as tested by ExtremeTech). Its a beautiful display but I'd never trade it for the quality, speed, and sheer size of the 2001FP.

CAG

[cvoytek]

Thx for the warm welcome CAG - I have read the entire thread. Haven't read that much since college :) I'll keep you posted on what I do as I anticipate getting something in the next 2 months or so.

[Stainless]

What is this backlight leakage issue that I've been reading so much about?

[CAG]

When the panel is black or on a mostly black background, the light from the panel's backlight sometimes "leaks" through (illuminates) the corners/edges of the panel. It varies in degree from panel to panel...I have a very small amount of it in the upper corners of my panel but its barely noticeable.

[Robert]

Hi CAG,

You could help me a little here. I have to decide tonight if I want to swap the monitor for another 2001fp.

When you're checking your backlight are you doing it in a dark room, like I have been doing. If so, and your leakage is still very minor, then I'll be doing the correct thing in swapping mine.

Using the image of the Matrix on Anandtech as an exmaple, mine is much worse than that, although I'm not sure what conditions that photo was taken. I would estimate my leakage comes down in a gradient roughly 5-6cms from the bezel on both left and right sides. I'm using a black desktop with icons moved to the bottom of the screen, in both dark and semi-darkened room.

However, it's barely noticeable in a fully lit room.

The only thing about swapping is that I will get the dark grey version instead of the silver one I have now. I'd appreciate knowing if the dark grey 2001fp is just as stylish.

Thanks.

[CAG]

Robert,

I'm not at the monitor now but, if memory serves me, I see it in a dark room. I'm sure I don't see it in a well-lit room. Anyway, I'll be in front of the monitor in ~9 hours. If you can wait that long, I can check it against the Anandtech background and give you a "real-time" answer. Also, I think the grey 2001FP is very stylish but I've never seen a silver one so I can't really compare them.

CAG

[Lumpydog]

Well - as many of you saw from my past posts, despite reservations about using a monitor with such a high native screen resolution, I took the plunge and purchased a 2001FP. It was an easy choice when I could get it for $674.81 shipped ($719 + Free shipping less 2% Dell Preferred Acct discount and $30 off coupon).

The monitor replaced an older 20 inch Sony 520 GST CRT, which I was running at 1024X768 - so everything on the screen was comparatively much larger!

Comments/Observations

1) I had one dead pixel in the upper right corner and 2 other pixles that are stuck on (only show up on black background) - one in the upper right, one in the lower right.

2) No backlight leakage.

3) I guess there is what I'd call a normal "screen door effect" - if I move my face 6 inches away from the LCD I can see what other people have described. However, I get this same effect with almost any other LCD I try this on (I have a 190FP at work). At a normal viewing length (1-2 ft), I see nothing unusual - I have 20/13 vision (better than 20/20) so it's not my eyesight. I wonder if somewhere along the way there is either an updated version of this monitor or perhaps a different manufacturer... I just don't see the problem. Could it be related to the video card (I have and ATI 8500 using DVI putput) or some other end-user adjustment?

4) I prefer to us the "User Presets" (50/50/50 for the three colors) - they just look better than the "normal preset"

5) It didn't take long to get used to having everything appear so comparatively small (there is a big difference in the size of text, icons etc - I basically went from a 20 inch monitor at 1024X768 to one at 1600X1200 - a big difference). After using it for a day, it seems just fine and I don't even notice the difference. The big test was my wife's opinion. She has used the new monitor several times and did not comment on the change in resolution - even after I asked her, she said everything looked "fine" - if not "sharper" than the old monitor. If she was bothered by the much higher resolution, I probably would have returned it - this is a family PC and needs to work for everyone.

6) I called Dell and complained about the dead pixels and they're sending me a new one. To be honest, my existing 2001FP is an absolute keeper. The 3 problem pixels are well out of my line of sight and there is no backlight leakage. However, with Dell's liberal satisfaction policy, I figured I'd try once and see if I got a perfect flat pannel. If not, I'll keep the better of the two. The "replacement" arrives tonight. I'll let you know where I land.

That's all for now,

-C-

[Lumpydog]

I forgot to mention the best part - I think the monitor itself is fantastic! I can have several applications open at the same time - in full view! I'm going to need to adjust my habits to take advantage of this (i'm really used to one app open at a time).

I've played Doom 3 on the monitor and it's beautiful. My video card can't pump out the fps necessary to run at native resultion, but at 1024X768, it's really nice. I didn't notice any ghosting at all - simply an awesome monitor.

-C-

[CAG]

-C-,

Thanks for the detailed comments/observations...its posts like these that make this the "The Definitive 2001FP Thread" on the web. Your reaction to the so-called "screen-door effect" is exactly what mine was...after reading so much about it, it turned out to be no big deal. Dell has not changed panels (LG Philips) or controllers (Genesis) and I think that the whole "screen-door" thing is more a result of mild web over-kill than anything else.

CAG

[Necromancer98]

Originally posted by CAG
Welcome to the forum, Necromancer98. Post some pics of your Voodoo Rage when you get it (I always like to see how the other half...the rich half...live). :)

CAG

Well, I finally got my Voodoo and decided 12 days into the order to change it to the liquid cooled RAGE F:2. I decided on the Viewsonic VP912b, instead of the Dell 2001FP, because: 1)1600X1200, though provides a lot of "real estate" space, makes everything, especially text, too small to see, at least for me 2)the native resoluition on this 19" is 1280X1024 and that should "extend" the lifespan of my hardware for future games as I don't have to run them at the hardware demanding resolution on the 2001FP 3)this monitor has a refresh rate of 12ms and the new "Glare, 2H" glassy screen gives the colors a richness more seen on CRTs. I will tell you that DOOM3 looks awesome on this monitor! And, no stuck or dead pixels anywhere. The backlighting is even, too. There have been some controversy if this is a 6-bit or 8-bit panel, but I can't tell the difference.

I set up a small site (http://users.adelphia.net/~gguerra/voodoo/ragef2.html) showing off my new Voodoo ( I go by another username, El Mago, on the Voodoo Mutthaboards)

See also the Gamepc review (http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=vp912b&page=1) of the Viewsonic VP912b

[CAG]

All I can say is WOW!, Necromancer98. Its a gorgeous rig and the benches are unbelieveable...great looking monitor. Congrats :D: on your new purchase.

CAG

[Lumpydog]

For those that are interested, the replacement 2001FP will be a round tripper.

As mentioned, my original 2001 FP was a keeper with 2 pixels that would not go to black (but otherwise work) and one stuck sub pixel (green) - sometimes it's so hard to find I think it fixed itself. All three are in the very far corners and well out of site/mind.

I called Dell anyway just to see if I could luck out and get that illusive perfect 2001FP and got a dud. 5 pixels stuck on and would not go to black. 3 additional pixels (that I saw - after seeing 5 stuck on I didn't look too hard) that were dead or stuck.

Oh well - it was worth a shot. Either way I'm VERY pleased with this monitor.

[CAG]

-C-,

Will Dell let you try again? You can't do worse than the 2nd panel.

CAG

[Stainless]

I hate dead pixels.

[Lumpydog]

CAG - I'm sure Dell will let me try again - to tell the truth though, I'm really happy with the one I've got.

If I have some free time over the weekend, I may get on the phone and try again...

-C-

[CAG]

$679.20 @ Dell Home and Small Business...Also, Dell Small Business has the new 19" 1905FP (20ms, 1280X1024, 800:1 contrast ratio, 4-USB2.0 hub) on sale for $566.10. :)

CAG

[kz1m9w]

Hey all,

I've been using my new pair of 2001fp monitors in my home recording area, and thought I would share a before/after picture of how they've changed things for me.

Before (1280x1024 on each stacked vertically = 1280x2048)
http://home.comcast.net/~kz1m9w/Before.jpg

After (1600x1200 on each side-by-side = 3200x1200)
http://home.comcast.net/~kz1m9w/After.jpg

Notice that I did have to customize the desk they sit on to allow them to fit, but also to allow room for my motorized fader digital mixer (Roland SI-24). It was worth it!

I'm loving the setup.

Thanks to everyone on here for the guidance!
Randy

[CAG]

Randy,

They look sweet. If anyone is undecided about whether to get a CRT or an LCD, they ought to see your pics.

You probably don't need this but here's (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1674441,00.asp) an article (kind of a "how-to") on the different ways to configure dual monitors.

BTW, thanks for tidying up the room a little for the "after" pic :D

CAG

[Stainless]

Is the 2001FP a 16:9 ratio, 4:3 ratio or somewhere in between?

[CAG]

I know its not a widescreen (16:9)...must be 4:3. I did see something in another forum about a rumored "2005FPW", a widescreen version of the panel with maybe some upgraded goodies. I googled it and found nothing...so, I guess its just a rumor.

[firstadopter]

Well if the pixels are square - 1600x1200 = 3:2 screen. I think that's right.

[CAG]

You are absolutely correct, Ren. My TV is 4:3, not my monitor...but then again, you'd think I'd be able to tell the difference b/t my TV and my monitor :confused:

[SlipperySnowman]

Originally posted by CAG
I know its not a widescreen (16:9)...must be 4:3. I did see something in another forum about a rumored "2005FPW", a widescreen version of the panel with maybe some upgraded goodies. I googled it and found nothing...so, I guess its just a rumor.

Hm, wouldn't that be grand...if that rumor panned out to be true I'd probably wait to buy... can you link the thread?

[CAG]

arstechnica thread here (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=4190936913&p=204). Read the 1st or 2nd post by Blue Apple...he mentions it and then, when someone asks him for a link, nothing. I probably should never have mentioned it...like I said, I googled it and you can't find it anywhere on the web other than in Blue Apple's post.

[SlipperySnowman]

hehe worth the mention just in case!

CAG, what do you think of the 2001fps on ebay in retail boxes..they seem to be going for around 600$ Is this dangerous IYO or do you think this might be a wise buy? If they are retail box would dell honor the warranty? Thanks for your attention to this thread, it really is great!

[CAG]

I wouldn't get one on ebay. Even with a reputable seller, you're never quite sure what you're getting with regards to warranty/replacement policy. IMO, its much better to spend the extra $ and get it from Dell...then there's no question that you'll get the 3-yr warranty and/or that you'll be able to replace it no-questions-asked if you don't like it or it has some problems (dead pixels, backlight issues, etc.) My personal ebay policy is akin to my gambling policy...never spend more than you can afford to lose.

Hope this helps,

CAG

[Rogue]

Here is my unsolicited 2 cents. I buy off of eBay quite a bit (that's is where my last mobo and chip came from). But as CAG says never spend more than you are willing to lose. I would not, repeat not buy this panel from anyplace other than Dell. Their return policy is second to none. The first panel I got had 50+ dead sub-pixels and after a very short call to Dell, another was at my house within 2 days. The extra money that you have to pay Dell is well worth the peace of mind. Especially since it is going for $679.20 at Dell Small Business right now. I paid $800.00 have not regretted it one bit. Heck, I am even thinking about getting another for one of my other PC's.

[Ginny]

My seven-year-old 17-in. CRT monitor is beginning to suffer "spells," so I'm investigating possible replacements. I stumbled across this forum while researching reviews of the Dell 2001FP and Samsung 213T and am really impressed by the wealth of knowledge and the helpfulness of the participants.

Two local stores carry the Samsung. It's stunning but so is the price. No way to see the 2001FP although some people at work have 19-in. Dell UltraSharp LCD monitors. (I have a larger NEC LCD.) Based on reviews and specs, the Dell seems to offer an enormous amount at an amazing price, especially given the current sale.

Although not a gamer, I spend a lot of time at my home computer (Internet, e-mail, word processing, data bases, an occasional DVD, etc.) I know that the 2001FP's response time makes it attractive to gamers. Do you recommend it for fairly extensive general use as well? Are there other monitors I should consider?

I've already learned a lot from this forum. Thanks for that and thanks in advance for any advice you may have.

[Rogue]

Ginny,

I do play a lot of games on this panel, but I also work from home quite a bit (I am a DBA). I used to have a 19" Viewsonic CRT that I thought was great. This panel makes my old Viewsonic look pathetic. I highly recommend this panel for any use that you can think of. Besides, Dell has a great return policy.

[SlipperySnowman]

Has anyone used the dell financing? 0% interest till april 05.

I read along some of the fine print and it seems other than sell your info away to other companies it seems onboard? Opinions?

[CAG]

Originally posted by Ginny
My seven-year-old 17-in. CRT monitor is beginning to suffer "spells," so I'm investigating possible replacements. I stumbled across this forum while researching reviews of the Dell 2001FP and Samsung 213T and am really impressed by the wealth of knowledge and the helpfulness of the participants.

Two local stores carry the Samsung. It's stunning but so is the price. No way to see the 2001FP although some people at work have 19-in. Dell UltraSharp LCD monitors. (I have a larger NEC LCD.) Based on reviews and specs, the Dell seems to offer an enormous amount at an amazing price, especially given the current sale.

Although not a gamer, I spend a lot of time at my home computer (Internet, e-mail, word processing, data bases, an occasional DVD, etc.) I know that the 2001FP's response time makes it attractive to gamers. Do you recommend it for fairly extensive general use as well? Are there other monitors I should consider?

I've already learned a lot from this forum. Thanks for that and thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
Coming from your 17" CRT, something like the 2001FP will blow you out of the room,,,tons of real estate, incredible display quality, etc. I'm not all that familier with the Samsung 213T but the 2001FP has a a 4 port USB2.0 hub...so, however many USB ports your pc may have, add 4 to the count w/ the 2001FP. You may also want to consider Dell's new 19" 1905FP (1280X1024 native res, 20ms response time, 800:1 contrast ratio)...I have a friend who has its predecessor, the 1901FP... its also a beautiful display and, like the 2001FP, comes with the 4 port USB2.0 hub...there's ~$200 difference in price...I'd get the 2001FP but the 1905FP is definitely something to look into. I've got to add that Dell has a very liberal return policy if, for any reason, you want to return/replace the panel.

[CAG]

Originally posted by SlipperySnowman
Has anyone used the dell financing? 0% interest till april 05.

I read along some of the fine print and it seems other than sell your info away to other companies it seems onboard? Opinions?
I have a Small Business account w/Dell...getting an account or doing the 0% financing (pretty much the same thing) is like applying for a major credit card as far as privacy policies go.

[Ginny]

Rogue and CAG, thanks for your input. This evening I discovered a coupon that brought the cost of the 2001FP down to $629--amazing. It expires tomorrow. I concluded that this was meant to be and have placed an order. I'm sure I'll be returning to the forum for more information.

[Rogue]

Ginny,

Wow...... I might just place an order too........

I'd love to have another one of these.

Please let us know how you like the monitor