Dell 2001FP 20" LCD Monitor Review

[firstadopter]

Firstadopter.com Dell 2001FP 20" LCD Monitor Review

Front
http://www.firstadopter.com/photos/dellfront.jpg

Side
http://www.firstadopter.com/photos/dellside.jpg

Back
http://www.firstadopter.com/photos/dellback.jpg

Dell Product Page (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-1578)
Tech Specs (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?TabPage=techspecs&sku=320-1578&c=us&l=en&cs=04)

I’ve been waiting for years for an affordable “low-response time” 18 inch LCD monitor to play games and do basic 2D work for about $400-$500. Although the low response time 17” monitors have been out for months, I wanted a larger screen and true 24-bit color, which the current generation lacked.

So late in 2003, Dell launched the 20” 2001FP monitor for little over $1000. As tempted I was, it was still way out of my price range. However if you know Dell, those sales and coupons eventually come to the rescue. Knowing that if I continued to wait for an 18” monitor, I would probably be waiting till I was a senior citizen; as soon as Dell had a 25% off sale, I nabbed the 2001FP for $750.

The day the FedEx man came with the monitor, I was like a boy on Christmas Eve, frantically opening the box . The 2001FP comes in two pieces: the LCD screen and the base platform. I carefully took out the mammoth sized screen and hoisted it onto the platform. The first you notice is how much better this monitor looks than the ugly, but respected predecessor 2000FP.

The LCD screen itself is very flexible in placement. You can shift it at an upward angle, downward angle, to the left or right, higher and lower, and even in landscape or portrait mode. Give kudos to Dell for making the 2001FP perfectly ergonomic LCD for any computer desk or user height. The monitor comes with a bevy of inputs and outputs such as composite video, S-Video, DVI, regular VGA, and even USB 2.0 connectors.

The build quality overall is solid. My monitor had no dead pixels and a perfectly lighted screen. None of the backlight leaking in one corner that is prevalent in many monitors today. The only detraction is the quality of plastic internally may be lacking, as once in a while I get cracks and creaks when I have the computer on. This might be due to the crazy temperature changes this winter, but still it’s slightly annoying.

For 2D the images are bright and vivid. Text clarity is excellent and the 1600X1200 resolution really lets you spread your wings with multiple browser windows and applications. The color is stunning for slideshows, especially if you have lots of 4-5 mega-pixel digital camera photographs. There is a “screen door effect”, slightly visible lines, if you stare closely at the screen 1-2 inches away that I hear isn’t on Samsung LCD monitors. It doesn’t bother me at all, however there are some who I read online that are going bonkers because of it.

The 2001FP really shines for games and movies. With its 16ms response time, there is hardly any ghosting in first person shooter games. I tried the monitor with Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, and the Far Cry Demo. The experience playing in 1600X1200 on a perfectly flat screen with no blurring is pure heaven. If you are a gamer, I can’t recommend this monitor enough. It is so much better than previous Dell LCD monitors, which ghosted and blurred; they gave me headaches within a minute of game-play.

Overall I’m very happy with my purchase. The image quality is stunning and the “low response” gaming ability is second to none for large LCD monitors currently in the marketplace. And for $750, I think it’s a steal.

Final Score: 9 out 10

Please ask questions or comment below.

[CAG]

Found this forum searching for a 2001FP review. BTW, good review. Saw that Dell Small Business is selling these for $749.25 (and free shipping) and I'm sooooo tempted. A couple of questions:

1. How long is the warranty you got? I know that if you get the monitor bundled with a desktop system, the warranty is 1 year.

2. I've only read one or two other reviews (PCWorld or Cnet) but this is the first I've heard of the "screen door" effect. How noticeable is it and do you have any links to the guys you read about who are going bonkers about it?

Thanks

EDIT: Found a thread here http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=1181279&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=1 where a guy at the end of the thread talks about the screen door effect and terrible ghosting.

[firstadopter]

Thanks for the comments.

The screen door effect is there, I have to look very close to the screen for me to notice. It doesn't bother me at all, but I read that some people go nuts because of it. I don't think it will show up on any digital camera pictures. Ars-technica.com's forums is where I read the people that hate it.

There is no perceptible ghosting in games, I don't know what the other guy is seeing. I don't see it.

I think the monitor is a great value. Not the best 2D graphics/color quality, but for the price it can't be beat.

Warranty: I'll check the manual when i get home.

[CAG]

Thanks for the response.

I think maybe the guy at the anandtech forum had a bad monitor. The image quality you described may be a problem. I think the 2001FP specs put the contrast at 400:1. I presently have a Dell UltraSharp 1702FP 17" monitor which has a spec'd ratio of 600:1 (CNET tested this monitor and found out was really 892:1!) and the image quality is fantastic. I think Dell has a 30-day no-questions-asked return policy so what I may do is buy it, compare it to the 1702FP, and return it if its not up to speed.

Anyway, let me know about the warranty when you get a chance and any other observations you have.

Thanks again,

CAG

[firstadopter]

Sorry Cag, I checked the documentation and couldn't find the warranty info. I'm sure it's either on the Dell site or you can call them.

[CAG]

Thanks, Rendition. I'm sure I can find it.

BTW, I found the thread at Ars Technica here http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=4190936913&r=2470941495#2470941495 For somebody like you that already has a 2001FP, the posts should be interesting (there's like about 15 pages of posts but you can wade thru them pretty quickly). There are references to the screen door effect but, by and large, all the posters seem to be happy with the monitor.

Anyway, glad I found this board and I'll be posting soon.

CAG

[firstadopter]

Glad to have you aboard, if anyone else has questions feel free to ask? I promise a quick response!

[AndyRogers]

Anyone else have this monitor? I'm curious what other people think.

[CAG]

Here's a link to a thread I started in the Dell monitor forum http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=30729 There are also the links I posted earlier in this thread. I ended up not getting it...not b/c I don't think it would be great monitor but I'm going to be upgrading my computer later this year and I'll get it then...or the very next time Dell Small Business runs 25% off sale (I really shoulda bought it the 1st time I had the chance)...Truthfully, every review and thread I read about the 2001FP gave it very high marks and an absolute steal even at the full retail price of $999.

[CAG]

Damn...Dell Small Business just put these up for sale again @ 25% off ($749.25) and free shipping...goin' find out what build they are (not that it'll make much difference) and be back to you...

[CAG]

Ordered it last night...in the words of the Borg: "Resistance is futile"...please God, no dead pixels

[firstadopter]

Good luck CAG. When I first turned it on and saw no dead pixels it was a great feeling.

[CAG]

Thanks, Rendition. Should have it by 2/12...again [All Together Now] "Please God, no dead pixels." I'll let you know.

[CAG]

Rendition:

Just saw your post in the Dell Monitor forum here http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=31194 My nic there is "ortleeb"...don't ask. You ought to post it in the Ars Technica thread here http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=4190936913&p=118

CAG

[firstadopter]

Thanks CAG, I'm going to stay away from posting this thread on Ars. They seem to be a wee-bit anal about people linking their own reviews on another site.

However if someone else (3rd party) linked this thread there, I'm sure they wouldn't mind. :)

[CAG]

Got it...I'm on the case

EDIT: Done

[CAG]

Monitor was delivered to my house about an hour ago...can't wait to get home to set it up...let you know.

[AndyRogers]

Congrats on the purchase, let us know what you think.

[CAG]

Originally posted by LewisRogers
Congrats on the purchase, let us know what you think.

I'll post later this evening after I set it up.

[CAG]

My mini 2001FP review:

1. Not ONE dead/stuck pixel (thank you, God)

2. Colors are rich and text is clear (1600X1200 @75 Hz makes a difference)

3. If there is a "screen door" effect, I haven't noticed it

This is one truly great monitor and an absolute steal @ $794.21 (FL sales tax incl)

Rendition, thanks for the great hands-on review...it pushed me over the edge as far as making the purchase decision.

[firstadopter]

That's great news CAG. I'm glad you are enjoying it.

[XRS]

Just wanted to report that I also have this monitor (it cost me nearly £900 here in the UK just before the New Year).

I have to say that I think it is brilliant and I don't regret my purchase one bit.

One happy (first time) customer for Dell.

[CAG]

Originally posted by XRS
One happy (first time) customer for Dell.

Its funny...you go on the hardcore or fanboy tech forums and, God forbid, you breath the word "Dell". Yet, with the 2001FP, you go on some of the same forums and Dell is longer a dirty word...just an observation.

Good luck with your new monitor, XRS.

[gozu]

I'm getting mine tomorrow. The seller checked it for dead pixels and told me there were none. Let's hope it's true.

I called UPS twice about it but they won't let me go pick it up tonight when it arrives to their local distribution center. They say it's against the rules or some such nonsense! Damn them all!

I'm thinking of taking sleeping pills so the time goes faster. lol

Anyways, I'll let you know what I think when I get it.

[firstadopter]

Good luck, Gozu! Dead pixels are the bane of every LCD user. The Dell is a great monitor, you'll love it.

[CAG]

Originally posted by gozu
I'm getting mine tomorrow. The seller checked it for dead pixels and told me there were none. Let's hope it's true.

I called UPS twice about it but they won't let me go pick it up tonight when it arrives to their local distribution center. They say it's against the rules or some such nonsense! Damn them all!

I'm thinking of taking sleeping pills so the time goes faster. lol

Anyways, I'll let you know what I think when I get it.

The wait must be killing you...sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, you'll love the monitor and just so there are no problems...Everyone...All Together Now...NO DEAD PIXELS FOR GOZU!

[gozu]

My monitor arrived today. No dead pixels. What a beautiful display. I am very very happy with it. A few things though:

I'm trying to adjust to 1600x1200. It's a little hard on the eyes. Or maybe it's just the brightness. (the monitor is VERY bright).

What I want to do now is adjust the brightness and colors to perfection. What are your settings?

[firstadopter]

I don't know what my exact settings are (I'm not home now), but you can easily dial down the brightness in 1/2 using the buttons in front. I definitely dialed it down as soon as I received the monitor.

[CAG]

Originally posted by gozu
My monitor arrived today. No dead pixels. What a beautiful display. I am very very happy with it. A few things though:

I'm trying to adjust to 1600x1200. It's a little hard on the eyes. Or maybe it's just the brightness. (the monitor is VERY bright).

What I want to do now is adjust the brightness and colors to perfection. What are your settings?

Wanted to get back to you on this earlier but couldn't.

If the text is too small, right click anywhere on an open spot on your Desktop. In the menu that opens, left click on Properties and it will open "Display Properites". Click on the "Appearance" tab and you'll see a drop-down menu called "font size". You can adjust your font size there. As to brightness, the screen is, as you say, very bright, but it is also very big. Depending on what quality of monitor you came from, this can be a little intimidating but, trust me, you'll get used to it. As far as Windows settings go, the native (i.e., this is the best so don't futz with it) monitor settings are 1600X1200 @ 60Hz with a color depth of 32 bits. You can adjust the brightness using the controls on the monitor.

You've got the BMW of monitors...you just gotta learn how to drive it. I've had mine for 4 days and every game that I play (I mostly like FPS and combat flight sims) is a new experience with this monitor. Enjoy...

[Bodhammer]

Bast on your review and the AnandTech review I bought one of these of eBay. I I got it for $763 + $35 shipping so I ended up the same as other people getting free shipping + tax.

I love the monitor. No screen door for me, no dead or hot pixels that I can see either. I did have to turn down the brightness and contrast to get the saturation right for me. Monitor does not run as hot as I expected. Powersave works fine with my Radeon AIW9800 Pro.

Games are beautiful!!!


Thanks,
Bod

[firstadopter]

That's great Bodhammer, I'm glad you like the monitor.

[CAG]

Bod:

D/l the UT2004 demo....its awesome on this monitor.

CAG

[Qbe]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the interesting opinions. I agree with what was said before "Resistance is futile!". I have also gave in and just ordered the 2001FP.

I can't wait to get it and can't sleep until I do either!

Oh well, hopefully it comes soon so I can get some sleep and also
I hope its in great condition!

Later..

Will let you know what I think about it when I get it but it looks
like the majority says its " FAAANTASTIC "

Qbe

[CAG]

Qbe:

Don't mean to ruin what little sleep you're going to get but you are truly going to be blown away by this monitor. Games, movies, whatever it is you want to do, it screams along 24/7 @ 1600X1200 @ 32-bit color depth...you'll see...drink lots of coffee when it arrives.

Later,

CAG

[steeldragon]

Anybody with this monitor try connecting a gaming console to it? If so, what were the results? Thanks

[CAG]

steeldragon:

I can't answer your question directly but here's a link that might be helpful http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/monitors/2001fp/en/index.htm Go to "Setup" and then "Attaching the cables" which will show you all of the monitor's connections. It has 1 upstream USB connection and 4 downstream USB connections (2 in the back and 2 on the side). Hope this is helpful.

CAG

[firstadopter]

I'll try hooking up my gamecube later tonight and will let you know how it is.

[firstadopter]

Steeldragon, I just tried the Gamecube on 2001FP and it looked like crap: very blurry due to the low resolution scaling to 1600X1200. I wouldn't buy this monitor for gaming on consoles period.

There is a setting that looks "ok", the 1:1 pixel setting, but basically it just uses a tiny window in the center of screen, who wants to game like that?

[steeldragon]

I guess I wont get this one. Any recomendations out there??

[firstadopter]

For an Xbox? Definitely get an HDTV capable CRT like the Samsung Tantus line. With a progressive scan hookup, it will look great! My gamecube hooked up with progressive scan looks awesome on my 27" HDTV capable Samsung.

[Qbe]

Just wanted to say WOW!!

I can not beleive it took 2 weeks to get the LCD. There was some mix up but anyway, it was worth the wait.

After spending too much time looking at all the real estate to make sure their wasnt any dead pixels or colored ones I was very happy and now I know what you mean CAG about not getting any sleep for now that I have the monitor I can't stop looking at it!

Anyway, its awsome, would reccomend it to anyone/everyone, time to watch somes vids!

*thinks to self* >> wow this text is SHARP!

[CAG]

Qbe:

Worth the wait, wasn't it? Have you palyed any games yet? Download the UT2004 demo...its awesome on this monitor. If you want to tweak the text even further, try the MS ClearType here http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/1.htm?fname=%20&fsize

CAG

[sxlee]

Hi,

I have been thinking about buying this monitor a week now. My question is how does this monitor handle scaling to resolution like 1280x1024, 1280x986, 1024x768? Scaling to 800x600 should be perfect, of course.

My computer is relatively old (AMD 2600+ and Radeon 9700PRO) and can't really handle games in 1600x1200 w acceptable FPS, therefore I need to know if the monitor can scale well in the lower resolutions.

Thanks again for your help!

Simon

[CAG]

sxlee:

As to scaling of LCD's generally, because LCD panels have a fixed number of discrete pixels, they're really only designed to display a single resolution which is the screen's native resolution. In the case of the 2001FP, that would be 1600X1200. LCDs can't display resolutions above their native resolution, and can only display lower resolutions through interpolation which stretches smaller display resolutions to fit an LCD's native resolution. Except in those cases where a screen is stretching a resolution that's exactly half its native resolution (800x600 for a native 1600x1200 display, for example), interpolation can result in poor image quality. My experience with lowering the resolution of the 2001FP to 1280X1024 is that the image quality suffers but this, of course, is relative...the image quality on this monitor @ 1280X1024 is probably alot better than the image quality on your present monitor.

As you've seen in this thread, the folks that have this monitor love it. Trust me, it will blow you away. IMO, if you believe your present system won't handle it, its worth upgrading your system. If you don't want to do that, I would recomment the Dell's 19" UltraSharp 1901FP...1280X1024 @ 60Hz...I have a friend who has one and the image and performance qualities are excellent.

CAG

[firstadopter]

sxlee:

Scaling does look kind of blurry, but one feature the 2001FP does have is 1:1 pixel capability. For example you can run 1024X768 in a small window for 1:1 pixel, so it looks great but you just have a black bar around the picture. I believe other monitors don't have this feature.

[Firebat246]

I was wondering......CAN this go past 1600 x 1200 res?? cuz i know like some monitors say Native res of 1280 maybe but can go higher.....im just curious if anyone has tried to bump it up any more? If it cant it no biggie cuz I doubt id use above 1600 anyway. Thanks!!

[BlaCKJaK]

Great Monitor... well actually couldn't find any rivals to this one regarding response time and display size... I was wondering if anyone owning a 2001FP could try to take a photo of his monitor while moving in an fps (ex. UT2k4 :p).. i am asking this just to compare the amount of ghostings it leaves after every few frames compared to other tft's :)... one last thing ... is this display annoying after lonng hours of gameplay?
Thank You :D

p.s. great review Rendition :)

[firstadopter]

I think 1600x1200 resolution is the limit, certainly no extra space on the edges for more.

Blurring playing UT2004 to my eyes is non-existent. I don't know what taking a picture will show, since it total depends on the shutter exposure of the digital camera to show blur anyway.

Thanks for kind words!

[firstadopter]

Oh forgot, I spent MANY MANY hours playing UT2004 demo with no headaches. :)

[CAG]

Firebat246:

An LCD will not go higher than its native resolution.

BlaCKJaK:

I've never seen any blurring or ghosting in UT2004 or any other game I've played on this monitor. Moreover, I've spent hours in front of this monitor gaming and doing other things and have not suffered any eyestrain or discomfort whatsoever.

[Firebat246]

Thats what i figured, but its not really a big deal cuz i really dont know of any games that even support a res higher then 1600, and I havent even seen any desktops (backgrounds) that are bigger then that unless they are wide screen ones for two monitors or wide screen monitor. Like I said for even the best gaming I think 1600 is where its at.

[CAG]

Originally posted by Firebat246
Like I said for even the best gaming I think 1600 is where its at.
Agreed

[Firebat246]

I ordered my 2001FP and am happy with my choice judging by what i have read.....but i am worried that the 213t Samsung could be better......and honestly i really wanna stick with my Dell when I get it. I hear the 213t has better image quality......is this really that true? Or is the Dell in the end better to go with? Like I said I was all set with my Dell and its shipping today and then I read even further (even though i thought i read enough of GOOD reviews on it) and find out that the Dell may not be the better choice if the two. SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE AND RESTORE MY FULL CONFIDENCE THAT I HAD BEFORE IN THE 2001FP

[CAG]

Firebat246:

This was posted by max188 in a thread at Ars Technica here http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=4190936913&p=128 just before the 2001FP was launched in 11/03:

"Thought I would post my impressions on the 213T.

First, some background. I have been using a Hitachi CML174 (stated 16ms) for some time now and have been quite happy with it. I originally chose it over a Dell 1900FP and Samsung 191T because I could not accept the ghosting on those LCDs. Ghosting on the Hitachi is very good and I have lived with the trade off of having a smaller 17" monitor. However, the draw of the 213T was too much when I saw it at Best Buy.

I read all of the reviews of this monitor I could find. Ghosting was my main concern, and after reading both positive and negative reviews as to ghosting, I figured the only way to decide was to evaluate it for myself. I wasn't expecting performance to match my CML174, but was hoping it would at least be good enough to overlook any problems.

Well, first of all, the 213T is very well constructed. I would say it is the most well made LCD I have seen. The screen is beautiful. I absolutely loved this thing when I set it on my desk at home and fired it up. From a picture quality and clarity standpoint, I cannot say anything other than positive about this monitor. I would love to have this thing on my desk at work.

The true test for me was how well it would handle pixel transitions and how much ghosting it exhibited. I fired up a few tests and games and found the characteristics to be slightly better, but still very much like the 191T. Black to white to black transitions are excellent, but it continues to suffer poorly on grey to grey transitions. Compared to my Hitachi CML174, I would say the black-white-black are actually better on the 213T, but any grey scales are very much worse. Some games that use bright, saturated colors may be acceptable, but any games with realistic colors will suffer. It is this grey scale ghosting that is the deal-breaker for me. Of couse, this is all subjective and what is unacceptable for me may not be for others. Unfortunately, my camera is not working, so I could not take any AVI screens for a more objective comparison.

So, sadly, I boxed up the 213T and returned it to Best Buy. I kind of figured this would be the outcome, but glad to know for myself now.

My recommendations:

-If you don't care about gaming, this is one nice monitor. I would love to have this thing at work!
-If you care some about gaming but don't care much about ghosting, you will be very happy as well.
-If you care about gaming and ghosting, stick with a current 17" 16ms screen, or wait for the FP2001 (that is what I am doing)"

If the quoted post doesn't settle the issue for you, re-read Rendition's review and this one here http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.html?i=1918

[Firebat246]

"My recommendations:

-If you don't care about gaming, this is one nice monitor. I would love to have this thing at work!
-If you care some about gaming but don't care much about ghosting, you will be very happy as well.
-If you care about gaming and ghosting, stick with a current 17" 16ms screen, or wait for the FP2001 (that is what I am doing)"

__________________________________________________


Very nice thanks a BUNCH Cag.......I will be sticking with the 2001FP and cant wait to get it in the mail. My faith of the 2001FP has been restored again, especially since you said you are also waiting on the 2001FP. Thanks again for the help.

[CAG]

Firebat246:

Enjoy your new monitor, my friend, and lets us know what you think! I'm anxious to hear your impression of how it handles UT2004.

CAG

[Firebat246]

CAG:

Will do, and once again I really appriciate the help. I'm happy that i stuck with it........I wont forget to post what I think about it. Chances are ill be posting here while using my new Dell, hehehe. Talk to ya all soon!

[Firebat246]

Another question......whats the best DVI cable to get for this monitor? Any help would be greatly appriciated once again. Thanks a bunch ^_^

[CAG]

It comes with both DVI and analog cables. When I got mine, the analog cable was already connected to the back of the monitor and I disconnected it and hooked up the DVI cable. They're color coded...I believe the analog has blue ends and the DVI has white ends. Just make sure you check this.

CAG

[Firebat246]

Oh wow thats sweet!! That helps things alot and makes in ten times easier. Once again Thanks for the help, now its time to back to waiting for it to arrive :]

[MailManX]

I don't want to wait till Dell puts them on sale again, but I don't want to spend $900 to $1,000 either.

I see new 2001fp's listed on eBay for $749 plus shipping from vendors with great feedback. My concern there is whether Dell will recognize that purchase for any warranty fulfillment should the need arise.

Any feedback on this?

Thanks!
Michael

[firstadopter]

Don't know about the warranty question, you should just call Dell. The $750 deals comes out very often, I bet it will show up again in the next few weeks. You won't have to wait that long.

[CAG]

MailManX:

If the seller is selling a monitor that was originally bundled with a Dell, system, it'll have Dell's 1-year system warranty. If the monitor was not originally bundled with a system, it'll have Dell's 3-year warranty. I'm not sure if, in either case, it would have Dell's 30-day return-it-for-any-reason policy which is something you may want to take advantage of if there is anything wrong with the monitor (like a dead pixel). Also, I don't think the warranty is in your name...the seller gives you his original purchase info so that you can use his warranty. Anyway, these are things that the seller should have on his site and you really need to read these things carefully to see exactly what you're getting and, more importantly, what you're not getting.

[MailManX]

Great info from both of you. I think I'll just hold out for another sale from Dell.

Michael

[Firebat246]

I actually got mine from Ebay for 820 from a seller with good feedback......he said it comes with the 3 year warranty so i should have no problem. I should be getting this monitor in the next few days so ill tell you guys whats up after I get it.

[firstadopter]

"Dell Business has 20% off [Exp 3/24] on their Dell UltraSharp 2001FP 20.1" 1600x1200 Digital LCD, bringing it to $800 with free shipping. This is the thing to get to cause envy amongst your peers."

Looks like another sale is on!

[MailManX]

Yee-haw! I got one ordered!

Can't wait to get it!

Here's the link:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-1578

[Firebat246]

all i gotta say is my LCD better be in mint condition.....cuz the guy I bought from said its brand new in the box and everyting...with the warranty...so if there are any problems I better be able to go to Dell and have it replaced.

[CAG]

Originally posted by MailManX
Yee-haw! I got one ordered!

Can't wait to get it!

Here's the link:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-1578

Congrats!! I was just about to post the link to the sale. Let us know what you think of the monitor.

CAG

[CAG]

Originally posted by Firebat246
all i gotta say is my LCD better be in mint condition.....cuz the guy I bought from said its brand new in the box and everyting...with the warranty...so if there are any problems I better be able to go to Dell and have it replaced.

I wouldn't worry too much about it...the ebay regs with alot of positive feedbacks are pretty reputable. Trust me, when you're crankin' away at UT2004 on your brand new monitor, you won't have a worry in the world.

[Firebat246]

thanks again for the boost in confidence CAG.....much appriaciated ^_^

[The Red Duke]

Hi, just bought a DELL 2001FP from ebay.
I love it but I was annoyed I had a single dead pixel in the lower left of the screen, but i thought its not too bad as unless you look for it with your nose closer than a foot from the screen you don't really notice it.

Anyway the weird part is after playing call of duty for about 40 mins i quit and went web surfing and thought that’s strange i can't even see it now, and after about 20 mins of checking I am convinced it's not there anymore, it must have started working again???

It was defiantly a dead pixel as I have two on my screen at work i know what to look for.

Has anyone heard of this happing before?

[CAG]

The Red Duke:

About a week ago, one appeared about dead center of my 2001FP's screen (its a tiny little spot that you would see only if I pointed it out to you and is only visible to me on a completely near-white or black background...of course, this happened about 10 days after Dell's 30-day exchange period ended). I searched the net to see if there was any way to get rid of it and I came across several instances where "stuck" pixels became un-stuck. Sounds like this is what happened to you. One way I read to try to get rid of them is to gently massage the screen over the dead pixel with a very soft cloth or the end of a Q-tip. I tried the Q-tip but, so far, it hasn't worked. After a week, though, its becoming less and less of a big deal to me...apparently, I'm the only one who can see it.

CAG

[Firebat246]

Ya know the more I hear about these dead pixels the more I get worried that mine will have one when I get it. I payed 820 for this LCD and I really dont want anything wrong with it, but these dead pixels have been haunting me since iv read about them!! I just wanna get this thing and see that it has none and ill be all better. I hope to god there is nothing stuck or dead cuz then i think i will fall to the ground dead........

[The Red Duke]

Well sounds like I just got lucky, hopefully it won't come back.

Images and text are even sharper on my 2001FP than on my NEC Multiview 955 aperture grille 19" CRT monitor and that is a nice monitor

Games play fine even in lower res, I just need to get the colour right in DVD playback now, looks too faded and light?
Which is weird because the colours look fine on the windows desktop, bright and sharp.

Anyway all in all I am very pleased with it its a very nice monitor.

[CAG]

Originally posted by Firebat246
Ya know the more I hear about these dead pixels the more I get worried that mine will have one when I get it. I payed 820 for this LCD and I really dont want anything wrong with it, but these dead pixels have been haunting me since iv read about them!! I just wanna get this thing and see that it has none and ill be all better. I hope to god there is nothing stuck or dead cuz then i think i will fall to the ground dead........

Unfortunately, dead/stuck pixels are a fact of life with LCD monitors. But for every person who has one, there are probably a thousand that don't. I've had LCD monitors for 4 years and this is my first. More importantly, as upset as I was when I got it, I realized that, with a monitor the size of the 2001FP, they're nearly invisible (I AM the only one who can see mine). Think happy thoughts (UT2K4 @ 1600X1200 and 16ms) and stop worrying.

[CAG]

Originally posted by The Red Duke
I just need to get the colour right in DVD playback now, looks too faded and light?
Which is weird because the colours look fine on the windows desktop, bright and sharp.

Could be the media, your DVD player, software, etc. It doesn't sound like the monitor.

[Firebat246]

yea yea CAG your right i shouldnt get to worried over this...i think im just so nervous since this is my first LCD and im shelling out so much money for it. I just want it to be all good thats all

[shuttleboi]

If anyone bought the 2001fp recently, can you tell us if you're encountering the 'screen door' effect (lines around each pixel)?

[CAG]

shuttleboi:

I have a 2001FP and, for all intents and purposes, its a myth.

CAG

[Firebat246]

I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK LETS START WITH THE GOOD.......EVERYTHING PRETTY MUCH ABOUT THIS IS GOOD!!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!! BEAUTIFUL!!!!! AMAZING!!! BIG! I CANT SEEM TO EVEN REGISTER THE SIZE OF THIS THING. Screen door effect I dont even see myself...so i dont think its a problem at all. Colors are awesome and pics are crisp as ever! Go Dell!!


Ok the bad....Pixels....i have a few that are dead/stuck.....out of them i can only notice the one brite stuck one on the screen....its not really that bad to be honest but I have a question mainy for my bud CAG here. Should I worrry about it? should i inquire in getting a new one? or is what I got lucky? or am I an unlucky one to get the dead/stuck pixels that I did? What should I do about it? I ask this cuz you did say for every 1 that has one...1000 dont....so I wonder if I get a new one will it be FINE or is there a chance it could be worse and I should stick with what I got. THanks again so much!

Still in the end...go with this monitor....really blew me away!!!

[firstadopter]

Read my review for the screendoor effect. It is there if you sit really close to the screen (1 to 2 inches), it bothers some people, but doesn't bother me.

[CAG]

Firebat246:

How many dead/stuck pixels do you have? Here is Dell's dead (they call it "fixed") pixel policy http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?dn=1018431#INFO . They consider 1-5 fixed pixels as being within "industry standards". The problem is that this policy was released by Dell on 4/8/02. You would think that they would have a zero tolerance policy by now.

CAG

[Firebat246]

I think I have like 3ish........but i may be missing some......I did look for a while though :\

[CAG]

Firebat246:

What's the ebay seller's return policy? Also, here's a test you can use to find dead/stuck/fixed pixels http://www.gdargaud.net/Hack/DeadPixels.html You also might want to try the repair method he describes.

CAG

[firstadopter]

Be careful massaging pixels, that could make things worse. I know of people that got 5-10 dead pixels on their LCDs. If you can deal with it, I wouldn't worry about it.

Think about it, 1600x1200 = 1.9M transistors. Since the 2001FP is a large monitor, the error rate will be more prone than normal 1024X768 LCD monitors.

[CAG]

Rendition:

Everything you say is true but, interestingly, here is a situation where more dead pixels is better than less...after you exceed 5, you can put the squeeze on Dell to replace the monitor.

CAG

[Firebat246]

Ok well my Dad is gona contact the guy that we got it from....honestly if we cant get it fixed i dont think its too big a problem.....im gona look for some more but I really can only notice that 1-2 I was talking about....the other 1 or 2 seem pretty much irrelivant and not at all noticable

[shuttleboi]

Originally posted by Rendition
Read my review for the screendoor effect. It is there if you sit really close to the screen (1 to 2 inches), it bothers some people, but doesn't bother me.

I don't wear glasses and actually have pretty good vision (knock on wood), so I'm concerned the screen-door effect would bother me. On the other hand, I tend to sit at least 16 inches away from the monitor. What to do, what to do...

[shuttleboi]

<strong>Hey Rendition or CAG</strong>:

How is the 2001fp's ability to do 1:1 ratio for resolutions under 1600x1200? I've read that if you set the resolution to be, say, 1280x1024, the monitor can create that size screen in the middle of the screen with a black surrounding space so that the pixels don't get interpolated.

By my calculation, a 1280x1024 virtual screen, with the 2001fp's 0.255mm pitch, comes out to to a 16.46" diagonal virtual screen. Is that about right?

[Ripp]

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to post to this forum. I spent a long time today researching the FP2001 to decide if I wanted to buy it. Amazingly once I found this forum I ended up finding the answers to all of my questions. As a result I ordered the monitor tonight and anxiously await it's arrival.

Thanks again for your very detailed posts.

[shuttleboi]

I'm looking to buy the 2001fp right now via Dell's small-business storefront. It's asking me if I have tax exempt status, but it says "Tax-exempt status requires a tax certificate to be on file with Dell; if not on file, the order will be treated as taxable."

Does anyone know what this means?

[Ripp]

Certain businesses have a tax exempt status (ex: charities) and as a result do not have to pay sales tax on purchases. To prove this status to Dell I guess they need to submit a copy of the exemption certificate.

As a result I don't think you're going to qualify for the exempt status.

[firstadopter]

The 1:1 resolution works great, feels kind of weird having a black border around it. I don't know what it measures too, but just think about it, it just uses the pixels it needs to fill out (1024x768 etc.).

But to be honest, once you use 1600x1200, you won't want to use ANYTHING else. It's freaking amazing playing games like UT2004 and BF1942 on this screen at the max resolution. Why deprive yourself of the pleasure.

Thanks for the positive comment, please if you like this board recommend it to your friends. Also try posting more in the other threads or start your own discussions.

We really want to establish an awesome, active, and lively community of smart nice people and we need your help! As you have already seen, the people here are cool and smart already.. so far. :)

[CAG]

shuttleboi:

Ripp's right...you'd know it if you had tax exempt status. Tax or no tax, you'll love the monitor.

Ripp:

Thanks for the kind comments. I found this forum looking for info on the 2001FP and it was Rendition's review that sold me on it.

CAG

[Firebat246]

I found my Pixel problem to be meager now.....its like only 2 i can "see".....and I forget half the time where they are at and it take me a min of looking to find it again. Its not a big deal...this Monitor is just awesome!!! Was watching some "Finding Nemo" a few mins ago and playing Prince of Persia since it supports 1600 res....you wont believe your eyes when you play it!! I really do give this monitor 2 thumbs up!

[shuttleboi]

Originally posted by Rendition
But to be honest, once you use 1600x1200, you won't want to use ANYTHING else. It's freaking amazing playing games like UT2004 and BF1942 on this screen at the max resolution. Why deprive yourself of the pleasure.

I have a new P4 3.0 Ghz, but I'm using an old GeForce 4200 vidcard, and I doubt I can run Call of Duty at a good framerate at 1600x1200. I'm planning to get an ATI Radeon 9800 XT when Half-Life2 or Doom3 comes out, but for now, I'm sticking with my GF4200, so I need to run at 1280x1024 for games.

[shuttleboi]

Originally posted by CAG
shuttleboi:

Ripp's right...you'd know it if you had tax exempt status. Tax or no tax, you'll love the monitor.


That comes out to be another $65 in tax, which is a lot for a poor government-funded research scientist like myself!

[firstadopter]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Geforce 4200 could run 1600x1200 for Call of Duty if you dial down the graphic detail a bit. Call of Duty ran well on my 2.4ghz PC with ATI 9700 card.

[firstadopter]

shuttleboi, also remember new cards are due out this spring (April?) from ATI and Nvidia so that should either drive down current video card prices or give you more products to lust after.

[MailManX]

It doesn't matter what you buy or when you buy it, there will ALWAYS be more products to lust after!!

I was listening to a computer talk show a couple years ago and the host was defining a list of computer terms. Although he was doing so with intent to educate, he was also being a bit tongue-in-cheek. For example, he defined the following words:

OBSOLETE: Any computer component you currently own.

MICROSECOND: The amount of time it takes any computer component you buy to become obsolete.

[CAG]

LOL...how true. I read somewhere that they're developing LCD panels with a 12ms response time and my brand new Plextor 8X Dual Format DVD Burner is now being eclippsed by 16X dual format burners that'll also write dual layer DVD's.

EDIT: I see that BenQ already has a 12ms LCD, 17" @1280X1024 http://www.benq.com/display/lcd_fp767-12.html I guess when they get up to 20"+ and 1600X1200, I'll have to start looking again.

[firstadopter]

Lucky for us the 2001FP still remains the king of the hill for gaming LCDs, and it's been a few months already. GASP! :)

[CAG]

The problem is the monster that the 2001FP has created...never again will we be satisfied with a smaller, slower, less beautiful monitor...its only upward from here.

[Ripp]

I just purchased a 2001FP monitor and will be receiving it in a few days. As I was reading through the monitors manual online I noticed that the DVI port for the montior is DVI-D, I will be hooking this monitor to a Dimension 4550 with a ATI 9700 TX video card that has a DVI-I port. Am i going to be able to hook this montor to the computer using the DVI port given that one is DVI-D and the other is DVI-I? If so, can i hook them up with the cable thats supplied with the monitor or will I have to buy a special cable?


Thanks for your help.

[CAG]

Ripp:

This could help http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?dn=1062206 Unless I'm reading it wrong, it looks like the DVI-D cable will work with the DVI-I receptacle.

CAG

[Ripp]

That was extremely helpful CAG. Thanks.

[firstadopter]

DVI is the only way to go with the 2001FP, don't even think about doing analog. DVI is 10Xs clearer because the signal stays digital.

[MailManX]

I picked up my "monster" at UPS yesterday after work (they had tried to deliver it on Tuesday, but I wasn't home to provide a signature). I stayed up WAY too late admiring it. 'Tis a thing of beauty. I could not find a single bad pixel. If there's a screen door affect, I didn't see it. I am very, very pleased with this purchase. It's obviously too soon for me to give a reliable review, but the first impression is amazing!

My FX 5900 video card has a DVI-I port and it works just fine with the 2001FP's DVI-D cable.

Michael

[firstadopter]

Congrats on the purchase Michael, I'm sure you'll love it just like all of us here. Be sure to write your impressions after you have some good time with it.

[firstadopter]

Shuttleboi, did you order your monitor yet?

[MailManX]

Let's hope that everyone who wanted one has already ordered one since the sale is over. But who knows, maybe the next sale will be $749 instead of $799.

Michael

[CAG]

Dell's got ~300 refurb 2001FP's on sale for $795.

EDIT: Make that ~25 refurbs. A good deal...my 1702FP is a refurb and it got delivered to me as "new" as my 2001FP. Dell warrants them as new except I think they reduce the 30-day return period to 14.

[Firebat246]

I would be way to scared to get a refurbed one!! But thats how I am....I have to have pretty much all my stuff new ^_^

[firstadopter]

I agree with Steve, I am always willing to pay more to get new stuff. I'm anal that way, cuz you never know what the previous guy did to the stuff.

[Firebat246]

Yea I just dont feel right even owning something pre-owned or anything like that, its not a safe feeling. It makes me look all over for any dents....scratches....marks....its just so crazy! I feel 12314 times better with something new. Its worth the extra money in the end.

[firstadopter]

Steve congrats on becoming stable boy user status. You're the 3rd most active poster on First Adopter!

[Firebat246]

Oh yea! Thanks a bunch!! I love talking to you guys about this stuff! Its fun!

[CAG]

Actually, most if not all of the so-called "refurbs" are brand new never used monitors that get returned when a system is returned. But because they've been sold once, Dell is prohibited from selling them again as "new". Like I said before, my 1702FP came to me looking every bit as new as my 2001FP. Besides, $795 is a good price and you get the "new" Dell warranty (execpt for maybe the return period).

[Firebat246]

I should add to my last post.......I check this everyday! Even after I got my LCD I still love hearing about everything and what people think. After all, this was the forum that got me to fully decide on the 2001FP!

[Firebat246]

Originally posted by CAG
Actually, most if not all of the so-called "refurbs" are brand new never used monitors that get returned when a system is returned. But because they've been sold once, Dell is prohibited from selling them again as "new". Like I said before, my 1702FP came to me looking every bit as new as my 2001FP. Besides, $795 is a good price and you get the "new" Dell warranty (execpt for maybe the return period).

Ah yes your right CAG.....but of course they dont always tell you what the previous status of the product was, but I bet most the time they turn out just fine. Its just a thing I have to get everything new

[shuttleboi]

Originally posted by Rendition
Shuttleboi, did you order your monitor yet?

No, I decided not to. There have been just been so many reports of bad 'screen door' or graininess problems that I decided to pass.

HOWEVER, when I visited Dell's site last night, I saw that their LCD sale covered 15% off other 3rd party LCDs, including the awesome Planar PX212M, which I've read has an even better screen than the 2001fp. It has a 21.3" screen and S-video/composite inputs too. The next time Dell has a sale I might just get this.

I greatly appreciate this forum and the corresponding 2001fp review. It brought up a lot of interesting points I wouldn't have considered myself.

[Firebat246]

ah the Planer......I looked into that as well before I saw the 2001FP, but from what I read the 2001FP seems better. I know for sure the response time is

[firstadopter]

If you play games, there is no screen better on the market. 2001FP is the best.

If all you do is 2D windows work, there are other screens that offer higher image quality.

[CAG]

I understand that in June/July, BenQ is coming out with a 16ms 23" 1920x1200 LCD. Probably run ~$1,800...save your pennies, guys.

[firstadopter]

The BenQ sounds awesome, but ouch.. that price tag. Actually before the 2001FP came out, I was looking for a low ms 18" flat panel for like OVER A YEAR. It never came out, and I still think there are none out there.

Thank God the 2001FP came out at a decent price, or I'd be stuck playing games on my 19" Sony Trinitron which is falling apart. The images are starting to fade and get blurry. I think I had that monitor for over 6 years tho.

[CAG]

I just checked Dell's site on the 2001FP reburbs. They're having a 10%-off sale...$715.50 plus tax and shipping...to me, that comes to $773.27, about $21 less than I paid for the new one during the 25%-off sale. One problem...Dell has changed their warranty on refurb monitors...its now a 90-day return/replacement warranty...still not bad considering that if anything is wrong with the monitor, you'll probably know it as soon as you get it. The only thing is that if it ships with less than 6 dead pixels, you're stuck with them (no pun intended).

[Firebat246]

Originally posted by Rendition
If you play games, there is no screen better on the market. 2001FP is the best.

If all you do is 2D windows work, there are other screens that offer higher image quality.

Honestly....i think the 2001FP is also up there on the image quality.....I really think its nice looking. Maybe I just didnt see the other monitors that are way better but I seem to think that image quality is pretty good on the Dell. Basically the low response time on this is NOT the only good thing. Quality is nice as well

[monkeydust]

Hi guys! I've been reading this post for a couple of weeks now since when I first started looking at the 2001FP.

I've had mine for a week now and I think I'm sending it back. First of all, I didn't have any dead or stuck pixels and there was a slight backlight bleeding in the upper righthand corner. The monitor looks pretty good when you are looking at dark text on a light background. But, it looks very bad when there is light text on a dark background. I'm talking about the "screen door" effect that many have mentioned.

When playing a game like Neverwinter Nights, where there was white text on a black background, the text can become a chore to read.

I looked at an iMac LCD yesterday and the light on dark text looked much better than the Dell.

As for gaming, it didn't do too badly. All the FPS's I played looked ok. Although, there were some noticible horizontal lines when looking closely. I could have overlooked this. Games like Warcraft 3 and Age of Empires had considerable ghosting when you would scroll the screen by quickly.

I really wanted to like this monitor. I was hoping to get rid of my clunky 19" CRT. But, the image quality of this monitor just isn't good enough in my opinion.

I just wanted to share my opinion since many of you in this thread were curious of other people's experiences.

[firstadopter]

Monkeydust, thanks for your impressions. We welcome everyone's opinions. As I said before, some people simply can't stand the screen door effect, while others don't mind it at all.

[Firebat246]

hmmm id have to say thats the worst review i read so far about the 2001FP, but I can see where each person has thier own opinions about it. I didnt mean worst like "YOU SUCK WORST"....i mean worst as in a bad review. i guess the SDE just hasnt shown itself to me yet. Well thanks for the review. Cant have all good reviews on this board or it would be biased

[monkeydust]

Well, I looked at all the information that I could find via Google before I purchased the monitor. The majority of the reviews/forum posts that I found were quite positive. Like I said, I REALLY wanted to like the monitor. I'm still not 100% sure that I am going to return it (I do have it boxed up at this time and have a few weeks before the 30 day return window is up).

This is my first experience with an LCD so I really don't know how it compares to others (apart from a quick glance at LCD's in the server room at work or in briefly in a store).

I don't think my unit is "defective" but is just how the monitor was constructed. There are many good things about the monitor such as the color uniformity and the sharpness of dark text on light backgrounds. I'd say I was 75% happy with the monitor. It just leaves the question of how much that other 25% bothers me.

Has anybody out there had experience with other 20" or so LCD's to see how the picture compares (specifically light text on dark backgrounds)? By the way, I sit about 2 feet away from my monitor and I have 20-15 vision.

A few websites that have a pronounced screen door effect are:
http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=general&message.id=60
http://www.homelanfed.com/
http://www.bluesnews.com/

[firstadopter]

Steve it seems the screen door effect bothers people or it doesn't. If it doesn't bother you, don't worry. It isn't going to magically come up later.

[firstadopter]

Monkeydust, if you don't mind not being able to play games, Samsung's have better color quality from what I read on the internet. But for now, the 2001Fp is the best 20" LCD for gaming.

According to this document though
http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/Support/ebrochure/tftlcd/wiseview_200403.pdf

There is a 20" Samsung coming this Q3-04 that will have 16ms gaming capability. We'll see how good that monitor is in a few months.

[monkeydust]

A monitor that performs well for gaming is a must for me. It sounds like I either get used to this one or return it and wait a year. I'll probably hook it back up and try it for a bit longer to see if I get used to it.

Here is a thread in another forum where me and another person that just got a 2001FP coming from a 2000FP are discussing them. The thread starts out discussing widescreen monitors but it quickly goes to just 2001FP talk. Note that Riptide says that his 2000FP didn't have the "screen door" issue but his 2001FP does.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26053

[Firebat246]

the thing about the samsung is that I dont think that it has image quality SO MUCH BETTER....its just a lilttle better and helps with non moving images......but for the best looking games, both with FPS and graphics (quality) iv really been impressed with this LCD

[Firebat246]

one more thing....my dad works with comps all day...he has a business in graphics design, and he seems to think Dell has come far with the 2001FP and he thinks his graphic designers would love this LCD. Just a bit of input in the pro field. Yes there are other LCD's that are good like Dell, like the Samsung....but you have to look at all the traits and response time is one of them. Dont let a lilttle better image quality (I dont think its much) sway you to change. Think of 16ms.....Unreal2k.....i was once told this by a good man, and he knows who he is. After looking at all the traits of the LCD' being offered....Dell's 2001FP has a great bunch of good qualities.

[firstadopter]

hehe. Unreal Tournatment 2004 + Dell 2001FP = unreal!

[DirtHerder]

I work for a rather large video game company and we have a few hundred of these (everyone has at least one, many like myself have two, sitting on their desk).

It's a great monitor but so far I've got two problems with it.

First it seems to have a bit of a problem when it comes to a multi-monitor environment. The primary monitor seems to have a bit of a problem switching on upon startup (need to push the input select button a few times to cycle through inputs in order to get it to start up). But this may be a graphics card problem.

Much worse is that my secondary 2001fp has developed an odd pattern along it's top edge. Sort of a wavy pattern that extends about an inch down from the top of the screen. It looks like a piece of paper that has been dipped in paper.

I'd be pissed if I paid for the monitor, but I'd imagine with this many 2001fp's in house we were bound to get some bad ones.

Not too sure if I'd invest my own cash in it. I have a 2000fp at home and it's always performed flawlessly... it's not as sleek as the 2001fp, but it's a trooper).

We'll see.

- Dirt

PS: I'll post any other problems that I may hear of from anyone at our studio.

[monkeydust]

Thanks for the post, DirtHerder.

Speaking of game developers, anybody else notice that this looks like the monitor that Rick Ellis from Valve is using in his recent Source demonstration?

http://insider.ign.com/videos/articles/502/502352p1.html

[firstadopter]

Dirt, I'm curious how the overall reliability has been across a few hundred 2001FPs?

I also get the DVI problem too. Basically sometimes when I turn the monitor on first and then the computer, the monitor doesn't power on when the OS boots up.

My fix, which I don't mind, is turn on computer first and then turn on monitor after the OS boots up. It works fine.

I heard this is a bug with DVI interface with 2001FPs, I don't mind it however since my fix works fine.

[MailManX]

I've had my 2001FP for 5 days now and am still loving it. No bad pixels and nither my wife nor I can see any screen door affect. I get just a tad bit of ghosting once in a while on fast scenes, but it doesn't bother me.

My 2001FP has not exhibited any of the start-up problems, either in single or dual monitor configuration. I wonder if maybe it's a driver issue with certain video cards?

Cheers!
Michael

[firstadopter]

Yeah I heard it may be an issue with ATI / DVI interface.

[CAG]

You can read about it here http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33735849 Its a problem with ATi 9600, 9700, and 9800 series cards and ATi's drivers higher than the Cat. 3.7's. It only occurs with LCD monitors (Dells as well as others) with the DVI connection. When I got my 2001FP, I installed the Cat. 4.1's and I had problems immediately...I'd start my machine and the monitor would go on but would remain in like a "standby" mode. I've since gone back to the 3.7's and haven't had any problems. Apparently, ATi is aware of the problem and said they were working on a fix.

[MailManX]

That explains why my DVI interface is working OK then. I don't have an ATI card. I came close to buying a 9800 a few weeks ago. But instead, I bought an nvidia 5900. It was kind of a toss up at the time because both cards seemed to be on par with each other for both price and speed. I finally bought the nvidia because it was a bit cheaper and I knew my system worked well with nvidia drivers since my previous card was nvidia based. I guess it worked out well for me in the end.

[Firebat246]

eh thats not good.....im getting a new machine and will most likely get the ATI 9800XT card since it really is the best out there. I hope im not gona have problems with it cuz i dont plan on changing my mind on the vid card

[firstadopter]

I'm sure ATI will get the drivers fixed in next release. In the meantime, turning on your monitor after you turn on your computers isn't that big of a deal. I don't mind it one bit.

[Firebat246]

actually most the problems are with 9600 and 9800pro.......im getting a 9800XT, so maybe that will change things!!! Either way ATI offers the best cards so im still getting it

[firstadopter]

firebat, you migh want to wait a few weeks. The new next gen nvidia and ATi cards are going to be out in next 1-2 months, which will drive down 9800 pricing.

[Firebat246]

hmm then maybe ill get the next gen ones!!!!!! I like that idea alot ^_^

[firstadopter]

Ha, that would be sweet. But the next gen ones will cost $400-500, almost as much as the 2001FP! :)

[TheAngryIntern]

Doh! I had a long post written, but i screwed up and it got erased before i could post it....I'm a wanker.

Anyway, The gist of what I wrote before is this: I've read all the good reviews and testimonials here and I think that you have all helped me make up my mind to get this monitor. I'm looking to replace my Sony E540 21" CRT. What are your thoughts on a 21" CRT vs a 20" LCD. I am mainly interested in a monitor for games, and I've gathered from my reading here that the Dell is outstanding for this. I do have a question regarding the 1600x1200 thing: When running at that high a resolution, what about in-game text, like health meters and ammo meters for FPS's? Are these still pretty readable? Does the fix by changing the font size in windows affect the games. I'm sure that I will have no problem running games at that resolution, as I have the 9800XT, but what was that I read earlier about the DVI bug??? I certainly don't want to pay $800 for a kick-ass LCD and have to use the analog connection....yuck. Anyway, thanks for all the good info, and hopefully I'll be using a new 2001FP soon....not too soon, since I just checked Dell's website and no deals going on right now...booo.

Check ya'll later,

TheAngryIntern

[firstadopter]

AngryIntern, I had a Sony 19" trinitron and I have to say the 2001FP is a HUGE upgrade. The totally flat screen and the higher resolution is so much easier on the eyes, MUCH MUCH sharper, and gaming is a dream.

The fonts/test/meters in first person shooters looks great, all in all much clearer and better than my old CRT.

Don't worry about the DVI bug, it will probably be fixed in a future driver release. In the meantime, all you have to do is turn off the monitor and turn it on, it will work. OR you can do what I do, which is turn on the computer first, wait for the OS to boot up, and then turn on the 2001FP. It works fine then.

Hey all, look at the other threads on this forum and participate. We're a lively, active bunch here, so we can discuss non-2001FP topics in the same awesome style too! :)

[TheAngryIntern]

Thanks for the response, rendition. I will definitely be checking out more stuff on this forum...I just discovered it today by using the new Froogle thing on Google....did a search for the 2001FP and the firstadopter.com site was listed....coolio. See ya in the other forums!!

-TAI

[Firebat246]

Well if the new gen vid cards are gona be 400-500 thats ok cuz I was already planning on spending 500 on the XT so it all works out in the end!! cant wait!

[CAG]

TAI,

To expand a little on Rendition's post...

The thing with the ATi drivers is more of an annoyance rather than a problem and with all the folks complaining about it, ATi 'll hopefully have it fixed in the next driver release.

Another difference b/t the 21" CRT and the 2001FP is about 50lbs and getting the top of your desk back.

2001FP Dell refurbs are $718.20 (w/10% discount) pus tax and shipping.

Welcome to the forum

CAG

[Firebat246]

hehe the more I think about my LCD the more I love it.....I really love to just come home to it. Its so BIG!!! and it looks so cool!!! I really do recomment this monster! Enjoy everything from business to games on it!! what more can I say but get to the main point and just say BUY IT!

[Firebat246]

By the way everyone is so helpful on this forum and any newcommers to this place will soon see the beauty in these forums! If you dont fully think the 2001FP is for you yet, you will soon! CAG and Rendition rock! Ask away guys and gals!

[kabanero]

Hello everybody, and thanks for the great thread.

My first post in this forum.

I have Dell 2000FP at work for almost a year. And it works great. No problem so far. So I decided to order refurbished 2001FP from Dell today for myself for $718.20 (w/10% discount) plus shipping and no tax. I'll see how it goes when I recieve it.

BTW, I found out that if you make purchase with VISA credit card, VISA matches warranty from the manufacturer. In my case I have 90 days from Dell, and 90 days from VISA, toatl of 180 days. I called them and they verified that.

[Firebat246]

im still trying to figure out my warrenty....i got mine from EBAY and i came with no papers for warrenty.....yea I have no problems with my LCD but I would like to have that cushey government contract behind me, hehe

[CAG]

kabanero:

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the tip on the Visa warranty.

CAG

[CAG]

I've had some issues with my 2001FP. There is the "sleep/standby" issue that's been covered in some other posts. Recently, during boot-up at a point where the screen is to display one of the WinXP logos, I instead get a garbled static-like hash of colors which passes and boot-up proceeds normally.

Anyway, I contacted Dell about all of this yesterday and after asking me to go thru some fairly useless troubleshooting steps (e.g., make sure everything's connected, etc.), they said the monitor was probably bad and they were replacing it. I have to give credit to Dell. This is the 1st time I've contacted tech support via email and after a couple of emails back and forth, the whole thing was done.

[firstadopter]

Yikes, good luck CAG with your monitor.

[Deletion]

Hey everyone,

This is my first post at this forum.

After reading numerous reviews (here and elsewhere), I just placed an order for the 2001FP at Dell's SB store for $799.20 (Woohoo!). My company is tax exempt and I faxed them the certificate, so hopefully I won't be charged the $40 tax.

I'm going to be building a new system with a Matrox P650 (P4C-2.8, Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, 1GB Corsair). In the interim, I'll be using the analog connection because my current system has a Matrox G450.

Does anyone have any experience with a Matrox/2001FP combo? I wonder if the DVI problems exists.

[MailManX]

Congrats deletion! You are gonna love it! I doubt you will have the DVI problem since it seems to be related to a few specific ATI boards and drivers.

Dell sure loves to play around with the prices on the 2001FP monitor. I've never seen the likes! It's currently 3 different prices depending where it's listed on their website.

[Deletion]

Thanks! I haven't come across any issues with the 2001FP and Matrox cards, so I hope everything will play nice :)

Yeah, I always check both the Home & Home Office and the Small Business stores (as well as Dell's emails for coupons and sites like techbargains.com). I've also learned that Dell handles taxes differently based on the store. I live in Massachusetts and I've noticed that there is usually no tax when purchasing from the H&HO store, but there is a tax when buying from the SB store.

Update: I placed the order this morning at 8:00am and now a mere 3 hours later, my Order Status page shows it has already shipped. Oh, I can't wait.

[TheAngryIntern]

/me gets jealous of all these 2001FP owning mofos!!

I want one too, but i can't afford it yet.

hopefully soon....

[kabanero]

Originally posted by TheAngryIntern
/me gets jealous of all these 2001FP owning mofos!!

I want one too, but i can't afford it yet.

hopefully soon....

Don't you have credit cards? :)

[CAG]

Originally posted by kabanero
Don't you have credit cards? :)

That's the way to do it. That'll give TheAngryIntern another 30 days to "pay/worry-about-paying" for it.

CAG

[kabanero]

Hello everyone,

Here is my deal.

I ordered refurbished 2001FP from Dell on Monday, March 29 for $718.20. I paid $14 for 3-5 business day delivery. Didn’t have to pay taxes (I am in South-East Michigan). The monitor was delivered to my house around 11 am on Wednesday, March 31.

I don’t know what was refurbished in it, but monitor is new, in perfect condition, ZERO dead pixels. It is connected to my ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV card with DVI connector. I am using latest ATI-Omega drivers. The sharpness is awesome. Colors are vivid. The brightness is awesome, that awesome, that I keep brightness level at 0 (zero). 2001FP is better than 2000FP that I have at work. The "screen door" effect is there if I stick my nose 6” to the screen, but I sit at least 18" from the monitor, and it doesn’t bother me at all. I LOVE 2001FP.

I have another 17" Samsung CRT monitor with my second PC. I can’t watch CRT monitors any more! I guess I will have to buy another 2001FP! :)

About warranty, I have 90 days from Dell, another 90 days from my VISA card, and VISA also told me that I could by 3 year extended warranty from them for $81.

BTW, Dell is having sale right now (again) till April 7 on refurbished LCD monitors. Refurbished 2001FP is $698.00 now.

Question to other 2001FP owners: is there any way to activate PIP without going to OSD menu, kind of like keyboard shortcut?

[CAG]

Like I said in some earlier posts, a Dell refurb is many times the best way to go...great price and most times what you're getting is brand new. About the only hitch I can think of with refurb LCD monitors is that Dell doesn't give you that 30-day "return it for any reason" warranty. So, if your LCD ships with up to 5 dead pixels, you're stuck with them.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that yours came spotless, kabanero.

CAG

P.S. My replacement 2001FP shipped today. So I should have it by Monday. Please, God, NO DEAD PIXELS...

[arogan]

This thread helped me decide to purchase the 2001fp so I thought I would join in on the discussion.

$750 direct from dell. Free shipping. Arrived in 24hrs.

This is my initial report with only a few hours of testing. All tests were performed using DVI.
- no dead/stuck pixels. no "screen door" effect that I can tell. back light is nice and even.
- after turning on clear type the text looks great at 1600X1200. Since I sit pretty far back from the monitor I just increase the font size in windows, eudora, IE, etc and everything is fine. I can still read normal size text at 1600X1200 even from several feet back but I just prefer larger fonts. The monitor is just that sharp.
- contrast seems fine. default settings don't burn your retina's out.
- pivot landscape/portrait
- lots of inputs: analog vga, dvi, s-video, composite, usb2.0 hub (2 ports on the bottom and 2 on the left side which are very accessible. xbox looks pretty good on it with some blur. I tried Ninja Gaiden.
- controls are well layed out. One single button cycles through the 4 inputs.
- good monitor placement adjustments: height, rotate, pivot, angle
- very thin bezel.
- 18 lbs (including stand), much cooler than that old adi 19" crt.

Games:
- UT2004 @ 1024X768X32. It looks very very good. When playing normal it looks just great with no ghosting. If you pan back and forth really fast (which you normally wouldn't do constantly) you will notice a slight blur effect. It's hard to describe. It's not exactly ghosting but it looks different from a crt.
- Far Cry @ 1024X768X32: Very similar to ut2004 and just looks great. Very playable.
- Counter Strike Condition zero @ 1024X768X32: Again much much better than the planar pl191m. It had this weird jerking motion. Almost like poor framerate yet I was pegged at 60 fps (vsync on).
At 1600X1200 it ran smooth. I had to uncheck mouse smoothing at that res otherwise it felt a bit laggy. After that it played great. The only problem is your crosshair is a bit small at 1600X1200. It's weird this jerking motion was only apparent in CS and not in the other 2 games at the same interpolated 1024X768. I still need to try the other stretch setting (aspect). They are 1:1, fill, and aspect.

It's not the perfect monitor (I don't think one exists yet). Gaming on a LCD I think just takes a bit of adjusting. Having said that this monitor blows away the planar pl191m for gaming. It's a BIG BIG improvement. I had purchased a planar about 6 months ago and just couldn't stand the ghosting and returned it.

I consider myself pretty picky about these things. Based on this initial experience so far I think this monitor is a keeper!

More info about the jerky motion:
Hmmm....Did some more testing. It seems like a refresh rate of 75hz causes the jerky motion issue in games. I'm not sure why since I thought refresh doesn't have much meaning with LCD monitors. What happened before is 1024X768 supports 60-75hz while 1600X1200 only supports 60hz. Counter strike at 1024 starts with 75hz but if you make any video changes like gamma and apply it restarts CS but at 60hz (which is very smooth). Anyway, Is there a way to make CS always use 60hz in opengl? Refresh Override (available with CRT) is not an option under ati display tab when you have a LCD hooked up. I even tried reforce which didn't help. I have an ati 9700 pro.

I guess I could just play CS at 1600X1200 which looks great but then the crosshair is a bit too small.

After several more hours of game play (with no motion sickness or ill side effects) I'm completely use to the 2001fp. I'll never go back to a CRT now. I consider myself a pretty hard core fps gamer and this monitor has met my needs. CS seems to be pretty harsh on LCD's (probably the older engine and the color pallet) and it's very playable on the 2001FP. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

[TheAngryIntern]

good review....i'm getting closer and closer to finally getting one of these things myself. As far as your issue about the xhair at 1600x1200, have you tried looking for custom xhairs on the net??? I'm sure that someone has come up with one especially for peeps who are running 1600x1200 on lcds. Just a thought.

[arogan]

There are many custom crosshair bitmaps for CS but that only works when you zoom in with a scope weapon. I haven't found a way to increase the size for the crosshair that expands while running around. It's suppose to scale with resolution (like the in game text) but it just seems way too small compared to when I'm running at 1024X768.

Just wondering if anybody else can confirm this jerky motion only in games when running at 1024X768 @ 75hz. The current resolution and refresh rate is displayed on the monitor main menu. It's harder to test in other games since they all default to 60hz. So far I can only confirm this in counter strike.

Either way it's not that big of an issue since there is a work around by adjusting the gamma and then hitting apply will drop you back down to 60hz. Heh it's kind of funny. Before with CRT's the big concern was always running at higher refresh rates (85hz) and now I'm trying to run at a lower refresh rate.

[firstadopter]

Arogan, the default refresh rate on LCDs I think is 60hz. The screen draws are different from CRTs, so the refresh rate doesn't matter from what I read. So if you're using 2001FP, you SHOULD be using 60hz.

Awesome review on the 2001FP, I'm going to post it on the front page.

[monkeydust]

I decided to keep my 2001FP. After going back to a CRT for a while, I missed the sharpness of the text on the LCD. The screen door effect doesn't bother me as much now.

As others have stated, it's not a perfect monitor. But, it is pretty darn good for the price. I like the extra real estate of 1600x1200 too.

I'm generally happy with its performance in all FPS games. But, I'm still a bit unsastisfied with 3/4 top-down games such as Sacred, Warcraft 3 and Age of Empires.

I've been playing Sacred lately. Unfortunately the game has a maximum resolution of 1024x768 so it looks a bit blurred via interpolation (I don't want to display it at it natural resolution and have a black border around it). It has a weird screen redraw that I don't see on a CRT as well. Occasionaly, the whole screen redraws in a way that you can see the horizontal line go up the screen redrawing it. But, since games like this are not the norm, I can live with it.

[firstadopter]

Best of all monkeydust, you can stay a part of the 2001FP FirstAdopter posse. hehe

[CAG]

Originally posted by TheAngryIntern
i'm getting closer and closer to finally getting one of these things myself.

DO IT!!!

[TheAngryIntern]

/me cowers in the corner from all the peer pressure!!

:)

[arogan]

Wow I made the front page with my first post. Thanks. I feel special. :-)

Rendition,
I know LCD's are just a matrix of transistors and they don't repaint the screen like CRT's (electron beam striking the phosphor in a raster scan pattern) so refresh doesn't really have any meaning (as far as screen flicker goes). All other games I've tested start with the 60hz default like you noted. The ONLY game so far is counter strike which for some reason insists on starting at 75hz instead of the default 60hz (in opengl at 1024X768). I guess it's just one of those quirks with such an old game. I just can't seem to force CS to start in 60hz at 1024X768.

[arogan]

Originally posted by TheAngryIntern
good review....i'm getting closer and closer to finally getting one of these things myself.

Yeah I was really hesitant about getting the 2001FP having been burned earlier by the planar. I had actually bought 2 planar 191m 19" @ $500 each from dell. I ended up returning mine but my wife kept hers. After reading all the reviews and many posts with people saying that the planar was good for games I found out just how picky I was. I'm very sensitive to ghosting and motion blur and play a ton of fps. I loved the crisp text and screen real estate that the LCD offered but wasn't willing to sacrifice my gaming. Coming from a 19" CRT I wasn't willing to give up screen size either and at that time the largest 16ms LCD were 17".

I've been researching the 2001FP monitor since December 2003 and watched the $750 deal pass by twice without pulling the trigger. I've looked at the dell carts at the mall hoping they would have a 2001fp so I could at least try one out but they only had 17" lcd's on display. There were about 90% positive reviews for gaming on this LCD and about 10% negative. I was afraid to buy because I thought I would be in that very picky 10%. Also even at $750 (which is a great deal for this size of LCD) it was $250 over my original budget. I read about the new 12ms panels coming out soon but they all seemed to be 17" (I didn't read any confirmed news reports of a 19" or larger panel). In the end the only way I was going to try it out was to just buy one. The $750 deal came around last week, and I got approval from the appropriations committee (aka the wife) so I just pulled the trigger.

How a person perceives motion blur and ghosting varies greatly from person to person. The only way you are going to know if it's good enough for you is to try one. Unfortunately with dell that pretty much means buying one unless you have a friend who has one. Also keep in mind the 16ms response time reported is an average so the color pallet of the game can greatly affect ghosting. Depending on the starting color and the ending color for the pixel the response time will vary. Always make sure you are looking at the complete response time (rise and fall). Some manufacturers report just the rise.

For me when I first switched from the CRT I did notice an increase in motion blur but not that much and there was almost no ghosting. By the second day I was completely adjusted to playing games on the 2001fp. In comparison, I tried the planar for two weeks and finally just couldn't stand it anymore.

Just a note about buying through dell small business. Their return policy is a bit different. Returns within 30 days are actually subject to a restocking fee (unlike dell home which has no restocking fee). But if you email them usually they will waive that fee. This is what happened when I returned one of the planar's. All you eat is the shipping cost of sending the monitor back to dell.

[monkeydust]

Originally posted by arogan
The ONLY game so far is counter strike which for some reason insists on starting at 75hz instead of the default 60hz (in opengl at 1024X768). I guess it's just one of those quirks with such an old game. I just can't seem to force CS to start in 60hz at 1024X768.
Since you have an ATI card, have you tried using RefreshForce (http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/) to lock your refresh rate to 60hz? I've used that for a year now and it has always kept things at the refresh rate that I specified.

[arogan]

Yup tried that exact program. What's weird is it seems like it works because if I change the desktop resolution to 1024X768 then the only monitor refresh rate choices in the drop down is 60hz (75hz is no longer an option which is good). But then I fire up CS and sure enough it uses 75hz anyways!!!

[monkeydust]

Hmm... just fired up Counter Strike via Steam (not a game that I normally play). It was 60mhz at the title screen and 60mhz once it got into the game. This is at 1600x1200 via OpenGL. So, I wasn't able to reproduce the problem you seem to be having.

[arogan]

change resolution to 1024X768 in CS. 1600X1200 always works fine (60hz) because our monitor spec only supports 60hz at 1600X1200. It's only when you drop the resolution (like 1024X768) that the monitor spec then supports 75z.

the reason I don't just use 1600X1200 is because the crosshair is too small at that resolution.

What seems to be happening is CS talks directly to the monitor to see what refresh rates a monitor supports instead of going through what the inf reports. It then automatically picks the highest supported refresh rate for that resolution which works great for CRT's but not for lcd's.

[monkeydust]

Sorry, poor reading comprehension here. :)

I switched to 1024x768 and it stayed at 60mhz.

[arogan]

Hey thanks for testing it for me Monkeydust.

Now I know it is something specific to my setup. I uninstalled and reinstalled the latest catalyst 4.3 drivers a viola! It's fixed! Now CS starts at 1024X768 @60hz!!

Thanks again monkeydust for your help.

[TheAngryIntern]

I just found this on Dell's website talking about the total satisfaction return policy which i think someone was asking about:

"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (United States Only)

If you are an end-user customer who bought new products directly from a Dell company, you may return them to Dell within 30 days of the date of invoice for a refund or credit of the product purchase price. If you are an end-user customer who bought reconditioned or refurbished products from a Dell company, you may return them to Dell within 14 days of the date of invoice for a refund or credit of the product purchase price. In either case, the refund or credit will not include any shipping and handling charges shown on your invoice. If you are an organization that bought the products under a written agreement with Dell, the agreement may contain different terms for the return of products than specified by this policy."

so 30 days if new and 14 days if refurbished....hope this helps someone!!

[Hoodwink]

Ok guys, after reading this forum I decided to take the plunge and grab a 2001fp last week. I have made a review:

http://www.greghood.com/2001fp.htm

Great LCD display, I am glad to be away from my 22in headache CRT :-)

Hope my review helps others in making a purchasing decision.

-Greg

[arogan]

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~section=010#total

A different return policy applies to nondefective products purchased through Dell's Software and Peripherals division by customers of our Small and Medium Business divisions. Those products may be returned within twenty-one (21) days from the date on the packing slip or invoice, but a fifteen percent (15%) return fee will be deducted from any refund or credit.


This is where it talkes about the 15% restocking fee if your order through "Dell Small Business." This is different than ordering from Dell Home.

[CAG]

arogan and Hoodwink...excellent reviews!

BTW, just set up my replacement 2001FP...Dell sent me a refurb (10/03 build vs the 11/03 build I had). Panel looks great...none of the problems (so far) I had before and, most importantly, no bad pixels!

[Hoodwink]

Cag, glad to hear all is well with your replacment. No dead pixels is a very good thing :-)

-G

[bratboy]

Hello,

Well I kept quiet after reading this thread and a few others but did order a 2001 last thursday. Happy to report it showed after only 2 days, Zero dead/stuck pixels. According to the tag on the back this one was manufactured in Feb of 04 rev A00 I think.

So far the bst way for me to describe this screen is WOW! Using a 9800 pro DVI connector with no trouble. Image is perfect, text looks great after I went and did the Cleartype deal. Am sitting 2-3 ft from screen and even at 1600 no probs reading. Only game I've ran so far is DAoC and it looks absolutly Mar-vo-lus. Saw no ghost type stuff but going to go run some other stuff I have and will see how they look and report back


One happy camper
Bratboy

[firstadopter]

Welcome aboard Bratboy to the FirstAdopter 2001FP posse! :)

For you lurkers out there, PLEASE join the fun here at FirstAdopter. Register and join the other discussions on this site. For you 2001FP posters, PLEASE try the other threads on the forum and START you own topics. :)

If you notice, there are no ads for speed/efficiency's sake. The only benefit I get from this site, is seeing smart people write cool stuff and a nice feeling on seeing it active & lively!!!

I want this to be the BEST forum for early adopters on the net. And I'm more than willing to pay for any bandwidth costs every month to make that happen.

So don't lurk, join the party! There are tons of smart nice people here that would love to have a conversation with you all on any topic under the sun. Also TELL YOUR FRIENDS about this great site.


If you have any suggestions, just private message me or post in this Lounge topic: http://www.firstadopter.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=81

[jwdd]

Well, I have been lurking for some time now. I am really tempted to buy the 2001FP based on all the posts here. I have one question though. Picture quality and color accuracy are more important to me than being able to play games. I do quite a bit of photo editing. How is the 2001FP as far as color accuracy?

[Strict9]

I been looking at purchasing the 2001FP along with the Dell XPS system I am ordering. I am a hardcore gamer and always had 21" CRT's to do my fragging on. So needless to say I have beena bit hesitant on making the switch to an LCD. After doing mucho research on flat panels and worrying about dead pixels and response time, im glad to say that reading the posts in this forum certainly drove the last nail into the coffin and pushed my descision to getting the 2001FP. I must say im a little concerned about running FarCry(and HL2 and Doom3) at 1600x1200 and getting good performance. I am building an XPS system with a 9800XT 1GB mem and a P4 3.2 w/HT 800 Mhz FSB. So i would like to be able to turn on all the eye candy in a game and have it perform well. Im not sure that would be the case if I have to run @ 1600x1200.

Has anyone actually done this.

By the way this is my first post if you haven't noticed. i already gave rendition work to do by moving my "New Thread" into this forum. Thanx
Rendition!!

[firstadopter]

Jwdd,

The color is fantastic, but it's a widely held belief the 2001FP is inferior to the more expensive Samsung LCDs out there (>$1000). For people that rely on the best color accuracy for photo editing and desktop publishing, I would have to recommend a Samsung.

The 2001FP is the perfect monitor for value, gaming, and great color. Dell regularly sells it for only $750. If you like great gaming and want the best value, it's THE killer deal out there.

Strict9,

Far Cry demo makes my P4 2.66ghz with ATI 9700 chokes at 1600X1200 at the highest detail settings. It's playable at the medium settings. Call of Duty and BF1942 are smooth as butter. UT2004 is also very smooth at 1600X1200 with high detail. I'm sure it will play better on your awesome PC, so I don't know if this helps.

[Strict9]

Originally posted by Rendition
Jwdd,


Far Cry demo makes my P4 2.66ghz with ATI 9700 chokes at 1600X1200 at the highest detail settings. It's playable at the medium settings. Call of Duty and BF1942 are smooth as butter. UT2004 is also very smooth at 1600X1200 with high detail. I'm sure it will play better on your awesome PC, so I don't know if this helps.


I appreciate the feedback. I can run FarCry @1024X768 with some of the Video settings set to high and it runs smoothly on my current machine. So hopefully on the new system it will run @ the higer res with at least the same settings I use now and I will be happy. But if the games still look great at a lower resolutio on the 2001FP then I will stil be a happy camper...hell..just recaliming some of my deskspace back from my 21' NEC CRT is worth it. :)

[jwdd]

Thanks. I had narrowed my choices to either a Samsung,Eizo, or the 2001FP.

[monkeydust]

I was suprised how well Far Cry runs at 1600x1200 on my box (Athlon 2200, 1 gb Ram, ATI 9800 Pro). I run a couple of settings at Very High, a few at High and one or two at medium and get 25-35 FPS. So, it is much better than I expected and quite playble for me.

[arogan]

ATI 9700 pro
abit nf7-s
amd barton 2500 oc to 3000xp speeds
1 gig corsair matched pair.

A lot depends on your tolerance on frame rates. Personally I'll do almost anything to keep fps above 30fps. Far cry starts to chug pretty hard at 1600X1200. 1024 is very playable.

Personally, I think the 2001fp does a great job at scaling. I run most of my games at 1024X768. Even games like Counter strike which run at a solid 60fps at 1600X1200 I still prefer to run it at 1024 (larger crosshair). Granted 1600 does look beautiful but I'm willing to sacrifice some beauty for better playability. Sure at 1024 the picture is a bit softer but it really doesn't bother me at all. It still looks a heck of a lot better than my old 19" CRT.

Here is a tip for you ATI users. If you look under the "display" tab, FPD, uncheck "Scale image to panel size". I think this prevents the ati driver from doing the scaling and assures you the monitor is doing the scaling. I'll take hardware scaling over some software driver scaling any day.

[BluepointVance]

Hi all,

So I'd been lurking here and elsewhere trying to figure out what monitor to buy for a while now. Then (finally) last week I decided on the 2001fp. Got in on the end of the lastest 750 deal DELL was running.

And since this site and a few others where such a big influence on my decision, I thought I'd post my thoughts on the monitor.

First off, it's bright (maybe even a little too bright... I ended up turning the brightnesss down all the way... and then further adjusted it with the drivers on my video card (radeon 9800 pro.))

Second, I do notice a white spot on the screen in the upper right hand corner... you can only see it when the rest of screen is black. And, truthfully, it's not so bad... (I think they talk about it a little in the Anandtech review. You can see it in the picture they have up from the MATRIX dvd.)

Third, I can totally see the much talked about grainy-ness. I don't think it has anything to do with "black space around the pixels" myself -- I've scrutinized this monitor quite a bit at this point, and I'd have to say it comes from the COATING on the monitor surface... the effect is very similar to having a really dusty crt monitor... The bits of grain on the coating are really noticable sometimes, less noticable others... (Anyone here have the same feeling?)

If you're looking at a picture of a persian rug or something like that with a lot of variegation, you don't really notice it. But anything with a solid color (the skin on someones arm, a solid grey, whatever) and it's much easier to spot.

This is also true of things in motion. I fired up Return to Wolfenstein... There is virtually no way to notice the grain on that. But watch a movie with someone wearing a solid color shirt, moving slightly -- and you notice it instantly (or, at least, I do.)

As I sit here typing this my eyes are 27" away from the monitor (I just measured...) and I can see the grain on this light grey color scheme the forum has for the "your reply" box.

I will admit at this point, I'm fairly picky about this kinda stuff.

And aside from the three things I mentioned, I think this monitor is first rate. Well designed. Great response time. Little or no ghosting/bluring. Easy to use. Etc...

Doing my research and trying to decide what to buy has led me to the conclusion that, as of right now, there is no be-all-end-all LCD screen on the market. Maybe the next batch of LCDs will be perfect (somehow, I doubt it though.)

As for the 2001fp, I think it's a really good monitor, and a heck of a bargain at 750. And if you want an LCD for gaming, I don't think you'll be dissapointed.

I'm not much of a gamer myself.
And I'm not sure if I'm going to be keeping mine or not.

I'm probably going to go take another look at the Samsung 193p. Anyone here have experience with both the 2001fp and the 193p? I'd love to hear a comparison.

Finally, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone here in the forum. Reading though peoples thoughts on this monitor has been a fairly invaluable resource for me...


BluepointVance

[Strict9]

Well,

I just orderd my Dell Deminsion XPS system with the 2001FP!! Now I have the daunting task of waiting for it to be delivered. Here is what I ordered

P4 3.2Ghx w/HT
1GB Mem
120 GB HD
9800XT w/256
and of course the 2001FP

Can't wait to get it!!

I'll give you all an update when I get it. its expected to be ready "on or before" April 16th, then 3 to 5 business days to ship. so probably late the following week. Then to make matters worse I am bringing my kids to disney the week after (last week of April) so I will have little time before my vacation to realy get a feel for the system. But once I give it a first run I'll give you all my opinion...here's hoping for no dead pixels!!!

[firstadopter]

Wow, congrats on the purchase. That is one sweet system setup.

[bratboy]

I've got a silly question probably but I currently I have my 2001 hooked up via DVI. When I origonally connected it and booted up the system it chose to select PnP Monitor and worked fine so left it that way. Should I install the actual monitor driver or leave things as they are.

Main reason Im asking is that when I decided to go portrait just to see what it looked like and using ATI rotate it gives me a mssg that mode not supported but rotated just fine anyway so I wondered if it might be because Im not using the actual monitor driver.

System is
Asus P4P800 delux
2.8 g Hyperthread P4
512 ddr
ATI 9800 pro
2001FP from Dell (always said yuck about Dell till now hehe)

Thx in advance
Just Jess

[Strict9]

Originally posted by Rendition
Wow, congrats on the purchase. That is one sweet system setup.

Thanx Rendition, This is actually the first system I purchased since the 486 days. I been building my own systems since then but I grew tired of it and figured I would buy a complete mainstream system. I looked at aliienware, voodoo, and falcon systems but they were just overpriced. So we'll see how the Dell system holds up to my expectations. It got some good reviews from some of the PC magazines so it should be good.

We'll see :)

[CAG]

bratboy:

You can d/l the most recent drivers from here http://support.dell.com/FileLib/Type.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=DHS&Category=0&OS=WW1&OSL=EN&SvcTag=&SysID=DIM_PNT_P4_8300&DeviceID=4291

[bratboy]

thx for the link and went ahead and updated the driver. Cant really tell a diffrence yet but at least no worse.

The other thing I wondered about was what ppl felt was best way to handle pwr on/off. From what I understand LCD backlights have a expected lifespan (assuming this means like a light bulb) so should not be left on 24/7 like I used to do with my CRTs. I've seen several ppl that say its better to pwr off the monitor at night to extend backlight life and others say to use the powersave feature to do the same thing. Are both methods the same or is one better than the other?

Anyway after now haveing the monitor for a few days can still say Im in awe of it. It does have one funky lil pixel but its not visible at all to me except if im doing a dead pixel type test and only on the red then. Not to menton its in the lower left corner about a 1/4 inch into the screen so for me very minor issue.

[firstadopter]

I downloaded the new v4.4 ATI drivers and it seems to fix my 2001FP power on bug. Hooray!

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=10&submit.y=6

[CAG]

What's your "2001FP power on bug"?

[Strict9]

I was out looking on the Dell accessories page and couldn't find any glare or filte screens for the 2001FP or the 20 LCD rather. I don't need it for glare but more for protection against my 3 year old. It would suck if he got a hold of a crayon or pen/pencil and decided to draw all over the screen and puch holes in the thing...So I need a protective screen for the LDC. Has anyone found a good one. I tried Office Depot and nothing there either.

[CAG]

Protect it from a 3-year old...? You should be pricing concrete bunkers. Don't know where I heard this quote: "When it comes to kids, hope for the best and insure everything" Sage advice. I have 2 boys, 13 and 8, and they teach me something new every day.

[firstadopter]

The ATI 2001FP bug that's fixed by latest ATI drivers is the one where I had to turn on the 2001FP after the OS booted up.

Now with the new 4.4 drivers, I can turn on the monitor before the computer and everything works fine.

[CAG]

I still have the Cat 3.7's but I found that if I disable my desktop theme (set it to "none"), the display corruption and "standby" issue on boot-up disappear.

[Firebat246]

hehe all i gotta say is....as i sit here, and every other time i sit down at my computer, I still smile when I look at the beauty. Im very happy I got it!!! weeeee

[CAG]

Dell Small Business is running its 25%-off sale again on the 2001FP...offer good thru 4/14/04 http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/default.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=04

[Firebat246]

thats funny....just as I read the email about dell, i come in here to post and I see CAG has beat me too it!!! Good work man! Now everyone go buy a 2001FP!!!

[TheAngryIntern]

wtf??? i clicked on the link, and it says that the monitor is still 999.99??? The deal nazi has struck again!

No good deal for you!!!!

[Firebat246]

hmmmm ok try this!!! Firebat to the rescue!!!!!

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&sku=320-1578

[CAG]

TheAngryIntern:

Looks like its time to place your order.

[CAG]

Originally posted by Rendition
The ATI 2001FP bug that's fixed by latest ATI drivers is the one where I had to turn on the 2001FP after the OS booted up.

Now with the new 4.4 drivers, I can turn on the monitor before the computer and everything works fine.

Installed the 4.4's last night and I still get the display corruption/sleep mode on boot-up. It's really more of an annoyance than a problem 'cause the monitor ultimately boots to the desktop and is otherwise operating perfectly. I've been corresponding with Dell tech support on this and they believe that the issue is with the video drivers and not the monitor...I agree.

[arogan]

I think I get the same thing:

9700 pro cat 4.4
winxp pro
Only on DVI.

Upon bootup only maybe 1 out of 5 times I get what you you call the "pink storm." Basically it's a bunch of pink dots and lines all over the screen but it usually clears up by the time it gets to the windows desktop. I think only 1 out of 20 did it not clear up and I had to cycle the inputs to analog vga and back to dvi and that always fixes it.

Like CAG said it really isn't a big deal and doesn't bother me that much.

[firstadopter]

I have a 9700 connected to DVI, v.4.4, and winxp home. I never got that problem, even with the older drivers.

[CAG]

"Pink storm" is an excellent description, arogan. I have the 9800 np. Here's a 13-page thread about this issue at Rage3D http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33735849&perpage=30&pagenumber=1 Happens with other brands of LCD's as well as Dell and only seems to happen with ATi cards and when the DVI connection is used.

[bratboy]

Ive been very lucky I guess as Im not having the boot problem. I am getting a refresh/res/color mode error any time I try to use the ATI rotate feature. Suspect tho that maybe its cause I installed the drivers before I used the actual monitor inf. Am considering reinstalling the ATI drivers to see.

On the other hand speaking of lucky. Saw the posts about $749 price again and since I got mine for $799 on the first I called up and the girl kindly offered to credit my card with $35 so now I ended up getting my goodie for $764 shipping included hehe

[Sidneyc]

Your first picture looks exactly like my desk. with the speaker volume at the base. I like the 2001FP except mine has 2 dead pixels and got it for $850 late last year.

[CAG]

Hi, Sidneyc. Welcome to the forum. With all of that real estate on the 2001FP, you're probably the only one who can see the 2 dead pixels. I had one on my 1st 2001FP and nobody could find it but me.

Again, welcome.

CAG

[arogan]

Check out the magazine Maximum PC (my favorite mag btw) this month's issue (may 2004). Starting on page 54 they do a nice article on LCD for Gamers. They test 8 monitors and only 3 pass and it was obvious they liked the Dell 2001FP the most:


Here's the ass-kicking external LCD to go with your ass-kicking Dell XPS notebook. All judges passed the massive, initmidating 2001FP with flying colors(literally)....


They go on about how good the interpolation is too.

Next month they plan to do a full review on the 3 monitors that passed.

The other monitors that passed:
Samsung 172X
Planar PL1700 (which barely passed)

What's interesting is they failed the viewsonic vp201s which I think uses the same panel as the dell 2001fp. They did say it was great at 1600X1200 but sucked at interpolation at lower resolutions. I guess the monitor manufacturer picks the chips that does the interpolation and not the panel makers.

[CAG]

Too bad MaximumPC doesn't post these articles on its site...then again, I could buy the mag...naaah

[bratboy]

Print is dead, hehe

[TheAngryIntern]

What are your guy's thought on the refurbished 2001FP's? I just checked on Dell's site and they have a crap-ton of them for $698 right now. I know a few of you have gotten the refurbished one's and said that they were practically brand new. The Small business deal is over, but the Home and Home Office has new ones for $899 right now, so I'm trying to decide whether to get the refurbished or get a brand new one.

[bratboy]

Personally I just prefer new over refurb just for warrenty sake. Seems like the 749 for new price pops about every 10-15 days so if you don't have to have it this minute (ie system dieing) Id just try to hold out a cpl weeks and keep checking. figure you get 2+ extra yrs of warrenty for the additional $50.

Anyway if you cant wait then all the posts Ive seen on refurbs have been happy with em (at least I've not seen a negative one) I think I read they only come with 90day warrenty but might be as much as a yr so you would have to check.

Eitherway its a personal choice thing

Referb - $698, 90 day - 1 yr warrenty
New - $749, 3 yr warrenty

[CAG]

Actually, the reburb 2001FP is a good deal.

As for quality, my 1702FP is a refurb, its ~1 yr old, has excellent image quality and has never had a dead pixel. Dell recently replaced my "new" 2001FP (11/03 build) with a "refurb" 2001FP (10/03 build). The "new" one acquired a dead pixel and the "refurb" has none. So, there's really no quality difference b/t new and refurbed.

As for warranty, the refurb has a 90-day warranty and unless I'm reading this link wrong, a 14-day return policy http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~section=010#total Moreover, with a monitor, you'll know if there's something wrong with it soon after you get it. Its not like there are any moving parts that can wear out.

For $698, I'd go for it but I'd first call customer service to confirm the 14-day return policy.

[firstadopter]

I vote for new, it's not that much more. I like the feeling of factory fresh virgin hardware. :)

[sonarman]

Hello all.
I am new here, and have a question about response time specs.
The Dell site does not call out the response time, so how do we know its 16ms?
Also, other monitors spec sheets give rise and fall times seperately, and also the sum of the two. Planar for example says they have 15ms rise and 10ms fall time - 25ms total. How do I know which monitors are comparable to each other with these differing formats for specs?
Thanks for all your insights.

[CAG]

Welcome to the forum, sonarman!

Here's Rendition's review http://www.firstadopter.com/fa/archives/000004.html and one from AnandTech http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1918 . Both state that the response time is 16ms and every other article I've ever read about the 2001FP sez the same. I don't believe I've seen anything with the rise and fall times. I'd agree that knowing the rise and fall for a 25ms+ monitor might be important but, with a 16ms response time, I doubt it matters all that much.

CAG

[TheAngryIntern]

I just jumped over onto the dell website, and they have apparantly RAISED the price of the 2001FP to $1049.95. What is up with that??? I thought prices were supposed to drop, not rise!!!! I guess I'll be getting a refurb then, since they are still $699.

[firstadopter]

Yea, Dell is quite random with their prices. But I'm sure the next cut to $750 will be soon. Since they first started shipping the 2001FP, the $750 has come and gone like every few weeks.

[CAG]

Don't know about that, Rendition...my guess is that the next 25% off sale will be off the $1,049.95 price. Really though, compared to the Samsung's, BenQ's, etc., the Dell is still a bargain. TheAngryIntern, go for $698 refurb...I doubt you'll ever see that price again.

[TheAngryIntern]

welp, I finally broke down and did it! Just placed an order for the 200FP. Went for the refurb at $698 w/ the 90 day warranty. Here's hoping for no dead pixels!!!!! I just want to thank everyone here for the good reviews and advice!!! Now i just have to figure out what to do with the clunky CRT!!! I'll give an update later when I get it, which should hopefully be on wednesday.

[CAG]

Congratulations, TheAngryIntern! BTW, can I call you TAI from now on?

[TheAngryIntern]

rgr, TAI works for me


thanks, and now I can't wait to get meh new monitor!!!!

[GregP]

Sheesh, just waded through 25 pages of this thread and my eyes are exhausted. :)

Well, I thought I'd add my 2 cents here too. I ordered the 2001FP last week after reading some reviews of it by users at SimHQ.com, a flightsim site. I got the Small Business 25% off with free shipping deal (had to pay tax though) and my total came to about $760. I currently own a Cornerstone P1650 21" CRT that I'm very happy with, but at about 80lbs weight and 20" depth, it was getting too cumbersome to more around.

My monitor arrived Friday night and I immediately set it up. I hadn't even seen this thread, or even done much research on this monitor, outside of SimHQ and was unaware of the ATI/DVI issue, the dead pixels issue, or the backlight bleedthrough issue.

After 3 days of use - and being blown away by running Battlefield 1942, UT2004, Far Cry, and IL-2 at 1600x1200x32 and having it look unbelievably crisp - I'm LOVING this monitor. I have no dead pixels at all and haven't had the DVI powerup issue (even though I am use DVI through my 9800Pro).

I *do* however, have this 'backlight bleedthrough' issue that monkeyboy and BluepointVance have mentioned, and that appears in the Matrix DVD picture in the Anandtech review. It looks EXACTLY the same as in that picture. I only notice it when the screen is displaying a pure black background, and even then, mostly only when I have minimal lights on in the room.

It's not a big deal really, except that I do tend to play in the dark and usually in dark game environments, and so I'm a little worried that this oddity will continue to annoy me as time goes on. I feel a little better that other people have seen it, but now I'm wondering - does EVERYBODY have it and just not notice it, or are only a few people seeing it? Because if most people do NOT have it, I'd be more than willing to part with the monitor for a few weeks to get a replacement one from Dell.

Can anybody comment on this? Take a look at the Anandtech picture here:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1918&p=9

Take a close look at the upper right hand corner (preferably in the dark) and this is exactly what my monitor is showing.

[CAG]

Welcome to the forum, Greg.

I'm probably not as picky as you but I don't really notice the bleedthrough on my 2001FP and, to be honest, I can't really see it in the anandtech photos (haven't tried in a dark room yet). The problem with returning the monitor is that the next one may have the bleedthrough AND some dead pixels AND the ATi/DVI issue.

CAG

[firstadopter]

Welcome aboard Greg. I agree with CAG, no dead pixels is more than worth not returning the monitor.

[monkeydust]

I really don't see the backlight bleeding now after a few weeks of having the monitor. I had considered returning it for this fault but now I'm glad I didn't since I can find no other manufacturing flaws with the monitor.

[organic]

I read pretty much the entire thread (25 glorious pages, they were) and just wanted to point out something that might be useful to those of you that haven't ordered yet: you can buy a $10 Entertainment book at this link: http://www.entertainment.com/

Every book comes with a $50 rebate on a purchase of any new Dell Home System order of $500 or more (before tax and shipping), as well as a $50 rebate off of select Dell Home Software and Peripherals of $500 or more (before tax & shipping).

I am pretty sure that it applies to the 2001fp (although I am waiting for a 25% sale to confirm that), and the great thing is, as soon as you order an Entertainment book, you can get the code for the Dell deal immediately by going to http://www.entertainment.com/dell

So basically, if you get the 25% off of $1050, and apply the $50 rebate, it will add up to a little less than $740 (but goes back to $750 if you include the cost of the Entertainment book, of course - still better than paying $790 for it).

Plus, that little book comes packed with discounts for a lot of useful things, so it might turn out to be an even better return on your $10 investment. You do have to pay for $5 shipping, but you can get $5 off if you opt to have them send you a new book every new year - although there is no cancelation fee, if you choose to only receive this one book, which I recommend, as you would not be eligible for future discounts on the books if your subscription was active. But hey, it's up to you.

[BigEyes]

Hey folks!

I've been lurking here for several days and taking all the info about the 2001FP. Thanks to those who have been so generous with their reviews.

I'm needing to get a monitor in the next few days and I'm very tempted by the 2001FP. I have a couple of simple questions and I hope someone can help me out.

1) What would a new graphics card for this screen cost? I presume my 2-year old card can't deliver the massive resolution. I don't need cutting-edge gamer cards, but something decent enought for some graphics/photo work, and possibly TV (see below). I'd also like a card that I can put one of Zalman's silent cooling units on. (I already have a Zalman CPU cooler ... silent!!)

2) How does one get a TV signal into this monitor? Can I get a "tuner card" for my PC? What would a solution like that cost?

If someone could reply soon I'd be real happy so that I can figure out what the total package would cost me - before the refurb offer expires on the 21st.

Re: the screen-door effect I've read about here and elsewhere. I was using a 21" IBM CRT monitor at work today. I think the model # is P275. Guess what I saw... teensy, tiny little rectangles outlined in black !! I don't know what other commentators have seen, what I realized, however, is that when I LOOKED for them, I could even see them on a CRT.

Thanks for any help with my questions.

[bratboy]

well my 98000 seems to run it well and with new cards coming out in another cpl weeks the cost on the 9800 should drop. As for TV you could get a tuner card or if you have a spare cable/dtv box or a Y splitter & you can use the composite imput on the monitor and then use PiP thats built into the monitor.

[monkeydust]

My cable box has an S-Video out port. So, if I want TV on my 2001FP, I just run an s-video cable from my cable box to my monitor and then just run the sound from my cable box to the auxilary in on my sound card.