27" LED Cinema Display vs. 30" LCD Cinema Display

[Silly John Fatty]

Looking for a display for my cMP (5,1). I'd be ready to buy a new one with 3 years Apple Care, but the Thunderbolt Display can't be connected to the cMP.
I liked the display of my iMac (mid 2011) so I thought it would be cool to get the LED display.
After thinking about it, I realised it may not be the best choice.

What are the pro's and con's of both displays? Can you help me add stuff to this list? Thanks a lot

Pros - 27" LED Cinema Display:
• Looks better
• Built-in Camera and Microphone

Cons - 27" LED Cinema Display:
• Glare
• Poor built quality / lots of technical failures
• Still too expensive for what it is

Pros - 30" LCD Cinema Display:
• No glare
• Bigger screen, easier to work therefore because there's more to see (I do music production where I have lots of tracks/channels to scroll through)

Cons - 30" LCD Cinema Display:
• Doesn't look as good as the 27" haha

 

[maflynn]

Based on your own matrix, I'd go with the 30"

The thing that sticks out the most to me as your understanding that the 27" has a poor build quality. I'm unaware of such things so I'll not disagree, but if you think the 27" has some quality issues, why are you even considering it, given the price that apple charges. Go with the 30"

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Based on your own matrix, I'd go with the 30"

The thing that sticks out the most to me as your understanding that the 27" has a poor build quality. I'm unaware of such things so I'll not disagree, but if you think the 27" has some quality issues, why are you even considering it, given the price that apple charges. Go with the 30"

Because it's a very good display when it's in good condition! But it's always a risk. It's the same story with iMac screens. A lot of times, parts of the display would become darker, and sometimes dust would come inside the screen, and you can't get it away, which would make it darker too. The dust that often gets inside is not behind the first glass plate, but behind the second, meaning you can't get it out. That's the stuff I'm most scared of.

As for the 30" (or this whole generation of Apple Displays actually), I'm not sure if they're better. It seems like many second hand 30" screens on eBay have "a yellowish tint", some of them have pixel mistakes. What's rare is the problem with the display being darker on one side. I guess there's no perfect screen.

Two points I could add for each of the two displays would be that:
- The 30" has more or less become a classic, meaning it's wanted and it may be easy to resell one day (unless something new and much much better comes out, which will probably happen this year or next with 4K displays - I'm not doing any design work so 4K is of no importance for me)
- The reason why the 27" LED is still so expensive is because I believe it's still very wanted - Macs without Thunderbolt can't use the Thunderbolt Display

 

[MCAsan]

Do you really want to invest in older technology such as cinema displays. I would suggest consider planning the upgrade to a newer Mac (Macbook, Mini, iMac) that will give you more current options for connecting to high resolution displays. If you don't need portability, consider one of the new Mini units.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I should buy a Mac mini/iMac/MacBook when i have a 12 core Mac Pro? Not going to happen my friend

 

[MCAsan]

Depending if you are testing 32 or 64 bit and single vs multi core, a mini can deliver better performance than a 12 core cMP.


Www.browser.primatelabs.com

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Yes theoretically that sounds good, pratically it doesn't haha.
I need all twelve cores for Logic Pro, which runs in 64 bit mode obviously with all the plugins running in 64 bit mode as well. According to the 64-bit multicore benchmarks, it's the 3rd fastest Mac every built.

So even though these newer Macs have better connection possibilities, there's no way I could go with a mac mini or similar (although we have one here).

That's also my problem with finding a good (Apple) display, there's no new displays for sale that are compatible with my Mac.

 

[MCAsan]

Since you can't do at TB connection from a CMP, why do an Apple monitor at all? I just have a 27" ATD in part because of the TB docking station features. If the ATD did not have the TB docking station, I would looking at other brands of monitors, like Dell and NEC.

Good luck in your search!

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Well, the Apple displays have a great quality, I don't mean the built quality now, but just the quality of the screen. I haven't yet worked on a better screen although I'm sure there is better (there always is…) and the display is also really easy on your eyes, even if there's some glare which is said to be unhealthy to look at actually. That's why I also considered some of the older Apple displays. I don't know if technically they are of any better quality.
I've seen anti glare films for the 27", but then again I've also heard it was garbage…
So yes, I could look for a non-Apple display. I'm just scared to get myself a good display, and then realise, after a few months, that it's horrible. So I'm trying to go with something I know And thanks!

 

[maflynn]

Well, the Apple displays have a great quality, I don't mean the built quality now, but just the quality of the screen.

There's many monitors out there that surpass Apple's screen quality. I'm not down on apple, I have an ACD myself, but I'd expand your research and you'll see some nice monitors.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

There's many monitors out there that surpass Apple's screen quality. I'm not down on apple, I have an ACD myself, but I'd expand your research and you'll see some nice monitors.

Yeah, that's why I said there's surely better monitors out there, but then again, it's hard to test a monitor somehow… seeing it once next to dozens of other monitors won't be objective. And then you realise it sucks haha.
Also, I don't need 4K or stuff like that. The 27" and 30" resolution is good, but the colours and everything are good too, I just don't want the display to be really hard on my eyes after hours of work.

So still no winner between the LED CD and the LCD CD I guess