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3007WFP 30" Dell Vs 24" Apple Cinema Display

C

courboy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 27, 2009
141
38
Hey everybody, this is my first post on the forum.

I recently decided to make the move from 10+ years of windows to mac (partly through reading this forum) and have wondered why it took me so long to make the change!

Anyway, I am looking at buying a monitor to go with my new macbook, and have looked at both the 30" dell and the 24" ACD.

Obviously they can't be directly compared, but I love the look of the ACD and the size of the Dell.

Is anybody aware of whether it is possible to connect the new Macbook to the dell 30"? I believe it uses dual DVI connection.

Thanks everybody :)
 
Thanks for confirming that. Do you know what type of panel the dell has? I cannot seem to find any details of this, just that it's an LCD panel
 
courboy said:
Thanks for confirming that. Do you know what type of panel the dell has? I cannot seem to find any details of this, just that it's an LCD panel
Click to expand...

The word on the street is that Dell uses a more recent LG panel than Apple does. I have not taken the monitor apart to vis a comparison with the Apple 30"

(Dell / Apple):

• Response time: 14 / 16
• Viewing angle: 178 / 170
• Contrast: 700:1 / 400:1
• Height: 18.5” / 21.3”
• Depth: 7.87” / 8.46”
• Weight: 25lbs / 27.5lbs
• Warranty: 36 mo / 12 mo
• USB ports: 4 / 2
 
Dell is also wide color gamut. I briefly owned one and wasn't going to be able to live with that. It was downright garish on some content that was created for SRGB colorspace.
 
courboy said:
Would you not recommend the dell based on this then?
Click to expand...

I would at least research the colorspace issue. It's rather complex and can be a problem for some. Personally the 24" Apple LED display was much better suited to my needs than the Dell but YMMV.
 
I have a 30" Dell and just bought a Mac Pro. I was using Windows prior to that and the Dell monitor display was really really crisp. I love this monitor.

Then I got a Mac Pro with ATI 4870 Radeon video card and hooked my 30" Dell to it. Video and pictures display well but text display is really blurry. I spend a lot of time tweaking every possible setting that I could find, read everything on the web and tried to tune the calibration but the font display was still blurry.

I took the monitor and machine to the mac store. Hooked it up the the ACD 30" and the fonts were sharp. Pisses me off that the Mac Pro doesn't play well with my 4mo old Dell monitor. Not sure if its the video card or what, but it really sucks.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I cannot justify throwing yet another $1800 on an ACD.
 
It seems that the Macs are quite unpredictable when connecting to other monitors then. I would really like to test it to the 30" Dell - I do really like the 24" ACD and it looks gorgeous, but would rather the 30" as they are similar prices (the 3007wfp, not 3008wfp) and cannot justify the 30" ACD.

Currently I have an Iiyama B2409HDS monitor which is only 1 month old but I regret buying it already and wish I had purchased one of the above at the time!
 
I'm just telling you my personal experience with a relatively new Dell 30" and new Mac Pro. There are several other Mac users on this forum who are perfectly happy with the Dell 3007WFP. Then again, most Mac users think that the Mac font smoothing is better than Windows Cleartype.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000884.html

Regardless, all things being equal, the ACD display was clearer to me when I placed it beside my Dell 3007WFP.
 
sjivan said:
I'm just telling you my personal experience with a relatively new Dell 30" and new Mac Pro. There are several other Mac users on this forum who are perfectly happy with the Dell 3007WFP. Then again, most Mac users think that the Mac font smoothing is better than Windows Cleartype.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000884.html

Regardless, all things being equal, the ACD display was clearer to me when I placed it beside my Dell 3007WFP.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback. I will have to try and find somewhere (in the UK) I can connect my Macbook to a dell 30" to see how it works with my laptop. If not, I shall opt for the 24" ACD instead - providing I can sell the recently purchased Iiyama for a decent price.

The links you posted were interesting to read. I must say from a personal point of view and from a Windows background, I do prefer the look of the Apple font rendering although up close, Windows Cleartype is undoubtedly better.
 
courboy said:
Thanks for your feedback. I will have to try and find somewhere (in the UK) I can connect my Macbook to a dell 30" to see how it works with my laptop. If not, I shall opt for the 24" ACD instead - providing I can sell the recently purchased Iiyama for a decent price.
Click to expand...

Yes, if you can try before buy that would be ideal given the cost involved. Another thing to look into is the MacBook video connector. I don't believe that it supports Dual DVI which is what is required to run the 30" at native resolution 2560x1600. If that is the case you'll need to buy a DVI - Dual-Link DVI adapter from apple which costs another $99 and the reviews aren't that great.

I switched from PC to all-mac and while it was me that bought various apple products, its been a serious money drain. I spent ~$9k in 3 months on apple products and after a while it starts getting under your skin that apple really extracts every penny out of you where they can.
 
sjivan said:
Yes, if you can try before buy that would be ideal given the cost involved. Another thing to look into is the MacBook video connector. I don't believe that it supports Dual DVI which is what is required to run the 30" at native resolution 2560x1600. If that is the case you'll need to buy a DVI - Dual-Link DVI adapter from apple which costs another $99 and the reviews aren't that great.

I switched from PC to all-mac and while it was me that bought various apple products, its been a serious money drain. I spent ~$9k in 3 months on apple products and after a while it starts getting under your skin that apple really extracts every penny out of you where they can.
Click to expand...

I'm starting to realise that this Mac change is getting quite expensive too! I do love their products and the build quality is a vast improvement over the Sony products I have had in the past, but I do feel like they get their pound of flesh from us consumers.

I have just been investigating further and I think i'll either go for the 24" ACD for potentially the 30" 3008WFP as this has a display port. It does appear to only have a normal display port however, and not the mini display port that my Macbook has. Should this be compatible? I assume so, but I can neither find a cable to convert it to mini display, nor get an answer from the awful Dell telephone line!

Thanks :)
 
courboy said:
I'm starting to realise that this Mac change is getting quite expensive too! I do love their products and the build quality is a vast improvement over the Sony products I have had in the past, but I do feel like they get their pound of flesh from us consumers.
Click to expand...

They had a heyday of delivering respectable value between the intro of the original iMac and just before the introduction of the unibody Macbooks. That really marked the return of the bad old overpriced, underfeatured, proprietary Apple; things have gone downhill since.


I have just been investigating further and I think i'll either go for the 24" ACD for potentially the 30" 3008WFP as this has a display port. It does appear to only have a normal display port however, and not the mini display port that my Macbook has. Should this be compatible? I assume so, but I can neither find a cable to convert it to mini display, nor get an answer from the awful Dell telephone line!
Click to expand...

Should be compatible, but nobody makes a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable so nobody knows.

Mini-DisplayPort is a ripoff, plain and simple. Strongly recommend against the 24" ACD as you'll never be able to use it with anything but a 2009 or later (until Apple decides to drop mini-DisplayPort like they did ACD or the old RGB connector) Mac. I recommend sucking it up, buying the adapter, and using a non-proprietary display. (Actually, I really recommend avoiding mini-DisplayPort-equipped macs entirely until Apple come to their senses - but it sounds like you're already committed.)
 
vga4life said:
They had a heyday of delivering respectable value between the intro of the original iMac and just before the introduction of the unibody Macbooks. That really marked the return of the bad old overpriced, underfeatured, proprietary Apple; things have gone downhill since.




Should be compatible, but nobody makes a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable so nobody knows.

Mini-DisplayPort is a ripoff, plain and simple. Strongly recommend against the 24" ACD as you'll never be able to use it with anything but a 2009 or later (until Apple decides to drop mini-DisplayPort like they did ACD or the old RGB connector) Mac. I recommend sucking it up, buying the adapter, and using a non-proprietary display. (Actually, I really recommend avoiding mini-DisplayPort-equipped macs entirely until Apple come to their senses - but it sounds like you're already committed.)
Click to expand...

Really wish I had looked into the Macs a bit more before making the jump. Do you believe they will drop the mini display port from their future models then? I notice lots of companies are starting to sell display port cables and future monitors will use the adaptor. However, I think it's absolutely crazy for Apple not to release a mini-displayport to displayport cable!!
 
courboy said:
but I can neither find a cable to convert it to mini display, nor get an answer from the awful Dell telephone line!
Click to expand...

I'm having Deja Vu!! Never, ever ever attempt to contact Dell support over a telephone line. It is the most frustrating experience and I guarantee that you'll quickly develop blood pressure. They will make you jump through a hundred menu options, keep you waiting, transfer you to call centers in 3 different countries... I've gone through this nasty experience when I had some issues with a Dell computer. It almost seems works paying $2K more for an apple computer as they have excellent support :)

The secret is to use the Dell online support chat.
 
vga4life said:
Mini-DisplayPort is a ripoff, plain and simple. Strongly recommend against the 24" ACD as you'll never be able to use it with anything but a 2009 or later (until Apple decides to drop mini-DisplayPort like they did ACD or the old RGB connector) Mac. I recommend sucking it up, buying the adapter, and using a non-proprietary display. (Actually, I really recommend avoiding mini-DisplayPort-equipped macs entirely until Apple come to their senses - but it sounds like you're already committed.)
Click to expand...

I recommend the opposite, because there simply are few alternatives in the price class. Go find me an H-IPS panel that is LED backlit and standard color gamut in the $900 area.

It's quite simply the finest monitor that I have ever used, and the closest thing to a large widescreen CRT with perfect color consistency and focus that I could hope for.
 
courboy said:
Really wish I had looked into the Macs a bit more before making the jump. Do you believe they will drop the mini display port from their future models then? I notice lots of companies are starting to sell display port cables and future monitors will use the adaptor. However, I think it's absolutely crazy for Apple not to release a mini-displayport to displayport cable!!
Click to expand...

They won't drop mini-displayport and more options will arrive in terms of cables. It takes time and these are still relatively new. Apple has released the mini displayport for anyone to use (no license fees) but it will take a bit of time.

We will see mini-displayport to displayport, and we'll see displayport to mini-displayport in time. I do not think we will ever see DVI or HDMI to mini-displayport since there would be some active signal conversion necessary.
 
brentsg said:
I recommend the opposite, because there simply are few alternatives in the price class. Go find me an H-IPS panel that is LED backlit and standard color gamut in the $900 area.

It's quite simply the finest monitor that I have ever used, and the closest thing to a large widescreen CRT with perfect color consistency and focus that I could hope for.
Click to expand...

So I presume your a fan or the glossy screen, for someone who is currently using the 23" ACD matte screen what difference would I see? I have heard some people mentioned that it over saturates when used for photo editing.

I know the type will be clearer as the matte screens have a slight fuzziness due to the coating I presume. I don't mind the glossy screens so much but some people report eye strain when used for long hours. Did you run a calibration? was there a big improvement from out of box settings?
 
929406 said:
So I presume your a fan or the glossy screen, for someone who is currently using the 23" ACD matte screen what difference would I see? I have heard some people mentioned that it over saturates when used for photo editing.

I know the type will be clearer as the matte screens have a slight fuzziness due to the coating I presume. I don't mind the glossy screens so much but some people report eye strain when used for long hours. Did you run a calibration? was there a big improvement from out of box settings?
Click to expand...

I love the glossy screen, and I despise the coating that Apple and Dell use for their matte displays. For what it's worth, I think the Dell's coating is much more intrusive than the matte ACDs. I can't stand that sparkly look.

I have no eye strain from the 24" but I have always had severe eyestrain problems viewing the CCFL backlit displays, so aside a brief audition of the Dell, I've essentially gone from CRT to LED backlit LCD. So it's difficult for me to assess how you might feel going from the 23".

So far I have only done the simple calibration that OSX will walk you through, using no hardware. I haven't gotten around to buying the items I need to properly calibrate it.
 
thanks for that! how do you think normal lcd's differ from the new ACD LED backlit Lcd?

There is huge unsatisfactory opinion on the glossy screen from Apple users, will be interesting to see if they will offer the option of matte in the future
 
929406 said:
thanks for that! how do you think normal lcd's differ from the new ACD LED backlit Lcd?

There is huge unsatisfactory opinion on the glossy screen from Apple users, will be interesting to see if they will offer the option of matte in the future
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why LED backlight is easier on my eyes than CCFL to be honest but it's a stark difference. When I first tried traditional LCDs it resulted in trips to the eye doctor. I didn't get a great explanation other than being told to avoid them. I tried again a few years later with the same result, but when the new models using LEDs came out I tried and can look at it all day with no ill effects.

In regard to the negative opinion on the glossy, I'm sure there are a variety of reasons. Some people just like what they are used to, some just resent being made to change by Apple, some have hopped on the bandwagon, and for some matte simply works better (individual perception and ambient lighting). I do feel though that the "overwhelming" negative opinion on forums such as this better reflects the type of people who like to hang out on Apple forums, moreso than general public opinion.
 
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