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Apple cinema alternatives?

T

theLemur

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 6, 2008
192
12
Well I finally got my dream laptop, early 2011 MBP, and I'd really like to be able to throw it into a hendgedock and have a big display, mouse, and keyboard ready to go.

I want a 27", or close to it, but for $1000 the apple cinema displays are too expensive. Even a refurbished one is $850 from apple, or maybe $800 at best on ebay.

Are there any alternatives that will look as good (both screen and materials) for substantially less?
 
I know the dell U2711 is popular on here. You can find one for a bit less than the Apple. 27" displays can be found both cheaper and much more expensive than the Apple display, but at the lower end you're looking at 1920x1080 displays.
 
People don't realize how good of a deal the CD/TBD are.

You may save $150 or so with a competitor but chances are the competition isn't going to have stereo speakers, Facetime camera and in the case of the TBD, a dock built in.
 
Craigslist

Not sure where you are, but you might try watching on craigslist. For the last month I watched and waited and was finally able to get a year old cinema display for $650. I am beyond happy with it and looks great with my new early 2011 mbp that I got from macmall.
 
nuckinfutz said:
People don't realize how good of a deal the CD/TBD are.

You may save $150 or so with a competitor but chances are the competition isn't going to have stereo speakers, Facetime camera and in the case of the TBD, a dock built in.
Click to expand...

There's a dock built in??
 
If you want to go cheap you should get either this

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0384780

or for even cheaper you can Ebay for one of the various Korean brands.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/...g-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270

Image quality is comparable to the ACD/ATD (all 27" 2560x1440 IPS displays use pretty much the same panel) however you won't get any bells and whistles.

theLemur said:
There's a dock built in??
Click to expand...

The ATD has a built in "dock" aka USB, FW800, Ethernet etc via the Thunderbolt connection.
 
It's not that I want to go cheap, but I am curious what equivalent models exist. I don't even know what a thunderbolt is.. so I figure I don't need all that. I want to make sure it works seamlessly with my MBP, because once I tried to hook up an external monitor with my old macbook and it made crazy lines on the screen. I want to know it will turn on fast, sleep properly, etc.. The webcam thing is probably good to have too.. speakers don't matter since I bought some of those Bose computer speakers (and they aren't that great..)
 
nuckinfutz said:
People don't realize how good of a deal the CD/TBD are.

You may save $150 or so with a competitor but chances are the competition isn't going to have stereo speakers, Facetime camera and in the case of the TBD, a dock built in.
Click to expand...

Dang, I didn't know it had all those ports and speakers, etc, either. That would sure clean up most of my desk clutter...

How do you utilize the gigabit ethernet port on the display? What would you use that for?
 
radiogoober said:
Dang, I didn't know it had all those ports and speakers, etc, either. That would sure clean up most of my desk clutter...

How do you utilize the gigabit ethernet port on the display? What would you use that for?
Click to expand...

You plug in the Thunderbolt port on to your Macbook, and all the ports on the display work through that one thunderbolt cable.
 
If I was using the thunderbolt display with a mac mini, which already has gigabit, would it link aggregate? :)
 
radiogoober said:
If I was using the thunderbolt display with a mac mini, which already has gigabit, would it link aggregate? :)
Click to expand...

It actually should because what's cool about the TBD is that the ports aren't pass through. Their are USB, FW and Ethernet controllers built in so they run at full speed. That means the ethernet controller has it's own MAC address and you should be able to manage if effectively.
 
nuckinfutz said:
People don't realize how good of a deal the CD/TBD are.

You may save $150 or so with a competitor but chances are the competition isn't going to have stereo speakers, Facetime camera and in the case of the TBD, a dock built in.
Click to expand...

The camera would be nice, but the speakers can't compare to the stereo I have my Mac hooked to. I also despise the glossy screen. And the stand isn't adjustable and is too high for my desk. Oh - and only one input.

I'm one of the people with the Dell u2711 and, other than the camera, and TB/power (if you're talking about the TB Display), it totally blows away the Apple. The screen is much easier to read. It's got 2 * Dual-link DVI, one Displayport, HDMI, component, and composite video inputs. I can use it with any Mac and also have it hooked to my TiVo with HDMI. Also has a great, adjustable height / tilt / swivel stand. And you can get it $100-$200 less than the Apple monitor.

Right now, I've got a 27" iMac next to (and driving) the Dell for a dual screen. I hate the glossy screen so much (and they're actually the identical LCD panel internally!) that I'm going to spend a lot more to sell the iMac and get a Mac Pro and a 2nd (and possibly 3rd!) Dell.
 
The TB display is very glossy - which is something I am willing to pay more for. Not only does it look better in my opinion, but when you have children, or friends who always feel the need to touch the screen when talking about stuff - it's nice to have a thick piece of glass over the lcd so it doesn't get ruined.

So much easier to clean too.
 
brand said:
Actually the Apple Thunderbolt Display has a Gigabit Ethernet port which is 1000Gbps.
Click to expand...

Actually it is 1 Gb/s (Gigabit per second) and one Gigabit is roughly 125 MB (MegaByte), but as most consumers don't use such fast HDDs, 100 MB/s (MegaByte per second) is an average estimate.

B = Byte
b = bit

1 B = 8 b​

I may have used "an average transfer speed of" instead of "up to" though, as "up to" indicates an upper limit.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Actually it is 1 Gb/s (Gigabit per second) and one Gigabit is roughly 125 MB (MegaByte), but as most consumers don't use such fast HDDs, 100 MB/s (MegaByte per second) is an average estimate.

B = Byte
b = bit

1 B = 8 b​

I may have used "an average transfer speed of" instead of "up to" though, as "up to" indicates an upper limit.
Click to expand...

Thank you for pointing out my mistake, you are right what I ment to type was 1000Mbps. The point that I was making is that it is 1Gbps and not 100MBps. To say that the Thunderbolt Display can transfer files up to speeds of 100MBps is not accurate since it can operate at speeds above that. It might not happen often but it is still possible so it is best to just use the manufactures specifications.

I like how you were trying to school me on how many bits are in a byte but you can save it for someone else.
 
brand said:
Thank you for pointing out my mistake, you are right what I ment to type was 1000Mbps. The point that I was making is that it is 1Gbps and not 100MBps. To say that the Thunderbolt Display can transfer files up to speeds of 100MBps is not accurate since it can operate at speeds above that. It might not happen often but it is still possible so it is best to just use the manufactures specifications.
Click to expand...
That is why I added the last sentence in post #17.

I like how you were trying to school me on how many bits are in a byte but you can save it for someone else.
Click to expand...
I can't take it back though, can I?
And since you are probably not the only one reading my post, even if it just seems to be a reply to your post, there are still people out there, who don't know, what Bytes and bits are and that there is a difference.


PS: I guess you know the joke about those "10 types of people"?

Anyway, have a good day, I know, I will, even if it will be a long one.

And off I roll.
 
100MB/s transfer implies a Gigabit connection. It is also not a bad estimate of real world maximum speed. However in a blue moon with some serious hardware you can probably get close to the theoretical 125MB/s so yeah it is not entirely accurate. More right than wrong though.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
I guess you know the joke about those "10 types of people"?
Click to expand...

That one never gets old but the version I like best is below...

There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who do (with a line above do)

For some reason I just like it better than the versions that use "do not" or "don't"

lixuelai said:
100MB/s transfer implies a Gigabit connection. It is also not a bad estimate of real world maximum speed. However in a blue moon with some serious hardware you can probably get close to the theoretical 125MB/s so yeah it is not entirely accurate. More right than wrong though.
Click to expand...

I am not disagreeing with that. I am just saying that it is best to use the manufactures specifications whenever possible. Especially since most users probably will not know that.
 
NO Apple new display ... very disappointed

Hey Guys,

I have been waiting for the new apple display monitor more than a one and half year and i had all my hopes that on 22nd oct apple will announce or give at-least a hint for the new monitor, which clearly is not the case....

I am in market for new monitor, i am now very scared to purchase apple tbd as i am not sure if apple will release monitor later this year

And if i think about alternative which is the best available in market, i am not fussy for thunderbolt.

thanks for you replies in advance
 
shaz408 said:
Hey Guys,

I have been waiting for the new apple display monitor more than a one and half year and i had all my hopes that on 22nd oct apple will announce or give at-least a hint for the new monitor, which clearly is not the case....

I am in market for new monitor, i am now very scared to purchase apple tbd as i am not sure if apple will release monitor later this year

And if i think about alternative which is the best available in market, i am not fussy for thunderbolt.

thanks for you replies in advance
Click to expand...

I was in the same boat at 1.5 year as well as you but I bit the bullet glad I didn't wait.
 
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