High End Buyer's Guide - September 2004
by Wesley Fink on August 30, 2004 12:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Monitor
Recommendation: Dell 2001FPPrice: $809 shipped
While there is no doubt that CRT monitors still represent the best value and best performance for gaming, things continue to improve rapidly in flat panel technology. In the past few months, prices of some of the very best flat panel monitors have dropped to new lows. In fact, the very fast and large Dell 2001FP is now just $809 direct from Dell - a high-end value that we just couldn't ignore. Dell often runs coupons and specials, so with careful shopping and timing you may be able to purchase the 2001FP for an even better price.
When AnandTech first reviewed the 2001FP with the Dell XPS bundle, our Display Editor was mightily impressed. Nothing has really changed his opinion since then. The Dell 2001FP goes all the way to 1600x1200 resolution on both the analog VGA and Digital connectors. This is a very satisfying resolution for gamers, since many LCDs cannot be coaxed to more than 1280x1024. The Philips LCD also exhibits response times and color resolution that will even keep gamers happy.
LCD measurements are also real - if an LCD is rated 20.1", then that means it is really a 20.1" diagonal. CRTs are rated on the tube size, so a 21" or 22" CRT will actually be a true 19" or 20" diagonal that you can use. That means that the 20.1" Dell is just as large, or a little larger, than our 22" CRT alternative. Given that, the question is whether the fast and large 2001FP is worth the $100 to $145 premium over the excellent Diamondtron 22" CRT that we selected as an alternative. Given the huge space savings and much lower heat, we are inclined to think the difference is now small enough to opt for the flat panel as our high-end recommendation.
If you have a richer budget and want the biggest, useful flat-panel monitor that you can buy, our Display Editor still recommends the Samsung 213T with a 21.3" screen and a new lower $1050 delivered price tag. The Dell has a faster response time, and the Samsung is only 1" larger for the $240 premium, but some of our readers will prefer a brand other than Dell. For them, the Samsung 193P 19" or the 21.3" 213T are both excellent alternatives.
Alternative: Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070 22"CRT or NEC FP2141SB 22" CRT
Price: $664 or $709 shipped
Since NEC and Mitsubishi are now the same company for monitors, these two are really the same superb 22" Diamondtron CRT monitors with different cosmetics. For those not familiar with Diamondtron, it is the name for Mitsubishi's single gun system that is like Sony's Trinitron. Both of these monitors have built enviable reputations for image quality and reliability, and their reputations are well-deserved. To be honest, my main system monitor is also a 22" Diamondtron CRT and it is the best performing monitor that I have ever owned.
The new generations of video cards finally justify a big monitor for high resolutions, and 22" is a great size for high resolution gaming. The NEC/Mitsubishi can deliver resolutions as high as 2048x1536 at the all important 86Hz Refresh and refresh rates as high as 160Hz at 1024x768 and 127Hz at 1280X1024. The important thing with a 22" or 21" monitor is that you can actually see 2048x1536. The only drawback with any large CRT is the space required to house the monitor. If space is a premium, then take a closer look at our flat panel alternative.
If the $624 plus $45 shipping seems a bit steep, then there are a number of 21" monitors based on the Trinitron or Diamondtron CRT that are available in the $400 to $500 range, delivered. If it has been a while since you looked at big CRT prices, we think that you will be surprised by the lower prices you will find today.
If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.
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mcveigh - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
what about for a storage drive the new maxtors with 16mb cache and TCQ features?didn't Anand hint a little while ago there would be a review of them ?
of course now he has a wife to keep happy....there goes the place! ;)
Booty - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Just agreeing about the price engine thing - scrolling that far is pretty annoying. If they have to have it that way to earn money and keep the site free, so be it... but if not, I know I'd definitely appreciate it being moved.PrinceGaz - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Good article, I couldn't really fault any of the suggestions this time :) The only things that might be worth considering as this is a high end system is spending an extra $200-300 and throwing in 2GB of memory, either as 2x1GB sticks if they are just as fast, else as 4x512MB. As I do a bit video capturing and editing, and like many broadband users fill a lot of space quickly (don't ask), I'd definitely go for the Maxtor 300MB drive with 16MB cache for $260. Both of those are only minor points though and overall I agree with the suggestions.One thing I've been thinking about for a few days now are dual Opteron systems. A couple of Opteron 250's on a suitable dual S940 mobo would only cost about $1000 more than the FX53 system and mobo. Alternatively a couple of 248's will lower the differential to around $600.
The important thing is that multi-threaded apps are becoming increasingly common because of HT, and next year when dual core CPUs start appearing it'll be normal for any CPU heavy application to be multi-threaded so as to take full advantage of them. I know you could always replace the FX53 with a dual-core Toledo next year, but why wait for the extra performance when you can get it today with a couple of 250's (and the 250's could be replaced with dual-core Italy's next year giving even more power if desired).
The extra thousand dollars is a roughly 30% total price increase and is not insignificant, but you'll get considerably more than 30% performance improvement with any multi-threaded CPU heavy application, so its money well spent. In fact its hard not to recommend it as the high end choice as its still comes in under the $5000 limit.
iversonyin - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
i would rather have dual dell 2001 then 23" apple23" apple is nice but also come with a steep price.
dont we all love dual-monitor here?
but if anyone can spend $3600 on a computer, what extras $2000 to them
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#3 - Typo corrected.I agree the Apple is a nice display, but Apple uses a proprietary Digital interface called ADC instead of the standard DVI Connector. Some enterprising manufacturers have developed some conversion connectors but the converter doesn't work with most nVidia video cards. In the end this is not a solution we could recommend right now.
There is also the cost difference, since the 20.1" Dell is about $800 and the 23" Apple is about $2000. A 260% price increase to go from a great 20.1" display to an Apple 23" display and converter seemed a bit much. There is also a 30" Apple Cinema display BTW.
Fr0zeN2 - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Great guide, but...Yeah, the pricing engine's been bugging me for a while now too. Honestly, there are sites like pricewatch.com that you can go to to view prices on these, as well as many other similar products. Especially when your listings include products that have absolutely no relevance to the one mentioned (helooo gf5950 prices?).
kherman - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#5This is a free site. If you like it that way, I'd get used to those advertisements.
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Aside from that, 74 gig? If I made a "dream rig" yuo'd be seeing 400 GB+ in RAID 5 (3x200)
kherman - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Of course, for this rig, get the BFG 6800 UltraJonathanYoung - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
I just want to add a comment I've been wanting to make for awhile now... would you please add a link to the next page *above* the realtime pricing engine so that people who do not wish to view the pricing engine don't have to scroll alllllllll the way down just to get to the next page? This was especially bad on the "AGP Video" section of this guide. Thank you!shuttleboi - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Why hasn't Anandtech reviewed any 6800GT videocards???