Apple Cinema Display 30"

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wolfphil08

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Nov 16, 2011
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Looking for some experienced input before I buy a used 30" cinema display. I have been shopping around for a 30" display for a while now and am trying to decide between the U3011 and the cinema display. I can buy the cinema display for $600 used right now or wait for a deal on the U3011. I plan to run a PLP with two dell 2007fp. I game very lightly with bf3, but mostly browse the web, use lightroom (amateur), watch movies, or program. I am currently using x2 23" 1080p cheapo monitors right now so it would be a huge upgrade. What would you guys do?
 
30" are wide gamut=inaccurate & over-saturated colors for everything. Neither are good for movies since both have poor contrast/black levels & use a grainy matte coating. Whites & light colors appear to have a permanent sparkly/film grain affect so you will never be able to enjoy a clean blu-ray/HD movie. All CCFL back-lit 30" are wide gamut & use the same grainy matte coating.

600$ buys 2 far superior 27" 1440p monitors like the Qnix QX2710.

The Dell 2007 is a standard gamut monitor while the 30" are wide gamut. The 3011 has an sRGB mode (standard gamut) but the color settings are locked and most budget <200$ IPS can easily beat the 3011's sRGB modes colors & black levels.
 
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I would pass on any 30" Apple display at this point. They are old monitors now and will probably have tons of hours on them.


I would look for a refurb or open box Dell 30" U3011

Amazon had some open boxes for $700 a while back
 
As mentioned, any -current- 30" monitors have wide gamut color, which for the most part is a pain to deal with. The 30" Apple cinema is standard gamut, so that's a good thing, but yeah they are kinda getting on in age.

I'd be looking into the 27" 1440 models.
 
I didn't use it for very long, because I hated the way it looked compared to my dell 3007wfp-hc. The colors seems more yellow and not nearly as vivid. Here's a crappy photo from back then.
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I'd steer clear and get the u3011. I've also used the Dell 3008wfp, but there's soooo much input lag, it's impossible to game on.
 
Thanks for all the good input guys. I was really interested in the U3011 after seeing so many PLP setups in the lcd thread here, but after seeing the responses I'm reconsidering. What else is wrong with the 30" ACD? A few mentioned the age, but why exactly is that a problem?
 
wolfphil08 said:
Thanks for all the good input guys. I was really interested in the U3011 after seeing so many PLP setups in the lcd thread here, but after seeing the responses I'm reconsidering. What else is wrong with the 30" ACD? A few mentioned the age, but why exactly is that a problem?
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The CCFL backlight will probably need replacing mainly.
 
That's what I was thinking. That it would be dimmer than when new and the backlights would need to be replaced.

One of the main reasons for the 30" is screen realestate and having that much room/pixels to work with would be amazing. Color accuracy would probably not bother me that much.

What are acceptable prices for used 30" displays? Someone mentioned $300 for the ACD. What about the dell 30"ers?
 
Didn't know the ACD 30 was not wide gamut, any way it still sucks

-grainy matte coating
-poor black levels/contrast (<600:1 contrast vs. 900-1300:1 for newer IPS/PLS)
-older 30" are notorious for having obviously uneven color+brightness distribution
-dimmed back-light
-slow pixel response times=obvious ghosting (color streaking & smearing) vs. modern IPS/PLS

The only 30" monitor which can rival the 300$+ 27" 1440p IPS/PLS panels is the new NEC PA302W.
 
wolfphil08 said:
One of the main reasons for the 30" is screen realestate and having that much room/pixels to work with would be amazing. Color accuracy would probably not bother me that much.
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27" gets you the same horizontal (2560) - just fewer vertical. (1600 vs 1440.)
yes, it is amazing, but even the 1440 is a huge step up from 1920x1080.

It's not just about color accuracy, primary colors (especially reds) jump off the screen and make your eyes bleed on a non-color-managed wide gamut screen. I guess some people like it since games are more "vivid" but to each their own. All that said, if you are running an AMD video card, it may be possible to neutralize the wide gamut to some degree.

If gaming is a concern and you really want 30", have you considered the HP ZR30w? No internal scaler, so fewer inputs than the Dell, but supposedly less lag.
 
The biggest advantage by far of 30" over 27" is that 30" monitors are 100PPI, a fairly common value. That means if you are mixing and matching monitor like PLP and PPPP/LLL layouts it is easy to accomplish without distortion if you are using the monitors as a SLS.

27" monitor are 108PPI, which is quite rare for any other size of monitor. If you are going with only 27" monitors then distortion is not an issue. If you aren't doing Eyefinity/nVSurround (which can't be done on PLP anyway) then you probably don't care about distortion - eg. day traders prefer lots of smaller monitors over a few bigger monitors because they open so many windows at once and it's easier to manage one window per monitor than fussing with multiple windows per monitor.

The price-performance curve definitely favors 27" over 30", especially if you aren't mixing monitors.
 
1600p vs 1440p res difference is minimal, just like 1080 vs.1200.

2x1440p monitors are far more productive vs. a single 30." Less chance of getting eyestrain with a 1440p monitor due to the lack of grainy matte coatings the newer 1440p models vs. an old 30" & Dell 2007.

The ACD 30's color presets were criticized (see Cnet & Digital Versus Reviews) when it was released, back when standards were much lower...
 
NCX said:
Didn't know the ACD 30 was not wide gamut, any way it still sucks

-grainy matte coating
-poor black levels/contrast (<600:1 contrast vs. 900-1300:1 for newer IPS/PLS)
-older 30" are notorious for having obviously uneven color+brightness distribution
-dimmed back-light
-slow pixel response times=obvious ghosting (color streaking & smearing) vs. modern IPS/PLS

The only 30" monitor which can rival the 300$+ 27" 1440p IPS/PLS panels is the new NEC PA302W.
Click to expand...

You quote the same thing in every thread without knowing about the monitor in question, really? -_-
 
Just to confirm that most 30" ACDs are wide gamuts. Apple "upgraded" the CCFL to a wide gamut when Dell released the 3007WFP-HC. It was way back in 2007.
My ACD is old, has some issues with waking back from sleep and contrast probably went downhill over the years. After 6 years i still do not have windows drivers for it. The Apple design almost guarantees a good resale value, if it did not die in my hand ( and all points that it will not die so soon)
If was in the market with USD600 today i would pick 2 27" Qnix 2710 or a 39" seiki 4k.

There is no good priced 30" in the market right now.
 
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