• A Great friend to the HardForum with a great kid that he is trying to get a scholorship to continue his schooling. Please give hime a vote! Only 24 hours left! Thanks.
    If you have an VOTE FOR KEENAN!

3 Year Old Apple 30"?

O

Ohmycaptain

Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2011
Messages
717
I found someone selling a 3 year old Apple 30" Cinema display for a great price, and I've yet to actually see it, but can anyone attest to the Apple 30" monitor?

Currently I use an S27a850D PLS monitor by Samsung and I really love it, but I would love to jump up to a 30" for a reasonable price.

If it's in good condition, do you think it'd be worth switching out my monitor for the cinema display if I can just about break even/get close to breaking even?

I was in the market for a 27" Cinema Display because I really love glass displays, and the S27a970 hasn't come out yet, but if I can grab an Apple 30" for the price this guy is asking, I may have to bite the bullet if it's in good enough condition. I've just never seen one and I'm not sure if it would have better picture quality than my current S27a850D or even an Apple Cinema 27". I've heard mixed things.

Does anyone have experience with the 30" Cinema Display? Does anybody have experience with the Apple 30" and a U3011/ZR30W, either?
 
I bought an apple 30" monitor about a month ago from ebay for a good price and really liking it. Have you seen a dell 3007? It uses the same panel. Looks like you already own a good monitor and if I were you, I would just save the money and wait until dell release a new version of their 30". Now if the price this guy is asking is under $400 and would jump on it, but anything over I'll just wait.
 
Ohmycaptain said:
Does anybody have experience with the Apple 30" and a U3011/ZR30W, either?
Click to expand...
The Apple display would not be wide-gamut, which is a good thing in my book.

Beyond that, with the price of the 27" korean and microcenter models at $300-$400, the apple display would need to be pretty cheap to be worth it imho. I know it's not quite the same thing, though personally I prefer the pixel density on the 2560x1440 displays, the 30" just seemed too big on my desk.
 
The 30" ACD is matte and uses aggressive AG coating so it will be a big downgrade in terms of sharpness and clarity, also the 30" displays have lower contrast (<700:1) compared the S27A850D.
 
Last edited:
How much is the asking price? The 30" ACD (its not glossy btw) will still look good despite its age if its in good condition. I have the HP LP3065 which uses a similar panel (its like 1 generation newer, 30" ACD is equivalent to the Dell 3007WFP, my HP is basically 3007WFP-HC) and it still looks great. I've compared it to the 27" ACD and I can't say the 27" is better in PQ, though the difference in size is more noticeable than I thought.

There are a couple downsides to the 30" ACD though. 1) not HDCP compliant. 2) only 1 input. 3) if you want to adjust the brightness you have to find Apple Bootcamp drivers.
 
He's asking $600 but I'm trying to finagle $500. What do you think at that price?

I don't like the idea of spending $1,000+ on a monitor, so for that price do you think I should swap it out for my 850D? I really want a 30" because size and resolution are huge factors in this. I also like 16:10 quite a bit more because the text on that resolution isn't as small as 16:9 QHD.

But again, aggressive AG coating, age, and picture quality are huge factors as well. I'm not sure what to do here.
 
$500 would be a pretty good deal if the condition is good. You would be nearly guaranteed to break even if not make a profit if you resell (assuming you are not happy it).
 
Well between the 30" ACD and Dell 3007wfp-HC, I like the dell better by a whole lot. The ACD seemed much more yellow rather than white, plus I liked the extended color gamut of the Dell.
 
I don't see how spening 500$ on an out of warranty display with worse image quality and clarity for the sake of a few inches is a good deal.

Just increase the text size on the S27A850D.
 
At $500 I would spend a bit more and locate a used 27 LED Apple display. The high gloss makes the picture quality insane IMO. Colors pop and everything is crisp and sharp.
 
i also bought in november last year a 2008 acd 30" model(used).I can't notice the AG coating so u should be ok in this regard,the colors and text are crispy clear,but as someone mentioned above the whites are not perfect whites, but rather yellowish.I have mine calibrated and still can't get perfect whites,althoug i had a 24 hp zr24w and that had perfect whites,but it was just killing my eyes.....the acd is easy on the eyes,and much better for anything on white.
 
The 30 inch Apple also ghosts like crazy. Its intolerable to me at least , It smears constantly. Apple is going to be using thunderbolt for all kinds of interesting things and there is rumors of a new 30 inch with a thunderbolt hook up.

I would wait.
 
Lol care to link where you got these "rumors". Even the most die-hard Mac Pro fanboys have given up on another 30" ACD. Apple is possibly axing the Mac Pro and if even the Mac Pro is on the chopping block there is no chance in hell there will be another 30" ACD.

Not to mention if the OP's rig is anything like what he stated in his sig, he won't be able to use a Thunderbolt display anyway.
 
lixuelai said:
Lol care to link where you got these "rumors". Even the most die-hard Mac Pro fanboys have given up on another 30" ACD. Apple is possibly axing the Mac Pro and if even the Mac Pro is on the chopping block there is no chance in hell there will be another 30" ACD.

Not to mention if the OP's rig is anything like what he stated in his sig, he won't be able to use a Thunderbolt display anyway.
Click to expand...

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/13/sharp-begins-mass-production-of-retina-resolution-igzo-displays/

In its press release, Sharp gives several different examples of displays at different sizes being manufactured using IGZO materials, including 7-inch tablet screens running at 1280x800 (217 pixels per inch), 10-inch notebook screens running at 2560x1600 (300 ppi), and 32-inch LCD monitor screens running at 3840x2160 (140 ppi).
Click to expand...

That's one rumor and another :

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/15/retina-displays-also-coming-to-next-generation-imac/

The 21.5-inch iMac would see a pixel count in the range of the 17-inch MacBook Pro as its 1920x1080 resolution would be bumped to 3840x2160, but the 27-inch iMac would move from its current resolution of 2560x1440 to a monster Retina display at 5120x2880. The same panel could also be used in a revised Apple Thunderbolt Display should hardware be able to support the resolution.
Click to expand...

Macrumors tends to get details right and even though a new 30 inch wasn't directly mentioned a 27 inch at that resolution would be quite amazing and if can be put into an iMac it'll get released as a stand alone monitor.

As far as your other comment about Thunderbolt , that's how Apple gets you. It would require a newer system so its a "tough luck" situation. Regardless there are replacement displays coming , perhaps they won't even bother replacing the 30 inch and instead move them to a newer 27 inch Retina display.
 
the guy wants to get a "cheap" 30 inch monitor,a new 30 inch monitor from apple would cost 3000 $ +.....who cares what apple will release next,it will costs 100 times more than what the topic creater wants to offer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top