Thinkpads Forum

cadillacmike68 wrote:I guess dell didn't want to spend for the extra pins.

Like I said, you do have prejudice against Dell. Only monitors requiring Dual Link DVI would come with Dual Link DVI cables, regardless of brand. I have a huge collection of DVI cables that have piled up over the years. All of them are Single Link, except the ones that came with my 2560x1600 and 2560x1440 monitors.

BTW, for 60 Hz output, 1920x1200 isn't the max for Single Link, because my 2048x1152 monitors still use Single Link.

cadillacmike68 wrote:I think I have bigger DVI cables with all the pins - somewhere.

I bet you don't have Dual Link cables - anywhere.

pianowizard wrote:

cadillacmike68 wrote:I guess dell didn't want to spend for the extra pins.

Like I said, you do have prejudice against Dell. Only monitors requiring Dual Link DVI would come with Dual Link DVI cables, regardless of brand. I have a huge collection of DVI cables that have piled up over the years. All of them are Single Link, except the ones that came with my 2560x1600 and 2560x1440 monitors.

BTW, for 60 Hz output, 1920x1200 isn't the max for Single Link, because my 2048x1152 monitors still use Single Link.

I got that max resolution info off a link and could be wrong. BTW the cables that came with these monitors are half the size of some other DVI cables I have. But they do work. That's not a prejudice against dell. I just noted the missing wires.

pianowizard wrote:

cadillacmike68 wrote:I think I have bigger DVI cables with all the pins - somewhere.

I bet you don't have Dual Link cables - anywhere.

Oh yes I do.

Pins and wires are different things. Some Single Link cables don't even have the unused pins in the connector... but there are single link cables that do have all the pins, but not the wires. You can't tell from just the connector if it's a single link or dual link cable.

I have cables with different thickness too; but there is so much variation that a mid-sized cable can be either.

jcvjcvjcvjcv wrote:Pins and wires are different things. Some Single Link cables don't even have the unused pins in the connector... but there are single link cables that do have all the pins, but not the wires. You can't tell from just the connector if it's a single link or dual link cable.

I have cables with different thickness too; but there is so much variation that a mid-sized cable can be either.

The cables I have were used to drive huge 40-60 inch monitors. They are DVI-DL cables. I was going to just leave them in the desert but my replacement sent to me to me after I returned home.

But they are a bit unwieldy so they will stay boxed up unless or until I get a monitor that needs them. I wish the VGA cables on the old IBM G74s were detachable, those are well built.

cadillacmike68 wrote:The cables I have were used to drive huge 40-60 inch monitors.

As far as I know, all monitors in that size range were 1920x1080 or less, and probably still are today except for a couple 4K HDTVs. If you still remember the model numbers of these monitors, look up their specs. I bet they were not even 1920x1080, but only 1366x768.

Up until very recently, there existed only several LCD resolutions that required Dual Link DVI, and all of them were much smaller than 40-inch:

21" 2048x1536
22" 3840x2400
27" 2560x1440
30" 2560x1600

cadillacmike68 wrote:

jcvjcvjcvjcv wrote:Pins and wires are different things. Some Single Link cables don't even have the unused pins in the connector... but there are single link cables that do have all the pins, but not the wires. You can't tell from just the connector if it's a single link or dual link cable.

I have cables with different thickness too; but there is so much variation that a mid-sized cable can be either.

The cables I have were used to drive huge 40-60 inch monitors. They are DVI-DL cables. I was going to just leave them in the desert but my replacement sent to me to me after I returned home.

But they are a bit unwieldy so they will stay boxed up unless or until I get a monitor that needs them. I wish the VGA cables on the old IBM G74s were detachable, those are well built.

Size of the monitor has nothing to do with cables being Dual Link or not. Resolution does. For anything 1920x1200 and under you don't need Dual Link and you probably won't get Dual Link cables with it. I have three different Dell 2007FP monitors: an A02, an A05 and an A07 (?) all from different years and I believe different places (Mexico, Czech Republic and China); the last one has a much thinner cable, but the other ones aren't Dual Link either.

Ah, the elusive 2007FP A07... DELL actually continued manufacturing this monitor for a very long time after all its contemporaries were discontinued. Probably because it was the last 4:3 offering, and I bet they had clients who deliberately wanted a 4:3 monitor.

Do you happen to know which of your 2007FPs are IPS and which are PVA? And are they with black or silver bezel?

dr_st wrote:DELL actually continued manufacturing this monitor for a very long time after all its contemporaries were discontinued. Probably because it was the last 4:3 offering, and I bet they had clients who deliberately wanted a 4:3 monitor.

I thought Dell was still making the 2007FP but since you used the past tense, I went to dell.com just now to try to prove you wrong, but of course you are right, the 2007FP is no longer listed. On the other hand, there are still two 1280x1024 Dell monitors remaining, though both are E-series.

dr_st wrote:Do you happen to know which of your 2007FPs are IPS and which are PVA?

Most interesting! I didn't know that some of them came with IPS. According to the "Dell monitors" article on Wikipedia:

Serial Number ending with "L" = S-IPS panel.
Serial Number ending with "S" = S-PVA panel.

So I took a look at the two 2007FP monitors I have, and realized that I have one of each! I have never compared them side by side, but the S-IPS one does seem to have nicer colors, and I bought it through Craigslist for only $38! It was second-hand, but near-mint. I previously owned a 2001FP which was definitely IPS. While its colors were great, the contrast seemed rather low for some reason, and I disliked the design of the monitor's stand and bezel, and the fact that it required an AC adapter.

Oh, yeah. The S-IPS version of the 2007FP was definitely rarer than the S-PVA version. On the other hand, for the 2007WFP, the vast majority were S-IPS, although there apparently were some S-PVA around.

dr_st wrote:Ah, the elusive 2007FP A07... DELL actually continued manufacturing this monitor for a very long time after all its contemporaries were discontinued. Probably because it was the last 4:3 offering, and I bet they had clients who deliberately wanted a 4:3 monitor.

Do you happen to know which of your 2007FPs are IPS and which are PVA? And are they with black or silver bezel?

Mine are all black-bezeled IPS. I explicitly hunted for IPS ones. Indeed with the serial number ending on 'L'. One was bought from eBay US and shipped to the Netherlands; I had the seller confirm the 'L' in the serial number. The 2nd one from a Dell reseller, who I gave a call and told me I could choose because he had both (after looking in the warehouse). The third one from http://www.azerty.nl who also confirmed by email it was an 'L'.

I use two of them in portrait mode on the sides of a 3007WFP-HC; they match perfectly in resolution and pixelpitch.

I could have had one much cheaper had I known earlier that 'L' meant IPS.

In the used market they are dirt cheap. For single-window productive work, 1600x1200 definitely beats 1920x1080

Energy consumption is a bit high compared to newer e-IPS with LED backlight.

/OOT

pianowizard wrote: Serial Number ending with "L" = S-IPS panel.
Serial Number ending with "S" = S-PVA panel.

'S' for Samsung and 'L' for LG.Philips. The screen is either supplied with a 16ms (8ms G2G) 20" LG.Philips S-IPS (LM201U04) or and 8ms G2G Samsung S-PVA (LTM201U1).

There's a service menu as well (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dell ... vice_menus). I have a revision A05 in front of me with a serial code ending in L and a "code" on the top of that service menu of HN210 which confirms the info here http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/de ... ottery.htm (same source for above info)

jcvjcvjcvjcv wrote:I use two of them in portrait mode on the sides of a 3007WFP-HC; they match perfectly in resolution and pixelpitch.

Yep, as far as multi-monitor setups for productivity go, a 30" WQXGA + 2 20" UXGA in portrait is hard to beat.

I also specifically hunted for IPS ones. At some point I had to have mine replaced under warranty, and that was already when they were being phased out, so replacement units were hard to come by, and I had to wait even longer for an IPS one, and what came was the silver bezel version (my original one was black). At first I was unhappy, but took it anyways since didn't feel like waiting even longer.

In the end it turned out to be not bad, as eventually this monitor was relegated to my old Desktop PC, which users a silver mid-tower case, so it matches well.

dr_st wrote:Yep, as far as multi-monitor setups for productivity go, a 30" WQXGA + 2 20" UXGA in portrait is hard to beat.

Hard to beat indeed, but I have done exactly that with my 7-monitor setup:
30" 2560x1600 (landscape) + four 22" 1920x1200 (portrait) + two 23" 2048x1152 (landscape)

BTW, have you ever tried using a TN monitor in portrait mode? I tried once, using a Samsung 20" UXGA monitor, and it was awful. This is because when a TN screen is in landscape, its vertical viewing angles are much worse than its horizontal viewing angles, which is usually tolerable, but after the rotation, "vertical" becomes "horizontal", and narrow horizontal viewing angles are NOT tolerable. Thus, it's kind of pointless and a waste of money to make a swivelable TN monitor. But that monitor had a much worse problem: it died after just two years (I bought it new, for about $330). The Samsung SyncMaster 2343 I currently have has a power button that sometimes doesn't light up. The monitor works fine, but this little defect is going to reduce the monitor's resale value if I decide to sell it someday. Like I said, of all the monitor brands I've tried, Dell has given me the fewest problems, although I've used mostly UltraSharp models and cheaper Dells might not be as reliable.

pianowizard wrote:

dr_st wrote:Yep, as far as multi-monitor setups for productivity go, a 30" WQXGA + 2 20" UXGA in portrait is hard to beat.

Hard to beat indeed, but I have done exactly that with my 7-monitor setup:
30" 2560x1600 (landscape) + four 22" 1920x1200 (portrait) + two 23" 2048x1152 (landscape)

Hehe. Those 23" ?? What make and model?

pianowizard wrote: BTW, have you ever tried using a TN monitor in portrait mode?

Horrible yes. The only TN panels I own are in my Thinkpads; all the external ones are IPS (minus 1 PVA). From time to time I use my W520 in portrait mode

pianowizard wrote: But that monitor had a much worse problem: it died after just two years (I bought it new, for about $330).

The DVI input of my Samsung 204T died a sudden death... but it was still under warranty. At the repair station they didn't put it nicely together... the plastic parts are a bit misaligned now. And of course shorty later the rotation sensor died halfway... it would only rotate to portrait, not back...

Are you guys done hijacking the thread?

The two dells are: so far, so good. I'm keeping them.

dr_st wrote:Yep, as far as multi-monitor setups for productivity go, a 30" WQXGA + 2 20" UXGA in portrait is hard to beat.

I definitely like the two Dell 2007FPs on my desktop, one in portrait mode, but have no space for a WQXGA. Plus, I'm not inclined to spend that kind of money when I've already got 1600 vertical on the one Dell.

I bought mine 2nd hand. The write-off is much bigger is the first year than in all the others. If I put it in euros per year it's less than a Thinkpad itself.