ToddW Blog

My Dual 20″ Dell LCDs just were not cutting it anymore.  I new I either wanted a third monitor or to upgrade my primary display to a larger widescreen.  I opted for the larger widescreen, and by larger I mean A LOT larger.

I was going to buy the Dell 27″ display because I figured it would fit my desk nicer and offer enough space increase over my existing 20″ Dell monitor that I would be happy.  As it turns out the 30″ 3007WFP-HC was on sale and in the end I ended up getting the 30″ Dell LCD cheaper than the 27″. (I talked the salesmen into giving me 15% off the retail which brought it down $50 more than the sale price currently.)

Anyway my main purpose was to get a wider and larger monitor so that I could code easier.  I always found myself having to scroll horizontally to view the entire line of the code, and I NEVER want to use word wrap when programming as it can cause to many headaches.  The monitor arrived from Dell two days after I ordered it, a day before DHL predicted it would arrive and 3 or 4 days before Dell estimated it would even ship!

The monitor plugs in VERY easily as there is no external AC->DC converter, and there is only one option for plugging it into your computer (Dual Link DVI).  I plugged in the power and the DVI cord and I was off!  I installed the driver supplied with the monitor and was good.

The setup of the monitor was simple you only can change the brightness on the panel the rest you have to do through a windows application (your graphics card  settings).  The monitor comes setup bad and you HAVE to tweak the white level, black level and gamma levels to make it display colors correctly.  I ended up purchasing the X-Rite Eye One 2 and am waiting on it to arrive to finalize the settings of my monitor.  I am VERY picky with the way the display looks so this may not be required for everyone.

The monitor is absolutely HUGE!  It took me about a half day to get used to the size and get it setup on my desk just how I wanted it (angle, distance, height).  It has definetly improved my efficiecny as it allows me to do a TON of stuff at once and see very long lines of code now.

One of the nice things that I did not expect to use it for is keeping a bunch of windows open and looking at a lot of different things at once.  I can easily bounce between photoshop, dreamweaver, and 5 Internet windows all on one screen.  Another thing I didn’t expect but should have is that I almost NEVER use any application at full-screen anymore.  The only thing I keep 100% is photoshop (sometimes) and dreamweaver when coding.  Since dreamweaver has windows in itself it’s nice to view code side by side or edit one page at 100%.

Overall, it was a great purchase and one of my 20″ is to the right as my secondary monitor where I keep my e-mail, IM clients, and sometimes move internet browsers to test while coding.  My other 20″ is now to the left on my tower(at eye height) and is hooked up to my other computer, and my cable TV box as it now doubles as a monitor and TV.  In the future when I get dual graphics cards to run in SLI (so I can play some games at full-resolution) I will also hook it back up to my primary computer to use as a third display for when I need to monitor some server processes or do a bunch of things at once.

Dell 3007WFP-HC Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Size
• Refresh Rate
• Viewing Angles
• Viewable Colors (92%)
• Ability to lower it almost so it touches the desk.
• USB & Card Reader on the side.

Cons:

• Only one hookup. (What is up with this?!?! While I only use this as a monitor it would really suck for people who are in a dorm and want this huge monitor to double as a nice TV.)
• On-Screen buttons/setups while easy to use it is lacking any other type of pre-sets. (Probably why Dell can offer it so cheap)
• Requires newish video card. (Again for me not an issue.)
• Power consumption and heat.  I can tell it’s warm, and my electric bill will probably notice it too.

In closing the Dell 3007WFP-HC was a good buy and I suggest it to anyone thinking about going bigger than their existing setup.