I love my 27" IPS monitors with 2560x1440 resolution

Jeff Atwood covered his religious experience with these monitors here.
I have another post talking about the monitor sizes and physical dimensions here.

Most days I spend hours staring at my monitor.  As a result, I make sure I have the most awesome monitors I can afford.  Right now, that's 27" 2560x1440 IPS monitors.  If you've never seen these, find wise friend who already has them, and ask for a demo . Once you've seen them, you'll want to know how to go about buying them.

In Feb 2013, you have 3 choices for this awesome panel:

Choice 1) Off brand from Korea, via EBAY ~ 330: 

I got my first 27" monitor from Korea on Ebay for 330$ with shipping.  Shipping took 2 days, it had some missing screws in the mount (I don't care since I use monitor arms), and it had a Korean plug (I don't care since I have that plug ~ 4$).  The monitor only supports DVI input (this matters, we'll talk about it shortly). I'm pretty sure if the monitor was busted, the hassle of trying to get it fixed would make it a write off, but I've had no troubles.

NOTE: There are lots of different monitors on EBay from this seller, I've no idea how to tell them apart.

Choice 2) Off brand from America, via MicroCenter ~ 420: 

I got my second 27" monitor from Micro Center, for 420$ with chipping.  Shipping took 2-3 weeks, this had all it's screws and american power adapters.  The key difference in this monitor is that it has display port, VGA, HDMI as well as DVI input.  In my opinion this is worth an extra 70$.   I have no idea how warranty would work this monitor, but I bet it must suck less then dealing with a company in Korea.

Choice 3) Brand name from America,  via Dell ~700:

 I haven't bought this monitor from Dell, but I'm sure it'll be wonderful quality and have all the connector choices.  All my other monitors are top of the line Dell's which I bought for ~1000$ each, not one of them has failed, or even disappointed me ever.

A note about video cards, connectors, and resolution:

Single DVI (normal) can only drive upto 1920x1200. If you want to drive this monitor, you need to makes
sure your video card supports Dual DVI.

If you have a 10$ display port to DVI cable, that'd be a display port to single DVI cable. If you want   display port to Dual DVI, you'll need an 80$ cable. Thus I recommend getting a monitor with Display Port input, if the price difference is less than 100$.

A note about 30" monitors:

The same ebay vendor who sells 27" monitors has 30" 2560x1600  IPS monitors for 350$.   Be careful, as these have a matte finish.  I bought one, and I'm not thrilled.  This is my first monitor with a matte finish so I can't tell if it's a poorly done matte finish, or I just don't like matte finish. In either case, I do not recommend 30" matte finish monitors.

A note about monitor arms: 
Worthy of another post, but in a nutshell totally worth it - I use this cheap one at home.

Comments

Igor Dvorkin said…
Tim, I what resolution is your 22' monitor?
3/07/2013 7:53 AM
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