Dell 2405FPW 24" TFT
Picture Quality
Published: 20th January 2006 | Source: Dell | Price: |
Picture Quality
Well the vital question for those wanting a top screen - what is the picture like?
I can answer that right now with a very confident: "Excellent".
This monitor is easily the sharpest I\'ve ever used. In the light and the dark the screen is awesome. Brightness is top notch and even the blacks are very good. LCD\'s are notorious for "greying" out blacks but even though this display has a very bright backlight I found that darks are very good. I did find that I had to leave the backlight to 50% (default) as any brighter tended to lighten up those excellent blacks.
Xbox 360 shots showing light and dark:

Normal PC shot:

Overall the picture is awesome - most likely the best picture I've seen - aside from the £3000 plasma 1080p screen I saw demo'd.
Feature Spotlight: Picture in Picture (PiP)
I felt that I had to highlight this excellent feature of the Dell 2405FPW. The monitor allows Picture in Picture (PiP for short).
PiP allows you to view the picture from two different sources at the same time. The choices you have are either D-Sub (VGA) or DVI-D with either S-Video, Composite or Component being the other input.
At first I thought I would never use the feature, but I have come to use this a lot for both building another PC and for the XBox 360.


Thie brings me neatly onto the inputs:
Inputs
The 2405 has the following inputs:
DVI-D
D-SUB (VGA)
Component
Composite
S-Video
These are all neatly stacked up on the underside of the monitor and are easy to plug into as you can turn the monitor round (see prevous page).


The soundbar power also plugs straight into the monitor, and above displayed is also the 4in1 card reader that some people may find very handy.
Gaming
It may be worth noting that a screen this size takes a fair bit of graphical power to output at its native res. If you\'ll refer to the Spec page where I have put the rig specs, you\'ll see that the test rig is pretty high spec.
Anything below an Nvidia 7800GTX 512mb will struggle at this res...and in fact games like F.E.A.R. meant that I had to OC the card to 624/1830 before I could output at 1920 x 1200.
At 1900x1200 the 7800GTX 512mb could just about handle:
Doom 3
Quake 4
Call of Duty
F.E.A.R.
And could easily handle:
Day of Defeat:S
Counter Strike:S
GoldenEye: Source
Half Life 2
Chronicles of Riddick: Return to Butcher Bay
I have not noticed any problems with tearing or any other visual issues associated with TFT's and gaming - the 16ms response time on this monitor is most likely true in this case as I would have noticed (I am very picky).
Gaming at this high res is very strange, but satisfying, and you do get to see more of the game. This is very helpful in games like CS:S and Quake 4 as you can see around you more. Gamers: do not be afraid to buy this it is certainly up to the job of displaying the fast and frantic frames of first person shooter's.
Update 19/01/2007
Having owned this monitor for a year or more I can safely say that gaming on the Dell 2405 is a quality experience and I am yet to find a rival that keeps up with it. The screen has a 16ms response time but if you use vSynch this is not noticible in any way.
Gaming on the Xbox 360 is a great experience and games like Gears of War look simply spell-bounding on the display.
Also note that it's worth getting a VGA lead if you want to use the Dell 2405FPW with the 360 as the output looks a bit brighter and clearer than with composite, though this is not really the fault of the monitor as I have tested this on other monitors and find the same thing.
HD DVD and Blu-Ray playback is stunning and scaling on the monitor is excellent producing a crystal clear picture.
Most Recent Comments
Burn-in and stability test....
Run OCCT or a small fft prime95 torture test for 12 hours... Then run a large fft torture test. Do a few 32mb super pi's and you should be good to go if you can do all of the afformentioned tests w/o errors.
If you pass all of those then bump up your volts and your OC!
Obviously make sure to keep your temps within optimal operating zones.
Whats the TCaseMax on that chip of yours? (If it supports it).
Run OCCT or a small fft prime95 torture test for 12 hours... Then run a large fft torture test. Do a few 32mb super pi's and you should be good to go if you can do all of the afformentioned tests w/o errors.
If you pass all of those then bump up your volts and your OC!
Obviously make sure to keep your temps within optimal operating zones.Whats the TCaseMax on that chip of yours? (If it supports it).
Tagan PSU gone busted , waiting for replacement coming tomorrow , i ll run those test and report back , thanks for the reply Fragtek 

Cool I'll look forward to it 

Buggers , still waiting for replacement and looks like its gonna come after christmas holidays , 3rd of Jan. Oh well , i ll post the results when i fix the psu. 

Ok Just a little update on whats happening. P.S.U arrived today so reinstalled the system.
TCaseMax for the chip is 55C
TDP is 38.2 Watts
I ll report back when the test finishes
TCaseMax for the chip is 55C
TDP is 38.2 Watts
I ll report back when the test finishes
Cool cool
Screenie and stuff should be forthcoming!
And add a pic of your rig to the gallery!
Screenie and stuff should be forthcoming!
And add a pic of your rig to the gallery!

That's a decent TCase number, I'd reckon that'd be good for about 2.7ish.
Mine surprised the shit out of me, my TCase is only 49* but it overclocks like a raped ape with the IHS popped off.
Try bumping up your multiplier one notch, that RAM is going to thrive more on higher multipliers where you're able to keep the fsb down.
Mine surprised the shit out of me, my TCase is only 49* but it overclocks like a raped ape with the IHS popped off.
Try bumping up your multiplier one notch, that RAM is going to thrive more on higher multipliers where you're able to keep the fsb down.
Well c.p.u is on 2750mhz 1.5v 2000ht
Mem 1:1 250mhz 2-2-2-5 1t memtests 100% , test passed 5 times
prime95 basic fff passed fine so i run torture test and now i am at work.
Before running torture tests etc i run Sisoft Sandra Mem benchmark and got 7209 so it looks v.good so far . Temperatures seems to be around 33 idle and 44+- load. If the tests are passed i ll upping the fsb see if it goes higher.
I ll post the screenshots tonight hopefully
Mem 1:1 250mhz 2-2-2-5 1t memtests 100% , test passed 5 times
prime95 basic fff passed fine so i run torture test and now i am at work.
Before running torture tests etc i run Sisoft Sandra Mem benchmark and got 7209 so it looks v.good so far . Temperatures seems to be around 33 idle and 44+- load. If the tests are passed i ll upping the fsb see if it goes higher.
I ll post the screenshots tonight hopefully

Nice mate thats some good work.
Like the thoroughness in testing to get it stable - all the good OC'ers do it but not everyone does
I'll look forward to the pics!
Like the thoroughness in testing to get it stable - all the good OC'ers do it but not everyone does

I'll look forward to the pics!

Alright , does any1 has any spare voltage that i can borrow 
2750mhz 1:1 250mhz 2-2-2-5-1T stable on Prime95 small fft , large fft , SuperPI 16mb and memtest.
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.6779749/2750.75.png
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.1000482/superpi16mbdone2750_250_22251T.jpg
This was more of a c.p.u clock rather then mem clock. Sisoft Sandra scores 6699 odly as previous run scored 7209 , just couldnt find what i' ve changed while testing, weird.
2855mhz 1:1 259mhz 2-2-2-5-1T - Stable on Sisoft Mem Bench, scored 6948mb/s , stable on windows / does normal programs etc - Passes Prime95 Benchmark - Fails Prime95 small fft havent run SuperPI.
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.6562769/2855.47.png
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.1000482/2855_2-2-2-5-1T_6948.jpg
Max boot into windows at 2922mhz 1.67v 1:1 265 2-2-2-5-1T - Ok in usual basic windows stuff - anything else ( Sisoft and any other benchs ) bsod.
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.6779749/2922.13.png
This was just a quick overview and its very time consuming. I ll go more in depth settings and tests in a few days. Probably lighten the timings and try to increase htt rather then multiplier. So far so good

2750mhz 1:1 250mhz 2-2-2-5-1T stable on Prime95 small fft , large fft , SuperPI 16mb and memtest.
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.6779749/2750.75.png
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.1000482/superpi16mbdone2750_250_22251T.jpg
This was more of a c.p.u clock rather then mem clock. Sisoft Sandra scores 6699 odly as previous run scored 7209 , just couldnt find what i' ve changed while testing, weird.
2855mhz 1:1 259mhz 2-2-2-5-1T - Stable on Sisoft Mem Bench, scored 6948mb/s , stable on windows / does normal programs etc - Passes Prime95 Benchmark - Fails Prime95 small fft havent run SuperPI.
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.6562769/2855.47.png
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.1000482/2855_2-2-2-5-1T_6948.jpg
Max boot into windows at 2922mhz 1.67v 1:1 265 2-2-2-5-1T - Ok in usual basic windows stuff - anything else ( Sisoft and any other benchs ) bsod.
http://upload.sysxtreme.com/0.X/0.6779749/2922.13.png
This was just a quick overview and its very time consuming. I ll go more in depth settings and tests in a few days. Probably lighten the timings and try to increase htt rather then multiplier. So far so good


System is running 9 * 300 2700mhz
Mem is running 5/4 Divider 246mhz 2-2-2-5 Settings.
Any other settings it wont boot or i get lost in all the options etc.
So shall i carry on with the o/c or continue stressing c.p.u and memory ( burn in ), what do you guys think ?