rec.autos.simulators

Dell is offering this for about $600 (down from $750) and less than
that for Preferred Account holders and coupon users.

Does anyone have one or could offer opinions related to sim racing and
this unit? There's plenty of reviews out there for general usage, but I
am interested in *** ups/downs/complaints/praise etc.

The wide screen is appealing, but I am wondering if the games will
appear "stretched" in a wide angle format. It runs at 1680x1050 with a
response time of 12ms and contrast ratio of 600:1.

I have the Dell 1801FP (1280x1024 rez) but the price I get the new one
for is silly!

Please help!

The prob w. widescreen LCDs is that most games (and particularly most RACING
games) don't offer widescreen aspect ratios, so you have to choose a
so-called "full-screen" (4:3) ratio, meaning that the LCD isn't running at
its native rez and the picture looks terrible.  (Or put up w. seriously
ovoid tires.)

Another prob, when you get up into the bigger sizes, is that your 'puta has
to push more pixels (1.8 million or so for 1680x1050 vs. 1.5 mil for
1280x1024), so the frame rate suffers...a prob compounded by faster refresh
rates (older 25ms LCDs ran at 60; theoretically you'd have to run a 12ms
screen twice as fast to take advantage of the quicker response).

I have an 18" Dell and a 19" Dell which are both great for racing games (not
so much for shooters) and a 26" Dell widescreen that's not.  IIWY, I'd go
for the biggest, fastest 1280x1024 LCD you can afford.

Caveat emptor.

Excellent, thanks Steve. I'll save the money for another day. That's
the kind of definitive response I was hoping for, a "yea" or "nay" and
here's why answer. I appreciate it.

Which Dells?  I just purchased the 1905FP ($300+tax in one of
their many sales) and am now playing the UPS waiting game.  I'm a
little nervous about the 20ms rated response.   I still want to
play videos & DVD, and leave my options open for a return to
racing sims.  But as you say, I wanted to stick with a reasonable
res and a big screen to make it readable.

One upside I've heard to the normal 20" is that the 1600x1200
matches the 4:3 aspect, whereas 1280x1024 is 5:4.  Don't know how
much this matters.

I have the Dell 1800FP (had it for about 18 mo.) and it runs at
1280x1024. I love it and it works great. Aspect ratios aside (and I
can't tell the difference from 4:3 and 5:4, maybe I'm an idiot) whereas
the 16:10 widescreen is obvious to me.

The 1905FP (which is 1280x1024, IIRC) should be great as well.

IF I could get the 2001FP (1600x1200) at the widescreen price, then
perhaps I'd go that way at some point.

I have an older 1800 Ultra and a newish 1905.  The latter is ok for driving
games (GTR, NSR, N2003, GPL, RBR, etc.), but not real great w. 1st-person
shooters like Far Cry, Riddick, Doom 3, UT, etc.  It's also not great for
action movies, altho the smearing is minimal and the color sat is
acceptable.  There are some incredible-sounding (for ***) FPs coming on
the market: low response times, high brightness nits, great contrast ratios,
etc., like the $500 Viewsonic VX924:

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Still, the most important thing w. LCDs is to be able to run them at their
native rez.  If yer game doesn't support 1600x1200 (and a lotta games
don't), it won't look good on a 1600x1200 LCD no matter how hot yer video
card is.  And very few games support wide-screen ratios like 16:9.  In a
year's time, tho, most games will support higher rez/wide-screen ARs and
I'll be able to afford the 'puta power to push that many pixels.

Oh well, sounds like I didn't make the absolute best choice.  But
at $300, I'll live with it!  Thanks for the info!

Absolutely - $300 is a great price for a 19" flatscreen, and Dell makes good
ones (great service, few dead pixels per customer, etc.).  I'm very happy w.
mine.