Apple Monitors - Computer Setup

Why is it no name Korean companies can make cheap excellent high resolution monitors but the big names stick to mostly 1080p while charging an arm an a leg for anything more?

Because these panels are rejected panels from name-brand companies like Samsung, thus they are cheaper.

What makes them rejected if what appears in the picture is a perfectly working monitor?

The factory rejects them if they're not a certain "grade". I believe for the iMac panels they only accept A+ grade panels. The korean monitors might have a backlight problem, they might have a dead pixel, or something else might be wrong with the panel. Sometimes people get really lucky with these Korean 1440p displays and get higher-grade panels that were still not good enough to make it into an iMac or other name brand monitor.

You're pretty close to the truth. If LG (which manufactures the majority of these panels) has a handful of panels come out of a batch bad, they'll throw out the rest of the batch with the assumption that somethings wrong with the assembly. With anymore than 30%ish sub-par quality rate in a batch, its cheaper for them to throw out and resell than test every single one for QA.

Minus those many batches they made for the retina MacBook Pros

Hah. that's an interesting thought.

So glad I got double Samsung on mine.

WOAH... That makes a lot of sense.

I suspect there's also "bin to a limit" -- they might not even bother testing all panels to see if they hit A+ grade. If they get an order from the second-tier manufacturer saying "I want a container full of panels, at least A- quality", they may well only check them against the A- specs.

Any of the displays, at least for Macs not sure iOS devices, there is an acceptable limit of dead pixels where they will not repair or replace the display on the device. So that may not be a factor.

I don't know how the whole process works but the panels are 'graded' when they're manufactured. Apple, HP, etc only buy the highest graded panels, which are more expensive, the rest can be bought for much cheaper by companies like the above.

That flickering happened on my old monitor too after years of use. Turns out the capacitors blew and simply needed to be replaced.

Maybe the fact that you have to pay extra to get one without dead pixels? I've heard that "quite a few" of these cheap Korean monitors suffers from dead pixels. That could just be false information or my bad memory though.

Getting a "pixel perfect" version is just a marketing ploy. They still say you can have 1-2 dead/stuck pixels in the middle and 5~ on the outside areas before they will return it.

I just wanted to chime in here and say that peoples' fear of dead pixels on 1440p monitors is completely overblown.

I have personal experience with this. I have two 1440p Korean monitors. One has a red stuck pixel and the other has a group of 3 dead pixels. It's impossible to see the red stuck one unless you are 3 inches from the screen and the three dead pixels are only noticed in an all white background (I use it as secondary monitor). So I can say from experience one pixel is nearly impossible to notice at a regular view distance and even three in a bunch can be hard to spot in non-all white backgrounds.

Hell i have a 720 (or 900) screen and i have a stuck pixel in green. Barely notice it.

It's certainly annoying. I have one on mine and while I don't see it most of the tjme. There are things that do get annoying in a why can't this be perfect

This. I found 3 dead pixels on mine when I first got. I haven't seen them since, and can't even find them again now that I'm looking for them.

I have one white pixel, not sure what the correct term is, on my 1440p and it really only is noticeable if that area is really, really dark and even then barely and I need to look for it. And I'd guess white kind of dead pixel would be worst.

The panel quality factors as the largest single cost, but the brand name monitors come with decent warranties, better packaging, higher quality in overall build and monitor stand, plus extra features like factory calibration and hopefully "customer service". These monitors are still considered as made for professionals.

When you say some you mean most, right?

You gotta think about America's capitalist high-profit market.

The panels used by Apple, Dell, and HP are Grade A or higher panels. When Samsung or LG makes these panels in batches, it discounts any panels that are not up to par of Dell/Apple/HP's standards. Korean companies buy these panels at a discount and slap on a case and sell the panels for cheap.

Hey, do you have a link to a ~$400 Dell 27" Ultrasharp that does 2560x1440?

Yeah, seriously. I'm 100% interested.

How many people have actually been able to get warranty work done for free on a 2+ year old monitor. Most monitors work or don't right out of the box, after that it's usually a user related failure, like drops or spills.

Apple monitors only have 1 year warranties, but the fancy dell ones have 3 year warranties, which is fairly standard for a high end 27" or 30" monitor.

Well, even with the tendency of electronics towards "bathtub curve reliability"-- where most failures are either infant mortality or after only a very long time-- it may not be clear how long the "bathtub" is.

Crossover isn't a "no name" brand lol.

Yeah it is. 99% of the public would never have heard of the brand.

Because its from fucking korea. Arla isnt a no name company just because we dont usially ship our fucking milk from sweden to usa.

I knew your setup reminded me about something...

Holy. Shit. Are you from an alternate universe? That's ridiculous!

You knwo, I actually have a pair of Logetech G35 aswell as the Razer Deathadder but the Deathadder broke couple of weeks ago

All I can think when I go through the photos is: "Who still goes to Dalaran?"

Smart people! I have my Hearthstone set to Halfhill, and use the buyable epic ring which has teleport to Dalaran. From Dalaran I can use a portal to Stormwind.

As a mage, I don't know what any of this means.

I live in Dalaran. It's always so empty on my server so I feel like I'm almost alone in the game.

Next thing id do is replace your $15 speakers with some decent ones

Behringer Truths or ESI nEar if you can't afford behringers. ;)

Monoprice 6.5" bookshelf speakers and a Lepai T-Amp. $80 and sounds excellent.

A link for the lazy?

You seem quite knowledgeable about this type of thing. What could I get to put between my Logitech G510's headphone output (3.5mm) and my headphones (3.5mm)? The volume is super loud on it, and even turning it to 10 in Windows is waaaay too loud.

I don't know of any way to physically reduce the output of a plug BUT, you can go through control panel > Hardware and Sound to manage the given volume/output on your headphones.

If your room doesen´t allow a surround setup, think about a decent 360°-Headset. There´s no way going back to stereo afterwards.

Hell no, always go headphones with clip on mic.

Ohh, forgot that one too. I have had to avoid all 3 because I need to stop buying/selling headphones/IEMs (managed to get myself down to two headphones and two IEMs).

I'm in a similar position.

You need more bookmarks. This man knows his stuff, people!

So high quality headphones with one speaker for each ear would be able to make a sound that was behind me in-game actually sound like it was behind me?

They were pretty expensive, but I'd say they're worth it. The sound quality is pretty good, the surround is really good(imo).

The headphone portion is probably only worth about 35 dollars, no way is it worth it man.

To be honest, how many things do you pay for that retail for close to the manufacturing cost?

I don't mean production costs, I mean if he were to separately buy 35 buck headphones with a 5 buck clip on mic, it would be similar quality.

He isn't talking about manufacturing cost, he's talking about what it would cost to buy from a non-ripoff brand. They probably cost $10 total to make.

Absolutely not. Get a pair of audiophile headphones, an audiophile DAC, and an audiophile headphone amplifier. The sound-stage will be much wider and better than those gimmicky surround sound headphones. Not only that, you'll have gear that's useful for things other than gaming. This may sound expensive, but you can get entry-level audiophile gear pretty cheap. This kind of gear is built to last too. Most computer audio stuff is cheap overpriced crap, especially if it's "gaming" gear.

Hearing the direction wehere your opponent approaches from is in no way a gimmick. Try Battlefield or WoW with a G35 from Logitech for example. That it can´t compete ragarding audiophile qualities is not the point here.

Agreed, but surround sound is not necessary for it. I don't think you understand just how well a good 2.0 setup can give a 3D image. I used to be a very high-level Half-Life Deathmatch player (I know, not the most popular game, but an FPS nonetheless, and I played competitively, and was voted MVP in a tournament years ago). I used sound to acquire where people were all the time, and I never used a surround-sound setup. In fact, I had people asking me how I got so good at pinpointing people just by sound.

I saw this comment and thought the same about my speakers, then realised I have the same speakers as OP.

Looks nice but I could never put up with a glossy panel. I hate them.

I would prefer matte over glossy as well, but unfortunately I forgot to check the specs on the model I ordered. I believe you can get them in matte finish.

I hate the glossy screen on my laptop, I managed to find a cover which makes it matte, although the cost is a slight loss of sharpness.

Thats why when I ordered my Clevo P177SM I made sure to get the matte panel. My old M1710 had the glossy and it was starting to really irritate me.

I prefer gloss but that's only because my setup and room lighting doesn't cause irritating reflection.

The matte was only like 5 bucks more but I specifically bought a glossy one. If you can control the light, glossy is way better. Granted, that isn't always possible.

Hopefully yours doesn't end up like mine - a giant paper weight after 16 months.

Lets hope so. I've read some forumposts here and there, mentioning it dying after 1 year while others have had similar monitors for ages. With these A-type panels, I think it's mostly about luck. They are after all "rejects" from the big name companies like Apple and Dell.

I doubt it is the entire panel that goes bad. Its most likely the capacitors on the board that will fail after some time. Which is something that you might be able to fix yourself depending on the amount of layers and tightness of the traces on the PCB.

Also one thing(i think) that can help is to lower the screens backlight brightness...(my sharp tv/monitor was insanely hot but after lowering the brightness its just warm)

Is their a logical increments website for just TV's?(flatscreens...)

No, it's mainly used a reference for various pc builds which are price efficent. A very good one too! They've just recently added info on monitors and peripherals.

Damn it. well got any tips for the sub $170 monitors? i saw the asus SE(the 150 on amazon and 140 newegg) that looks nice and it has low latency for most aspects...and its 1080p

Where did you find it?

How much did you end up paying with shipping and everything?

I paid $450 in total, shipping included. You can probably get them for $50-100 less, but you risk ending up with a monitor with dead pixels and bad light bleeding.

Why is your title "I gambled" then?

Because he's paying close to $500 for something from a "no-name" brand, from Korea.

Basically what you said, but I might as well add this:

Ok, just wondering. I bought a Korean 1440p myself off of ebay after doing lots of research, and almost all stories I came across were positive.

I sell a lot on eBay. I'll let you know that for the most part me and other sellers take it very seriously. Paypal and eBay has us by the balls with policy that benefits buyers the most! eBay's buyers protection is definitely something you can trust.

You can get other models, but the stands are very poor from the research I did. This has by far the best one on the Korean models, look at the LED-P, that one pivots to portrait as well as the standard landscape

For anyone looking at purchasing you can get them for much less(as OP stated). I went with X-Star. QNIX is another good brand at the $300 mark.

I agree with what you are saying. Overall, it's more about a preferential choice. I wanted the guarantee of no dead pixels, plus the stand/bezel on my specific Crossover model (Q27) is quite solid compared to the others.

Yeah, like I said, my bezel is a little warped and I think that bugs me more than the light bleed. I threw my monitor on a desk clamp stand so the stand made no difference. Shame you got the glossy version. I have heard of fingerprints underneath the glass and other shitty things like that. Glad you got a good one.

I think there's a couple differences between models.

Yup. I think many of them are like this. On my x star I had to remove the bezel and do some other stuff to get the stand off. Pain in the ass.

My X-Star is coming tomorrow, so nervous! But virtually every single mention I've read of people getting a Korean 1440p has been positive, so I'm hopeful!

I have 3 Crossover 2720MDPs, and they have yet to fail me.

I really didn't know this post would get this much attention, but whaddaya know! I'm loving the discussion so far, and I hope I've enlightened some people about these screens.

Stupid question perhaps, but why don't these ship with an HDMI port? After browsing newegg, most of these monitors 1440p+ don't have HDMI ports.

My "ACHIEVA Shimian QH270-LITE 27" LG S-IPS LED 2560x1440 QHD DVI 16:9 6ms Monitor" came only with a dual-link DVI, this was the only option for the cheep IPS Korean monitors when I looked at it.

Can hdmi even handle 1440p?

Hdmi goes to 4k.

Only at 30 fps though

These monitors can run over 120fps overclocked I'm not sure if hdmi can do that. I'm no expert, I just read it on coolcomputersetups somewhere.

I did this about six months ago. It gets used about 12 hours a day since I work as a developer st home. As well, I play games. Still going strong, however it does get a bit warm.

Debezel and put a small fan behind it. Heat drastically lowers the lifespan of electronics.

I don't know the technical details but basically the hotter the components run while in use, can degrade the components over time and thus make them 'die' sooner. This is why people are really into cooling and keeping temperatures down for computers.

Never mind, i actually read it wrong. I thought it said that cold lowers the lifespan for some odd reason. edit: Probably missed the word "Heat".

Amazing monitor, got mine (pixel perfect) last week and am ordering another next week to go with it.

For anyone considering purchasing an off brand Korean monitor the most common issue with them seems to be copious amounts of back light bleed. My Qnix QX2710 did, although I managed to fix most of it. BLB generally isn't covered by sellers either.

How did you go about fixing that?

Cool man, thanks. Just trying to get as much info as possible before I order one of these bad boys.

Ive been thinking about just pulling the trigger and buying one, but 2 of my friends (both who have 1440p asus monitors) tell me to just save my money as they are not worth the risk. Im in a bit of a pickle but the more I see them, the more I think about going for gold.

Does it have a VESA mount? Would you trust it?

I've got the same monitor and have been using it with a VESA mount. The whole backplate is metal so the mount is really sturdy, at least compared to my plastic Samsung monitor.

Very nice! But dat reflection man!

I bought my QNIX for around $270 on eBay and I had zero issues with it. I must have gotten lucky because I had zero backlight bleeding or dead pixels. I bought the 3 year warranty for $20 also.

I got one from Overlord computer, they charge more because it is 'built to overclock.' Worked great for about a month @ 110 hz and pooped out. American company thankfully, with a warranty (that I guess I remembered to register??) and now I have it back but haven't tried it out yet. I seriously hope it lasts this time, just until 4k is cheaper & reliable.

I approve of the WoW Bartender UI! Makes everything organized and cleaner.

I noticed your Samsung monitor in almost identical to mine! Can you give me an idea of the difference between the two? Viewing the pictures on an IPS screen, the new one looks amazingly vivid and deep compared to the Samsung?

The difference is night and day.

Awesome, I just put in an order for two qnix 27" from the same eBay seller. Hope I will have the same pleaser experience as you did. Did you order the perfect pixel or "regular" ones?

Fingers crossed! I bought a "pixel perfect" one, but I have no idea how valid that is, or if's just a marketing gimmick as mentioned before.

I'm super jealous. I have the same monitor from korea, and it's complete dog shit. Can't really be used for games or video, the contrast and colours are so incredibly messed up.

Can you post pics? I want to see how bad the backlight bleed gets on these before i buy one.

It isn't backlight bleed, the panel is totally fucked.

So this thread inspired me to do another round of calibration with the utility in mac osx. It seems a bit improved in the new osx.

I don't understand the gamble your new monitor is sitting right next to your old Samsung (Korean) monitor XD

Haha, you're a clever person :)

Now if you got it from Russia or Kazakhstan then I'd understand the gamble XD

It's because its an A- aka you are taking a chance of having dead pixels or backlight bleeding. Basically they are panels that dont have the best quality control and as a result you pay about $400 less but you are taking the chance of either having a perfect monitor that you love or having one that is almost not even worth using.

Have a QNIX on the way, can't wait!

Have the same panel, it's fantastic.

What did you end up paying, if you don't mind me asking.

$450 - you can find similar screens for about $100 cheaper.

Where did you buy these cheaper monitors?

... a piece of cardboard in front of the screen and a thin layer of bubblewrap, plus thin foam holding the screen in place, isn't exactly what I call "good packaging".

I have three of these, two of them were good, one has an issue with a board. 2/3 still isn't bad, I figure a board isn't more than $100.

I'm seriously considering these, are the dead pixels that noticeable and should I get one? I've been looking at the X-Star DP2710, seems to be a pretty good deal for 330, just don't wanna throw around all that money, thanks!

When I opened the box on mine last year, the smell that came out of it was like an alley in Chinatown. Monitor has worked great for about 18 months now and the smell is long gone.

Have you tried overclocking the refresh rate?

No, and I have my doubts about doing it. Can't afford to fuck up.

You spend all your money on a nice monitor and then test it's power out on WoW?

Honestly, World of Warcraft is one of the better games out there when it comes to a resolution bump. WoW doesn't use lower-poly models in the distance, so you get considerably more detail when pushing out more pixels. You also get more screen real estate since WoW's user interface is highly customizable.

Appreciate the explanation, it makes more sense now.

You know - it's funny. I thought about this before posting, that I would probably get some flak for exactly this. WoW is one of the very many games I play, and it was just by accident I had one of the pictures in the album of just that. Not that I really need to explain myself, but there you go :)

No its quite alright, I was just expecting to see Skyrim or something else. I have never played WoW so I wouldn't actually know how intricate it can look.

Have that exact mouse/ kb combo. Not too bad are they...

They do a decent job indeed! And they're not that expensive either.

That C920 =D Best camera for broadcasting on Twitch w/ a chroma key for me hands down!

Just buy a squaretrade warranty. They will cover anything.

Does it OC to 120hz?

Downvoted for wasting it on a shit game like WoW

Previous | Next