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New monitor for my late 2012 quad mini

D

davebquinn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2002
22
0
london
Hello

I am selling my two 24" dell monitors in order to buy one 27" or 30" monitor to use with my 2012 quad core mini, which I believe has the Intel HD Graphics 4000

Could you recommend what would do the job, the main issue I have with the dells is that they are a bit jumpy and "artificial" when I watch the football (soccer) on sky, on a legitimate good quality stream. I don't use it for gaming but increasingly for sports and movies.

Thanks in advance
 
I'd recommend Dell U2713HM. Wonderful IPS panel and 1440p 27".
 
Dell u2515h.

1440p IPS on 25" monitor for good ppi. It's gotten great reviews everywhere I've seen. I've been thinking about getting one but haven't bit the bullet yet.
 
A second +1 on the Dell U2515H. One of my employees bought one and he loves it, and he's often catching up on Premier League games during lunch, FWIW. It's maybe a bit smaller than what you're looking for, but it's a nice display.

Also, if you haven't already, upgrade to 16GB of RAM - we have, on all of our 2012 Minis (including the 2012 i7 Mini Server on my desk). You'd go from 384MB Reserved VRAM @ the stock 4GB RAM to 1024MB Reserved VRAM @ 16GB RAM - it's made a big difference in the performance of the attached displays connected to each Mini.

And, update your DP cable to the best you can afford. I can definitely see a difference between a DisplayPort 1.1a cable and a DP 1.2 cable (pish on whatever the "experts" claim).

FWIW, I have a "shared" Dell P2715Q connected to my Mini via a mDP-mDP cable (DP 1.2 compatible made by Star Tech) or an HDMI cable, depending on my needs.
Cheers!
 
Last edited:
Thanks!

Thanks very much! Some great advice there. I am looking more to a 27" than a 25" although the Dell u2515h does look every nice.

Would a 30" screen be too big for general office work? My partner will also be using it and she won't be happy if I make her life more difficult for the sake of a large screen in my part time sports bunker :)

Dave
 
davebquinn said:
Thanks very much! Some great advice there. I am looking more to a 27" than a 25" although the Dell u2515h does look every nice.

Would a 30" screen be too big for general office work? My partner will also be using it and she won't be happy if I make her life more difficult for the sake of a large screen in my part time sports bunker :)

Dave
Click to expand...

I'm waiting for my Dual-Link-DVI to TB adaptor so I can connect my boss' old HP LP3065 to my 2012 Mini.
He's now got a Z30i.
If it works for him...

Personally, given the choice, I'd have bought a NEC PA302.
Though you can get good deals on Dell's U3014, the various reviews suggest that QA on them varies and there are loads of reviews from people who got multiple duds in a row.
AFAIK Dell's "Perfect Pixel" policy only takes effect if you buy directly from Dell - which puts (at least in my country) the price so close to the PA302 that it doesn't matter much anymore.

I spent my "play-budget" on a new mountain-bike, so I opted for the hand-me-down in the display-department ;-)

The market on 30" non-4K displays is very easy to overview - and I believe almost every single one uses the same LG panel (check tftcentral).
The difference is really in the selection-process, the anti-glare coating and various electronic add-ons - the NEC has pretty much everything in that department, safe the kitchen-sink.

Both the Dell and the NEC have reviews on prad.de.
NEC also has a 27" version, the PA272, which is about the same price as a TB-display.
 
MRrainer said:
This one has no more pixels than a "normal" TBD-class 27" display, which Dell has now "compressed" into a 25" display (see above comments)....
Click to expand...

Exactly! The 92 ppi works out very well and doesn't strain the eyes, similar to a 24" monitor with FullHD resolution.
 
Pieterr said:
Exactly! The 92 ppi works out very well and doesn't strain the eyes, similar to a 24" monitor with FullHD resolution.
Click to expand...

To each his own.
I've got an old HP workstation CRT monitor in the basement that can display any resolution up to 1600x1200 on 21 or 24" (don't remember - hasn't been powered up in half a decade at least)
So you can also do 1024x768 on it, if you fancy.

I wouldn't run a retina-display at the native resolution, but I doubt it's much better to have the pixels that corny.
 
MRrainer said:
This one has no more pixels than a "normal" TBD-class 27" display, which Dell has now "compressed" into a 25" display (see above comments)....
Click to expand...

Also it's a 16:9 display. If you're doing office work as well a 16:10 display is better.

And compressing the pixels into a smaller format is also good for text work. I have a 22 inch Eizo monitor that has a 1920x1200 resolution, the same as 16:10 24 inch displays, and this makes for a really good experience with documents.

M.
 
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