Out to a 4K Display

[JReinhal]

Hello,
I am new and very happy to find this forum.
Ive received my i7 Surface Pro 3 today. My next step is to purchase the dock, display port cable, and a 4K desktop monitor. Is there a consensus on the best cable and display that will work with the Surface Pro?
Thank you in advance!

 

[surfdock]

Congrats on joining the Surface club!

I would go with the Asus 28" display:
http://www.amazon.com/PB287Q-28-Inch-Screen-LED-Lit-Monitor/dp/B00KJGY3TO
Seems to be the best bang for buck 60Hz option right now that doesn't use weird MST stitching like some of the less expensive ones. [edit: I can't get 60Hz working with the SP3 though - only 30Hz. I actually wouldn't recommend this for SP3 anymore.]

Amazon wants to sell you the Accell brand minidp->DP cable for $17 which is a pretty good option:
http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B143B-007J-UltraAV-DisplayPort-6-6-Feet/dp/B00A7R9I22

Have you considered the 1440p monitors? They are great options too and you may be able to get two of them for the price of one 4K monitor. Unless you have a specific need for 4k, don't get sucked in by all the marketing buzz around that and think you're missing out by not buying the "best".

 

[JReinhal]

Thank you for your reply. What 1440p monitor would you recommend?

 

[HvT]

I've got a Dell U3014. A bit expensive compared to the 16:9 displays of around 26". However, it has 16:10 and 2560x1600 pixels. My reason to go for this one: the display is much better for working with photos, can even get hardware-calibrated. And personally I prefer 16:10 over 16:9 - I do not watch videos on it.
I struggled in the beginning with a proper cable. The shipped Dell cable worked, but I needed one more to get the KVM connected. Display Port cables seem to have a Pin 21 problem, at least the cheap ones from far-east. So I bought a Lenovo cable from Amazon, mini-DP to DP. That one worked.

 

[Enrico D.]

I want to test for internet work a 4K display. But I think that 28 inch will be to small and impossible to use for browsing and standard jobs... so I'm optiong at least for a 39/42 screens, like the SEIKI you can find in America or Blaupunkt in Europe. Unfortunately it's 30hd in hdmi, but I think it is the unique cheap solution for now.

 

[surfdock]

The Seiki 39" 4K is cheap at $339 shipped!
http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra-Model/dp/B00DOPGO2G
But 30Hz refresh at 4K is kind of a dealbreaker for me and makes the mouse interaction feel really weird. Other folks say its fine - just personal preference I guess.


Enrico, if you're worried about the hi-dpi of the 28" 4K screen making icons and text too small, just use the built-in scaling options in Windows. In single-monitor mode with 150% or 125% scaling, the Asus monitor looks great on my desktop. Its only when you try to do multi-monitor where each monitor is at a different dpi does it get funky looking. Hopefully that will improve in the next version of Windows.


As for 1440P monitors, look at the off-brand 27" Korean models like QNIX, BENQ, and AOC, depending on the quality level, they are anywhere from $300-$450.


The Dell 24" 1920x1200 monitors for $250 are pretty good too. I prefer the 19:10 aspect ratio anyway.

 

[Enrico D.]

seiki for that price it's a bargain, and you can upgrade to a 60hz technology as soon as it become avaible and cheap like this, if you even sell this used... you will lose very few money, just sell to a friend and will be happy of the tip. Much more loss to sell a surface pro used ))

 

[surfdock]

Yeah I've been watching that hardforums thread for a while and I'm not holding my breath for a proper 60Hz TCON board swapout... http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1756171&page=81

Nobody's got a good solution yet. Maybe Seiki's next year model will have built-in HDMI 2.0/DisplayPort.