Technology rarely stands still, and having a job like this means seeing newer, better, faster hardware on a regular basis. But through all of the upgrades I’ve made in the last decade, there’s one piece of tech that has been with me throughout and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Many years ago, I bought a monitor to pair with my gaming PC of the time. You can read about it in my Dell S2417DG review, which I had to double-check the date on. I’ve had this monitor for 9 years now.
It’s not the only PC monitor I’ve used in that time, of course. I’ve paired it with various other secondaries, and I’ve moved it off to use with another PC while I review other monitors.
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But almost a decade after cracking open the box, it’s still here. It’s my primary display for work and for PC gaming, and unlike every other piece of tech I’ve got itchy feet over upgrading through the years, I’ve got no plans to get rid of the Dell S2417DG. It’s still plenty good enough, even for gaming when refresh rates have gone through the roof. I absolutely adore it.
What makes the Dell S2417DG so good
When I originally bought and subsequently reviewed the Dell S2417DG, I was looking for three things in particular.
At a then-list price of $430, compared to a lot of the competition, the S2417DG represented phenomenal value. The key specs that drew me to this specific model are highlighted in the table below.
|
Category |
Key Specification |
|---|---|
|
Screen Size & Panel |
23.8″ QHD (2560 x 1440) TN |
|
Refresh Rate |
144 Hz (Overclockable to 165 Hz via DP) |
|
Response Time |
1 ms (GtG) |
|
Adaptive Sync |
NVIDIA G-Sync |
|
Inputs |
1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x HDMI 1.4, 4x USB 3.0 |
|
Ergonomics |
Height, Tilt, Swivel, Pivot (90°), 100×100 VESA |
When I bought it, I’d just secured an NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti, the beast of its time, and my previous primary monitor didn’t have a refresh rate or resolution high enough to allow me to stretch its legs.
Fast forward 9 years and I’m still happy gaming at 1440p and still happy at 165Hz. Could I do 4K? Sure, I’m fortunate to be running an RTX 5090 these days. Could I do more frames? Absolutely.
I’ve tested laptops and monitors with higher resolution and/or refresh rates far in excess of 165Hz and never once felt I needed more in my own setup. Playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at 240Hz rather than 165Hz is not going to suddenly change the game for me. It certainly won’t help a gamer in his forties be any better at it.
For day-to-day use, I’ve long felt 120Hz is the sweet spot. I only really use 165Hz because this monitor has a factory overclock, so why not?
But it has everything I need. The color isn’t the absolute greatest, but 98% sRGB is fine for my needs since I don’t do any serious color accuracy work, and games still look great.
Even with an older DisplayPort standard, I haven’t yet been held back, and the 1ms response has since been beaten by newer monitors, but again, it was more than enough back then for me, and it’s still the same today.
In years past, I also made use of the USB 3.0 hub built into the monitor. Nowadays my desktop PC has enough USB ports that are faster than this that I don’t need to. But in the early days it was extremely useful.
Only one area this monitor has started to underperform
Over the lifespan of this monitor, I’ve also used it hooked up to my Xbox console. It’s only here, now, that it’s starting to show its age.
The HDMI 1.4 port on the Dell S2417DG is hard-capped at 60Hz, even though it will still support the 1440p native resolution. Even dropping to 1080p, that 60Hz cap applies on this monitor.
It’s not a total dealbreaker, since 60Hz has been fine on console for long enough, but with an Xbox Series X I’m not able to make full use of the 120Hz capabilities in supported games using this monitor anymore.
As such, the Xbox Series X has been hooked up to a more modern 1080p monitor with a newer spec HDMI connection. I’ll take frame rate over resolution any day.
I don’t see the point in ‘upgrading’ to a newer monitor
Are there better monitors out there? Of course there are. There are plenty with 4K displays, OLED, faster refresh rates, and larger panels.
But I’ve long felt 1440p is the sweet spot for gaming. I don’t have the space for large displays, and having tested higher refresh rate panels, I don’t actually feel like I’d be getting anything beneficial.
Would I be better off with more up-to-date ports? Most likely I would, but I’ve been fine for 9 years now without feeling like I’m held back. The old warhorse is still pulling along as well as it ever did.
I’m also a big believer in not adding to e-waste. I could sell this on to someone else, but it works well enough still, so what’s the point in that? Times are hard, everything is more expensive than ever before, and you never know when you’ll need to cash in a kidney to buy another stick of RAM or an SSD.
I truly can’t think of another piece of tech I still own and have used for as long as this monitor consistently. I’m just praying that writing about it doesn’t hex the whole thing and I wake up tomorrow and it decides it’s had enough…
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