Purchased an Overlord 27″ 1440p 120Hz Monitor

This post is about the new 120Hz 1440p monitors I found that seemed too good to be true and some information on them if your a gamer looking for the next big thing! Read on for more.

The results from my poll about what I should buy myself for christmas 2012 were fairly straight forward as the Asus 120Hz monitor with 3D was leading by a long shot. The problem with the monitor was that it was only 1080p, and i’m a hardcore gamer but not terribly into FPS games which was pretty much the only reason to go for 120Hz in a monitor. If your not a geek then a monitors resolution such as “1440p” is the number of pixels for the height of the monitor, the full resolution name for 1440p is 2560×1440, with the monitor having 2560 pixels along with width for a total of 3,686,400 pixels.

After looking for a monitor with a higher resolution than 1080p with nice features, I found what seemed like a prodigy monitor with a luscious 1440p resolution AND the ability to overclock the refresh rate up to 120Hz. Naturally I researched this “impossible combination of awesome”, to see if it was the real deal and it turns out there are two types of monitors being the “catleap” and “overlord” that are capable of being overclocked to this new and higher hertz which before now I thought was impossible.

Alas there was a minor down side to these monitors, being that the IPS panels are A and A- grades meaning they have been rejected by other companies after not reaching their manufacturing standards. Now, there is a slight difference between the A and A- grades shown by the companies selling these rare monitors, and as a guide i’ll use the grading seen on the overlord website:

A Grade: An A grade panel can have no more than 3 Bright pixels, 3 colored pixels or 5 dead pixels appear during the warranty period. (In a typical batch 75% of this grade monitors have no visual artifacts)

A- Grade: The A- grade can have no more than 18 bright, colored or dead pixels, or 2 bright or colored and 5 dead pixels in the central region of the screen. (This grade of monitor in a typical batch has about 50% perfect displays)

Now I know what you’re thinking: “What if I get a bad pixel after dishing out this much money?”. Well firstly dead/bright/colored have been known to correct themselves over use and the occasional screen press, i’ve found a youtube video by Linus Sebastian from NCIX showing how you can attempt to fix them:

Removing Dead/Bright/Colored Pixels

The second point about these monitors is that they are so cheap, I bought mine for around $660 AU which may sound like a lot but if these were created by a big name company and at a solid 120Hz they would be about $1200 maybe even more considering how hard they would be to make.

I have about a 75% chance to get a perfect pixel model, but even if there’s a bad pixel it would be hardly noticeable due to the pixel pitch (the distance between pixels) of the 1440p monitor. It would be very hard to see a dead pixel from your seat which is on average 1 metre from the screen, you would need to know where the pixel was and have a fairly simple picture or background up to even make a difference to the overall picture. Although people with OCD will probably focus on the pixel the whole time they use the monitor which if you know you are the OCD type, I don’t recommend this monitor.

I still have to receive my monitor which I bought today and will be reviewing it after a few weeks or so of drooling over it. The guy that started “Overlord Computers” known as Scribby on the 120hz forums seems like a genuinely nice guy wanting to help people get a hold of these beastly monitors and looks like he cares about the customers as seen through the forums on his website found here: Overlord Computer

Scribby sells many types of monitors but only a few are capable of overclocking, the ones with “OC” in the title, so people who just want a SHD monitor with a few minor problems can purchase them there at a greatly reduced price. 120Hz.net also sells a different version of these monitors called “catleap” with pixel perfect and flawed panels as well as having a different design to the monitor. (Which I actually like more than the overlords) But their prices were way too steep to compete with overlord even if there is a pixel perfect version.

If you still have questions about the monitors take a look at the 120hz forums on the catleap monitors here:
Everything you need to know

I will be posting a review after I receive it of an unboxing and if there’s any noticable defects as well as shipping times and most importantly if it’s completely awesome when gaming.

Here are the links to the entire series:

Part 1 – Purchasing an Overlord monitor:
Purchased an Overlord Monitor

Part 2 – Unboxing the monitor:
My Overlord Monitor Arrived

Part 3 – Full review of the monitor:
Full Detailed Review of the Overlord

Part 4 – Update Review:
Overlord monitor 2.0 Update