Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Display
ASUS VW266H 25.5” LCD display ( http://www.asus.com )
It's obviously impossible to recommend any particular display absolutely, be-
cause your needs and budget may be very different from ours. Fortunately,
nowadays it's pretty difficult to get a bad LCD display, as long as you stick with
good brand names and avoid the least expensive models.
We'll use this system heavily for video editing, and we'll soon be getting into
HD video, so it's essential to have a display with at least 1080p (1920 × 1080)
resolution. WUXGA (1920 × 1200) or even WQXGA (2560 × 1600) resolution
would be better still, because that would allow us to view the HD video at full
resolution while still having a bit of screen real estate available to view the
timeline.
Unfortunately, the smallest and least expensive WQXGA displays are 30” and
$1,200, both of which are bigger numbers than we're prepared to deal with. So
we looked at WUXGA displays, hoping to find something suitable in the $300
to $400 range. We found half a dozen candidates from good manufacturers,
ranging in size from 24” to 28”.
If you want a really large display, the 28” Hanns.G HH-281HPB offers a huge
screen, good display quality, and reasonable features at a bargain price. Sam-
sung offers two 24” models, the 2433BW near the lower end of our price range,
and the 2443BW at the top end. Both provide excellent display quality, and
either would be an excellent choice for many people.
It's hard to choose just one display from such a great group, but we finally de-
cided to recommend the ASUS VW266H for the extreme system. At just under
26”, the VW266H will “feel” huge to nearly anyone who's not used to a large
display. Despite its size, at a normal working distance the VW266H provides a
sharp, crisp image. It's priced near the middle of our range, and to get a notice-
ably better display you'd have to spend two to three times as much.
ComponentSummary
Table 5-1 summarizes our component choices for the extreme system.
Table 5-1. Bill of materials for extreme system
Component
Product
Case
Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Power supply
Antec CP-850 850W power supply
Motherboard
Intel Extreme Series DX58SO
Processor
Intel Core i7-980X
CPU cooler
(Bundled with processor)
Memory
Crucial Ballistix BL3KIT25664BN1608 PC3-12800 6 GB kit (2GB × 3)
Video adapter
ASUS EAH4350 RADEON HD 4350 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Sound adapter
(Integrated)
Boot/system drive
Crucial CT128M225 128 GB SSD
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