Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners anyone up on the latest computer hardware?

If you are looking for a new monitor I strongly suggest going with an IPS panel, that have superior viewing angles compared to TNs panels, esp if you plan on getting a large monitor.

They are more pricey, but well worth it in my opinion.

If you can find an IPS in a 20".

I'm not that concerned with viewing angle, as I'll only be looking at it from straight on. I'll do some more digging on 20" monitors and see what I come up with.

I'd like to get something that does HDMI since the new video card will. It seems like 21.5" is about as small as they go for a HDMI connection though. This is the best one I have found so far.

You probably don't want to use HDMI as your output for your monitor; I think that's more for TVs. I would use either DVI or DisplayPort.

Why are they including HDMI in video cards for the computer then? I just assumed this is the next step up from DVI. Haven't done any research along those lines though.

So you can output to a TV. Mainly for HTPCs. DP is the next step up from DVI.

Back to the computer part again...went to my first computer show in many years today. Realized I'm not missing much anymore. It felt like a flea market of people trying to get rid of old stuff. Only two vendors had any newer systems. Didn't stay there long, but decided to look on newegg this evening to see what I could build a system for myself.

Here is what I came up with.

Rosewill Conqueror RPS-01-WB500P Triple 120mm Fans Steel ATX Mid tower Computer Case with 500W Power Supply

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA

SAPPHIRE 100283-2L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model

Intel Core i7-860

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard w/ USB 3.0 & SATA 6 Gb/s

Total after shipping comes in at just under $900. I think all I am missing is a DVD drive, but I can take that from my old machine.

Now I just have to decide if I should pull the trigger, and if I want to spend the time building this myself.

I came across cyberpower PC's web site, that lets you custom build machines for what seem to be pretty good prices.

I came up with this build.

It comes to about $1050 after shipping - rebates. So about an extra $150, I mostly but not exactly get the parts I want, and it comes built for me.

I don't know if I would go with a Rosewill case, much less a Rosewill power supply. I'd stick with Antec for the case and probably Corsair for the PSU. Admittedly, this'll cost more. But a bad PSU can really ruin your day.