see your private pictures in the event of
your death? You got it. Pack 1GB onto a
700MB CD? Roger that. Need to throttle
down your drive into Quiet Mode when
you’re feeling a little jumpy? Okey dokey.
http://www.plextor.comCRT Display: NEC
MultiSync FE2111 SB
Though we’re thinking in terms of the
future, we don’t know of any display
technology that’s as good for PC gam-
ing as a traditional,
tried-and-true, aper-
ture-grille CRT moni-
tor. Resolution flex-
ibility alone makes
it the only sensible
choice, to say nothing
of a CRT’s superior
handling of fast-mov-
ing content. Having
recently reviewed a
number of leading-
brand CRT monitors
(July 2004, and page 82 of this issue),
we’re picking NEC’s FE2111 SB to
represent the category in this year’s
Dream rig. NEC’s perfectly flat 21-incher,
which received a 9 verdict and Kick Ass
award in July, is the epitome of aper-
ture-grille harmony, displaying vibrant
color and sharp contrast at resolutions
up to 1920x1440.
http://www.necmitsubishi.comLCD Display:
sharp lC-M3700
Our display options don’t end with the
CRT pictured above, however. After all,
what makes a Dream Machine if not
a healthy dose of decadence? Hence,
the inclusion of Sharp’s LC-M3700 LCD
monitor. When we’re good and tired
from an intense session of first-person
murder and mayhem, we like nothing
more than to kick back on a comfort-able sofa for some quality web surf-
ing or DVD viewing (or even the two
in tandem), and Sharp’s 37-inch TFT
Active Matrix liquid-crystal behemoth
is our kind of enabler. With a maximum
resolution of 1366x768 it more than
meets the demands of commercial DVD
content, which looks nothing short of
spectacular spanning the LCD’s evenly
lit, richly colored, wide-angled expanse.
And it’s no slouch when it comes to
High-Definition content, either. Plus
the M3700’s got input options aplenty:
DVI, Analog, S-video, Component,
RCA Composite—it’s all there,
tucked discreetly behind the
monitor’s rear terminal cover.
As big as this bad boy is, its
svelte profile and wall-mount-
able option keep it from being
physically intrusive, and its
170-degree all-around view-
ing angle makes for superb
off-axis image quality. It costs
a pretty penny right now, but
given the rate at which LCD
technology is advancing, we
wouldn’t be surprised if every PC
setup of the future includes such
lovely abundance.
http://www.sharp.comSoundcard:
Creative labs
Sound Blaster
Audigy 2 ZS Gamer
Believe it or not, we seriously consid-
ered running the advanced HD Audio
built into the Asus P5AD2 Premium
mobo as our Dream Machine’s sole
source of audio. And why not? The
motherboard has a built-in 24-bit C-
Media codec that supports up to eight
channels of audio. In the end though,
we decided that audio quality was more
valuable than bells, whistles, and the
novelty of newness.
With a set of Sennheiser headphones,
we closely listened to 24-bit/96KHz-
source material on the P5AD2 Premium
and decided that while it sounded very
good, it still couldn’t beat a discrete
soundcard. So we reached for a trusty
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS gamer card.
With its 108dB SNR and hardware DSP,
it’s a pretty clear call. Throw in the only
hardware support for EAX 3 and EAX
4, and we can say the sun hasn’t set on
discrete audio—not yet, at least.
http://www.creativelabs.comSpeakers:
logitech z-680
Just as the Dream Machine strikes fear
into the hearts of benchmarks every-
where, the sound of Logitech’s earth-shak-
ing Z-680 5.1 speakers never fails to send
small animals and Mac users scurrying
for cover. Every time we crank up these
speakers in the Lab, we hear muffled
cries of “run away!” coming from the
-AC !DDiCT side of the building, which
gives us yet another reason to love this
utterly incredible speaker set.
Although they’ve been around for two
years now, the Z-680s still rock harder
than any other speaker system we’ve
tested, and are sTill the only 5.1 speak-
ers that offer both analog and
digital input. This
means we get discrete
five-channel sound in
movies and superb five-
channel DirectX sound in
games too.
They’re the closest we’ve
seen to a set of perfect speak-
ers, so it’s only natural that
the Z-680s are paired with the
closest thing to a perfect PC.
http://www.logitech.comtouch screen:
eArth LCD XLK-5002T
The Dream Machine isn’t simply about
over-the-top performance. It’s also about
extraordinary, forward-thinking func-
tionality. This year, we wanted to add a
front-mounted touch screen LCD, but we
couldn’t find any preconfigured kits, so
we rolled our own.
We found a 640x480, 6.5-inch TFT LCD38 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2004
ers that offer both analog andmovies and superb five-
channel DirectX sound inDREAM MACHINE 2004