DREAM MACHINE 2004
40 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2004
Dream Machine 2010: 16GB of RAM and a 4TB Drive?
display, a resistive touch screen, and a
PCI videocard that work together to dis-
play, well, pretty much anything we want.
We’ve used it for everything from the
Windows login screen to displaying mov-
ies while we toil on our PC. We were even
able to gin up a basic application we can
use to activate our favorite apps.
We got the LCD, the touch screen, and
all the software and hardware necessary
for operation with a standard videocard
from EarthLCD.com for about $800. (An
ATI All-in-Wonder PCI videocard runs this
third display.)
http://www.earthlcd.comMouse and Keyboard:
Logitech DiNovo
Choosing the perfect keyboard and
mouse for the Dream Machine isalways a challenge. Finding a keyboard
and mouse that respond fast enough
for gaming sessions, feel comfortable
enough to use for extended periods of
time, and include all the features we
demand gets more difficult every year.
The Logitech DiNovo Media Desktop
combines beautiful form with flawless
functionality. The three-piece set contains
a mouse that’s fast enough for even a
hardcore gamer, a slim QWERTY key-
board, and a small numpad. Both the
keyboard and the numpad sport handy
media controls, which can play, pause,
and change tracks.
We really dig the DiNovo’s wireless
connectivity, especially because it con-
nects your hardware using Bluetooth
instead of a basic proprietary radio link.
In addition to the keyboard and mouse,
you can connect any Bluetooth device to
your system using the built-in hub.
But what we dig the most is the
separate media numpad. It
can be used as a standard
numeric keypad, as a calcu-
lator, or as a media control-
ler—which works flawlessly
with the rudimentary 10-foot
user interface it ships with
the DiNovo. The LCD screenon the numpad also displays relevant
information, either the date and time or
the track and artist info for the currently
playing song.
http://www.logitech.comMouse Pad:
C4 NGen Mouse Pad
Most people are happy to use whatever
piece of foam and rubber happens to be
lying around, but not us: We wouldn’t
dream of resting our mouse on anything
but CS Hyde’s C4 NGen mousing surface.
The NGen’s ultra-slick surface is made of
a Teflon coating that will have your mouse
gliding across your desk like an Olympic
figure skater bringing home the gold. The
company also offers a service whereby you
can have any mouse pad outfitted with a
piece of C4, transforming that ordinary pad
into a power user’s dream.
http://www.cshyde.comThe makers of this year’s Dream Machine dream about the future
SENIOR EDITOR
GORDON MAH
UNG: In 2010, the
need for multiple hard
drives and multiple
optical drives will
continue to drive the
demand for large tower
enclosures, and it’s likely that the BTX
spec will be standardized by then. Liquid or
phase-change cooling will be standard for
power rigs. Dream Machine 2010 will pack
a CPU with four or more cores integrated
into a single die, 16GB RAM (8GB will be
commonplace by then), and 4TB of storage
running on SATA-III. It will lack the BIOS
as we now know it, but sadly, we’ll still be
using a mouse and keyboard to play games
and run the PC.ASSOCIATE EDITOR JOSH
NOREM: Dream Machine 2010 will featurea processor with
six cores running at
10GHz. Its videocard
will be from nVidATI
(the two companies
will merge in 2008)
and will feature 2GB of
onboard memory, which
will allow it to run Half-Life 4 like buttah.
The Serial ATA hard drive will boast 2TB of
storage, and the optical drive will use 200GB
dual-layer discs.FEATURES
EDITOR LOGAN
DECKER: The Dream
Machine of 2010 will
fit easily in my back
pocket. All my applica-
tions, preferences,
work, and personal
data will go wherever I do and will beavailable to me at all times. The device will
be able to harness the power of an external
processing grid and be able to wirelessly
link up to any of the ubiquitous displays
you’ll find embedded in windshields, table-
tops, and elsewhere. One thing the Dream
Machine will not have is a hard drive. The
weakest link in the PC data chain will fi-
nally be laid to rest by holographic storage
and fiber-optic busses.TECHNICAL
EDITOR WILL
SMITH: Dream
Machine 2100 (code-
named “Sandbender”)
will sport a next-gen
direct neural inter-
face, complete with
an adaptive interface and Class 3 intrusion
countermeasures. Oh, you said 2010?