MaximumPC 2005 12

30 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2005

MEZZANINE: VIDEO GALLERY

Visitors to the popular Video Gallery may register to attend, free of charge,

Dr. Hilfen von Fenestre’s brunch lecture on “l33t sp3ak”

LCD Monitor

Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW

We’re not sure which makes us more giddy, this LCD’s big

bad-assness or its bargain price

At 24-inches, this is one of the largest LCD screens you can

get with the specs to satisfy a power user. The 2405FPW’s

generous expanse and 1920x1200 native resolution provide

the screen real estate of two standard desktop monitors,

and handles all you throw at it—including fast-motion

games—with glorious aplomb. To boot, this baby boasts

tasty extras like a built-in 9-in-1 media reader and four USB

2.0 ports, and is usually discounted on Dell’s website for

less than a grand!

$1,200, http://www.dell.com

Received a 9/Kick Ass in the September 2005 issue

Videocard

EVGA e-GeForce 7800

GTX KO

This is the fastest card we’ve

ever put in a single PCI

Express slot

nVidia deserves credit for

designing the GeForce 7800

GTX—the most potent con-

sumer GPU ever—but we have

to hand it to eVGA for build-

ing an incredible videocard

around that muscular engine.

As elegant as it is powerful,

the hyper-clocked KO—with

a 490MHz GPU and 650MHz

memory—delivered the best

videocard benchmark per-

formance we’ve ever seen,

thanks in part to a stylish and

ultra-effective cooling solution,

without which a Chernobyl-

type meltdown would be

inevitable.

$600, http://www.evga.com

Not previously reviewed

GEAR

YEAR

of

the