[GTALUG] PC build recommendation

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Alex Volkov via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| On 02/27/18 11:32, Lennart Sorensen wrote:

| > Displayport is much much more versatile and futureproof.  And supports
| > daisy chaining monitors and higher resolution than HDMI.  Also trivially
| > adapts to DVI, HDMI, etc.  I would not consider buying anything without
| > at least one displayport.  Especially since the HDMI on the AM4 boards
| > is 1.4 not 2.0, and hence limited to 4k @ 30Hz, not 60Hz.  At least
| > intel based boards tend to be HDMI 2.0 these days.

| All the cheap screens I have either have HDMI or DVI, so I thought to have a
| simple common display output that would give me the same gamma settings across
| all of the screens.

Really?  I thought that gamma needed to be adjusted for each screen
(if one cared).

| Displayport is more versatile, and there seem to exist
| adapters out there that go from DisplayPort to Dual HDMI or Dual DVI, the
| question is would this kind of set up work with X11, KDE on open source
| drivers with Radeon Vega chip?

What do you mean by "Dual"?

There is a concept in DVI-D of "Dual Link".  That is needed for
resolutions above 1920x1200 at 60.  It's not too well known, but
important to me (my previous monitor was 2560x1600 and only accepted
dual-link DVI input).  DP -> Dual Link DVI requires an active
converter (usually $~100 but I found some cheap on Kijiji).

There is also a concept of Dual Link in HDMI but I don't imagine any
devices ever supported it.  It requires a different connector and
cable.

If you mean DP to two separate video connectors, Lennart addressed
that.

Note: DVI is a dead end.  The standard is frozen in time.

A cable with DP on one end and DVI-D or HDMI on the other is under $10
from Prime Cables (plus shipping):
<https://www.primecables.ca/p-331688-cab-fl-445-914-primecables-displayport-to-hdmi-adapter-cable-mm-3ft-black>

To go to HDMI 2.0 is more, I think:
<https://www.primecables.ca/p-362078-cab-12781-displayport-12a-to-4k-hdmi-active-adapter-black-monoprice>
Do check the details.

| I'm more concerned with what kind of hardware I can reliably use today that
| trying to future proof it and then spending weeks messing with the settings.

Cheap UltraHD TVs require HDMI 2.0.  They are so appealing, and
getting more so.  Make sure you can support HDMI 2.0.  You can buy one
NOW for as low as $300.  Since the screen has the same number of pixels
as four FullHD monitors, that's pretty hard to ignore.

UltraHD TVs are cheaper than UltraHD monitors.  TVs don't usually have
DP inputs but UltraHD monitors do.  TVs tend to have chroma
sub-sampling which I can live with but you might not want to.