ATI 3450 card for a 24" monitor???

[m1ldslide1]

A friend of mine is looking at options for a new computer, and since she does zero gaming I've suggested that she look at Dell for options. So she's found a pretty decent bundle that comes in at around $600, and includes a T7200 C2D, Vista premium x64, 4GB RAM, etc and so on and comes with the ATI 3450 HD video card. The only hangup is the fact that she wants a 24" monitor running 1920x1600 with HDMI-in, and will probably purchase a blu-ray drive at some point in the future. I'm not really finding information via google telling me whether the 3450 video card will run vista premium + decode blu-ray at that resolution, and have it be a seamless experience.

Does anybody here happen to know if this video card will crap out under this load?

Also, apparently this card has no HDMI interface, and Dell is saying something about an included adapter? I haven't messed with this before - will this adapter provide a true HDMI experience, or will it be like connecting a VGA-out to a DVI-in monitor?

THANKS :thumbsup:

 

[octopus41092]

HD3450 would be just fine to run Vista Premium and decode Blu-Ray. As long as you're not gaming or anything then it should be fine. Also, if you just use DVI to DVI then it should provied the "true HDMI experience". Also for the monitor, don't you mean 1920x1200?

 

[BernardP]

To add a bit to what octopus41092 is saying:

HDMI is mostly a TV format. It is electrically compatible with DVI, except that it allows audio to pass on the same connection.

If she is only going to use the computer monitor to watch movies, there is no downside to using the standard DVI computer connection. However, if your friend plans to use the computer to drive a TV set, then a HDMI connection is necessary, unless (unlikely) the TV set has a DVI input.

 

[m1ldslide1]

I guess for some reason I had assumed that HDMI would provide a higher bit-rate than DVI or something like that, but I guess that's the problem with assumption. It's very good to hear that the 3450 will support vista premium and Blu-Ray at 1900x1200 .

Thanks very much for the responses.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I helped my friend build a PC recently, UD3P, E5200, Asus 3450 w/HDMI output. It plays video and runs the Windows 7 desktop justs fine and dandy at 1920x1080 over the HDMI port. Also plays audio over HDMI. My friend is very pleased with it.

 

[Bateluer]

Sounds like a decent setup for the money. The 3450 should do fine for what you're stating she'll be using the machine for. If not, the PC will have a PCIe slot that you can use to upgrade the card to something a little beefier, a something in the 4350 to 4670 range.