[tech] Purchase of Peripherals for UCC Desktop Machines 2016-07-17

[Andrew Adamson]

> - 2X Mice
>   - SteelSeries Kana
>   - $52 each from PLE

Looks good.

> - 3X Harddrives
>   - 2TB Harddrives
>   - Committee was on the fence between 3 options
>     - WD Blacks $174 from MSY
>     - Seagate SSHD (8TB FLASH) $125 from MSY
>       - ([NTU] has recommended this one already because of boot times)
>     - Seagate Barracuda $98 from MSY

Blacks are overkill for clubroom machines - blues are a better price point 
for the use case.

The other two look okay. I assume this is for the games disk and not the 
system disks? 

> - 2X Monitor
>   -  Secretary was absent from the meeting, here are the screens he was going to propose for discussion
>      - (Also, at a previous meeting committee didn't believe the 144 Hz wasn't worth the extra cost, for one 144
> Hz screen for the club)
>   - Anyway, here are the screens:
> 
>   - Viewsonic VX2457 (24", 1ms, 1080p, 75hz, AMD Freesync)
>     - $199 from MSY
> 
>   - LG 24MP48HQ-P (24", 5ms, 1080p, 60Hz)
>     - $188 from MSY
> 
>   - LG 27MU67 (27", 5ms, 2160p, 60Hz)
>     - $589
> 
>   - AOC G2460PF (24", 1ms, 1080p, 144Hz)
>     - $412 from MSY
> 
>   - Samsung LS24E65KBWV (24", 5ms, 1200p, 60Hz)
>     - $299 from MSY

I'm a huge fan of the 16:10 aspect ratio for uni/coding work, and I think 
we should be supporting that even on gaming machines. I also think we 
should always be going for IPS screens because they're a lot easier on the 
eyes. We also need to ensure that monitors we buy have an M4 mounting hole 
on the back so we can secure them with our systems. We already have a lot 
of 24" screens like this in the form of Dell U2412M screens.

>From that list the best one for our needs looks to me like the Samsung 
LS24E65KBWV. We've had very good support from Samsung in the past when 
one of the screens failed, and the others have lasted quite well. I've 
checked the manual for the LS24E65KBWV and it does have a VESA 100 
mounting hole (which is M4 by the standard).

Andrew Adamson
bob at ucc.asn.au

|"If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them."                |
| ---Peter's Laws                                                        |