List your PC!

[Marcus Telcontar]

And here we have another round of.... describe your PC!

Here's the one I build right now out of spare parts I have...

Duron 1.3Ghz
10Gb drive
DVD
192 mb RAM
All onboard sound / video / etc
Optical Mouse
14" monitor - for now.
Redhat Linux ver 7.3 with WINE for Windows software I need to run

Linked to the Internet via 1.5mb ADSL

[Admiral Lebron]

1.1 Gigahertz AMD Athalon
40 Gig internal HD
40 Gig External HD
712k RAM
Onboard sound/video/ etc.
17'' moniter
Optical mouse
Window 98 S.E

Linked to the net on worst cable imaginable.

[Morgan Evanar]

Uhh, I guess I'll list my PC since its the best one in the house.

Athlon XP 1700+
Gigabyte GA7-VTXE (VIA KT-266a chipset)
256MB DDR RAM
GeForce 3 TI200 64MB @ 195mhz core / 434mhz RAM
Philips Acoustic Edge
Maxtor 60GB 7200 RPM w/2mb cache
Western Digital 40 GB 7200 RPM w/8mb cache
Lite-On 32x burner
Intellimouse Optical
Generic Ergnomic Keyboard.
Optiquest Q71 17" monitor

Windows XP/ Red Hat 8.

Mindspring/Earthlink 256kbps/1.5mbps ADSL.

[Turcyn Rorke]

Pentium 4 1.6ghz
32.8gb Drive
CD Writer (after Christmas)
256mb RAM (maybe more after Christmas)
Philips Speakers
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS
Stock Mouse/Keyboard
17" Monitor
Windows XP Home
56k Modem (only connected at 49.2kbps)

How did you fit 712mb into your computer?

[Figrin D'an]

My new box, built only a few weeks ago...

Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73 Ghz)
Asus A7V8X motherboard
256 Mb PC 2100 DDR Ram
80 GB, 7200 rpm Western Digital hard drive, 4 partitions
CD/DVD drive (I don't remember the speed multipliers off-hand)
Internal Zip-100 drive
Samsung floppy drive (woohoo, go 3.5" floppy... ;) )
On board sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 enabled
On board Gigabit LAN
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro AGP card, 128 mb
US Robotics 56K Data/Fax Modem
Antec Workstation II tower case (w/ Antec power supply)


Logitech Mouseman Wheel
Ergonomic keyboard
15" Sony Trinitron monitor
Altec Lansing Dolby Digital 5.1 speaker system
Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad

Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 1

[Marcus Telcontar]

And we also have..

Celeron POS that is a MP3 / media / file server.

Celeron 566
128mb RAM
10Gb drive
CD-Rom
No monitor (VNC to get into it)
No mouse / keyboard
W2K

And Helen's monster...

Dual 1.13 Xeon PIII
Removable 30Gb
Removable 20Gb
458 mb RAM
400w Powersupply
GeForce 2 (Not for long)
19" flatscreen
Cordless Logitech mouse / keyboard
XP Pro
SB Live 5.1
DTS 5.1 speaker system
Sony DVD
CD-burner
Zip drive.
twin clooling fans per drive, 4 internal cooling fans.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Marcus Q'Dunn

... twin clooling fans per drive, 4 internal cooling fans.

Does it sound like a cargo plane when it boots? ;)

[imported_Firebird1]

P3 933 Mhz
384 MB Ram
20 GB Hard Drive
Sound Blaster Live
7200 Radion PCI
CDRW
Wireless Optical Mouse.
Speakers w/ Subwoofer
15 Inch Monitor.
P4 ready Power Supply
Case Light
Additional Fan

Next upgrades....
Geforce 4 4400 MX w/ 64 MB RAM
P4 2.0 Ghz

[Morgan Evanar]

Geforce 4 4400 MX w/ 64 MB RAM

NO NON ON OJ NOONONOONOONONO

God. DON'T. Geforce 4 Ti4200 or Radeon 9000. MX series = GeForce 2. Even a GeForce 3 is better than a 4 MX.

[Figrin D'an]

Yeah, Morg is right. "MX" basically means "stripped down." The GeForce 4 Ti4200 is pretty reasonably priced and is a good option. The prices on the Radeon 9000/9000 Pro should be coming down with the introduction of the 9500/9500 Pro. Just keep your eyes open and check pricewatch.com. :)

[Jared Mriad]

256MB HS RAMBUS PC800 Memory
60 GB 7200RPM Ultra ATA/100 HDD
24x10x32x CDRW Drive
16x DVD Drive
Pentium 4 2.20Ghz Processor.
Wavetable Audio Onboard
3-piece Speaker System with Subwoofer
ATI Raedeon 64MB DDR 3D AGP Video
19" Monitor.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Does it sound like a cargo plane when it boots?

C130 actually

[TheHolo.Net]

AMD Thunderbird 1.33 GHz
512 MB RAM
1 80 GB HD
1 40 GB HD
GeForce 2 video 64 MB
Sound Blaster PCS512
DVD
CDRW
10/100 NIC
Intellimouse Explorer Optical
Logitech Softtouch Keyboard
NCR 22” monitor
Windows XP Pro

Networked (100BaseT) with 3 other PCs for more file storage and LAN gaming

[Nupraptor]

AMD T-Bird 1.13ghz
256mb PC133 SDRAM
GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB @ 200mhz / 460mhz
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
IBM 30gb 7200rpm HDD
Maxtor 60gb 7200rpm HDD
Toshiba DVD-Rom
Lite-On 32x CD-RW
MS Intellimouse Explorer

Win2k Pro / Win98 (going to be upgrading 2k to XP and playing around with OSX soon)

19" Optiquest Monitor

[Sanis Prent]

I have no detailed specs onhand, sorry.

PIII 800 mHz
50 GB Hard Drive
384 mb SDRAM
32 mb GeForce II (upgrading to 128 DDR Ge4 Ti for Christmas, yay me.)
Windows XP Pro
DVD-ROM
CD-R
Altec Lansing speaker set w/ subwoofer
21 inch monitor
Right-handed logitech ergonomic mouse (Used strangely enough, with my left hand)
Plain Jane Keyboard
The Ugliest Cable Hookup Ever (but also damn cheap :D)
Ancient but useable palm pilot interface
Crazy multipurpose crappy webcam
Microphone
Monitor illuminator thingamajig
HP Officejet 710 (print, copy, scan, fax...all in color, but grainy and slow at all things)

Possible upgrades:

Better motherboard: I need to cross the gigahertz threshold, but I'm not sure how much work it'll entail. Probably will go with AMD, but not for certain.

RAM: Always handy...though this won't be a priority for some time. Even if my RAM isn't DDR, its plentiful for now. It won't win contests, but it'll do the job.

Webcam: Mine, while able to do many jobs, does none of them well, and sucks batteries for breakfast. Noncompatability in Yahoo is sucky, since nobody in the free world uses Netmeeting anymore (testament to which...try to find netmeeting for XP). Combined with the fact that a decent webcam costs 1/4th what my webcam cost, and I need a new toy.

Beer Cozy: I'm thinking about hot gluing a beer cozy to the side of my monitor. There is so little space on my desk to put a beer, and I need to think outside the box.

Optical and wireless mouse: I hate dirty roller meeces to pieces. That, and I really want to use a mouse that I can run over my crotch. Awesome.

Wireless keyboard: Might as well go buck wild...woohoo

In closing, its not a bad computer for being over 2 years old. I think I've maintained it pretty well. Its not a competitor, but it can handle most things thrown at it reasonably well.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Computer:

the one on my table, crappy keyboard, crappy mouse, crappy table. Actual computer: not crappy.

[Nupraptor]

This is pretty much the worst wiring ever:

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=415523

What that is: One of those large, box-like plugs. The prongs on the underside broke off. One was still attached to the wire, the other was completely ripped off. I used a gatorclip to attach the raw wire back to the prong. Then, I shoved both prongs into one of those outlet adapters (that let you put a three-pronged plug into an outlet that only supports 2 prongs), and shoved that in the powerstrip.

[Gouyen Chee]

I'll put mine here because it seems I'm the only one on this board who uses Macintosh:

Rev A iMac
233mHz G3 processor
160 meg memory
4 gig harddrive
somebodies decent video card, 2 meg VRAM
15 in built-in monitor
24X CD ROM
built-in stereo speakers
Mac OS 8.6
56kbaud dialup (Earthlink)

WTF, it runs....

But I do really need a new computer....

[Diego Van Derveld]

Oh. My. God.

I wouldn't wish your glorified paperweight on my enemies.

[Taylor Millard]

If I knew what was in my computer I'd tell ya. Funny is...I bought most of the stuff. :lol

[Oriadin]

900Mhz Duron
60Gb HDD
10Gb HDD
448Mb RAM
52x CDROM
32x CDRW
64Mb Geforce 4MX
MS Optical Mouse
MS Internet Keyboard
17" Sony Monitor

[Ishan Shade]

Don't feel like typing out all my junk...so i'll give ya a rundown

1.0 ghz pent III
60 gig hard drive
500+ RAM
32mb diamond stealth video

[Levi Argon]

AMD Athlon 600Mhz
128 MD SD-RAM
32MB NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 64 Pro
Creative Soundblaster PCI 128
27 GB Hard Disk
6x HP CD-Writer+ 8100
Samsung DVD-ROM SD-608
10/100 NIC
17" monitor and standard keyboard and mouse.
Windows 98 SE
Crappy webcam, scanner and printer

Blueyonder 256kbps/1Mbps


But with upgrades on order and to arrive by the end of this month, godwilling, my comp will look something more like this:

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Epox 8K5A2+
Akasa Silver Mountain 2Q Cooler
Corsair 512MB DDR
Leadtek WinFast A250 Ultra TD MyVIVO Geforce4 Ti 4600
Western Digital Caviar 80GB Special Edition
Windows XP Pro (at last)

All that with the old stuff from above. :)


Edit: Need some advice on a new soundcard.

[Oriadin]

Oh, I also have the same internet as Levi

[Nupraptor]

Need some advice on a new soundcard. I loathe Creative with a passion. Their driver support is terrible. Try a Phillips Acoustic Edge or Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

[Levi Argon]

How fast does yours regularly download? Mine is usually about 1.3/1.4 instead of 1Mb - which is nice. :)

[Oriadin]

I only have the 256kbps connection for the moment.

[Levi Argon]

Ah right, the 256kbps bit on mine is the upload rate. Are you sure you don't have the 512kbps connection? I thought blueyonder only provided a 512kbps and a newer 1Mb broadband service.

[Oriadin]

ah crap, your right. Its 256 upload and 512 download. I would have thought your upload would have been quicker than that though if your on the 1mb service.

How much is that service now anyways?

[Morgan Evanar]

Gav: Videologic Sonic Fury is the European version of the Santa Cruz. Or get something from Philips. The driver support for both cards is fantastic.

Creative Labs = bloatware beyond belief, and lots of problems.

Philips drivers = ~7mb
Turtle Beach = ~ 18 mb
Creative = ~30 plus megs.

Also, the Creative control pannels really eat crap compared to the Philips or TBSC stuff.

[Zachariah Darmok]

1.7 GiG/Pent 4
SoundBlaster 16 sound card
Herclulies 64 meg Graphics card
384mb Ram
DVD/CD Writer
Optical Mouse
Compaq 17" monitor
Broadband internet.
Dexxa Keybord

and all the gadgets..you know webcam and such.

(Sieken)

[Dasquian Belargic]

AMD Athlon XP 1600+
1.40 GHz
512MB of RAM
GeForce 2 Ultra
19" Monitor
IntelliMouse Explorer (wireless, damn it.)
Broad-band 'net
Toshiba DVD Rom
Plextor CD-R
Creative SB Live graphics.. thing..

I don't know where to find anything else o_O

[Gouyen Chee]

Glorified paperweight?? Hardly -- that describes the gawd-awful 486 system I had to use in the local jr. college computer lab. I actually did better running my C++ compiler on my computer via Vitrual PC. It was actually faster and considerably less crash-prone. It's just that sometimes I needed to see my instructor and for that I had to go to the lab. *blech*

No way am I ever going to buy one of those accursed beige boxes with Wintel. :mneh

Apple Forever!

[Sanis Prent]

(Tattoos "CRAFTSMAN" on Gouyen's forehead) :)

[Kas Katta]

AMD XP 1800+ (1.53ghz)
256MB 133mhz RAM
40GB 7500rpm HD
GeForce 4 Ti 4200 128MB
Sound Blaster Gamer 5.1
400w 5.1 Speaker System

Standard keyboard and 5 button mouse.

[Gouyen Chee]

*removes tatoo from forehead*

*tatoos "Property of Bill Gates" on Sanis' forehead*

[Sanis Prent]

Ha...crazy Mac Users....defiant to the end. You're like the last stand of Berlin or something. Hell, at least talk to me with a good Mac, not an antiquidated 6 year old neon candy alzheimer ward patient.

[Figrin D'an]

I used to use Macs exclusively. I still work with them. They have some nice features... OS X is a great operating system (once again, UNIX saves the day... )... the hardware is ridiculously expensive though.... yeah, SCSI has it's advantages, but for the average computer user, it's a waste of money... the big problem is lack of software. It will always be this way. Apple will have it's little niche in the computer world, supported mainly by zealots and the occasional person that switches from "PC's" out of self-inflicted frustration.



"No way am I ever going to buy one of those accursed beige boxes with Wintel."

So... don't. Get a case of a different color... it's not that hard to do. And if you don't like Microsoft and Intel, use Linux and AMD. :)

[Sejah Haversh]

Here's my system: The Thunder Chunky

Intel P4 1.7 GHz
256 MB RAM
60 GB HD
CD-RW/DVD
Zip 250
Iomega Zip 700
GForce 3D Prophet II 32 MB video
Turtle Beach somethign or other fancy sound card
3.5" Floppy, which seemingly none of you have...
Harmon/Kardon speakers and sub
Sony 17" Trinitron flat glass high-res monitor
HP Jornada 568
Biometric Passoword system (Fingerprint ID)
Digital microscope
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical
AIPTek digitizing tablet

--and networked to it is a Sony VAIO laptop that is a:
PIII 333 MHz
6 GB HD
192 MB RAM
DVD
13.7" screen (busted)
And was just darn cool before it went through my crash with me.

And a host of other perhirprials.
Soon to have Firewire and more RAM.

[Master Yoghurt]

Oh, I LIKE this thread!

* 2Mbit ADSL :evil
* AMD Athlon XP 2000
* 512 MB CL2.5 DDR 2100 (266Mhz)
* MSI AGP GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB DDR DVI 250/500, Tv-Out :rollin
* Asus A7V333 motherboard. Socket A DDR, VIAKT333, ATA/133, ATX, USB2.0, sound
* 17 inch monitor
* AX-01SL-D Chieftec Dragon Aluminium Tower Silver w/340W PSU :smokin
* Alpha CPU-cooler PAL8045 w/80x80 Titan fan, 64m³/hour, 27 dB(A), alarm + 2 Papst 33m³/hour, 12 dB(A)
* 10X Pioner DVD-ROM DVD-114
* Plextor PleXWriter 24/10/40A w/Burnproof & PoweRec II
* HD#1: IBM Deskstar 120GXP - 120GB :eek, ATA 100, 8.5ms, 7200RPM w/2MB cache
* HD#2: IBM Deskstar 60GXP - 30GB, ATA 100, 8.5ms, 7200 RPM w/2MB cache
* MS Internet Keyboard Pro w/2 USB ports
* MS Intellimouse Explorer Optical Mouse
* MS Sidewinder Joystick
* MS Sidewinder Gamepad
* Microphone (karaoke style, although professional quality, lol)
* Sony Headphones
* HP Deskjet 895Cxi Printer
* Windows XP Professional w/service pack 1 (Licensed)

3D Marks 2001 SE: 9100 (I expect that to improve with tweaking, overclocking and driver updates etc)

Other than the monster above, I have a P2 (which I plan to set up as a router and a server) and an Amiga 1200 which I keep for nostalgic reasons (although, I am more into emulation now).

[Leeloo Mina]

This thread makes me cry.. :cry

I'm not posting my PC.. I'm too ashamed ^_^;



:cry

[Nupraptor]

I must say that I'm very impressed with WinXP so far. Upgrading from 2k was an absolute breeze. Didn't have to re-install a thing.

[Gouyen Chee]

I don't care what you folks say -- I still love my Mac. It's a great computer for the non-geek who just wants to surf the 'Net, keep up on family finances and do a little word processing. And it has enough power to do some more serious stuff, such as graphics. It may be more expensive, but I think they're worth it because the hardware is so solid. I had to take the GRE on a Compaq computer, and it was a miserable experience -- headache-inducing screen flicker and an unpredictable mouse that felt like an empty juice box with a ping-pong ball inside. I really missed my iMac then....

[Sejah Haversh]

That's because it was a Compaq. Or Comcrap as I like to call them. Now, Macs are okay for graphics and the like, but I would NEVER work in a business who used Networked Macs. Nuh-uh.

And it's PC for me because the software and hardware is CHEAP! And my Dell ahs been nothign but reliable, and so was my Sony. I likens my PC.

[Judas Escariot]

HAL 9000

[Marcus Telcontar]

Mac hardware solid??

Nope, it's just the same as other hardware reliability wise. Anything below a G4 Mac and OS 10.1 is worthless. iMac I would use solely as an anchor. And that accursed one button mouse? For Force sake, BURN THEM. And before OS 10.1, about as stable as Win98. If that. And then XP IS still a better OS, even if it is hellspawn from Redmond. And x86 hardware is cheaper, faster and a lot of times put together better.

Linux isnt better - yet. Mandrake 8.0 however.... hmmm, that looks interesting. Now if WINE to run x86 apps..... aint had no luck yet getting Photoshop to run inWINE on Redhat 7.3, but I'm getting closer. And Evolution is a damn good Outlook replacement, Mozilla is a better browser than IE, Open Office is almost there....

AMD / Linux is looking like it finally could make it as viable non geek choices

[Nupraptor]

I'm interested in OSX. I've heard a lot of good things about it.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Jaguar update of OS X (10.2) is supposed to be really solid and got some worthwhile updates.

[Figrin D'an]

The Mac OS has always been a very peculiar animal... in my experience, its various version over the years have ranged from total garbage to quite good, in terms of stability and functionality. The biggest problem, IMO, has been Apple's policy regarding 3rd party software vendors. They have tended to make it a living nightmare for companies to write good software for their platform without jumping through a series of ridiculous hoops. The end result of the paranoia Apple has for their OS code is a bunch of software that doesn't run very well on their machines. 95% of the stability problems I have encountered on Mac machines are because of this, not actual bugs in the OS itself.

OS X.1 is pretty good. I've used it in a limited capacity, but the experience has been all positive so far. Since I built my new box, I finally am getting the opportunity to run XP (I ran '98 on my old machine). Beyond a few little quirks that I managed to figure out and/or correct, it's been excellent as well. The final verdict is still out on both of them, from my perspective, but both have impressed me so far.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Well, for older versions of the Mac OS, I have seen some OS related fatalities. And it certainly was nowhere near up to date until OSX - which did get a decent kickalong for being BSD core. Open/Free BSD's are very good things and secure.

And in PC updates.... now got myself a 17" screen, and added a D-Link DSL gateway/firewall. Quite nice that thing is

[Robi]

(Gouyen here, by way of her puppydog)

I guess the best way to state it is that I like the feel of the Mac mouse (even though it's the decidedly un-ergonomic "hockey puck" one) and the Mac keyboard (which has stood up to some fairly determined "tinkering" by my pet parrot). I guess it just boils down to personal preference. I really like the look and feel of Apple products and am willing to pay a little extra for them.

As for software/OS: I sometimes wonder if the smartest move Apple could make is to come out with a PC compatible version of OS 10.2. I know the Apple faithful are against this move, but I think that this is something that Jobs & Co. will have to seriously consider. They've already come out with a PC version of the iPod, so this move may be on the horizon. This move would give Microsoft fits -- but doesn't Microsith own a 10% share in Apple?

[Nupraptor]

I sometimes wonder if the smartest move Apple could make is to come out with a PC compatible version of OS 10.2.I'd probably buy it, if they did.

[Leeloo Mina]

That would be intresting to see.. I'm not sure that I'd buy it, but I'd at least look at it.

[imported_Grev Drasen]

On the topic of operating systems, who here uses Linux?

[Nupraptor]

Morgan said he dual-booted with Red Hat.

[Marcus Telcontar]

I do and have used it since Red Hal 2.0 on and off

That's quite few years now.....

No, Apple will never release OS 10.2 to Intel. It would kill their hardware business in a blink and make them go head to head with Microsoft. Apple make most of their money in hardware.... and would you willingly compete against Microsoft???

[imported_Grev Drasen]

Well, I'm building a box with a friend of mine and was looking to put Linux in it just for something different. I've never had any prior experience with Linux, and want to see if I'd like it better.

Any suggestions as to what OS would be good for me?

[Figrin D'an]

For end-user distributions of Linux, I would recommend either Mandrake or Red Hat. Red Hat is a good one for a beginner, but still has a lot of flexibility. Mandrake is excellent, but a little more complex to set up. If you are looking to be able to run a lot of Windows programs, you might try Lindows... I haven't used it personally, but it supposedly runs almost all Windows apps. Linux.org has a big distribution list if you want to look at it.

You'll want a duel-boot system if you go with a Linux distribution, just in case there is something that requires Windows to work properly. XP or 2000 are your best options there.

[TheHolo.Net]

I am going to start putting the pieces together in my newest rig tomorrow.

P IV 3.0 GHz 800 MHz FSB w/HT
ASUS MB - P4C800
512 MB PC3200 Dual channel DDR RAM (will probably upgrade to a full gig soon)
420W PS in an aluminum case (mid tower) with two additional case fans.
80 GB Maxtor 7200 - ATA 133 (will add an aditional HD as needed)
Sony DRU510A DVDRW/CDRW drive
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/ 256 MB RAM
Sound Blaster Live 5.1
Corded MS Intellimouse Explorer
A cheap keyboard
22" .22 dot pitch monitor

[Ryla Relvinian]

Hmm, If I actually knew where to look for any of this stuff, I'd put it up here. As it is, I'm pretty lost around hardware specs.

[Nexus Barton]

Time to put my POS IBM to test now don't laugh.

AMD-k6 380Mhz processor with 3Dnow technology (isn't that exciting)
32mb ram
6gb HD
56k modem
win98
The rest is generic factory installed crap.

[Charley]

The death star will be operational as planned :cool (aka, a week or two)

AMD Athlon 1.9 gHz
768 mb DDR RAM PC3200 (For now. Probably will eclipse a gig shortly)
50 gb HD
128 DDR NVIDIA GeForce4
Win XP Pro

(Special thanks to Morg for the hookup)

[Shawn]

Might as well post my updated specs, then. ;)

P4 2.4b Ghz
Intel D845PESV motherboard
1gb Corsair XMS2700
Radeon 9700 Pro @ 351/660
TurtleBeach Santa Cruz
30gb IBM HDD (hopefully will be fixing/replacing my 60gb sometime soon for a total of 90gb)
Windows XP

[Figrin D'an]

My rig is basically the same as it was last November, except I added a Plextor 48/24/48A burner. I need to get some more RAM.

[imported_Firebird1]

My Rig.
AMD Althon xp 2000 + (1.66 Ghz)
512 RAM
20 Gb Seagate
40 Gb Western Digital
Chaintech Apogee Motherboard (onboard LAN, Sound, USB 2.0)
Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer
Nivida Geforce4 MMX 440
56k Modem
Samsung DVD/CD-RW drive
and a couple of case lights
I am looking for a new Video Card though. Any suggestions?

[Shawn]

See my box description for suggestions. :)

\/ Or the 9500 (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=14-142-015&refer=pricewatch), if you're on a budget.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Firebird1
I am looking for a new Video Card though. Any suggestions?

Radeon 9500 Pro 128Mb (If you can get one... they're becoming more difficult to find, but if you can... the price is most definately right for the performance.)

[Morgan Evanar]

The 9500 Pro is faster than the 9600 Pro. Different memory configuration.

Current specs:
Athlon XP 1700+ TBred B@ 2000+
Abit NF7-S v1 nForce 2 mainboard
768 MB DDR PC2100
Radeon 9700 128MB
Seagate 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 2mb cache (slower than my 40, which my sister now has. But its silent)
KDS 19" XF-9e monitor. My LCD is now in St. Louis with my sister =o

[Park Kraken]

Mine:
Vectra
96 MBs of RAM
40 GB Hard Drive
I'm not sure about the rest of the stats

[Ryla Relvinian]

Ok, my BF, who actually knows what he's talking about, has told me to type this in:

Homebuilt
AMD Duron Processor @ 750 MHZ, 100 Mhz FSB
384 Mb PC100 RAM
Abit KT7A (w/o RAID) motherboard
NVidia GeForce2 MX 200 32 Mb AGP display adapter
ACER 16x DVD ROM
HP CDRW+ 1900 series
Quantum Fireball LM30 30 Gb
Western Digital WD307AA 30 Gb
Linksys LNE100TX v4 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Soundblaster Live! value

... at least, that's what they tell me. :D

[imported_STELA'SHLIT'NURUODO]

Ok new toy is up and running.

Athlon 2400+
1 gig ram
asylum 256meg Video
16x 48 x DVD
52x24x52x Burner
Audigy Sound
160 Gig 7200 rpm HD

And having to use dail -up

[Lion El' Jonson]

I'd post my system...but it'd put you all to shame, so in the interest of cooperation I'll relent...:lol

[imported_Marcus]

Post your system or I'll hack in and wipe it out

[Lion El' Jonson]

It's a brand new Alienware Aurora running an Athlon 3200+ and a RADEON 9800 PRO w/256mb, plus a gig of DDR SDRAM and an 120 gb hard drive.

It hasn't even arrived yet....We had to have Alienware ship it to a mailbox in the US, and it's being routed to us via Airmail. It's not due to arrive for a couple more weeks.

Right now, though, I'm on a 2.53ghz Pentium 4 with 512mb of Ram, a Geforce 4 Ti 4600, and an 80GB hard drive. It works great, but my sister wants a new computer, so she's getting mine and I'm getting the Alienware.

Incidentally, all Alienware bashers...go away...:lol

They may not be as fast as a Voodoo or a Falcon Northwest, but the cases look cool and they're cheaper than buying something from other High-End manufacturers.

Or I could just build mine, but I don't have the time, and I imagine stepping on a $400 graphics card is simply heartbreaking.

[Morgan Evanar]

Um, I bash Alienware because like all of your other listed PC vendors, its a huge ripoff. But nice box, if totally overpriced.

[TheHolo.Net]

I'm considering switching my new box's hard drive over to a SATA drive, but need to do some more research first. My new MB supports SATA, but I decided when I put it together to go with a tried and true IDE style instead of a SATA interface.

And my new box absolutely smokes as it is! :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

SATAN drive? o_O

[TheHolo.Net]

:lol

Nope, Serial ATA.

Supposed to be much faster than IDE in theory.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Oh. An IDE *nods as if she knows what one of those is* :uhoh

[Lion El' Jonson]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
Um, I bash Alienware because like all of your other listed PC vendors, its a huge ripoff. But nice box, if totally overpriced.

Ah. If it's any consolation, I'm not getting a new box for 2 or 3 years, mind...

[General Tohmahawk]

Serial ATA isn't actually that much faster than IDE/ATA in max, what it is tho is that it's more consistent. Unlikwe IDE/ATA which 'bursts' (ie, sends lots of data, backs off, sends lots of data.... etc), serial ATA gets to the max and stays there. It also hits the processor less I understand.The other thing with SATA is that the bandwidth per drive is dedicated like in SCSI, not shared as in IDE/ATA. If you have two drives on a IDE/ATA chain, only one drive can get data written to it at a time. SCSI, you can write data to each of the 7 or 14 devices on the chain. I dont know how many devices can be put on a SATA chain, but I do understand each device works independantly.

So for a RAID, SATA will rule, for vid editing and things that belt the HDD, it will rule. For normal daily use? Eh, IDE/ATA is good enough.

[Morgan Evanar]

One drive per channel. And the Serial ATA drives ARE much faster. They have 10k models that are as fast as many SCSI drives for much, much less.

[General Tohmahawk]

Not according to the comparision charts, with drive spindle speeds being the same (7200) in ATA and SATA. The max I/O was in favour of SATA but not considerably much. But the thoughput - now that's where SATA rules.

I have no doubts the increase in spindle speeds increase I/O and hence throughput - that's been SCSI's advantage. The other is the independant operation of the drives on a chain.

really, about the only thing stopping high spindle speeds on ATA was the bursty nature of the interface - why use high speed when the interface cant handle it?. Now you have an interface that allows constant throughput, you can bring the drive speeds up.

I could write all sorts of nasty comments on why SCSi has remained unresonably sky high pricing wise. There is no reason they should be, given that the physical components are similar. Looks liek that the pricing will now neatly shoot SCSI in both feet and that's a shame. The interface was always excellent. When I ran U/W160's on my PC, it always was ballistic. A real pity :/

[Morgan Evanar]

Looks liek that the pricing will now neatly shoot SCSI in both feet and that's a shame. The interface was always excellent. When I ran U/W160's on my PC, it always was ballistic. A real pity :/Why? You have something just as good for much less money in the workstation segment. Servers will remain SCSI for the next few years, but vendors have little reasons to continue to use it as SATA matures and spindle speeds ramp up.

[General Tohmahawk]

Because if SCSI didnt price itself out fo the market, there would be not as much need for SATA and I bet development would have increased on SCSI with larger market share.

If server manufacturers didnt have more of an eye on screwign the budgets of IT, SATA and firewire drive arrays would be a reality already. Manufacters are not making money on normal PC's, but they make loads on a server. And for what? It's because dumb bum IT PHB's sign big contracts and get big machines that are nowhere near worth the money. A bit of clever thinking would result in a computer room with 1/3rd less expense and just as much speed and power.

For example, I have a Dell quote sitting on my desk for a rack of systems. 100,000 so far, let alone core switches for a cluster and licences? Eeek. Then, you walk over to a small PC store, find out if they can get a 2U blade chassis and we are now looking at 70,000 less, esp considering Linux is looking the go. Looking over some of the HP quote Helen has, the prices are just as frightening, yet PHB's somehow think that it buys them something good and above everythign else.

Wrong. That's just bad thinking.

The vendors wont have a choice once IT departments buy as clue and start picking value over dubious reputation. Per meg, SCSI's have been a scam for some years. And that sucks, because there was nothign else wrong with it.

[Morgan Evanar]

Which was basically my point. SCSI is fine technology, its just priced absurdly and now SATA stuff is going to kick it senseless in the workstation/enthusast market in the short term, and kill it completely in the long term.

Besides, SATA's tiny cables are rad. I won't miss the mess of ribbon cable needed for a RAID5 at all.

[Mandalore]

^^^

Nothing fuels my seething hardware hatred like SCSI ribbon cables.

[imported_Marcus]

Haha, just started the collection for the new PC, now that.....

Heh. Lets just say I have a terrific parts supply after today's talks with a supplier. Finally got things happening.

I'm now looking at putting wireless in at home, and building a proper server along with a workstation. The plan for the server is a twin processor 1Gz Xeon running 1Gb memory and 3 * 120 Gb drives on a Adaptec four channel IDE controller and the 40 Gb swap drive. with Back Office 2000 as the OS. The workstation.... not sure yet. That might be interesting. The priority will be getting the server running and reinstalling ADSL.

[Morgan Evanar]

What on earth are you going to use that for?
Also: Dual AMD might be a lot cheaper unless you get a special deal on those Xeons. intel never really dropped them in price very much. A P4 2.4c HT might be cheaper too, and probably faster.

Also: Seagate. I can't say it enough. They're dead silent and reliable.

[imported_Marcus]

Mail / database / file / print server, plus a devel unit for client jobs - things have quite suddenly gotten serious and it's what I need. The Xeons I can get very fast and very cheap, else I would be gunning for a MP solution. The drive space is frankly a total wank, but again, I can get them cheap and in good supply, so why not?

I've suffered with crap for a while, now I'm likely to have some stuff worked out, now I'm going to get what I want and need. The server is a need, while the proposed workstation - always wanted somethign cutting edge.