Brag (or complain) about you computer

[RvW]

Brag about your machine! powerhouse state of the art? or 1980 tandy 33 in a 200 pound box?

I'm proud of my last computer purchase having had to deal with laptops while living on the road for so long.

VPR Matrix which is manufatured by best buy with a less than 1:800 failure rate. (better than any of the big boys)

Theres a intel pentium 3.06 gig processor with dual fans.
500 watt power supply.

Dual 80 gig hard drives on the "RAID" setup.

1.2 gig DDR RAM

yamaha sw1000xg sound/midi card
Cambridge soundworks 6:1 speakers

ATI allinwonder pro agp graffix card w/digital tv out (connected to my Samsung 42 inch hdtv)

3 firewire, 3 USBII

DVDR/CDR

wireless internet keyboard, wireless optical mouse. Supprted by one 7 foot flexsteel sofa and an ottoman.

HP lazerjet printer.

Picture of one fine drift boat I coulda bought instead as a screensaver.

[ 02-02-2003, 11:18 PM: Message edited by: cirrhosis-of-the-river ]

[Silver Hilton]

Does it help you type faster?

400mz PII
Bad phone line that only allows me to connect at around 33,000
512mb memory
6gb hard drive
DVD player
Kenwood Multi Beam 40X CD
Internal 100mg zip drive
LaserJet II printer
Nice 17" monotor

[RvW]

still a four finger typer, until I figure out this voice recognition software. Dont be shy SH, what kinda surfboard you got dude?

[Silver Hilton]

I loaf along on a Dell PIII 900, 512 MB, XP Pro. It supports my work more than adequately. The kids have the screamer, some off brand AMD 1.8Ghz. My wife has the old one a PII 700

This all makes my reminisce about the first computer I ever got paid to work on. An old Basic Four, we paid about $10,000 to upgrade it from 4 kb to 8kb of RAM.

I learned BASIC on a TRS 80, bought almost the first IBM PC that came out. Mine had the upgrade to 64k, and DOUBLE SIDED disk drives. Learned dBase, C and assembler on that one. COBOL on the machine at PSU. And so on...

[happybrew]

We have an e-Machines with some 600 Mhz or so Celeron processor, 10 gig hard drive, and two USB Ports, that we got for FREE :smile: with internet signup. Then I went and got an external USB CD-RW, and a TV thingamajigger (AverTV USB) that hooks up to the USB port, not so we could watch TV, but so we could hook our camcorder up to it and burn CD's with home videos on them and take stills off the camcorder and avoid buying a digital camera. And of course a scanner. I upgraded the memory myself to 128, but noticed when I did so that the little sticker on the back showed "warranty void" when it was separated from the computer. DOH! [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] It's not the best, not the newest, not the fastest, but did I mention it was free??? I also have a used IBM thinkpad that I picked up for 400 bucks that I use when I'm away from home, and a used desktop of unknown manufacture that the kids use for their homework. I also picked up an old 286 laptop for $10 from St. Vincent de Paul Thrift store that the keyboard didn't work, and would only boot to DOS, but I hooked up an external keyboard and monitor, and got familiarized with DOS. I found a bunch of DOS free-ware programs on the internet, and let the kids use it for games, educational programs, and word processing. Then my three year old decided it would make a good bouncy toy, and I'm out ten bucks. My dad thought it was weird that I got all nostalgic over some old 286, and was extolling the virtues of freeware, but hey, it's free! Does my 8 year old really need the latest coolest game, or is he content with Tetris? The Tetris competition got quite fierce at my house, with everyone trying to beat the latest high score. It kept us occupied for months. My wife would really get mad when I topped her latest high score. :tongue: There's really a lot of nice software that young kids will enjoy available for free on the internet. It just takes awhile to sort through all the junk.

For all of the talk that people do about their machines, what is really important is what is in your head. I got through college without a computer. I was the only person I knew who didn't have one, even though I had one in the house when I was growing up. I refused to buy one for years. It gets awfully easy to become engrossed in fiddling with the machine and trying to get it to do something new and different. Not that that's bad, and Lord knows I've done enough of it, but that's why I held off on getting a computer for a long time. Now I am a firm believer in "used" and "free". I was looking at the ads for computers in the newspaper one day, and I was comparing them. I found two laptops that were virtually identical, except one had a screen that was 1 inch bigger than the other and had a detachable wireless keyboard. That was about it. The difference in price was $800. Is it really worth $800 to have that?

happybrew

[sinker]

Let's see here.
Custom manufactured by sinker!! :grin:

Athlon 1600+
640MB RAM
30GB 7200RPM Maxtor hard drive
24x Lite-On cd-rw
Ati Radeon 8500 LE video card
Ati TV-Wonder tuner card
Windows XP
Enlight case
On a wireless LAN running through a Netgear Firewall/Print server.

Just built an old 400mhz puter for surfig today from some old parts I had laying around.

When I get my tax return I'm building a serious gaming computer.

P4 2.8Ghz (Gonna have to overclock this too)
512MB RAM, probly PC-2700 or so
Radeon 9700 video card (Overclock this one too of course) :smile:
200GB Western Digital hard drive
48x Lite-On cd-rw
I'm wanting one of those yellow cases w/window but the wife cringed when I showed her the color. Might have to get the silver one.
Then again I might get one of those new cube cases. Looked at one today, would be handy for packing to LAN parties.

Little punks playing MOH online will really have to work hard to whoop me then!! :grin: :grin:

[ 02-02-2003, 05:00 AM: Message edited by: sinker ]

[Rock Stick or Fish]

P4 2.4B
MSI 645dx mobo
Radeon 8500-bought the first month

I turn 150 fps in Tribes 1...

I've pretty much decided that I want to do an OCd Nforce2, Barton, Freeekinfastram setup. But then I really decided to hunt this year, so my money is going that way instead. =)

I'd like to do 200fps in tribes.

RSF

[ultralight]

happybrew,

I used to waste a ton of time on Tetris that was on my PowerMac several years ago. We also had a pretty fierce competition going until one person just dominated everyone to just quit playing. Unfortunately, I'm having a serious withdrawal since my migration to an IBM compatible PC several years ago and haven’t been able to find an adequate replacement Tetris comparable to the Apple version. It was the original version, I think, and I really liked the noticeably gradual difference in various levels. The music and the background images were so cool, so much superior to anything I can locate online.

So my question is what type of Tetris are you playing?

[happybrew]

Ultralight: we were playing "Netris".

happybrew

[ultralight]

Where did you obtain that?

[SteelieSteve]

We have 2 systems. One H/P p3 800 with 256 pc600 rambus memory, the other is a 2 gig p3 with 256 pc133 memory. This is a fast system which I got 2 weeks ago at a Beaverton computer store. I let her use it and no doubt it will be trashed sometime soon. She games and downloads tons of stuff and is starting to have trouble already with the machine freezing and slowing down. I put Nortons on it to try to keep the bugs out. DSL connection.

[TheRogue]

Hp
1.5gig P4
1 gig RAM
80 gig HD
64mb video
CD/RW
DVD

Envision 17" LCD

HP 962C

Canon slimline scanner

[The Fishing Geek]

Server:

Athlon 1100 underclocked to 500 at 1.15v for reduced heat. Stripped fan from power supply and case, now she idles at a nice cool temp and very quiet. Only noise is from hard drives, which will be encased in high-density art foam soon with a 92mm fan running at 7 volts instead of 12 for quiet cooling. Half gig of PC133 RAM, two 20 gig hard drives, and a TNT2 for video. Mandrake 9 acting as firewall, router, NFS server, and mp3 storage.

Desktop:

AthlonXP 1700+ Thoroughbred core oc'ed to 1820mhz (roughly 2300+ rating) at 1.65 volts. I'll aim for more when the watercooling setup is completed and setup, possibly even using a Peltier. MSI K7N2 nForce2 motherboard, 256 megs of Mushkin PC2700 RAM, will buy a second stick when prices drop more (they're dropping already). ATI AIW Radeon for graphics as I'm not a gamer and like the video capture. Thirty gig 7200 system drive and 80 gig 5400 video capture drive. OS is Mandrake 9 primarily with Windows 2000 for video editing play and Windows-only Palm app for my wife.

Son has a PII450 with enough parts to keep him playing his Tonka software.

[Boedy]

AMD 1.2 gig OCed @ 1.3
IBM Deskstar twin 30gigs on raid
512mb crucial cas2 ram
Geforce3 ti500-oc
on Abit kt7a-raid board

[happybrew]

Ultralight: I don't remember where I got it, but if you shoot me an e-mail, I can e-mail you a copy to download.

happybrew

[Jettin' Fool]

Where's Ogre when you need him?

Neeeeeeerds! :grin:


Fool

[Silver Hilton]

So, Geek, what all are you serving up over there? Mp3's of your catching exploits? I'd do the same, but I'd only need about 5 MB of storage. :depressed:

[Lepper]

System 1.
Amd xp 2700
512mg ddr
Geforce 4 ti 4200
modem
5.1 creative labs sound
19 inch CRT
5.1 speaker system
windows xp pro.

#2
Amd xp 1700
512 ddr
Geforce 2 ti500 gold
(same sound set up)
windows xp pro
custom case with side window/ black light in case.

#3
533Celeron O/ced to 850mhz
voodoo3000 agp
3ish ram :smile:
creative labs sound, modem.
win 98 se

#4
p2 350
and all the trimmings..


and about 4 other systems sitting her half taken apart to scalp parts. ranging from a 386 to a p3. What can I say? it's my side buisness.... and I can't resist the good deals they keep offering me...

All this is networked. but all but 2 computers are going to be sold here in next week or so. that's the only way I can keep building to support my addiction.. :smile:
dave

[HeavyMetal BankFisherman]

I like my Packard Bell Legend with the 25mhz processor. It,s at least a 486. With a built in 2400 baud modem. When I found out it did not have a math coprocessor I thought I would upgrade. Imagine my dismay when I foung out the processor was surface mounted to the motherboard. I think there is some kind of upgrade kit but if I can find one it will most likely cost several hundred dollars.

Actually I just put together a system with an AMD XP 2100, 1GB PC2100 DDR RAM, Seagate 18GB Cheetah Ultra160 SCSI hard drive, Adaptec 19160 Ultra 160 SCSI controller, Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy sound card. The reason for the expense of the SCSI setup is because I do video editing and when I can afford it I plan to add additional drives, configure RAID 0. I'm using a two year old Pinnacle DV something. Does a good job of capturing and has a firewire connection as well. Bought it about six months ago with all documentation and the box for fifty bucks. Cost almost a eight hundred new. Right place at the right time.

[The Fishing Geek]

Originally posted by Silver Hilton:
So, Geek, what all are you serving up over there? Mp3's of your catching exploits? I'd do the same, but I'd only need about 5 MB of storage. :depressed:

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">So as to reduce wear on my CD's I have all of them on mp3. Accessable from any computer on the internal network via a cool little php script called KPlaylist.

[The Fishing Geek]

Heavy Metal:

You really shouldn't need SCSI for video editing, especially DV. I've used Pinnacle products in the past and had no problem capturing full-frame analog captures on IDE drives with minimal frame drop (maybe 1 per 10,000 frames). Of course, I like to run my capture drives either on a RAID stripe or, at the very least, a separate IDE card. Even 5400 drives work well there.

SCSI is cool and all, but unnecessary for a capture drive. Not to mention it generates a crudload of heat and noise.

[Herring Impaired]

Hey GEEK, Heard about the PRISMIQ yet?

Just got one the other day, it serves up video and audio over the Internal Network to the TV of your choice. It's just a little Linux box, but looks like a small component. Comes with a Keyboard (Free for a short while), so you can surf, but that is almost useless trying to surf on the TV's resolution... Also comes with the remote control. I had just run two 100Base-T drops to the front room, one for the PS-2 and one extra. Guess I don't have an extra anymore!....

You can check it out at www.prismiq.com

[husker]

i have 3 systems.
1) 2.4 ghz..mine and i dont let anybody touch it

2)933,,operating system in shambles as the kids load every stupid game that overwrites the register creating nothing but .dll errors everywhere

3)133 in the closet doing its best impression of door stop

[Cool Texan]

2.5 GHz P4
120GB Hard drive
512 MB DDRAM
18" LCD
etc etc etc

Downloading music by the dozens, movies...may never buy a cd again.

[The Fishing Geek]

That's a pretty cool little box, Leroy. So basically you need a box for each television, right? I can't imagine how folks browse the web on a normal TV. Maybe an HDTV, but even then I'd rather have the computer in front of me.

Personally I'd love to get rid of that spacehog stereo, pick up some Logitech 640's and an FM tuner to replace it. Sure, there are better speakers (680's, ProMedias, etc) but I'm being financially realistic here.

Husker:

Use that Pentium 133 as a firewall/router. There are floppy-based firewalls out there that make it so you don't even need a hard drive in the machine. Pretty sweet stuff, and you can share your Internet connection. Once it's setup you don't even need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse.

[ 02-04-2003, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: The Fishing Geek ]

[Herring Impaired]

Yeah, the browser is pretty weak, and you would need a box for each TV. It supports MPEG right now, and more formats later.
It does MP3's now, and they plan to add picture files later. They are making all kinds of deals right now to add features. Updating the firmware is easily done right over the net.

If they improve the browsing, it would make a great way to check on TV listings!

[The Fishing Geek]

No Ogg support yet? I'd think that they would, especially as it's so popular with the Geek Set. Of course, I also have to wonder how long it will be before someone hacks it.

[WaterDog]

Dell PIII 833Mhz
Some kind of 64 meg video card
512 meg of memory
40gig HD
19” Trinitron monitor
RW/CD
56k Modem that connects at 48k
speakers w/ subwoofer
Win Me os, so far it’s been fine. [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img]

It’s 2 years old and does everything I ask and have NEVER had a problem with it. Not even a hiccup. Kinda like my Ford, it just works. :grin:

Daughter has a P90 than actually works fairly well for what she does for now.

[The Fishing Geek]

Coyote Linux is a great one, as is Freesco. Both of them only require a couple of NIC's, a 486 or greater with 16 megs of RAM, basic video, and that's it. Temporarily you'll need a keyboard and monitor for setup, but otherwise they're great. I've used both in the past, and it's a great way to utilize old systems. If you get the right heat sink on there you can rip off the fan, remove the fan from the power supply, and any others for that matter. Runs totally silent, and if your firewall has problems (not likely) you just reboot with the write-protected floppy you make and it's back in business.

[GutshotApe]

Fishing Geek - Well, it took 17 days to make delivery but I finally got my new Intel celeron 2.0 GHZ (whatever that means) HP computer to go with my HP camera. The puter has windows XP and I seem to have it set up correctly. Even sent a couple of emails with photos of last weekend's smelt dipping and steelhead (yes, clear water too!) fishing to my partner in crime, Ifish registered lurker Olydrifter.

Now if I could just figure out how to post pics here on ifish............... :whazzup:

[foxer]

For those of you that resell computer stuff, I work for a wholesale distributor in Beaverton. Shoot me an email and I can hook ya up..

[The Fishing Geek]

GSA:

What that basically means is that if you ever get to the point where you win at solitaire those cards are going to FLY around the screen.

foxer:

Please, don't feed my addiction. It's bad enough already.

[husker]

FG:

how can i use my 133 for a router?....i have dsl and use a hub for my computers

[sinker]

Anyone seen those little Shuttle Cube cases?
Thinking about getting one of those and slapping a Radeon 9700. Be nice and small on the desk and easy to pack up and go to a LAN party with.

[The Fishing Geek]

Those Shuttle cubes are pretty sweet. The latest (finally) have AGP slots so that opens up the video card field quite a bit. I don't know what heat dissipation would be like on those little things, so putting in a top of the line video card might get excessive heat.

[sinker]

I'd thought about the heat issue. I figure it's nothing a couple blow holes couldn't fix.

[The Fishing Geek]

From what I've seen those things are pretty crammed together on the inside. You sure that you'd still have the 15mm (or more!) for a fan to lay in there? You'd need two, of course, to balance the air flow in there. I'm doubtful that you'd find the place to put them.

[Stratocaster]

athlon 1800 xp pro.
20gig hd
384meg ddr mem
64meg geeforce4
sb live
surround sound
cable modem

[ 02-05-2003, 07:10 PM: Message edited by: fisherdan ]

[sinker]

I've seen guys put G4 Ti's in them, don't think there'd be that much difference. If there was I'd just swap it with the 8500 that I have in this one.

Check out this place for some cool mods. http://www.hardforums.com
Slow site but there's a ton on there.

[The Fishing Geek]

I used to hang in the [H]ardforums awhile back but it got old after awhile. All the 1337 5P34K drove me nuts, and you'd think that as thousands of people read their reviews that either Kyle or Steve would use a spell checker.

[sinker]

the madonion forums are pretty good too.