[evilking]

To be honest, if a computer makes me wait for more than one second for any task at all, it's just not fast enough. Todays computers still struggle to process copious amounts of data in realtime, limitations abound in every component.

Sorry, none of computers in this thread seem all that 'super' to me. There is still a long way to go...

EK

 

[FallenAngel]

Yes, because there are so many idiot users that clutter their computers with bad software.

I still have a P3 600MHz running an HTPC at my parents house - works wonderfully.

Just don't clutter your computer and it'll run everything perfectly.

... Vista being a disaster in resource management makes it a little more difficult though.

 

[Quaddy]

agreed, i have gifted my l33t 'heavy metal' to another more neeedy family member now, i am just using a modest mac system that will handle audio and web surfing.

my gaming days and are behind me now

 

[appophylite]

With my gaming days long behind, I've lost the need for a supercomputer as well. My desktop is a modest rig that is powerful enough to run Matlab, Firefox, Word, Excel, a messenger program and maybe one other file all at once. Instead I focus more of my attention now on making sure my rigs are actually portable. Most likely, in the next few weeks, that laptop is going to be replaced by my new Lenovo X200 which will serve as my primary desktop and occasional portable, to be supplemented by my Acer Aspire One as my full time portable.

 

[-=Germania=-]

Yeah, I definitely think think that the cooling system he uses is not something off the shelf.

In all likeliness, it is something modified off of a standard liquid cooling, but with pipes/parts that can handle the ammonia. Probably something that he and he online contacts cooked up. I am pretty sure that no company with half a brain would actually sell a commercial ammonia cooling system for computers.

 

[craiglester]

I'm thinking in all likliness your borther is pulling your leg, the utter complexity of an Ammonia based refridgeration unit (remember these are considered too toxic for commercial use), makes it extremely unlikely.

Maybe he added some ammonia to his waqter cooled system.. cant think why though.. Ammonia would only work in a sealed gas tight system, like a refridgerator, not in a water cooler system.

Heck Ammonia boils at like room temperature, and if it has oxygen or water in, becomes extremely corrosive, especially to copper - the favourite heat sink material.

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by craiglester /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm thinking in all likliness your borther is pulling your leg, the utter complexity of an Ammonia based refridgeration unit (remember these are considered too toxic for commercial use), makes it extremely unlikely. Maybe he added some ammonia to his waqter cooled system.. cant think why though.. Ammonia would only work in a sealed gas tight system, like a refridgerator, not in a water cooler system. Heck Ammonia boils at like room temperature, and if it has oxygen or water in, becomes extremely corrosive, especially to copper - the favourite heat sink material.

I agree with that assessment. I go with liquid nitrogen myself, the only major thing I need to worry about in that case is condensation. If you want it easy, just get a vapochill case and you are all set for massive OC fun!

 

[Weimar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilking /img/forum/go_quote.gif To be honest, if a computer makes me wait for more than one second for any task at all, it's just not fast enough. Todays computers still struggle to process copious amounts of data in realtime, limitations abound in every component. Sorry, none of computers in this thread seem all that 'super' to me. There is still a long way to go... EK

And this is exactly why I run two SLC SSD's in RAID 0. Harddrives have become a huge bottleneck over the course of time, and are the key in loading times.

 

[lara veronin]

For most of my everyday and 2d stuff, my vintage machine runs great!
2x Pentium III-S 1400mhz 512kb
4gb ecc pc133
Tyan s2518
36gb 15k seagate
250gb seagate ata
FireMV 2400PCI
3x 19" NEC MultiSync
Windows 2000 sp4

it does runs everything well except painter and the occasional 20mb photoshop... I could live with this well into the next few years...


for the rest, off to the workstation which i raaaaarely use for anything except watching hd movies. what a waste.
Xeon X3350 @ 3.8ghz with water
Asus p5e ws pro
8gb ddr2 1066 ram
2x 80gb seagates mirrored
2x 500gb seagates
FireGL 7700
24" NEC MultiSync
Windows 7

 

[DocHamm]

My winter computer room heater ...

SGI 540
Quad P3 Xeon 900Mhz CPUs
2GB SDRAM RAM
3x 10k RPM Seagate SCSI HDDs
21" SGI Monitor (Sony Trinatron)

... warms my feet up right quick.

I do miss my mini fridge tho ... Refrigerator Project

 

[MCC]

I love the power of a quad core CPU. It allows me to multitask (20+ windows open, some doing intensive things) without needing to worry about being slowed down. I also run multiple VMs in the background for things like OpenVPN and web security testing.

My PC also has an ATSC tuner that needs some resources to record while doing the above things and even potentially playing games. Unfortunately, my machine can't handle some of the load I throw at it when it gets to that point... so yes, I do need/use the newer hardware.

Specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.2GHz (from 2.4)
4GB DDR2 RAM
OC'd Radeon 4850
1TB WD Caviar Black HDD
(see link in sig for more)

Edit: For mobile workloads, my single-core 2005 laptop is more than sufficient. I don't see any reason for upgrade beyond switching to a tablet.

 

[tk3]

I don't think everyone needs a super computer, but with how cheap computer parts are nowadays, there is no reason not to get something decent.

 

[Burninate35]

As much as I love my powerfull computers, they are not for everyday use. They are for gaming, and Protein Folding.

I am going to buy a netbook the second nvidia ion comes out. I might even buy the desktop version as well. I do not need a lot of power to serf the web, or to write a paper.

I think that we need both super powerful computers, and tiny more modest machines.

especially with light versions of Linux, even very old machines are very quick. I like xubuntu for Pentium III and below. For anything over that, I go with ubuntu, or windows.

 

[Suntory_Times]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, because there are so many idiot users that clutter their computers with bad software. I still have a P3 600MHz running an HTPC at my parents house - works wonderfully. Just don't clutter your computer and it'll run everything perfectly. ... Vista being a disaster in resource management makes it a little more difficult though.

Hate to say it but you are wrong. Try running blu ray on the P3 600 MHZ comp that you're using as a HTPC and tell me it's quick enough to run anything.

 

[Zenja]

My current two year old computer (2.33GHz Intel dual core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 7900GTO) finally feels satisfying to some extent. Things are quick and smooth enough that I would deem it to be fine for general purpose use. I wouldn't want to downgrade. My older 1.3GHz Athlon computer definitely feels frustratingly slow to use and I even try to keep it bloat-free (something I'm pretty strict about). I don't game much anymore and I've always played old games anyway. But if you do game, no computer is fast enough.

I welcome and will enjoy upcoming computer components. Solid state hard drives will be a massive improvement to general purpose use even though most other modern components are totally fine. But there are real uses that not everyone does for which having as fast as possible computer is very nice.