What computer do you use?

[Wmcmanus]

Toshiba laptop, don't know about the specs, but it was considered pretty good last Christmas, but I guess it will be junk in another year. I also have a new desktop, but need to get the thingie hooked up and the other thingie installed. My desktop is about 2 months old - generic brand but it has all of the latest gadgets. I've yet to use it. I'm told I need to get the 2 computers networked so I can watch Playboy TV on my laptop and at the same time answer emails and save files to my desktop.

It's amazing how little interest I have in computers given how much time I spend on them - and as much as I truly love the audio/video hobby, you would think computer technology would hold at least some fascination. Perhaps it's an age thing. At 41, I really didn't grow up with computers. My first exposure to word processing was as a grad student. Yes, they gave us graduate credit for learing Word Star, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBase II, among other things! This was practically rocket science in those days, circa 1983. I came to think of computers as nothing more than tools, and it's hard to break out of this mode once you're an old horse. It's probably a good thing - if I ever get into it, I'll end up with a room full of computers too!

 

[Thrasher]

My computer is old and slow, but it does what I want from it. I don't feel like upgrading, except for the disc.

VIA KT 133 chipset
AMD Duron 600 MHz
128 MB RAM 100 MHz
20 GB WD HDD 5400 rpm
S3 Trio 3D 8MB video card
on-board sound card
Teac W524 burner
Teac 540 CD-ROM
Umax AstraSlim scanner

 

[dngl]

Inspiron 8600
PM 1.6
Hitachi 7200RPM HD
512 MB RAM

1800FP LCD
port replicator
logitech MX500 mouse
ratpadz gs
teflon tape + pledge

runs linux easily and quickly... hot damn

 

[Shizelbs]

My first DYI:

Athlon XP 1800+ (overclocked to 1.644 GHz)
512 PC2700 RAM
100 GB WD HD
MSI KT333 mobo
Audigy 2
GF4Ti4400 (overclocked to I don't know what)

It was pretty sexy when I first made it, now its below average. For shame.

 

[ojnihs]

15.2 Inch Powerbook G4 Aluminum
1.25 ghz
80 gb HD
DVD-R/CD-RW
512mb
ATI Radeon Mobility 9600

 

[SteeleBlayde]

Gateway Laptop - Solo 9300
Intel Pentium3 - 600Mhz
128MB RAM
20GB HDD
Ati Rage Mobility w/ 4MB of Video RAM
ESS Maestro Sound Card
3Com PCMCIA NIC



Awesome machine huh? Word processing and internet browsing are about all I can do. :\

 

[fiddler]

iBook G3 900 mhz
Radeon 7500
640 MB RAM
40 gig HDD
CD-Burner/DVD-ROM
Logitech Elite Keyboard
Logitech MX700 Mouse (essential!)
Lexmark Z601 printer (Oh i wish i got a Canon.. i really really do...)
Cambridge Soundworks PC-Works speakers
Arriving soon: M-Audio Sonica USB soundcard

I usually have my iBook propped up on two Yellowpages books (and a hacked up empty binder for ventilation.... don't ask) so it's the right height... I really really wish I could afford one of those nice iCurve stands.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Here was *my* old system: Antec SX1035B case Antec TruControl 550W power supply AMD Athlon XP 2000+/266 "Palomino" CPU with 256K L2 cache @ stock speed (1.67 GHz) Stock AMD retail boxed CPU heatsink/fan (5400 RPM) Asus A7V333 (VIA KT333) motherboard 512MB PC2100 (DDR266) DDR RAM GeForce4 Ti4400 graphics card w/ 128MB DDR RAM 120GB WD1200JB hard drive (8MB cache) 8X DVD-ROM (40X CD-ROM) drive 52x24x52X CD-RW drive M-Audio Revolution sound card ACS-48 2.1 speaker set 10/100 NIC card (Linksys PCI card) 56K (v.90) modem (duh) DSL (faster than dial-up) Floppy (duh) Microsoft Internet Keyboard Logitech MX500 mouse Epson printer I had the motherboard/CPU/memory upgrade sitting for over a week - until yesterday, when I installed those parts. And after the better part of yesterday evening reinstalling Windows XP Pro, I finally got my upgraded system up and running now! Here is *my* system today: Antec SX1035B case Antec TruControl 550W power supply AMD Athlon XP 2600+/333 "Barton" CPU with 512K L2 cache @ stock speed (1.917 GHz) Stock AMD retail boxed heatsink/fan (3000 RPM) Abit NF7-S V2.0 (nForce2 Ultra 400) motherboard 1GB Corsair TwinX XMS3200 Low Latency DDR RAM @ DDR400 GeForce4 Ti4400 graphics card w/ 128MB DDR RAM 120GB WD1200JB hard drive (8MB cache) 8X DVD-ROM (40X CD-ROM) drive 52x24x52X CD-RW drive M-Audio Revolution sound card ACS-48 2.1 speaker set 10/100 NIC card (integrated on motherboard) DSL (faster than dial-up) Floppy (duh) Microsoft Internet Keyboard Logitech MX500 mouse Epson printer Before, my old system ran its CPU consistently above 50C/122F. Now, my new system's CPU runs at only 38C/100F! Moreover, my Internet DSL connection and downloading speeds are now twice as fast as before! Before, I had struggled to even reach 600kbps. But now, I'm getting 1.2Mbps!!! It turned out that my old Linksys PCI NIC card and/or its available WinXP drivers had bottlenecked my broadband connection. FINAL UPDATE: I wrote that back on 21 January. Yesterday afternoon, I've finally retired my GeForce4 Ti 4400, which had been in my system for well over a year, in favour of a 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro. Now I can finally play all of my current games at good frame rates with my AA and AF settings maxxed out!!!

Mea culpa... That was back on 27 January. I have since added a 74GB WD Raptor SATA hard drive - and then, I took the "unthinkable" step of switching from AMD back to Intel, using a 2.8C GHz "Northwood" Pentium 4 processor (800MHz FSB) running on an Intel D865PERL motherboard with onboard RAID, LAN and IEEE 1394.

Thus, my experiment with AMD has ended - as far as my main system is concerned. (Although I will keep my last AMD processor and motherboard for building a secondary system in the future.) It turned out that I didn't like the available motherboards for AMD processors much: All of those that I've owned had problems with PCI IRQs that ended up being shared with devices that don't like shared IRQs (i.e. my modem or NIC often ended up sharing the same IRQ as an onboard mass-storage controller, or my soundcard ended up sharing the same IRQ as my AGP graphics card). And some of my codec software constantly crashed on my AMD systems, but had never crashed on my previous Intel P3/700 system. (Again, I blame the motherboards that I had used, not AMD, for the crashes.)

So, here is my definitely final configuration, other than OS/videocard/soundcard/hard drive upgrades, is as follows:

1. Antec SX1035B case
2. Antec TruControl 550W power supply
3. Intel 2.8C GHz Pentium 4 "Northwood" CPU with 512K L2 cache and 800MHz FSB (Front Side Bus)
4. Stock Intel retail boxed heatsink/fan (2400 RPM)
5. Intel D865PERL (i865PE chipset) motherboard with onboard Serial ATA RAID, IEEE 1394 and 10/100 NIC
6. 1GB Corsair TwinX XMS3200 Low Latency DDR RAM @ DDR400 (2-3-2-6 timings)
7. ATi Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card w/ 128MB (256-bit) DDR RAM
8. 74GB WD Raptor WD740GD Serial ATA hard drive (10K RPM)
9. 120GB WD1200JB ATA/100 hard drive (7.2K RPM, 8MB cache)
10. 8X DVD-ROM (40X CD-ROM) drive
11. 52x24x52X CD-RW drive
12. M-Audio Revolution sound card
13. ACS-48 2.1 speaker set
14. 10/100 NIC card (integrated on motherboard)
15. DSL (faster than dial-up)
16. Floppy (duh)
17. Microsoft Internet Keyboard
18. Logitech MX500 mouse
19. Epson printer

Also, I forgot to mention two more changes to my configuration:
I removed the two front fans from my case to cut most of the noise (yep, when I had my previous AMD system running, I left the two front fans inside the case and connected, and they've been the noisiest part of my system since I started turning down the power supply's fan speed) - leaving the two "smart", temperature-controlled fans in the case. (The result: While the overall noise level is significantly lower, I can now hear the whine of my older WD 120GB hard drive during idle!

) Second, I've reconnected and reconfigured the IDE channels (my boot/system drive is now my Serial ATA Raptor) so that my DVD-ROM drive is slaved onto my IDE hard drive on the first IDE channel (which then becomes a tertiary ATA/ATAPI channel), and connected my CD-R/RW burner all by itself on the second IDE channel (which becomes a quaternary ATA/ATAPI channel).

Now, what to do next? That will be the question for me to answer.

 

[MuZI]

Current CPU:
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe |
--
Case : CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) BLACK COLOR w/ 450W Power Supply, Side acrylic window and a Case Fan on Side Window |
---
CPU Core:AMD Athlon 2000+ (1.67Ghz) Throughbred "A" |
--
Memory: 512 DDR RAM PC2100 |
--
Storage: DVD+RW HP 200j |
--
Monitor: 17`` TFT LCD Screen ProView|
--
Video Card: Asus V8170 GEFORCE4 MX440 64MB DDR AGP4X 2D/3D Vidadpt Tvout |
--
Sound Card: (Audio PCI 128) Creative |
--
HDD: Seagate 80 GB @ 7200RPM Hard Drive |
---
Operating System:Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional


1280 x 1024 32 Bit 75 Hertz

Future Upgrades:
CPU FAN-
ThermalTake SK 7 w/ 80 MM Fan ( Got it )

DDR Memory-
Corsair Microsystems 3 Gb (2 X 1024 MB)PC 3200 DDR Ram

CPU-
3200+ (2.2GHz 400FSB)

Hard Drive -
Undetermined Yet

Keyboard and Mouse:
Microsoft Or Logitec (Unknown yet)

Video Card:
258MB (Dual Monitor Maybe)

Monitor:
2nd 19`` Monitor

--
Side Machine:

Compaq Presario 2256

CPU Core : 300 MHZ AMD K-6 Socket 7|

Ram: 48 MB SD RAM PC 66|

HDD: 4 Gig Hard Drive (Fat 32)|

Monitor: 17'' LCD Screen Compaq 1725|

Motherboard: "Sand Storm" Motherboard

Video Card: 2 MB Video integraded RAM|

Dual Boot: Windows 2000 Pro
Linux Red Hat v.9 (shrike)

Only my MAIN computer is folding right now...

 

[The_Mac]

My machine is all about the creature comforts, and less about the raw power.

Highlights:
Triple monitor display (2x 17" CRT, 1 15" LCD) fed by a Radeon 9000pro and a Rage128 PCI
Terratec EWX 24/96 and 40GB of music (and growing)
Antec Sonata quiet case with Dynamat sound dampening
Logitech MX700 mouse, ATI remote wonder, 2 keyboards (one corded, one cordless)

and then to keep it all going, PIII 1.0, 512 MB PC133, Asus TuV4X mobo. I like it, and it suits me well.

 

[Spent&Bent]

Home built Athlon XP 2700+
2 x 200 gig HD's
8 speed dvd recorder
ati radeon 9600 video card
cable modem etc.
19" iiyama CRT

edit: plus the RME card and audigy 2 ofcourse

 

[null]

Custom built PC with: (approx 2 years old...boy does pc technology age quick!)

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
100 gb Western Digital 7200 rpm 2MB cache hard drive
ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder 8500DV
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum
24X Plexwriter CD-R/W
16X Asus DVD-ROM
19" Samsung SyncMaster 950b CRT monitor
Ethernet, etc...

 

[Duncan]

Athlon XP2600
550w PSU
1GB DDR400 (PC3200) memory
Microstar mobo
80GB WD HD (with 8mb cache)
17" LG 1710S TFT monitor
Philips DVD+RW drive
Sony CD+RW drive
Creative DVD Rom
Audigy 2 soundcard
MSI GeForce MX440 gfx card
SurfSound speakers (unknown european (German??) brand, but suprisingly good sounding)
1mbps UP / 256kbps DOWN (ADSL) internet access
Win XP Home

An up and down PC, some parts are good, others not so... although it does exactly what it says on the tin, never seems to lag or otherwise, so keeps me happy

 

[joelongwood]

G4 Titanium Powerbook. Nice and simple for an old guy like me.

 

[ayt999]

main machine:
dual 2.4Ghz @ 2.93Ghz xeon on iWill DP533 motherboard, 550W Enermax 3in1 PSU
1GB RAM, four WD1200JB IDE hard drives, (had four 60GB IBM drives in there too until the RAID failed and I have yet to replace it)
GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB, RME Hammerfall DSP 9632 (currently being modded), Creative Audigy 2 ZS

secondary machine:
dual 1.83Ghz @ 2.25Ghz barton on MSI K7D Master-L, 431W Enermax 3in1 PSU
512MB RAM, one 7200rpm 120GB Maxtor drive
GeForce 4 MX (not much here, just wanted to make a dual athlon)

my single CPU system:
AXP 2000+ in a cube PC (same as the shuttle SS40 more or less)
512MB PC2100 RAM, WD1000BB hard drive, everything else onboard. another simple system

system in an IKEA cardboard box:
1.4Ghz Athlon (Thunderbird) on an Abit KT7A-RAID
1GB PC133 RAM, two WD2000JB hard drives
no video card so I cannot turn it on

my machine in japan (when I go there during the summer / winter):
P4 3.0C on an MSI i865 motherboard
512MB DDR RAM, six samsung 120GB drives, everything else onboard

add to that a sony picturebook and a sony 505 laptop. I've built all my desktops and of course they all have some optical drives and other stuff like displays and speakers....