Your main computer/gaming computer?

PCEngineHell · 07/14/2006, 08:32 PM

Basically,what type do you use for your most major work,or gaming,or both. I have 5 computers in my home,2 are Dells,that my significant others kids use,1 she uses that I built,and 1 my kids use that I built,and last but best my main computer just for me.

Most of the computers in the home are Pentium 3 based,except one of the Dells which is a Celeron D system,just a plain jane desktop,that the kids use. It lacks a agp port and what not,and for actual 3d gaming,my sons Pentium 3 with SB PCI 512 audio and Geforce 4 TI 4400 actually beats it soundly.

My computer is a Athlon 64 socket 754 2800+ based computer.
Im using a Biostar NForce 4 based motherboard with pci express.
Graphics card is a Geforce 6800NU with 256 megs of ram,its the nvidia reference card type,and it overclocks pretty high. Im using 2 soundcards,never use the on board audio. My 2 sound cards are :
1. Soundblaster Live 24-bit.
2.I/O magic Aureal's Vortex 2 (I use it for the gameport/midi)
Sony 48x cd-drive.
Nec 12 x cd-burner. This was one of the highest rated of its type,matched the Plextor 12x model,and supported more modes,still burns everything I trow at it cd wise.
Samsung 8x DVD drive. Only used to read dvd games and dvd-rs.
Logsy 480watt psu.
Seagate 80gig SATA hd.
1 gig pc 3200 ddr ram.

I have all the useless airports taped off so only the major ones are used for air flow.

Game wise I use this alot for emulation,and newer games,like Outrun 2006,Call of Duty 2,Chronicles of Riddick Butcher Bay,Prey,Doom 3,ect ect...
I also use it to convert video files often,when I want it done faster then what one of the Pentium 3 comps can do.

/insideofmycaseaa3.jpg

/myathlon64compnc1.jpg
So anyway,what are you using for your main computer,and for what,and if possible,provide pics,inside and out.

grendelrt · 07/14/2006, 11:22 PM

My main computer:

Athlon64 X2 4400+ @ 2.4GHZ
2GB GSkill DDr500
2x eVGA 7800GTX 512 in SLI
X-FI Fatality
NEC 3520 DVDRW DL 16X
Seasonic S12 600W
Antec P180
Seagate 300GB SATA2
WD 80GB SATA
21 Inch Gateway 16:9 LCD

Pic before wire cleanup, no SLI bridge installed yet

My MAME Machine:
AthlonXP 3000+
1GB DDR400
WD 80GB SATA
Soundstorm 5.1 DD Live
Radeon 9800 Pro
NEC 3520 DVDRW 16X DL
46 Inch Samsung DLP
Hotrod Joystick

1 Laptop and like 6 other parts computers hehe.

Seldane · 07/15/2006, 09:09 AM

This thread remains unreadable until you replace your img tags to url tags, sorry but I can't read it when I have to scroll the page all the time.

PCEngineHell · 07/15/2006, 11:55 AM

Quote from: SeldaneThis thread remains unreadable until you replace your img tags to url tags, sorry but I can't read it when I have to scroll the page all the time.

yup,sorry for that,I chose for image shack to resize it but that didnt really help,so I did it myself. really I didnt have a problem myself,but I was looking at it @ 1600x1200 res.

Seldane · 07/15/2006, 12:21 PM

This is my computer. I have another one but that's just an old Mac.

/computerap2.jpg

I built this one myself back in 2003. The specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (@~2,11GHz)
RAM: 512MB DDR-SDRAM (PC2700) (@~280MHz)
GFX: NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX 440, 64MB RAM (550MHz RAM, 350 MHz CPU)
HDD: Samsung 200GB, IDE-133, 7200RPM, 8MB Cache
SND: C-Media CMI8738 5.1 (integrated) <-- This card SUCKS!!

Motherboard: Chaintech 7VJL Apogee, integrated NIC (VIA RhineIII), integrated soundcard, USB2, AGP4X, etc.

CDRW: Samsung 48X16X48X
DVDRW: AOpen Dual-Layer 16XDVD-R/+R, 4XDVD-RW/+RW, 48XCD-R, 32XCD-RW, 4XDVD-DL, UDMA66.

That's about it. Lots of uninteresting stuff there, huh?

Might take a picture on the inside later.

PCEngineHell · 07/15/2006, 05:27 PM

No,actually this is perfect,thats what I was hoping to see,diff varity of computers,and diff uses for all of us. Anyone else?

SignOfZeta · 07/15/2006, 08:11 PM

I don't play any games on my computer aside from emulation. I basically really hate modern day computer games. No color, no class, etc.

The machine I do all my work on, as well as emulation, is a Mac Mini G4. I think we probably all know what those look like, but here is a picture anyway.

/IMG_0561_2.jpg

OldRover · 07/16/2006, 01:34 AM

I have no pics of my setup (do you REALLY want to see my messy desk? Didn't think so!!) but meh...it's an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ based system I built myself. I don't remember the motherboard...some generic AMD-ready mobo from a couple of years ago or so. It has 256MB of main RAM, a geforce FX 5500 video card (AGP 8x I believe, 128MB of RAM), some crappy onboard audio (I almost bought one of those value Audigy's the other day but didn't for some reason), a 160GB HDD, and a pretty normal PCI NIC (the onboard NIC was fried in a power surge). I picked up a 16x DVD burner when I was in Florida (an HP dvd840 w/LightScribe), which replaced the old HP CD Writer Plus 9100 (yes, I prefer HP drives). My monitor is some cheap KDS thing we bought al Walmart a couple of years back. No printer, instead there's a printer attached to another computer on the network; I just use that whenever I need to print something (this happens once a year or so). I have a nifty little mini Logitech wheel mouse and a run-of-the-mill Windows keyboard. For gaming, I have a Nyko AIRFLO controller as well as a Playstation-to-USB adapter that I plug my PS2 controllers into (the adapter came with a steering wheel that we bought to play Hydro Thunder with...turns out it's better as an adapter on my PC than what it was intended to be used for). Oh yeah...and there's no internal floppy drive...I have a little Samsung external floppy drive. Of course, the icing on the cake are my nice powerful Altec Lansing PC speakers.

I have a burned CD collection that would make most people cry (it's that huge), and somewhere kicking around my house, I still have a couple of 5 1/4" floppy disks!

But like SignOfZeta, I play virtually no modern day computer games, as they're mostly boring, stale rehashes with no personality. The good thing is that if I don't like the games, I can just write my own...so I do!

akamichi · 07/16/2006, 11:51 AM

My main computer is pretty old. Built it sometime in 2001, but it's still going strong. I have an Athlon 1.4GHz CPU with an Abit MB. Got the CPU maybe a month or so before AMD started the XP and performance numbers (1800+, etc).

CPU: AMD 1.4GHz
MB: Abit
Video: GeForce 6800GT (pretty much useless for this PC)
RAM: 2GB RAM DDR333 (running at 266)... yes, my MB is that old.
HD: 1x40GB (OS)
4x250GB (930GB) in some funky multiple RAID config(1+1). Was just messing around with the various RAID levels and never bothered to make a "proper" config.
SND: SB Live 5.1 (The first of the Live 5.1 cards)
Network: 1Gb Realtek based card
CD/DVD: Plextor 16x DVD writer + Generic DVD-ROM (speed unknown)

It pretty much does all that I need. It runs all the emulators and my own stuff at full speed. It's mostly a development box, so most of the stuff I write is targetted to low end machines like mine.

Seldane · 07/16/2006, 12:20 PM

Almost 1TB!

What are you using your computer for?

PCEngineHell · 07/16/2006, 01:30 PM

Quote from: OldRoverOf course, the icing on the cake are my nice powerful Altec Lansing PC speakers. I

Oh yea for sure,Altec Lansing Kicks ass, Every Pc speaker set in my house is made by them. The bass on the subs are very deep and treble is very clear. I perfer them over everyone else,even the Creative THX certified speakers.

PCEngineHell · 07/16/2006, 01:33 PM

Quote from: "akamichi"My main computer is pretty old. Built it sometime in 2001, but it's still going strong. I have an Athlon 1.4GHz CPU with an Abit MB. Got the CPU maybe a month or so before AMD started the XP and performance numbers (1800+, etc).

CPU: AMD 1.4GHz
MB: Abit
Video: GeForce 6800GT (pretty much useless for this PC)
RAM: 2GB RAM DDR333 (running at 266)... yes, my MB is that old.
HD: 1x40GB (OS)
4x250GB (930GB) in some funky multiple RAID config(1+1). Was just messing around with the various RAID levels and never bothered to make a "proper" config.
SND: SB Live 5.1 (The first of the Live 5.1 cards)
Network: 1Gb Realtek based card
CD/DVD: Plextor 16x DVD writer + Generic DVD-ROM (speed unknown)

It pretty much does all that I need. It runs all the emulators and my own stuff at full speed. It's mostly a development box, so most of the stuff I write is targetted to low end machines like mine.

Relish in the days of the Athlon Thunderbird 1.4ghz. It will still run todays games with your graphics card your using. You may have to run at lower res,medium details,ect...but still,those cpus still work well even now. You can always oc it too since your using higher speed ddr ram:)

akamichi · 07/17/2006, 10:42 AM

Quote from: "Seldane"Almost 1TB! What are you using your computer for?

Is it really that surprising? You can get 4x250GB HDs for less than $300 now. That might sound expensive, but in terms of price per GB,it's cheap ($0.30/GB). My box pretty much acts as everything. Development box, file server (mp3s, videos, etc), and backups. I have images/backups of my old laptop HDs, old computer HDs, legit backups of CDs, LDs, and DVDs. I actually don't have much stuff stored right now basically because I've been busy with other things. In general, I try to backup everything I have just in case.

Quote from: "PCEngineHell"Relish in the days of the Athlon Thunderbird 1.4ghz. It will still run todays games with your graphics card your using. You may have to run at lower res,medium details,ect...but still,those cpus still work well even now. You can always oc it too since your using higher speed ddr ram:)

Yup, the good ol' Thunderbird is going strong. I don't play PC games much anymore, so there's no real reason to replace it right now. The last game I played a lot was NWN. That runs well on my computer with the mid to high details. The only reason I have a 6800GT is because my GeForce 2 died.

torgo · 07/17/2006, 01:48 PM

I have:

Opteron 175 w/Zalman beast of a cooler (OC'd to 2.53Ghz)
2-1GB OCZ PC4000 Gold RAM Modules
ASUS A8R32-MVPDeluxe
ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT 620W RT
2x Powercolor RADEON X1900XT 512MB
Creative X-Fi Gamer w/Logitech 5.1 speakers
2x WD Raptor 36GB/10k RPM in RAID0
Logitech MX518 Mouse
Sony DVD-ROM
Sony DVD-RW etc.
Viewsonic 21-inch P815 CRT Monitor
Lian Li PC60 Case
Matrix Orbital MX422 VFD Screen
Lian Li 12-in-1 Card reader

_Paul · 07/17/2006, 02:12 PM

/mahpckn7.jpg
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 4000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.4GHz
2Gb RAM
2 x Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT 256Mb (SLI)
Sound Blaster Audigy 4
Plextor DVDR/RW

Can't be much more technical than that tbh but it runs Half Life 2 on full settings at 2048x1536 with no slowdown so I'm happy enough with that.

Also have an Emulation-only PC running Mame and other stuff.

dj898 · 07/17/2006, 07:42 PM

main computer?
either of 17" or 15" widescreen notebooks

main gaming computer?
none. I play on consoles

TR0N · 07/17/2006, 11:28 PM

Can't say my Dell is for gaming.

Most i use it for is mame nothing more.

Beside i perfer to play video games on consoles.

No mess no fuss plus i don't have to, worry about having the right graphics card or enough ram to run the game.

PCEngineHell · 07/18/2006, 01:00 PM

Quote from: "akamichi"Yup, the good ol' Thunderbird is going strong. I don't play PC games much anymore, so there's no real reason to replace it right now. The last game I played a lot was NWN. That runs well on my computer with the mid to high details. The only reason I have a 6800GT is because my GeForce 2 died.

I got a Athlon Thunderbird 1333 cpu in yesterday! ! ! I remember how those stomped the Pentium 4 1.5ghz cpu into the ground lol.
Im going to place it in a Epox 8RDA3I Nforce 2 board and slap a Geforce 3 in with it.

As far as gaming on home consoles goes,I just dont anymore. I dont touch the PS2 or Gamecube at all anymore. The types of games I play as far as next gen goes,are done best on pc. I still love arcade games,so Mame and Nebula are used alot,I use a modded Soul Calibur 2 Hori stick for my pc for emulation stuff,and I have a large enough VGA monitor now that I dont even bother with s-video out anymore on my Apex TV and other comps in the other rooms...,plus the visual quality is much higher on VGA.
Its either this or I pull a supergun out and use it to play some games every now and then,but that is rare anymore. Most stuff I keep packed and protected in the closet.

MottZilla · 07/19/2006, 08:18 PM

My current PC:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1GB DDR400 RAM
40GB 7200RPM Master
80GB 7200RPM Slave
LiteOn DVD-RW DL
Nec DVD-RW
Sound Blaster Audigy
Radeon 7200 64MB AGP 4X VIVO

Ya that's right, I have a Radeon 7200. I have never once seen it anywhere after I bought it. I bought it for it's VIVO ability. I really outta replace it someday, but since the newest game I play is Unreal Tournament 2004, it's not a big deal. Mostly I play WarCraft III. Any high end gaming I use my Xbox 360 for.

PCEngineHell · 07/19/2006, 09:56 PM

Quote from: "MottZilla"My current PC:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1GB DDR400 RAM
40GB 7200RPM Master
80GB 7200RPM Slave
LiteOn DVD-RW DL
Nec DVD-RW
Sound Blaster Audigy
Radeon 7200 64MB AGP 4X VIVO

Ya that's right, I have a Radeon 7200. I have never once seen it anywhere after I bought it. I bought it for it's VIVO ability. I really outta replace it someday, but since the newest game I play is Unreal Tournament 2004, it's not a big deal. Mostly I play WarCraft III. Any high end gaming I use my Xbox 360 for.

I have a Radeon 7200 32 meg ddr card also. I dont use it for anything now,but back in the day it was one of the only fully compliant direct x 7 cards that hard hardware tnl support,as the Kyro did do enviromental bumpmapping also,but lacked the hardware tnl support:(
Geforce 2 series lacked enviromental bumpmapping. I have a Geforce 2 GTS also. Faster then 7200,but on older games like Expendable or Rollcage 2,Id rather use the 7200.

Seldane · 03/21/2007, 12:48 PM

Bumping this thread. Always interesting to read other's computer specs.

I got a newish computer, it cost me about $250 total to build.

Computer:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional 64bit Edition / Windows Vista Ultimate x64 / Mac OS x86 10.4.9

Motherboard:
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64, 2700 MHz (12 x 225) 4100+
Motherboard Name: MSI K8N SLI-FI (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, 7.1 Ch. Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)

Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
System Memory 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (08/24/06)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (256 MB) (800MHz DDR-RAM, 350MHz GPU)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6800 PCI-E

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB Live! Value (CT4670) Sound Card

Storage:
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller D347PRT SCSI Controller
Disk Drive SAMSUNG SP2514N (250 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive SAMSUNG SP2014N (200 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Optical Drive AOPEN DUW1616/ARR (DVD+R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/4x, DVD-RW:16x/4x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)

A little photo. Too dark. No picture of the inside, might post that later.

/compss0.jpg

termis · 03/21/2007, 01:17 PM

I'm a cheap mo-fo. I mix & matched my desktop about 6 months ago when I moved to Canada:

in CDN$,
$5 for a 17" ViewSonic CRT at a garage sale.
$60 for a PIII 866MHz from the classifieds,
Came with 128MB RAM
I had some spare parts, so I threw in
- another 256MB RAM
- DVD writer
- CD writer
- took out the 10GB disk and threw in a 20GB disk for apps + OS (WinXP Pro)
And finally bought another internal 250GB for about $100.

I initially was just going to have it last until I was going to buy a new computer this year after the release of Vista, but I find that if I don't need to play games on the computer (and I don't), it's still good enough for doing my work, web surfing, d/l'ing crap and most other common-Joe junk. Plus it doesn't help that I've heard crappy things about Vista, so I'm staying put for now!

Oli_lar · 03/22/2007, 06:51 PM

I got a Sony VAIO laptop, AMD Athlon XP 1400+ 1.2 ghz, 384 mb of ram, 2 x 10gb internal drives and an external 320 gb Seagate drive. CD/DVD player. Soundwise I got it hook up to my Cambridge Audio amp with my Bose Interaudio 4000XL speakers and Bose Acoustimass subwoofer with two Bose satellites. I use it for Red Alert 2, Emulation and every day tasks wheras I just use my Xbox, PS2 and of course PC engine for gaming.

Going to be building a desktop pretty soon, got it sketched down as a dual core 5.6 ghz, 2 gb ram, unsure of graphics card as of yet. Might try and put the Seagate as an internal if its possible. I'm fed up of having a laptop/slow pc!

Joe Redifer · 03/22/2007, 07:03 PM

My main computer is my Mac G4 dual 1Ghz with 1 Gig o' RAM. Haven't felt the need to update since it still seems plenty fast. I do not play games on it. I do edit video and sound and lots of cool stuff though. That's way cooler than gaming.

My secondary computer is a self-built machine with Windows XP and a 1.4Ghz (I think) CPU with close to 512MB of RAM or something like that plus some video card that starts with ATI. This computer only exists to run the occasional Windows app, which is extremely rare. I do not game on it. I do not like playing games on a computer.

I play games on video game systems.

Seldane · 03/23/2007, 07:19 AM

5,6 GHz? What kind of CPU is this? A dual core cpu rated at 2,8 GHz does not equal 5,6 GHz just so you know. I'm not that interested in dual core cpus myself as they aren't beneficial for gaming, which is the only thing I need a powerful system for. The rest can be done on a 486DX setup (music, drawing 2d graphics, internet).

Using your external hard drive as an internal one is very possible, although depending on its size (2,5 inch or 3,5 inch) you will need an adapter as atx systems doesn't support 2,5" drives.

Zor Prime · 03/23/2007, 08:35 AM

Seldane what case is that? Looks like a Cooler Master. Nice cases, imho.

My PC:

Athlon XP-M 2500+ @ 2GHz (does 2.2 reliably but pretty darn hot)
Shuttle AN35 Ultra nForce 2 Socket-A motherboard
1GB Mushkin Level 2 DDR PC3200
Sapphire Radeon x1600 Pro AGP card
Whatever flavour HDD of the month
Win2K Pro
Widescreen 19" Viewsonic LCD 2ms refresh
2 DVD drives. One ROM, one -RW.

I primarily play EverQuest & Tie Fighter Collector's CD-ROM (using DOSBOX) on this computer.

That and ripping DVD's.

BTW I have two of those Radeon 7200's, plus a couple 9200's also. (threw 1 in the trash, thanks kids)

Spare CPU's Athlon Thunderbird AXIA core 1GHz (does 1.4) one Duron 1.6 (unlocked) one Duron 1.8 (locked)

House is a bloody mess, carriers over into other peoples houses with my computer crap too. Lots more junk.

Oli_lar · 03/23/2007, 09:54 AM

Quote from: Seldane on 03/23/2007, 07:19 AM5,6 GHz? What kind of CPU is this? A dual core cpu rated at 2,8 GHz does not equal 5,6 GHz just so you know. I'm not that interested in dual core cpus myself as they aren't beneficial for gaming, which is the only thing I need a powerful system for. The rest can be done on a 486DX setup (music, drawing 2d graphics, internet).

Using your external hard drive as an internal one is very possible, although depending on its size (2,5 inch or 3,5 inch) you will need an adapter as atx systems doesn't support 2,5" drives.

Well it gives you an idea of the power I will have!

Kitsunexus · 03/23/2007, 11:18 AM

HP Pavilion with 512MB RAM, 160GB HD, onboard sound and onboard 128MB graphics cards.

As you can imagine, UT2004 was the last PC game I've played.

Seldane · 03/23/2007, 02:34 PM

Quote from: Oli_lar on 03/23/2007, 09:54 AMWell it gives you an idea of the power I will have!

Not really. The second core does not add to the actual speed of the CPU, and it'll mostly stay unused. Dual cores are good for multi tasking and video encoding, but that's about it. The real reason dual core CPUs exist is that they're having problems making CPUs faster than 3,5 GHz. Since they can't make them faster, they add features to them. If they were to stop making CPUs altogether, what else would they sell?

PCEngineHell · 03/23/2007, 03:08 PM

I don't plan to build another computer till things settle down a bit in the market. Video Card prices have gone back up in the used market since people have realized they can still use early Direct X 9 generation cards in Vista so its driving a over all bump in resale prices for everything Direct X 9. I'm just going to wait until the Direct X 10 hardware is selling smoothly,then I will jump back into the fray. That and currently there is nothing out new I want to play for pc.

Zor Prime · 03/23/2007, 05:12 PM

Primarily the reason for dual cores in the general consumer market is AMD & Intel trying to one-up each other to gain market share.

They're aware Billy Jean & Bubba Brown have enough smarts to realize that "dual" is better than "non-dual", thus, buy their product!

People who can actually use the dual cores (whatever their application) benefit of course.

Like I built a new box for my mother over a month ago. And before I did my dad (who is more of a mechanic than PC person by far) comes up to my talking about "dual cores". I had no idea he even knew of the term. Obviously some PR ads got to him. But he was very resolute in that I needed to build his wife / my mother a dual core box, because 2 is better than 1 and all.

So Intel & AMD pretty much have no choice BUT to make dual core processors. Or their share holders will get a noose around their respective CEO.

Quad core is out now. WooWoo.

Mind you we have had multi core CPU's for a while now, but not for the "average consumer".

Gonna use much of it? For programs maybe like distributed.net RC5 and perhaps eloquently multi threaded applications.

Just a matter of time until 8-core processors are common.

Yea there are limitations on how fast you can make current processors, a certain threshold that cannot be crossed despite how efficient you build your processors. But I've also been reading news articles where some of these issues are being addressed. But it takes time to get new manufacturing processes on the assembly line, and/or complete research.

Hobo Xiphas · 03/25/2007, 01:19 AM

Multi-core processors make me laugh.

I run into memory limitations much more than processor limitations. Only the most hardcore of computer users really need them!

Quote from: Kitsunexus on 03/23/2007, 11:18 AMHP Pavilion with 512MB RAM, 160GB HD, onboard sound and onboard 128MB graphics cards.

That's almost exactly what I have, you don't really need more than that for everyday use.

Kitsunexus · 03/25/2007, 12:11 PM

Quote from: Xiphas on 03/25/2007, 01:19 AMMulti-core processors make me laugh.

They make me DANCE!

"Multiply Your Productivity" ("Different Sound" by the Teddybears)

I <3 that song...

Seldane · 03/25/2007, 12:54 PM

The world has gone ****** mad! I've been looking for 1,26GHz PIII processors, and they're freaking expensive! People are fools! Why would anyone besides me want such old junk?

By the way, I sold my old crap Socket A motherboard (mentioned on the first page of this thread) today for 60 dollars!! Further proof that the world has gone mad. Again, why do people buy old crap? For TONS of money, no less... I just don't understand.

Kitsunexus · 03/25/2007, 01:22 PM

Quote from: Seldane on 03/25/2007, 12:54 PMThe world has gone ****** mad! I've been looking for 1,26GHz PIII processors, and they're freaking expensive! People are fools! Why would anyone besides me want such old junk?

Why do you need them? Are you making a render farm?

Seldane · 03/25/2007, 03:21 PM

A friend needs a bad computer, and a PIII 1,26 GHz is bad enough. Anything weaker than that is just torture to use.

Kitsunexus · 03/25/2007, 03:46 PM

Bad as in rapper bad, or bad as in "rotten meat in a dumpster bad"?

As far as the latter catergory goes, I have my family's old computer in my room, a AMD K6-2 300MHZ with a cracked version of 98SE (and the unofficial service pack), 128MB of RAM, a 3GB hard drive and a Voodoo 2.

However, it still plays DOOM, Quake 2, Vigilance and ZSNES, it still runs my MOD trackers, it still functions as a word processor when I need to do my homework, and believe it or not, it's what I use when I need to burn CDs.

Really, the only thing obsolete is the word "obsolete" itself. I'd paraphrase one Youtube video I uploaded, but why I don't I just link you instead? (It's only 11 seconds long):

Seldane · 03/25/2007, 04:32 PM

I would never voluntarily run Doom, Quake 2, Vigilante, ZSNES or MOD trackers. I don't even burn CDs.

Kitsunexus · 03/25/2007, 05:06 PM

Quote from: Seldane on 03/25/2007, 04:32 PMI would never voluntarily run Doom, Quake 2, Vigilante, ZSNES or MOD trackers. I don't even burn CDs.

It's Vigilance, dumbass.

A great SEGASoft 1st/3rd person shooter that got sadly overlooked.

And I burn CDs of DOS game ISOs...my music is stored on a Creative ZEN Sleek Photo.

Speaking of music, I'm an aspiring musician, and when I can't get on ACID 7, I use my MOD trackers to sketch out ideas...

And DOOM, Quake 2, and ZSNES are fun. Pure blissful fun.

Now that I've justified myself to you....well...I feel like....CHICKEN TONIGHT! (and no, that is NOT me...although I wish I had such a lovely singing voice).

SignOfZeta · 03/25/2007, 10:06 PM

My only computer is a Mac Mini. 1.42 mhz w/ 1GB of RAM. Not very exciting, sorry. Basically I hate any modern computer game I can think of, but I do like emulating PC Engine, and SNES and this little guy does that just fine. Overall, pretty boring computer. I make music with it and do a lot of internet stuff.

What is interesting though, IMO, is this picture:

/not_mini.jpg

This is my Mac sitting on top of my friend's super fast gaming machine. That huge blue silo on the left is the external portion of the computer's liquid cooling system. The contrast is, IMO, humorous.

I basically think that any computer with a window on the side of it is about as tasteful as a sequin encrusted leotard, but I sort of have to give credit to this huge liquid cooled deal because its *very* *quiet* for a high end gaming machine. Usually, most of the gaming machines I've seen have enough thrust from the 50-odd fans in them that they can almost levitate. This thing only has one fan it it, the one in the power supply, so its really really quiet.

...not as quite as the Mac Mini though...

Seldane · 03/26/2007, 11:25 AM

I agree, PCs are generally super ugly, especially when they have a window on the side. I built a Shuttle for a friend recently, and it is awesome. Very powerful (plays Oblivion with no problems at all), extremely quiet and super sleek. Not as sleek as those Mac minis though.

NecroPhile · 03/26/2007, 11:44 AM

Quote from: Xiphas on 03/25/2007, 01:19 AMMulti-core processors make me laugh.

I run into memory limitations much more than processor limitations. Only the most hardcore of computer users really need them!

Nearly everyone will see an improvement in speed with a multi-core processor, as Windows and OSX are capable of distributing threads to more than one processor. Go to Tom's Hardware and compare two similar processors with the same clock speed, bus, cache, etc. Regardless of the benchmark chosen, the dual-core processor will be quicker (although not always by a wide margin). Admittedly, some computer users don't need this power, but that is true of any newer processor regardless of core count. Digital video editing, audio conversion, and gaming are pretty common computer tasks that will certainly benefit from the additional processing power of dual-core. It's not 'hardcore' to use a computer for more than e-mail and internet surfing.

Interesting pic SignOfZeta - Mac really meant Mini when they named that thing. That's probably what a computer would look like if Hudson was building modern computers. I can't understand the whole case modding thing. I'm far more interested in what's on the screen than pretty lights inside the case.

Keranu · 03/26/2007, 01:53 PM

I prefer this computer:

NecroPhile · 03/26/2007, 05:18 PM

Bad ass Tandy 1000 with 8mhz of blazing 286 power - unfortunately, no blast processing.

Hobo Xiphas · 03/26/2007, 06:03 PM

Quote from: guest on 03/26/2007, 11:44 AMAdmittedly, some computer users don't need this power, but that is true of any newer processor regardless of core count. Digital video editing, audio conversion, and gaming are pretty common computer tasks that will certainly benefit from the additional processing power of dual-core. It's not 'hardcore' to use a computer for more than e-mail and internet surfing.

How many people other than super nerds or apple hipsters do video editing and audio conversion? As for gaming, most PC gaming isn't my bag anymore. I'll take Civilization IV, but that's about it. And it needs more memory than ridiculous processing anyways.

I'd hate to tell you this, but most people use computers for productivity software and communication. You don't need parallel processing for those things as they aren't that CPU intensive.

Quote from: Keranu on 03/26/2007, 01:53 PMI prefer this computer:

I like your style. I'll take your Tandi and raise you an Amiga.

/amiga1000wz3.jpg

Kitsunexus · 03/26/2007, 06:14 PM

Quote from: Hobo Xiphas on 03/26/2007, 06:03 PMI like your style. I'll take your Tandi and raise you an Amiga.

/amiga1000wz3.jpg

OH FUCK YES!!!!

NecroPhile · 03/26/2007, 06:40 PM

Quote from: Xiphas on 03/26/2007, 06:03 PMHow many people other than super nerds or apple hipsters do video editing and audio conversion? As for gaming, most PC gaming isn't my bag anymore. I'll take Civilization IV, but that's about it. And it needs more memory than ridiculous processing anyways.

I'd hate to tell you this, but most people use computers for productivity software and communication. You don't need parallel processing for those things as they aren't that CPU intensive.

I hate to tell you this, but....

Digital camcorders far outsell analog models - I think that it is safe to assume that people are editing and burning their home videos to a dvd so that they can share with friends (and I fucking hate it when it happens - I don't give a shit about your vacation, unless you have topless beach footage). Youtube content also has to come from somewhere, and not everybody in the videos look like dweebs. You can't swing a dead cat around without hitting an iPod, so I don't believe that only dorks are converting audio files. Some people still buy CDs and the songs won't migrate to an MP3 player by themselves.

I agreed that people only surfing the web or checking e-mail don't need the extra power of a multi-core processor, but that equally applies to speedy single-core processors. Not that it matters, but I use an Athlon XP 1700+ with 768MB of RAM. I don't have a need for any more processing power, but I don't expect that the majority of people are like me (limited gaming, no MP3 player, no video editing, and no multi-tasking). We'll have to agree to disagree on what 'most' people want and need.

Kitsunexus · 03/26/2007, 07:06 PM

I dabble in video and make music. That's why I need a fast comp. Gaming is just oldschool pc game and emulators for me, so I don't need too terribly much in that regard.

Hobo Xiphas · 03/26/2007, 08:05 PM

Quote from: guest on 03/26/2007, 06:40 PMWe'll have to agree to disagree on what 'most' people want and need.

Yes. Let me make peace with the technophiles by posting one of the greatest computers ever:

/rayspbkq7.jpg

Keranu · 03/26/2007, 08:11 PM

Packard Bell - A Nebraskan Favorite ;) .