# Show us your ....



## Overread

PC - well what did you think? Images are good, but specs are good too 

me
OS: Windows vista ultimate
Motherboard: ASUS P5B deluxe
Graphics card:NIVIDA GeForce 8800 GTX
Processor:Intel Core 2 6400 2.13GHz
RAM;2GB
Sound card:Creative SB X-Fi
Hard drive:500GB


----------



## Lenny

800GTX? *drool*

---

*Mobo:* MSI K9N SLi
*CPU:* AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ 2.40GHz 
*RAM:* 3gb (2x512mb, 2x1gb - all Corsair XMS2, DDR2, PC2-6400)
*Graphics Card:* ASUS nVidia GeForce 800GTS 640mb
*HDD:* 2x Seagate Barracuda 160gb
*PSU:* 500W

*Monitor: *Hyundai 19" Widescreen 
*Keyboard:* Logitech G15 "Big Daddy" Gaming Keyboard
*Mouse: *Logitech MX610 Wireless Laser Mouse

*Speakers:* 5.1 Surround Sound Creative P5800

*OS:* Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit

*System Score*
Processor - _5.0_
Memory (RAM) - 5.9
Graphics - 5.9
Gaming graphics - 5.9
Primary Hard Disk - 5.5

---

Custom built, obviously. Though originally it was 1gb of RAM, and a single 7600GT 256mb card. I got a second one and ran them in SLi, and then got rid of them both and got the 800GTS. The mouse and keyboard were bought for Christmas (I made do with an awful HiPoint keyboard, and an equally bad mouse for a few months).

And three, 80mm case fans.

Next September, before I go off to Uni, I'm hoping to build myself a new system, with power in mind.  You know, quad core (probably an Intel), if not eight core, as much RAM as I can find, high spec mobo, the best graphics card I can find (well, two in SLi, if I'm lucky) and so on. I'm going to be doing a lot of graphics work in the future (mostly 3D modelling), so I want a system that will handle it all, and stay futureproof for the duration of Uni, at least. Oh, and I'd like to have a dual monitor setup, and a stupidly expensive case, just for the crack of it. 

This one's a year old, cost £800 when I built it, and I've since spent about £500 on it.

---

Piccytures:












---

On another note - the Crysis demo should be out today! Let's see if our systems can handle it!


----------



## Overread

wow - I have to ask, that picture, how long did you spend cleaning your work station - even looks like you gave the floor a hoover 

Also, if your upgrading and like sound, drop the vista - there is a fix for some games, but most older gamers will not work with EAX settings on vista  -  a major pain

Also, I see unifinshed Hobb - go away and finish reading!


----------



## Lenny

I was wondering why EAX wouldn't work in* Guild Wars*. But to be honest, I didn't notice any difference with it on, or off, when I was playing GW on XP, so it doesn't bother me. And the only old game I play is, erm, Guild Wars.  And by the time I build a new computer, GW2 should be out.

Erm... cleaning... yeah... does moving all the papers off the desk and dumping them on my bad count as cleaning? If not, then the last I cleaned was about, oooh, when'd I get the desk? Septemberish? As for cleaning the inside of the computer........ yeah...

And yes, unfinished Hobb. Well, technically I've finished it, but not the second time round. I've got the last of the _Soldier Son _trilogy to finish for the first time, the _Liveship Traders _trilogy to read for the first time, and then the Fitz trilogies to re-read.

Have you not got any piccytures of your computer?


----------



## Overread

Creative have a program fix called alchemist which fixes guildwars (and other games). Also - sorry no pics, the only digital camera I ever have access to is in suffolk, whilst I am currently at uni in London - I really should get myself a camera


----------



## Lenny

Oooh. I'll have to find that. Thanks for the heads up.

See if you can nick a friends for a while.


----------



## Commonmind

Well, I definitely love these types of threads. I made one myself a while ago; I enjoy seeing everyone else's setup. Here's a few pics of mine own. Sorry about the time stamp, didn't realize it was on until after I uploaded.






A few details: the monitor is the 24" Gateway FHD, my trusty Wacom is sitting on its base. I use a Tarantula gaming keyboard and the MX Revolution. My poor 360 PC controller, who hasn't seen use since I played Tomb Raider: Legend. A few of my books, including some Moorcock, Card and Brooks (three of my favs; that copy of Shannara is from 1977, with original cover art and all). And of course Chrons in full 1920x1200 glory.






My Bumble-Bee case. Too bad it doesn't transform into an autonomous inter-galactic superhero 






My specs:

Asus P5WD2 Premium
P4D 805 @ 3.8ghz (this thing performs so well I haven't been compelled to replace it; runs everything flawlessly and performs better than some of the higher end Dual Core EE's)
EVGA 8800GTX (768; currently on RMA; thank you Newegg!)
2gb of Giel DDR2
I run Vista so I threw my high-end X-Fi into my wife's PC for the time being; there's still pretty poor sound device support for Vista.


----------



## Overread

Nice desk set-up - not sure though about a yellow tower, though it does stand out.
If nothing else comes out of this thread, at least the desks of geeks will be cleaned


----------



## Commonmind

Thanks  I don't remember what compelled me to buy the yellow Wavemaster, but I love that case so much its had its innards replaced going on six times now.


----------



## tangaloomababe

I had a 486 once, no its true!!!!!
Sorry guys I was actually thinking how much you sound like my son and his quest for the biggest, fastest computer etc etc..... 
I have no idea what the specifications are but its fast, damm fast.  With mine I can turn it on, go out to the kitchen, put the kettle on, make a coffee and come back and its just woken up.  With his I barely get a sip of my coffee in before its ready to go.  He has some massive monitor, I think its 24inchs or thereabouts.
Its ok I am happy with mine (unless I want to get onto chrons quicker)
I love the yellow by the way Commonmind!!!!


----------



## Commonmind

Thanks Tang. My son isn't old enough to ask for his own PC yet; I live in fear of that moment actually. I think I'm more nervous of that than buying him a car


----------



## Lenny

Cor... I can't wait until I have kids, and the day when my son (hopefully) will ask if he can build a computer. 

---

Is that a different setup to the one you posted a few months ago, Commonmind?

---

Tanga, you've got our interests piqued, now! You'll have to ask him to write down the exact specs for us, just so we can compare. 

---

Oh, and no fair! I want the 8800GTX.  Heck, maybe even two in SLi!


----------



## Commonmind

> Is that a different setup to the one you posted a few months ago, Commonmind?



Similar, but with a few modifications. The 24" inch screen, a few updated components thrown into the PC and I finally went back to a good old fashioned wired keyboard, albeit much more appealing to the eye with blue lights shining throughout and a slick reflective finish in which I can style my hair in case the wife is taking too long in the bathroom.


----------



## Lenny

What make of monitor is it? It's a beatiful thing. I also notice it has a HDMI port, and is a HD display. What's the resolution? Looks like something rather large. 1680x1050? Or 1920x1200, even?


----------



## Commonmind

The Gateway FHD2400, 1920x1200, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 3ms response time and comes with HDMI, Component and the normal SD assortment of video inputs you'd find on any display. I went through several 24" models and this was by far the best performer for the money spent. If it weren't for the fact that I already have a beautiful TV I might have moved over my PS3, Wii and 360, as they all look fantastic on it as well.


----------



## Lenny

Hmmm. I'll need a goo monitor like that for Uni, seeing as I won't be able to take my TV along with me, and the PS3 doesn't have a projection system built into it, sadly (you'd have thunk that Sony would have put it in, surely?  ). I guess that with such a resolution, it means you've got to scroll less when you get, ahem, long posts.

So what does it display in, for HD? 720p/1080i?


----------



## Commonmind

1080p, thankfully 

An added bonus since you'll be heading to Uni is that you can pick up the speaker bar for it as well, which attaches to the bottom.


----------



## Green

Ok, here's mine. Couldn't get any decent pics of the thing... but it's not that pretty anyway  Vista performance ratings in brackets.

Everything runs at 1066 MHz.

ASRock ConroeXFire-SATA2
E6600 Dual Core @ 2.4 GHz (5.3)
2 x 1024 MB Elixir (5.4)
8800GTS 320 MB (can't remember the make now!) (5.9)
160 GB SATA Hitachi Deskstar (or something), 7200 rpm (5.6), 120 GB Seagate ATA, 120 GB external USB drive.


----------



## Happy Joe

AMD A64/x2 6000 @ 3GHz.
2 gig of ddr2 800 ram
a couple of raptor SATA drives
biostar TF7025-M2 AM2 mobo
old 7800GT vid card
Nec DVD burner
Samsung Cd burner
Forton/Source power supply
all camouflaged in an old E-machine box
19" flat screen
OS XP pro sp2 (I will probably go with vista on the next upgrade)

Technics 500 watt 5.1 AV control receiver (for games)
10 KLH speakers set up for 5.1 sound
old JBL subwoofer (for shooting games)

It aint much but it can be fun...
Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

Going back to monitors, I've found an absolute corker - Hyundai W240D.

Hyundai IT W240D 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 1080p, 16:9, 5ms, 1000:1, WUXGA 1920x1200, HDMI, Component, DVI(HDCP), VGA, Built-In Speakers, Black at TigerDirect.com
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Both sites disagree on the vital specs, though: 

- 3000:1/1000:1
- 2ms/5ms

But both agree it has an HDMI port, and a 1920x1200 resolution that gives 1080p images. And just look at it! Bee-ee-ay-utiful!
















Give it a year and the price will be down a bit, and then I might be able to get two and have the old dual-monitor setup.


----------



## Commonmind

Just got done putting together a new build that was setup merely to play Crysis. 

3Dmark Link

Specs are: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ defaults
EVGA 680i 122-CK-NF68
4gb of Ballistix DDR2 (1066)
2x 320 WD HDD in Raid 1
2x XFX 8800 GTs in SLI
GameXStream OCZ 700W PSU
Running on Vista Ultimate (64)

So far the Demo benchmarks have been subpar, but it's also been confirmed the demo doesn't support SLI and isn't optimized for quad cores. I'll post some Crysis benchmarks at launch. 

On a side note, I threw another 8800GT (best bang for your buck card since the Ti 4200/4400) in an older PC (running a P4D 820 and 2gb of DDR2) and am pleased to say I can run the entire demo in very high with extremely playable framerates.


----------



## Green

*******.

Where do you live, again?

How much did that cost you to put together? (It's ok - your partner/parents/bank manager aren't looking... you can tell us )


----------



## Overread

looking at the specs, my guess is around the £2000 mark for that machine - maybe less


----------



## The Ace

OK, fine;

Cool dog case
Combo drive
52x CD-Rom
AMD 1800+ Processor
40GB IDE Hard drive
64mB S3 Graphics
512mB DDR Crucial Ram
PC Chips Motherboard
Windows XP SP2
Open Office 2
Nero 7
Power DVD 5
AVG Antivirus
Ad-Aware
Firefox
Foxit reader
Virgin Media broadband.
19" CRT Monitor

I'm seriously thinking  of upgrading  to an 80gB  hard drive,  a  128mB  graphics  card  or a TFT  monitor but  that's in the future.   For the moment, though, it does everything I want it to.


----------



## Commonmind

When it was all said and done it ended up being around 1800 US (but that's including items not listed in the specs; peripherals, optical drives etc.)


----------



## Lenny

Is that it? That's quite a good price.

Talking about the 800GT, I've just been reading an interesting article about it, comparing to all the other high-end cards. The AMD ones come nowhere near it, and two 800GT's in SLi beats everything in terms of performance:

AnandTech: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters


----------



## Green

How does the 4 GB of memory run? I heard a few months ago that mobos currently can't handle that much properly (at least, not to the extent that it was twice as effective as 2 GB). Just wondering if that's still the case, or if the technology has moved on.


----------



## Commonmind

> Is that it? That's quite a good price.
> 
> Talking about the 800GT, I've just been reading an interesting article about it, comparing to all the other high-end cards. The AMD ones come nowhere near it, and two 800GT's in SLi beats everything in terms of performance:
> 
> AnandTech: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters


That was the article that prompted the purchase. I'm actually a bit happy that I can say goodbye to the GTX, at the price I paid for it you could buy two of these and run them in SLI, leaving a single GTX in the dust. I was quite literally floored after reading all the benchmarks.



> How does the 4 GB of memory run? I heard a few months ago that mobos currently can't handle that much properly (at least, not to the extent that it was twice as effective as 2 GB). Just wondering if that's still the case, or if the technology has moved on.


The 32bit (x86) version of Vista is supposed to be able to handle up to 4gb of ram, but generally it will only recognized 2.558gb - it's not that the ram isn't being seen so much as Vista just doesn't utilize it as physical memory and allocates it to other tasks - making it appear as if you're not benefiting from the extra memory. Vista 64 doesn't have that problem, it supports up to 32gb of system memory and runs beautifully. Out of the box the Ballistix was rated at 1066, so I lowered it to 800 and lowered the timings to make them a lot more aggressive. At its current setting Sisoft rates it higher than 2gb of some of the most expensive SLI-Ready DDR2 1200 modules on the market, in some cases more than doubling the performance.


----------



## Snowdog

AMD Athlon 2600
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9200
NVIDIA nFORCE on-board audio
Speedtouch 575 wireless/ethernet router
Drives: all Maxtor 
3 internal - 360 GB
4 external - 1.1 TB
Antec case
Benq 19" flatscreen monitor (love it, and it was quite cheap, but I had a 15" CRT for donkey's years, now I can play games at more than 800x600 and still actually see things)
Samsung DVD-ROM
Pioneer DVD writer
Windows XP SP1

The core of my PC is now at least two years out of date, I'm just hanging on as long as possible before either Vista dies or (if it doesn't) I have to switch to Linux.


----------



## scalem X

Commonmind, do you study Japanese?
(I saw a kanji & kana amongst others)


----------



## Green

Commonmind said:


> Vista 64 doesn't have that problem, it supports up to 32gb of system memory and runs beautifully.



Interesting.

My company has that much RAM on its HPC's. Not that I can afford that much on my home PC, but it's interesting to know that I _can_ 

Happy gaming, mate. I am envious.


----------



## Commonmind

scalem X said:


> Commonmind, do you study Japanese?
> (I saw a kanji & kana amongst others)



I do, very heavily in my teens and early twenties, though I don't get to study much anymore. (that entire top shelf consists of Japanese language books only, and that's about a third of the collection). I studied Okinawan  Kenpo for about nine years; my Sensei was a Japanese native and I had intended to travel overseas to study and possibly teach English to pay my way. Unfortunately life caught up with me and I ended up both abandoning that dream and practicing martial arts - which I miss terribly.


----------



## zedlav

Current, self-built. It's nothing much, but it has kept up very well so far. 

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300;
A midrange Biostar I945P motherboard (I don't subscribe to the belief that expensive overclocker motherboards warrant the expense);
2 gigs of Kingmax value ram, 667Mhz;
Club3D GeForce 7600GS (current bottleneck, I originally intended to update around now);
a 300 gig Western Digital harddrive. 

+midrange case, a 400W PS, an optical drive (first ASUS product that has broken that I've ever encountered), Logitech 2.1 speakers, a 19" LG LCD monitor, black Logitech Value keyboard and mouse. 

But, I'm going to have to ditch this PC in a couple of weeks time, as I'll relocate, so I'll be getting this laptop instead: 

Toshiba Satellite A210-16F; AMD Turion X2 TL58 1.9G; 15.4";2048 DDRII; ATI HD2600; 160G 5400; DVD-RW-RAM DL; Vista Home Premium; Bluetht;'WLAN; 1394; 1.3 Mpix camera


----------



## Commonmind

Green said:


> Interesting.
> 
> My company has that much RAM on its HPC's. Not that I can afford that much on my home PC, but it's interesting to know that I _can_
> 
> Happy gaming, mate. I am envious.



It's kind of crazy to think about it, but I'm sure we'll get to the days where having 30gb of ram is a standard and anyone with less than 20 needs to upgrade, lol.


----------



## tangaloomababe

*Hey Lenny as requested......*

AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+
320m 8800GT
2x 1g DDR-800 RAM
2x250g WD HDD's
X-Fi xTreme sound card
18x DVD-+RW
22"w SAmsung 226bw monitor
Logitech Z2300 THX speakers
Logitech MX3100 KB + M


----------



## scalem X

Commonmind, I study Japanese too (at Uni).
If you ever want to like mail me in Japanese or practise together over skype or something, don't hesitate.


----------



## Lenny

tangaloomababe said:


> *Hey Lenny as requested......*
> 
> AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+
> 320m 8800GT
> 2x 1g DDR-800 RAM
> 2x250g WD HDD's
> X-Fi xTreme sound card
> 18x DVD-+RW
> 22"w SAmsung 226bw monitor
> Logitech Z2300 THX speakers
> Logitech MX3100 KB + M


 
Ooooh! That is a nice computer. No wonder it's fast - 3.0ghz processor.


----------



## Commonmind

scalem X said:


> Commonmind, I study Japanese too (at Uni).
> If you ever want to like mail me in Japanese or practise together over skype or something, don't hesitate.



 Thanks for the invite. If I ever get the extra time I just might hold you to it.


----------



## Lenny

Show us your...

...possible future USB pen! 

*drools*

32GB Corsair Flash Voyager USB 2.0 Pen Drive, Fast x150x, 10-year warranty

32gb, Corsair, £166 including VAT. Only a fiver per gb.

My current pen is 4gb, and that was a tenner per gb. And the USB endy bit is very loose, so I want a new one before it snaps and I lose all my data.


----------



## Commonmind

That's astounding. My current USB drive is a mere 256mb, lol. One of the few things I haven't upgraded in a few years.


----------



## Lenny

My friend has just called me crazy. 

"Why get a 32gb USB pen when you can get an 8800GT and replace your rubbish 8800GTS?" Haha!

I don't know why, but I love massive USB pens.  And no, I'm not trying to compensate.


----------



## Overread

32GB pen - you could back-up a whole computer - everything includeing os system - and lose the whole lot on the train


----------



## Commonmind

The GTS is still a great card though, so I'd go with the pen-drive, especially considering ATI and nVidia both have new cards coming before the end of the year.


----------



## Lenny

That's something along the lines of what I responded with, OR.

I told him that I could easily install XP and the incompatible programs that I use, and then be able to have my second hard drive specifically for storage.

---

The new nVidia one will be the 8900, aye?

EDIT: If you've got $5000 to spare, CM, you could buy yourself a 64gb USB pen. 

PCMicroStore / BUSLINK USB 2.0 BUSDRIVE 64GB PRO 2 VER


----------



## Commonmind

Not sure yet. Nvidia just announced a new and very confusing naming convention for their current and future technologies, so there's no telling if the retail cards will keep to the current trend or if they'll now apply these new monikers to their future cards. Let's hope they don't, because I've read the article a few dozen times and I still can't make sense of it.


----------



## MinasTirithGuard

I have a laptop:

Sager NP9260
17 inch screen, 1920x1200
Intel Core Duo 2.66 ghz
2x NVidia 7950gtx w/ 512mb in SLI
2 gigabytes of RAM

I got this computer because my desktop was almost ten years old, and free when I received it. It couldn't play the original Age of Empires


----------



## Snowdog

Lenny said:


> Show us your...
> 
> ...possible future USB pen!
> 
> *drools*
> 
> 32GB Corsair Flash Voyager USB 2.0 Pen Drive, Fast x150x, 10-year warranty
> 
> 32gb, Corsair, £166 including VAT. Only a fiver per gb.
> 
> My current pen is 4gb, and that was a tenner per gb. And the USB endy bit is very loose, so I want a new one before it snaps and I lose all my data.



I've got a 4 GB USB flash drive and you can get cheap DVD players with USB ports now so you can stick your media on the flash drive and play it directly through the DVD player, for those times when you don't have a PC next to the tv and you don't want to/can't burn DVDRs. You can get a lot of movies on a 32GB drive - and they're bound to get bigger. Only problem is you're reliant on the DVD player supporting the format and having a decent menu system built in.


----------



## Erin99

How did I miss this thread???

I have a Toshiba laptop:

160GB HD
Core Duo 2 1.73 GHz
2 gig RAM (came with 1, but I upgraded)
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 (128mb, but I don't care)
17" TruBrite screen (1400 x 900dpi)
Harmon Kardon high quality speakers
Built-in webcam, microphone, and bluetooth
Vista Premium

It also comes with a spare slot for a second HD, so I might take my old drive from my broken laptop, format it, install XP on it, then I could dual boot Vista/XP...


----------



## Commonmind

Not too shabby...for a girl 

(Sorry, I hope you'll excuse me this one time. Very nice notebook you have there.)


----------



## Junomidge

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
E-GEFORCE 8600GTS
2G DDR2 Ram


----------



## Erin99

Shabby! Ooh, mister! 

I'll have you know I build and upgrade PCs. At least you're joking, though. I've had to put up with almost every man I meet thinking they should explain technical details slooooowly and carefully because I'm a poor little woman who knows nothing about hardware.

I remember one kind assistant explaining the technichal details of this machine to my dad - even though _I_ had asked the question - and we got out the store and my dad said, "Now, can you explain what he just said?" 


But, yes, I'm still paying off the loan for this lappy...


----------



## Commonmind

Oh, I never underestimate the power of an intelligent, informed and educated women; there are definitely more of them in the world  so I wouldn't want to upset them. And I've seen my share of lady geeks; I've lost quite a few online games to them too.


----------



## Karn Maeshalanadae

My laptop is a Gateway MX6000 series notebook, 49g hard drive, .75g RAM, Intel Extreme graphics.  It's a couple years old, and can't play most modern games, due to the fact that it doesn't have GeForce or RADEON....


----------



## Lith

14" laptop
USB 1 (x2)
20GB HD
ATI-something-or-other
1Ghz Athlon processor
256mb memory (type of which I momentarily forget)
No bluetooth
No Wireless
3.5" floppy drive (probably the last gen laptops to have them)
Combination DVD/CD drive


Y'all can laugh now.  (But hey, it's paid for!)

(And seriously, aside from PC games I don't play ANYWAY, it's holding up extremely well for its age, and the geeks I knew told it right when they said the Athlons processed graphics better than others- it's as fast as current computers on most things.)


----------



## gully_foyle

I have a beowulf cluster with 66 dual p3 blade servers (dell 1655s), each with 2GB ram and a 30 GB scratch disk, interconnected by 5 dual p4 xeon servers (dell 2650s) and about 2TB of disk on a raid array. But that's just my work computer.


----------



## aquamarine

me
OS: Windows XP
Graphics card:NIVIDA GeForce 8800 GTX
Processor:Intel Core 2 6400 1.8GHz
RAM;256mb
Hard drive:40GB

T_T


----------



## fantasy noob

well id be embaressed to show u a picture of my computer but hey commonmind u should put a fish tank in ur computer that would be awsome


----------



## Commonmind

Oddly enough I've already had one. I bought the fish tank side panel for the old Lian-Li's a few years ago. Unfortunately it cracked


----------



## Lith

I've heard good things about water-cooling a computer. 

Never thought about adding the fish though.


----------



## Ursa major

Dell laptop with:

T7100 (Centrino Duo @ 1.8GHz) + 2GB RAM,
GeForce 8600M GT + 17" screen (1920 x 1200: for multiple documents, honest!),
136GB-capacity hard disk + DVD writer,
WiFi and various ports (but no Bluetooth),
Webcam and microphones,
Vista Home Premium.
Not being a gamer, this is more than enough for my foreseeable needs.


----------



## Erin99

Nice specs, Ursa. It's like a fierce stallion for a dwarf! I believe in overkill, though. I hardly do much more than typing on _my_ lappy. 



I like the fish idea. If you turn the voltage up a little, you could have fried fish...


----------



## Ursa major

Leisha said:


> I believe in overkill, though.
> 
> ...fried fish...


 


But seriously.... I removed the virus checker from an old machine that will never again be networked or linked to anything. (I also removed a freeware PDF generator, now that the new Office - on this machine - has a downloaded one of its own.) The old machine now zips along doing officy functions and you can use it soon after you switch it on eek:). So given that more and more viruses will pop up, and Office et al will grow ever grosser, I believe in grabbing all the power you can within () your budget.


----------



## Erin99

Exactly! Plus, from what I've found in the past, higher-spec machines don't die soon after you've bought them.


And I render videos on occassion, too... (I'm sure my lappy jumps for joy at finally having some hard work to do.)

I like the built-in PDF converter in Office 2007. I used it when I beta-ed the new Word, and now I'm running the 60 trial. I truly am impressed! But I still can't afford the software. *sigh* One day I'll have some money...

I'm hoping I might get it for my birthday (one can hope, anyway).


----------



## Lith

Reinstalling Windows once in a while does WONDERS for the speed of your computer. Everything Windows does leaves a mark on the system, and after a couple years it bogs down under its own weight, not to mention viral/spyware activity.

It also encourages you to sort those numerous files in dusty corners of the HD.


----------



## Joel007

I have a 17" CRT monitor, and beneath it...

AMD Sempron 3100+
GEFORCE 7800GS OC
1G DDR
1x 80GB SATA HDD
1x 160GB IDE HDD

It's not much but it play Crysis, what more could I need


----------



## sarakoth

I have a premade computer that I received last year as a birthday present. (I'm still a child)

Intel Core 2 duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz (oced to 2.1)
2G DDR2
250GB Hard Drive
Nvidia Geforce 7300 LE 256 MB (GPU oced to 575 MHz and GRAM oced to 950 MHz)

Hopefully I'll receive an uber high end nine series card soon.


----------



## Joel007

It looketh nice sarakoth, all you need now is some tacky blue neon lights and electronic furry dice!


----------



## Commonmind

I just picked up a brand new laptop. I figured I would post it here, even though it hasn't arrived yet, as it will soon be a permanent part of my setup  

Newegg.com - ASUS G Series G1S-B2 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T7700(2.40GHz) 15.4" Wide SXGA+ 3GB 200GB 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT - Retail

She's a beauty and I can't wait to un-box her...though I assure you I will show her the proper amount of respect and go through the necessary courting stage of our relationship before any un-boxing occurs.


----------



## Overread

all those stats common - but no mention if you are going with the tried and tested xp - or if you are taking the dive with the promising, but irritable vista


and courting your pc -------- have you considered threapy


----------



## Lenny

I never thought I'd see the day when a laptop actually had the specs to rival a dekstop. That thing has nearly identical specs to my desktop. 

I have to admit, it's a nice little thing.

Here's an article that might interest you (popped back into mind when I saw the hard drive capacity of the laptop), which I originally found posted on a PS3 forum (for obvious reasons ):

PC World - Mobile Hard Drives Hit 500GB


----------



## Overread

actually, I think it might be beating my pc in some areas - like processing power


----------



## Lenny

Just looking at the RAM, it'll be interesting to see if you do get the full 3gb, Commonmind.

I've got 3gb, and apart from a few weeks from the day I installed Vista, it only ever shows up as 2.558gb. Now Microsoft claims that 32-bit Vista is limited to 3.12gb, like 32-bit XP, but I've read a lot of things online from people who have the same problem - it only shows 2.558gb.


----------



## Overread

better fact lenny is that vista can't use more than 2gb of ram anyway. Just to talk to supreme commander players - vista has problems with using stuff - at least the 32bit version does


----------



## Commonmind

It's a common misconception, but 32bit Vista takes advantage of all the memory you have installed (up to 4gbs). It just allocates it differently and over the 2 gig mark the excess ram may not be listed in your available physical memory (depending on the particular motherboard/chipset and peripherals you're using, it could range from 2.5gbs to 3.5gbs). Vista can use the extra memory you've installed as video ram, and in the case with this particular laptop, you'll notice that the card, while having 512mbs of memory, only comes with 256mbs of dedicated memory. Which means Vista is allocating 256mbs of memory to the video card - which will amount to roughly 2.8gbs of usable physical memory. 

Rest assured the extra memory in your particular case is being utilized, just not in a way you're familiar with (and maybe not in a way you'd be comfortable with, considering it doesn't always positively impact performance).


----------



## Lenny

Hmmm...

Would I be right in saying that Vista does the same with a USB pen you plug and use with ReadyBoost?


----------



## Commonmind

It shouldn't, because it's not addressed in the same way that your on-board memory is. The OS should recognize and use the entire amount of flash memory you have inserted with ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost actually works in the same way an SSD would. Rather than seeing it as ram in the traditional sense, it sees it as a hard drive with a cache that can be utilized as ram.


----------



## Lenny

Just been reading through the thread - I got the 32gb USB pen, if anyone is interested to know that. 

And my Computer has received a couple of upgrades recently... well, new peripherals.

Yesterday - Samsung CLP-300 Colour Laser Printer
Today - Canon CanoScan LiDE 90 Scanner

Early birthday presents, they be. And I've just realised that apart from the need for food and drink, and to turn the modem on or off, I am completely self-sufficient and could live in my room indefinitely! 

---

Piccytures (need I add captions?):


----------



## Commonmind

Very nice additions Lenny, especially that new printer. 

My new laptop should be here today so I plan on posting some pics as soon as it does.


----------



## Lith

Yes, you could live in your room- but why would you want to?  The same four small walls, day in, day out...

Otherwise, it's a nice-looking setup.


----------



## Joel007

Y'arr I has a picture of my PC. Can't see inside though


----------



## scalem X

I have but one question, Joel. Why, oh why, the yellow pages?


----------



## Joel007

One of the casualties of my wife's "tidying"

Right at the bottom there's the package Nesa sent me, and in front of the monitor is one of those books 

Oh, and the "NON STOCK" label is from when I took my speakers into work, and I took a stock check instruction a bit too literally.


----------



## Overread

its that a red fridge in the corner?
if so, do you ever leave the computer?


----------



## Commonmind

Ok, so here she is: Specs are fantastic, the processor is roughly the equivalent of an E6600, 3gbs of DDR2, 200gb HDD, 8600M GT, 1680x1050 15.4" display and while not a part of the specifications, the little LCD near the top of the keyboard (the one displaying the Asus logo in blue) is a beautiful little touch; it displays an individual's name who is messaging you if you're in a full screen application and have a messaging program operating in the background, displays the time, and can even be customized with person messages as well.







And the box, cause it's nice:






And evidence that I've lost my mind:






I went a little crazy and figured if I was going to spend 2k on a new laptop I might as well update the PC as well - even though it really didn't need it, lol. So I grabbed a second 8800GT, 700w OCZ PSU, a Q6600, eVGA 680i Motherboard, 2 more gigs of Ballistix DDR2, a new 500gb Western Digital hard-drive and a VX Revolution for the laptop, to match the MX Revolution that my monster uses. Ironically, or perhaps expectedly, I've noticed almost no performance increase in Crysis with the 8800GT's in SLI. We need a patch Crytek!

Benchmarks for the new setup:

Futuremark - ORB - Project Comparison


----------



## Lenny

Update the PC? You might as well give up on it and just build a new one!! 

Beautiful Laptop, by the way. I love how WASD is helpfully highlighted in green.


----------



## Overread

show off! 
nice stuff though - and ASUS - good company


----------



## Commonmind

Well, it really is a new build basically, the only thing being the same is the case, the optical drives, the other HDD's I'm migrating to the new system and the other video card. And yes, surprisingly those WASD highlights come in handy. It is a bit of a gloat post, I admit, but when I get new geeky toys I have to share them with my fellow geeks, no matter how much they'll want to hit me with bricks.


----------



## Overread

no - we don't want to hit you with bricks; we just want your address, house key, alarm code and a chance to swip the stuff


----------



## Commonmind

If you can find all of the above on your own, I will let you have it all


----------



## Woodfoot

Going to be building myself a gaming base unit but got myself a new Laptop cos the old Centrino M i had for last 6 years is getting old!!

Samsung R20plus ACPI X86-BASED PC

OS: Windows vista Home Premium 32bit
Graphics card: ATI Radeon Xpress 1250
Processor: Intel core 2 duo T5550 1.83Ghz
RAM: 2GB
Sound card: Realtek High Def
Hard drive:160GB
Dual Layer DVD-RW Device
15.4 widescreen can't remember the name but something like Truescreen?
3.8 Windows experience index lol (let down by graphics card all others up to 4.9)

Not bad for £500 

What system do you recommend for gaming its been a long time since i built one.


----------



## Commonmind

Woodfoot said:


> Going to be building myself a gaming base unit but got myself a new Laptop cos the old Centrino M i had for last 6 years is getting old!!
> 
> Samsung R20plus ACPI X86-BASED PC
> 
> OS: Windows vista Home Premium 32bit
> Graphics card: ATI Radeon Xpress 1250
> Processor: Intel core 2 duo T5550 1.83Ghz
> RAM: 2GB
> Sound card: Realtek High Def
> Hard drive:160GB
> Dual Layer DVD-RW Device
> 15.4 widescreen can't remember the name but something like Truescreen?
> 3.8 Windows experience index lol (let down by graphics card all others up to 4.9)
> 
> Not bad for £500
> 
> What system do you recommend for gaming its been a long time since i built one.



If by "system" you mean platform, I'd definitely suggest the Core 2 Duo/Quad based processors, with a decent X38 or P35 motherboard and an 8800GT (still the best bang for your buck right now). There's several new technologies coming to market, however, so it also may be best to wait. Intel will have an entirely new series of processors by the end of Q1, there will be new chipsets, cheaper DDR3 and both nVidia and ATI should be releasing new high, mid and low end cards within the next several months.


----------



## Lenny

More new processors? Now there's something I didn't know.

I wonder how much it will knock the current processors down... for example, I've been dreaming lately of the new build I want to do in September, and I've been idly throwing random parts togther - 3.00ghz Quad Core (£600), Asus P35 775 Socket DDR3 Mobo (£600), a couple of 8800 Ultra's in SLi, you know the type of thing.

If Intel have an entirely new set of processors coming out soon, then might we see current costs plummet - ie, the £600 processor and £600 mobo drastically dropping in price?


----------



## Wybren

This is ours
Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8 running @2.4
2Gb ram
8800 GTS 320mb
Asus p5b-E
1TB HDD 
400GB external RAID-0 Box
Dvicio HD Tuner
Samsung 226BW 22" Lcd
Logitech Z680 THX Speakers
Logitech MX1000 Mouse
Logitech G15 Keyboard
Antec AMG1000 Full tower

Erm yes I have a messy desk


----------



## scalem X

Lol, sexualia, sex differences and accounting. What a combination.

I see you use the traditional decoration of used wrappers and a mug to finish the touch.


----------



## Wybren

Yep only the much actually has something in it and it is still warm


----------



## Erin99

I like your laptop, Common. Very impressive! I think the LCD display by the keyboard is a nice touch. And apparently your lappy lights up in either red or... I think it was green. That would be a great photo, if you could take it!


This is my laptop: Toshiba Satellite P200-155 PSPBGE-01Q00FEN From Laptops Direct It looks basic, since I have no snazzy LEDs on it. 


Larger images


----------



## Commonmind

Lenny said:


> More new processors? Now there's something I didn't know.
> 
> I wonder how much it will knock the current processors down... for example, I've been dreaming lately of the new build I want to do in September, and I've been idly throwing random parts togther - 3.00ghz Quad Core (£600), Asus P35 775 Socket DDR3 Mobo (£600), a couple of 8800 Ultra's in SLi, you know the type of thing.
> 
> If Intel have an entirely new set of processors coming out soon, then might we see current costs plummet - ie, the £600 processor and £600 mobo drastically dropping in price?



I'm not certain on the price drops; Intel has been known to both drop prices for no good reason and keep prices the same when releasing far better technology (i.e. Core 2 Duo and drastically inferior Pentium D processors selling for the same price for quite a few months).

It's just one of those frequent times in the industry where it's better to wait. Especially if you're planning on an SLI configuration - you'll want to grab the 780i based boards (DDR2) or 790i boards (DDR3) and there not even readily available yet - unless you have a board that qualifies for the eVGA step-up program, as that seems to be the only way to get an nForce 7 board at the moment. Which is sad, considering nForce 6 doesn't support Penryn (in other words, I wouldn't be able to upgrade to those new processors with my current board).


----------



## Commonmind

Leisha said:


> I like your laptop, Common. Very impressive! I think the LCD display by the keyboard is a nice touch. And apparently your lappy lights up in either red or... I think it was green. That would be a great photo, if you could take it!
> 
> 
> This is my laptop: Toshiba Satellite P200-155 PSPBGE-01Q00FEN From Laptops Direct It looks basic, since I have no snazzy LEDs on it.
> 
> 
> Larger images



Very nice, and I love the full number-pad. I would've had to have gone with a 17" screen to get one of those, but I have a nice comfortable lap-desk that fits a 15.4" too well to move up in screen size. I'd have to move my writing inside the house if that were the case, and I definitely don't want to make that transition; I'd miss my birds and squirrels too much.

So far the only real lighting up the laptop has done, of its own accord at least, is this bright green glowing eye right below the touch pad. Those lights that glow on the sides haven't done anything yet, but I can't wait to see how it affects gaming to have the lights flashing on and off with the action.


----------



## Woodfoot

This a picy of mine

Samsung R20 Plus NP-R20FY02/SUK From Laptops Direct

I love the fact that i can press the battery to find how much charge is in it even when its off!!


----------



## The Ace

Just put together a major rebuild.

  Asrock Motherboard allowing AMD Athlon 2200+ to operate at 2200+
  250 GB hard drive
  256 mB nVidia GeForce 6200A  graphics card
  Existing CD-ROM, Combo Drive 512mB DDR (earmarked for upgrade).
  Windows XP (will install Vista over my dead body).


----------



## Overread

soooo your going to be a zombie in about a year then Ace


----------



## The Ace

Nice try OR, but no way.


----------



## Joel007

Overread said:


> its that a red fridge in the corner?
> if so, do you ever leave the computer?


 
I didn't see this before, that red box is my filing system!
It contains important things like guitar tabs, sweet wrappers, and old pictures of kittens. Also less important things like bank details and whatnot


----------



## Lenny

No pictures, but here are the specs of the computer I built for my Uncle today. A brilliant little machine, if I may say so myself. Blisteringly quick.

*Mobo:* Asus P5K Premium Wi-Fi Intel P35 LGA 775
*CPU:* Intel Core 2 Duo E6760 2.66Ghz (Retail 775) 
*RAM:* Corsair 4GB PC2-6400 C5 XMS2 (2 x 2gb)
*Graphics Card:* MSI GeForce 8800GT 512mb PCI-E OC
*HDD:* 320Gb Western Digital SATA2 8MB
*PSU: *Xilence 600W Gaming Edition PSU

*Monitor: *19'' ASUS VW193S Widescreen 5ms  
*Keyboard:* _His own Microsoft keyboard_
*Mouse: *_His own Razer Diamondback 3G 1800dpi, Earth Green mouse_
*Case:* Arianet Optimus MIDI

*Speakers:* 5.1 Surround Sound Creative T6100

*OS:* Windows XP Professional SP2

---

It's better than my computer, I have to admit that. Wonderful to build.


----------



## Overread

soo whats your uncle using it for ?? got into gaming has he?


----------



## Lenny

Yeah, he's a massive gamer. He recenlty bought:

*Gears of War*
*Timeshift*
*Call of Duty 4*
*Bioshock*
*Crysis*

and couldn't play any of them, simply because his old computer was so... old. He's been wanting a new computer for ages, and he asked me to build him one, so I did. You should have seen how excited he was when we got all the parts, and how happy he was when we got it working (there's a brief moment of "Uh oh" when the monitor went blank... which was quickly solved when we realised one of the molex connectors on the graphics card power supply was missing two wires. Obviously that's the one we'd connected to the PSU .).

Only came to £775 in the end. Quite a good price for something like that, I thought.


----------



## Overread

a blooming good price there -- though surly it would have been better to leave him with vista - if only because of the directx10he will be missing out on


----------



## Lenny

I've got a copy of Vista if ever he wants it, and he's using our copy of XP, so the OS isn't costing him anything. I thought I'd give him XP simply because it's better for gaming (yes, he might miss out on DX10 in Vista, but there are no games that require it - even Crysis was watered down to allow it to be played on XP), and because he's got about a hundred games that won't run that well on Vista. He's used to XP, too, and since he only uses the computer for a couple of hours of gaming each night, it didn't seem sensible to force him to learn how to use Vista.

We don't even think about it, really, because we've grown up with computers - to you and me and half the people in this thread, one OS is the same as another. I can quite happily go from XP, to Leopard, to Vista, to Tiger, to 95 and use each one as if I've been using only that one for all my life, but that's because I'm a computer geek, I guess. And I reckon the same would go for you.  A lot from the older generations aren't as flexible, though. No point making it hard for them. Seems a bit mean for him to have a super computer for once, yet have a hard time finding his way around it. Call me ageist, but I know it's true. Hell, there are people our age who haven't the foggiest. Those are the ones I _really_ pity.


----------



## Overread

oh yah I know what you mean about that - a different desktop can throw many of them. And yes those in our generation (in our nation) who cannot use computers are scary - though to be honest it depends  -  my sister is rather cluless in general, but can use photoshop better than me - because that is all she bothers with - but even then she is not really the experimental type


----------



## Erin99

Lenny said:


> No pictures, but here are the specs of the computer I built for my Uncle today. A brilliant little machine, if I may say so myself. Blisteringly quick.
> 
> *Mobo:* Asus P5K Premium Wi-Fi Intel P35 LGA 775
> *CPU:* Intel Core 2 Duo E6760 2.66Ghz (Retail 775)
> *RAM:* Corsair 4GB PC2-6400 C5 XMS2 (2 x 2gb)
> *Graphics Card:* MSI GeForce 8800GT 512mb PCI-E OC
> *HDD:* 320Gb Western Digital SATA2 8MB
> *PSU: *Xilence 600W Gaming Edition PSU
> 
> *Monitor: *19'' ASUS VW193S Widescreen 5ms
> *Keyboard:* _His own Microsoft keyboard_
> *Mouse: *_His own Razer Diamondback 3G 1800dpi, Earth Green mouse_
> *Case:* Arianet Optimus MIDI
> 
> *Speakers:* 5.1 Surround Sound Creative T6100
> 
> *OS:* Windows XP Professional SP2
> 
> ---
> 
> It's better than my computer, I have to admit that. Wonderful to build.



Now _that_ is a nice spec, Lenny.  Well done - especially because you said you only had ONE moment of "oh no".


----------



## Lenny

If it weren't for the damn cable, it would have been smooth running! I even got all the fiddly little front panel connections plugged into the motherboard correct first time! Out of the whole building process, that has to be the thing I'm most produ of. 

If anyone is wondering, the computers optimal settings for Crysis are *High*. And it plays it on *Very High *with little slowdown, though the textures take a bit longer to load.


----------



## Karn Maeshalanadae

Now I'm wishing Lenny could build ME a good laptop.  With a good GeForce graphics card, of course, Intel Extreme is just S-A-D....


----------



## sloweye

Its all old, its all on its last legs, but here it is



PC is a kak ol' 1.2Ghz with 256mb ram and 20gig HD
Laptop is 1.3Ghz with 1Gig Ram and 20Gig HD
(They both overheat)
PDA is a HP 1710 with 1Gig card in.


----------



## Happy Joe

I shifted the dual core into the lab for converting vinyl LP records to MP3 (it had the best audio chipset for recording).
Moved one of the old overclockers to the main floor for the internet.



Enlight beige box
AMD Barton 2500 @ 2.2Ghz
Abit NF-7 mobo
15 gig OS hard drive
80 gig HD
750 meg (3 x 256) of poor memory (I had to slow the CPU down from 2.5 to 2.2GHz).
Nec DVD burner (replaced the 2 Cd drives in the pic)
6800GT vid card
Forton/Source 500 watt (I think) power supply
19" Acer flat screen

Still have the 500 watt 5.1 ch Technics receiver for gaming audio (but got tired of kicking the subwoofer, it was in the way).

I was amazed; this old machine will almost play the Crysis demo. It works fine for Titan Quest and lesser applications. 

Enjoy!


----------



## sloweye

Should be getting some upgreads after xmas, (brother in laws cast offs)

Dule core amd processor (2Ghz +)
GeForce graphics card
More RAM (GIG)
a DVD writer


i wish i understood more


----------



## Happy Joe

Pre-owned parts = good!

Post up any questions/sources of confusion; there are folks here that can probably help... (there's an old computer thread, if what you want to know fits).

Enjoy!


----------



## sloweye

Thanks Joe, the brother inlaw works in I.T. so he will be fitting it all for me, his boss is giveing him new bits and bobs in the new year.


----------



## sloweye

WOOOOO! got my Xmas gift from the brother in law early as he didnt want to leave it in the car til the morning.

(this is what i've been told to type here.)

Asus Av8 Delux
AMD 3500 64bit (@ 2.4Ghz)
Corsair  PDR 3200 (1.5Ghz)
Lite on DVD+ -RW
Audigy 4
Thermal Take Tsunami Dream
GeForce 5500 GTX
WDRaptor 80
Barracuda 40

I'm not clear on what any of this means, but it plays my games better


----------



## sloweye

It glows blue and everyfink


----------



## sloweye

4 in a row, sorry.

Desk top now has a Asus WiFi card in.

Laptop upgrades - Slightly better cooling fan
                          Fresh Artic silver?
_(processor now running at 1.4 i have no idea how???)_
                          1/3 more Ram
                          60GB HDD
                          3 Fan stand.
                          (And a good clean up inside)
Oh and XP Pro, replacing XP media which is Kak!


----------



## Lenny

Arctic Silver is a make of thermal paste - basically, it helps cool the CPU down.

The processor speed has gone down? That's not right. You can't remember if it did it after a hardware change or software installation, can you?

-----

I haven't posted any specs in this thread, so I will do, as well pictures - one from last term, and two from this term.

*Mobo*
Asus Striker II Extreme 790i
*CPU*
Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770 @ 3.2ghz
*RAM*
4gb PC-12800 DDR3
*Graphics Card*
ASUS nVidia GeForce 800GTS 640mb (soon to be XFX 1gb GTX280 XXX)
*HDD*
2x Seagate 160gb (Windows 7, Linux [soon])
2x Seagate 250gb (Vista, storage)
1x Seagate 1TB (Storage)
*PSU*
1000W

*Monitor*
Hyundai 24" Widescreen 
Hyundai 19" Widescreen 
*Keyboard*
Logitech G15 "Big Daddy" Gaming Keyboard
Kensington Generic Keyboard
*Mouse*
Logitech MX610 Wireless Laser Mouse

*Speakers*
Logitech Stereo Speakers

*OS*
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

_Last term_






_This term_










The PDA in the first picture is now is on a corner shelfy thing, and the first picture from this term was from last night - I had the guts out to connect an old HDD up onto which I installed Windows 7. That, and my second 160gb, is now in a homemade holdy thing (one on top of the hard drive enclosure, and another on top of the DVD drive. I spent a fun hour and half making those and wrestling with cables!).

EDIT: Vista score of the PC is *5.9*. The Windows 7 scale goes up to 7.9! As soon as I've finished sorting out the 160gb I put in today, I'm going to boot up W7 and see what score I get.


----------



## sloweye

No it went up Lenny, not by much. from 1.3 to 1.4GHz
But being a techno dunse it confused me a little when i got it back, and my brother in law explains things at a hundred mile per hour.
Still he gave me a kick ass desk top so i dont complain


----------



## Lenny

Today, I ordered:

- Windows 7 Ultimate
- 160gb Intel X25-M SSD
- 8gb DDR3 Corsair Dominator RAM

All should be delivered by the weekend!  I'll post pictures of my new setup at some point, too.


----------



## Overread

Be interesting to hear the final verdict on Windows 7! Is it the 64 bit or regular 32bit edition - since your adding that 8GB of RAM!


----------



## The Ace

I'm trying Windows 7 now.

On my rather basic system (2.2 GHz Sempron,  80Gb IDE hard drive, GeForce 6200 256mB Graphics and 1GB DDR) it runs as well as XP but looks better.


----------



## Happy Joe

I have been running W7 ultimate since last spring, in several flavors, mostly the trial release candidate (RC) version. 
I just upgraded the mobo, processor (transplanted from my old gaming machine) and added a 2 terabyte hard drive (total; 5 Tb+) to the Home theater PC while upgrading from Vista 64 to W7 64. I used it dual boot on my internet machine in 32 bit (XP pro and W7). Both versions of W7 are good; easy to install and use, and virtually trouble free. 
W7 is obviously Vista second edition (Vista as it should have been), and runs much better than Vista did.
W7 is smoother (has a more polished feel), more trouble free (never really had a problem with Vista) and has a faster boot up.

HTPC;
AMD dual core (Windsor 3 ghz) socket Am2
Biostar TF7025- M2 mobo
4 gig of ddr2 800 Adata memory
2 seagate 1.5 Tb hard drives
1 Hitatchi 2 Tb hard drive
1 WD 160 gig system drive
1 Lg dvd drive (feels cheap)
1 7800 GT EVGA vid card

Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

64bit, but each disc comes with both versions on it.

---

I do respect MS for the way they've created Windows 7 to run not only brilliantly on modern hardware, but also on old hardware.

I can't wait to try it on an SSD!


----------



## Happy Joe

Lenny; If you try a SSD, please post your Windows experience score with and without;
My HTPC rates a 5.8 due to the 7800 graphics with 6.1 due to the hard drive response.

Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter 

I'll post three scores in the end. This one is with my current build (4gb RAM, 250gb HDD, Win 7 RC):






The next will be this evening after I've put the extra RAM in (hopefully I'll see an increase. I think I'll cry if it goes backwards!), and the third will be once I've got the SSD and the basic drivers installed.


----------



## Lenny

Dud stick, damnit - blue screens when all four sticks are in, but it's fine with the old 4gb and 4gb of the new RAM.  At least Corsair give a lifetime warranty...

Anyway, the score with the new drive:






It is incredibly fast! Shutdown is four seconds, startup is about thirty seconds (my BIOS is slow! ), and each Office program (and Adobe CS3, for that matter) launches instantly!


----------



## Overread

^^ I wants what the emus got!


----------



## Happy Joe

Nice balanced high end machine!

Too bad about the memory...

I was hoping that the SSD would have that effect on your score.  I'm currently getting by with a Western Digital SATA system drive and think I can see what the Great Pumpkin is going to bring me...

I am getting itchy to build another machine, but I will follow the cheap road... Just need another game to give me a reason ...  Perhaps Serious Sam HD...

Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

When the Corsair site stops playing silly beggars with me I'm going to put in an RMA and see if I can get it replaced.

From everything I've read about SSDs, I wouldn't recommend getting more than one to anyone - a small one for the OS and programs is brilliant, as the majority of the work is going to be reading. If you buy one and start writing to it (Word Documents, PowerPoints, etc) then the write performance will plummet noticeably over a few months.

Now all I need to do is replace my processor and graphics card to push the score up some more.


----------



## Happy Joe

I was thinking about one 32 G  as a system/os drive.  I have a bunch of IDE and SATA hard drives for storage/work/etc. 

I am looking really hard at a new MB+processor+memory also (these would almost certainly give me the best bang for the buck/an HTPC doesn't really need much speed & I now need a gaming machine)... 

I'm certain the Great Pumpkin will make up my mind and drop some kind of treat at the front door... 

Enjoy!


----------



## Erin99

Well, in a couple of days I might be buying a new PC, for many reasons. I'm aiming at a 2.33 quad core, 1tb HD, 4GB ram, Windows XP/Vista (cos I've got a pre-ordered Windows 7 disk here that I'm dying to install, only I have NO space on my laptop), and I will be  buying an extra 500GB HD for it, and maybe a 160GB one, and a dedicated NVIDIA card too. First I have to actually buy the main unit. I'm aiming to spend £350 for that, if I can justify spending that amount of money on myself...........


And yaaay! I'm not too tired that I can't write technical stuff! Did that make sendse? Gah! Stupid brain! I don't even know if I'm speaking English.


----------



## Happy Joe

Well... the Great Pumpkin did indeed leave treats for me;

A Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H mother board,
4 gigs of OCZ 1600VAM4GKR DDR3 memory,
An AMD 965 Black Edition, unlocked, Phenom 2, quad core, CPU,
A W7 home premium disk

Just waiting on a new powersupply and it will get stuffed into the ol' emachine case, along with the ol' 8800 GTS.

Enjoy!


----------



## Happy Joe

... update added an OCZ 600 watt power supply.
As it stands;
Emachine box
W7 home premium
A Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H mother board,
4 gigs of OCZ 1600VAM4GKR DDR3 memory, (windows experience 7.5)
An AMD 965 Black Edition, unlocked, Phenom 2, quad core, CPU, (windows experience 7.4)
OCZ 600 watt power supply
NEC 3520 DVD... old
WD 1200 ATA hard drive (the reason for a low Windows experience score... 5.0)
MSI 8800GTS Graphics card... still has a couple of years left in it. (windows experience 6.9).

As soon as I uninstall Crysiis Warhead from another computer I will switch in a SATA hard drive which should upgrade my score for both disk performance and the machine to 5.7 or 5.8.  (Maybe I will give myself a SSD for Christmas...)

The initial boot/installation of W7 went very slow, for unknown reasons, but it now boots as fast as my other W7 machines.
Later may do some moderate over clocking... I do not have enough heat sink to support much.
It runs Crysis on high at 1050x1600, not a particularly great feat, but a definite improvement.
Total cost for the upgrade $550 US.

Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

And an update on mine:

I got my RMAs (my 32gb USB pen died) back yesterday - brand new both of them! I even got a new extension cable and neck strap thing with the USB pen! 

The RAM went in, and everything booted up perfectly.  Whilst my Windows Experience score has stayed at a disappointing 7.4, the computer feels that little bit speedier. I also update the firmware on my SSD to give it TRIM support - when Intel re-release their SSD toolbox, I'll force TRIM to bring the drive back up to speed, and leave the rest to Windows 7**.

I've got an assignment in for next Tuesday that involves implementing two search algorithms to find the optimal route in the Travelling Salesman problem, and I am so tempted to implement a brute force algorithm, simply to see what I can do.  I might use threads and do multiple paths in parallel (the largest case has 535 cities, and we're supposed to find the optimal path from _any_ starting city).



**A note on the SSD -as expected, it's slowed down noticeably since I installed it. This might be because I installed about 40gb of software (including the OS) in a few hours, and usually throw things onto my desktop if I need them quickly.

As I say, I'm going to force TRIM when Intel re-release their SSD Toolbox, which will hopefully get it back up to the speed it was (or near enough). After that, I'll leave the rest to Windows 7 - I think I'm right in saying that it automatically runs TRIM when something is deleted. It may even do it when the PC is idle. Either way, I expect my PC to be rather zippy for the foreseeable future. 

---

EDIT: Looking at your machine, HJ, it's obvious that I should have gone for different RAM! 

How does the AMD processor run? It's the 3.4ghz one, right? Interesting to see it has the same experience score as my QX9770, which I think is inferior on paper.


----------



## Happy Joe

I like the AMD (somewhat of an AMD fan) its the best processor (fastest at stock clocks/most cores) that I have had yet, and the system is noticeably faster, smoother and more responsive than the old dual core 3.0 GHz. Windsor that I was running. 

Yep! its stock clock is 3.4, I have had it to 3.8 GHz. at stock voltages, it feels like it wants to go faster but I'm still using the stock cooler. I'll run it at 3.4 until I get an app or game that needs more; then clock it and start shopping for a newer processor (in 2-4 years).

I got the OCZ, AMD rated, memory primarily because I was short on time and didn't feel like doing a bunch of testing/comparisons. I could have gotten faster memory, cheaper for an Intel processor, and this memory would run faster in an Intel machine. The memory controller is one of AMD's weaker points. 

I don't give much value to the Windows experience scores except as a very quick and dirty benchmark. In my opinion, the reliability, speed and smoothness/feel of a machine are more important than a few points in any benchmark.

For a quick gaming/performance hierarchy of processors;
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-gaming-cpu,review-31735-6.html

Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

That may be the case, but it's so hard to compare speed, smoothness and feel of a machine.

Fancy comparing benchmarks?  I've had my machine for about 15 months now, and I've not benchmarked it yet! I thik I might have a copy of 3DMark06 somewhere, too.

Any other benchmarking programs you'd recommend?


----------



## Happy Joe

Nah! I gave up on benchmarking... It got too expensive for gains only in numbers (and the banzai runs that let the magic smoke out of the components).

Your 9770 would beat my 965 pretty handily across the board.
I haven't even bothered to tweak the memory yet... Just doing some light gaming and enjoying it so far...

Enjoy!


----------



## chopper

mine just got a new wheel for the hamsters.

E-systems 312, unmodified, with a flatscreen and keyboard from the previous Bloody Studid Thing, mouse from Tesco, and £40 Epson printer.

it can just about manage Photoshop CS3 and Championship Manager, but it needs a bloody good sit-down afterwards.


----------



## Happy Joe

I tried a Quick google for "E-systems 312" and found nothing... got any pics or a link?

What?... no games?
Every comp needs a game or two (keeps the electrons from getting bored and lazy).
Surely you have a copy of Diablo 2, or Serious Sam laying around somewhere.

Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

Changed my power supply. 

There's quite a story here, so settle yourselves down!

My original XClio 1000W was squealing at me whenever I did anything (not just put my CPU under 100% load, but open a webpage, the start menu, etc. Hack, it squealed when I resized a window...), so rather than wait for it to finish it's death cry, I bought a new *Corsair HX-1000W*.

It arrived mid-May, I think it was. Either way, it was when I was supposed to be revising. I ripped my old PSU out, plugged the new one in, turned on the power, flicked the switch on the back and pressed the power button on my PC expecting a bang (I always do - I'm a wee bit paranoid when I've been playing with my hardware). The lights came on, the fans span up... then everything just stopped. The lights went out. I could hear the electricity leaving the computer - a quiet "Rrrrrrrrr...".

I wasted a day playing around trying to get it working (plugging in only two fans got it working, but all seven killed it. Heck, just three killed it...).

So, I put the Corsair to one side (after damaging my wardrobe slightly. And my hand) and left it for a couple of months.

I bought a new Enermax Revolution85+ 1050W last Friday. Plugged it (but in stages this time) and I got the same problem - any more than three fans killed it all off.

The poor thing looked like a beached whale:






With the Corsair PSU





With the Enermax PSU

After a week of posting on help forums (as well as the Enermax forum - they came to the same conclusion as me, that an over-current protection was kicking in to stop the PSU from blowing up with all of my fans plugged in) I realised that my fans were wired wrong...

Yes. Two years of using them, and I've only just worked out that not a single one of them is grounded. I'm slightly embarrassed.

They're all 4-pin molex connectors with two wires - a red going to pin 1 (12V) and a black going to pin 4 (5V). I've re-jigged them (red to 4, black to 3) and everything is hunky-dory. I've even managed to get more fans working than previously*.

So that's that. The Corsair is plugged in and happily humming along. I'm going to send the Enermax back to Scan to try and get some of my money back.


_*A note on the fans. My first computer was horrible for overheating, so I decided that with my new one I'd buy some heavy-duty fans so that nothing like that would happen again. In the end I went for nine 120mm fans, each with an amperage of 0.72A at 12V (they shift 115CFM at 12V and 62CFM at 7V). With my XClio, I could only get six running at once, which was annoying (now I have eight spinnig. No room for the ninth, alas).

I assumed that all of my fans were running at 12V. My CPU was a nice, cool 24C and my motherboard a slightly warmer 28C.

When I was re-wiring them, I decided to leave red at pin 1, and ground black at pin 2 so that the fan would run at 12V. Turns out that they've all been running at 7V for two years - 12V is mad! One alone is louder than my computer before (six super fans, one normal fan, heatsink, PSU and graphics card) and shifts so much air that you could mod it into a particularly effective leaf blower. Needless to say I moved the red wire to pin 4 to slow it down.

When I move on to a new PC, I'm quite tempted to re-wire them again and have all of them running at 12V, just to see how cool I can make this machine using air. I reckon I can get everything below 10C._

---

I've got a new monitor on its way to me (should be here by the end of the week) - my old 19" has given up the ghost. I think it's dead capacitors, but I haven't taken it apart yet. It's being replaced by another 24" (Hyundai W243D - a model or two up from my other 24", but it looks the same).

I've only got one last upgrade I want to make, but it will have to wait until I have the cash - I want to change the graphics card for something newer; I would absolutely love one of the GTX480's.


----------



## Happy Joe

You might try putting a bit of thought into routing the air flow through the case to get cool air where it needs to be and reducing the number of fans...

I used to do the jet engine sound, high flow case cooling but I have since found that one or 2 quiet case fans are usually enough as long as you get rid of the heat and direct the cool air flow where its needed.

I typically run case temps in the low 30s and a cpu temp in the 30s or 40s C.
This old overclocked Barton (internet machine) is by far the noisiest, and the slowest that I have. It is basically unchanged, 33% overclock, since 2003 or 4, it has 2 case fans, forced ducted air to the CPU (2 fans), a fan on the vid card and the power supply fan. The sound level is neither loud nor distracting (the fans are turned down to nearly minimum levels). (Fan controllers can be a good thing).
All of my newer machines are low noise and none has more than a single case fan although all have a fan on the CPU (I haven't declocked any for passive cooling or totally silent operation).
Glad you found your power supply problem!  Congrats...

Enjoy!


----------



## Lenny

Oh, I did give it thought (added an hour to my build as I researched it) - I've gone down the negative pressure route, with three intakes (two on the front with the hard drives, one on the side over the RAM) and four exhausts (on out top, one out back, and two out of the side). Very powerful fans, hence the jet engine, and a PC that idles at ~24C and runs "hot" at 28C. CPU temp is, at this moment, 25C, motherboard is 24C.

---

Don't think I mentioned my new monitor - another 24" Hyundai, identical to my first.

And today I got a very exciting parcel:





2x2TB and 1x640gb, with two enclosures - a single and a dual. And a couple of new SATA cables - I've a feeling that one of my current cables is dud.

One of the 2TBs is replacing the 1TB in my computer and the 1TB is becoming a backup disk for my 2x250gbs and 2x160gbs. The second 2TB drive is the backup for my new, internal 2TB, and the 640gb is going to be used for regular backups of my 160gb SSD (the boot drive).

So, the 2TB backup drive is going in the single enclosure (black one), which I can also lend to people should they want some of my tasty media. The 1TB and 640gb are in the dual enclosure.

Both enclosures are each plugged into one of the two handy eSATA ports I recently discovered on the back panel of my PC, and I'm currently backing up the 1.2TB of media I have onto my external 2TB at blistering speeds.


----------



## Deathpool

Model Name: Dell Inspiron 530
Processor Type: Intel Core 2 Duel Core 2.4 GH
RAM: 2GB
Graphics Card: 256 MB
Sound Card: 5.1 Real Tech Audio
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Monitor: 20 Inch Flat Screen
Mouse Type: Dell Laser Mouse
Keyboard: Standard Dell
Harddrive: 320 GB
Optical Drive: DVD Rewriter

Not the best. I wish it were faster because I've ran so many programs more than once that it started lagging.


----------



## BolianAdmiral

I don't have enough posts yet to include a picture, but here are the specs of what I have at my desk:

*Computer:*

- eMachines ET1331-02

- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

- AMD Athalon II X2 215 Dual-Core Processor

- NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE Integrated

- DVD Super Multi drive

- 320 GB HDD

- 4 GB DDR2 memory

*Peripherals:*

- Logitech Wireless Desktop MK320 (keyboard & mouse combo)


----------



## Deathpool

I'm not concerned about Ram because i have my paging file size set so that windows controls it. Suprise! Suprise! I have my page file size set to my 1TB external harddrive.


----------



## Gabriel007

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BE @ 4 GHz
ASUS HD 5870 Matrix Platinum 2 GB @ 1000 MHz clock
Corsair H-50
OCZ DDR3 PLATINUM XTC 8GB
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 890FX
OCZ VERTEX 2 120 GB SSD (OS)
XFX 850W Black Edition
Corsair 800D
Tripple screen BenQ LED @ 5760x1080
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg508/scaled.php?server=508&filename=21523310150166245176577.jpg&res=medium
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg838/scaled.php?server=838&filename=20710510150166245146577.jpg&res=medium
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg833/scaled.php?server=833&filename=20511910150166245121577.jpg&res=medium


----------



## Lenny

Sad news, guys - I've just made the last realistic upgrade to my machine that I can do. From here, any upgrades will cost me a small fortune for small performance increases (slightly faster RAM, bigger HDDs or more SSDs, faster GPUs, etc). 

I was going to build an entirely new machine this Summer, but paying for my Master's put shot to that plan. Instead, I bought a couple of new graphics cards, a monitor stand and three monitors. I've been running that for a fortnight before realising, this morning, that I could stick my old graphics card in as a dedicated PhysX card.

I might end up re-wiring a few of my fans to 12V, as opposed to the current 5V, but everything seems to be working at the moment.

My current, and final, specs and a couple of photos of the new setup are below.

---


*Mobo *- Asus Striker II Extreme 790i
*CPU *- Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770 @ 3.2ghz
*RAM *- 4x 2gb PC-12800 DDR3 Corsair Dominator
*GPU *- 1x XFX 1gb GTX280 XXX, 2x EVGA 1gb GTX460 OC
*HDD *- 1x 160gb SSD, 2x 160gb, 2x 250gb, 1x 640gb, 1x 1TB, 2x 2TB
*PSU *- Corsair HX-1000W

*Monitor *- 3x ASUS VS247 24" LED
*Keyboard* - Logitech G15 "Big Daddy" Gaming Keyboard
*Mouse *- Logitech MX Air, Logitech MX610
*Speakers *- Logitech Stereo Speakers

*OS* - Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit


----------



## HoopyFrood

That's the monitor I have for work. I'm one of the lucky few who have it; seems to be the new screens being dished out. It's niiice. I've got one of those and a smaller square screen for my second monitor. I could've had the two wide screens, but I thought my eyes might well melt if I did. 

As it is, I prefer the set up I have: widescreen for a couple of open windows or a wide excel sheet, other square monitor for the browser I need open for a certain page I'm researching.


----------



## Sephiroth

So, much later than advertised, and with the addition of a _niiiice_ new GPU, here is my current setup.  

Many thanks go to Leisha, of course, who built me the i7 rig as a surprise.  I learned about it last August by reading a thread she directed me to one morning in this very forum.  She brought it all the way up from Carlisle on the train.  

*Mobo* - Asus P6X58D-E
*CPU* - Intel Core i7 950 @ 3.07GHz
*RAM* - 3 x 4Gb PC3-10666 DDR3-1333 G.Skill Ripjaws (12Gb total)
*GPU* - Palit GeForce GTX 580 3Gb GDDR5 (!)
*HDD* - 1 x Samsung 500Gb, 2 x Seagate 500Gb, 1 x Seagate BlackArmor 1Tb (external)
*PSU* - Corsair TX850 (850W)

*Monitor* - ViewSonic VX2260WM 22" LED (only running one at the moment)
*Keyboard* - Logitech Comfort Wave 450
*Mouse *- Microsoft SideWinder X3 (may invest in a gaming mouse at some point)
*Speakers *- Genius 2.1 Speaker Set

*OS* - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit


----------



## Erin99

LOL! That makes it look like *I* bought you the monitor and graphics card too. 


Ahem. I mean... I _did_, of course I did.


----------



## Erin99

What, no Lenny?!  I thought he'd be here drooling by now... 

You gone off computers, Len?


----------

