Computer system curious question

[Artman]

Here's an update on my computer building project.

I had to get a new harddrive the one I had in an older computer just wasn't recognized by the new motherboard (I played with the jumper settings and tried it in another computer, neither detected it.) So I ordered a new one, put it in, installed Windows XP and it all works.

So now I have:
Soyo P4X400 478 Mobo
Celeron 2.7 CPU (I only ordered a 2.6, but they sent a 2.7)
256 MB DDR 266 RAM
PNY 8X AGP 64mb card (works great with my painting program)
60 Gig Maxtor, 7200rpm, 133 ATA, HD
Windows XP

I find I don't like XP. It doesn't work with my graphics pad, it doesn't see my modem, I can't navigate as fast as 98 or ME and the worst thing is that it doesn't work with some of the software my wife likes to use (I haven't told her this yet. I'm postponing my death to a little later.) And because it doesn't recognize the modem, how am I supposed to go online and activate the stupid OS?

 

[ShawnD]

1. Why did you buy a Celeron?
2. You'll probably need more ram. My computer uses 240mb when it's idle. Uses up to 700mb in games. Uses up to 900mb when ripping a DVD.
3. What kind of modem is it?
4. For that software, have you tried compatibility mode?


Once you actually do get that modem working, you'll be downloading updates for hours since you're on dialup. The updates after a fresh install are over 80mb.

 

[Artman]

1. Why did you buy a Celeron?
2. You'll probably need more ram. My computer uses 240mb when it's idle. Uses up to 700mb in games. Uses up to 900mb when ripping a DVD.
3. What kind of modem is it?
4. For that software, have you tried compatibility mode?


Once you actually do get that modem working, you'll be downloading updates for hours since you're on dialup. The updates after a fresh install are over 80mb.

1. I bought the Celeron because of the price and deal I got on the Motherboard, CPU, 8x AGP card, Fan and RAM (all for $149.00 after rebates. Less than the price of a 2.4 P4 CPU alone.) I don't mind being behind the market, it gives me room to upgrade in the future.

2. Yeah I know, but right now I only use about 100mb idle according to system monitor I have about 156 free. (I don't have a CD burner yet and I don't play too many games. sometimes the art projects I work on get a little large, but not more than 80mb or so.) It's funny, it seems to use less memory than Win ME does.

3. It's a DSI Digicom by Creative. I haven't looked online for a driver, but I still think the computer should detect that it is there. I haven't even gotten to the search for driver stage. I'm going to try it in a different PCI slot and see if that helps.

4. I did. It didn't help. It's Quattro Pro 7 and there is a known compatability issue with that particular program. If you have heard of any fixes or patches for that, let me know.

 

[kronchev]

What company or companies are those?




Mushkin is supposed to make excellent RAM.

1) http://www.excaliberpc.com/ . i bought a guaranteed good 1700+ from them back in the day that was absolutly fantastic. i always regretted selling it :-/

2) Muskin is the best memory, hands down. I have a muskin longsleeve shirt cause I am awesome like that :D however, due to the price its no more than a wet dream for me, really. not sure what ill go with since the market is getting too expensive ATM.

 

[Trancid]

Ok, here are my specs. I'll do my two 'best' computers. First my laptop that I've got for school. The other one will I do when I'm behind it, someday...

Centrino 1.4 GHz
512 MB DDR
SoundMAX audiocard
Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME (graphic chip) 64MB shared
40 GB HD
DVD/CDRW combo (i think 40/12/10x)
4 Usb2.0
1 Gbit ethernetcard (dont worry, my connection to the internet is max. T3;)
11 MBit wireless
Optical mouse
Lion-battery

It works good enough for some of the older games like UT2k3 and most new games run on it too, but my university wants me to make homework on it :( and unfortunately it isn't really upgradable except for the ram-memory.

Patrick

Ps.
This laptop is almost a year old now, so there should be a lot of better laptops around nowadays

 

[hitssquad]

Banias possibly upgradable to Dothan

A 1.4 GHz Banias is about as good as you are going to get.

The hard drive is upgradable to either 40 or 60 GB 7200 RPM, for a significant increase in overall system speed without an increase in power consumption or heat emissions. The 40 GB version goes for $153, shipping included, at newegg.com.

The 1.4 GHz Banias is upgradable to 1.5, 1.6, or 1.7 GHz. These CPU's are sold to individuals at the usual internet retailers. Possibly a Dothan could be used to replace the Banias (they are certainly pin compatible, and manufacturers will soon be dropping Dothans into the current Banias models they sell), but if it could it might require a BIOS update to make it work correctly.

 

[TheBroManScott]

My Extreme Machine

What are the specifications of your fastest home computer? I am curious to know what level is currently average for intelligent users (people that might use a computer for something other than email and websurfing).

I currently have a Celeron 1.1 ghz, 370 Motherboard, 256MB Ram, 32 MB PCI graphics.

As you can see mine is not cutting edge, so don't be afraid to list older technology (I have a Pentium 166 MMX laptop that works very well).

Hello all, I've been doing research the last few months because I need a new computer. The components I found below seem to be top of the line for speed and performance. The total cost for this system is just over $2 grand. I justify the cost as part of the birthday present I am giving myself. I am a computer enthusiast at heart and have lived with my existing AMD-K6 3D 500Mhz System with 192MB for too long and feel I deserve a new system. My extreme machince consists of the following:

Motherboard: Asus P4P 800 Deluxe
CPU: Intel CPU P4 (S-478) 800 FSB
Memory: OCZ PC-3200 DDR400 1024 MB Dual Channel (2x512)
Video Card: AIW 9800 Pro 128MB
Hard Drive: Western Digital 200 GB HD 150 SATA
Optical Device: LG DVD +/- RW Rewriter IDE
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech Wireless MX Duo
Case: Aspire X-Alien with 420 Power Supply
Operating System: Windows XP SP1

I needed a whole new system and feel that this will do just about anything I want now. It's main purpose is for digital multimedia first and gaming second. Anybody got ideas to improve upon this?:

 

[Artman]

Hello all, I've been doing research the last few months because I need a new computer. The components I found below seem to be top of the line for speed and performance. The total cost for this system is just over $2 grand. I justify the cost as part of the birthday present I am giving myself. I am a computer enthusiast at heart and have lived with my existing AMD-K6 3D 500Mhz System with 192MB for too long and feel I deserve a new system. My extreme machince consists of the following:

Motherboard: Asus P4P 800 Deluxe
CPU: Intel CPU P4 (S-478) 800 FSB
Memory: OCZ PC-3200 DDR400 1024 MB Dual Channel (2x512)
Video Card: AIW 9800 Pro 128MB
Hard Drive: Western Digital 200 GB HD 150 SATA
Optical Device: LG DVD +/- RW Rewriter IDE
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech Wireless MX Duo
Case: Aspire X-Alien with 420 Power Supply
Operating System: Windows XP SP1

I needed a whole new system and feel that this will do just about anything I want now. It's main purpose is for digital multimedia first and gaming second. Anybody got ideas to improve upon this?:

Very nice. Top of the line stuff. The only thing I would suggest is a DVD burner. That should be a fantastic computer.

 

[TheBroManScott]

Very nice. Top of the line stuff. The only thing I would suggest is a DVD burner. That should be a fantastic computer.

Thanks, actually I listed that under Optical device it the LG Multi Format drive for burning both DVD's and CD's.

 

[Artman]

Thanks, actually I listed that under Optical device it the LG Multi Format drive for burning both DVD's and CD's.

Oops, missed that. Sounds great.

 

[Dagenais]

Wow, there aren't many Mac users here...

 

[Matt-235]

I'm still working on collecting all the parts for my new system, it will be complete this summer. Here are the specs for it:

ASRock K7S8XE Motherboard
AMD Athlon 2700+ (2.17 GHz)
640 MB DDR RAM (1x 512 MB, 1x 128 MB)*
Sound Blaster Audigy ES
AOpen nVidia GeForce 4 MX440*
Samsung 120GB 7200rpm HD*
Samsung 16X DVD-ROM*
Sony 52z/24x/52x CD-RW
Sony Floppy Drive, Black - hoo-ahh*
ViewSonic G90fb 19" Flat CRT Monitor
Logitech Z-5300 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers*
Logitech Cordless Elite Duo Keyboard/Mouse

The asterisked things are things I have yet to get, and are being substitued with
256 MB DDR RAM (2x 128 MB)
MSI nVidia GeForce 2 MX400
Western Digital 60GB HD
Creative +40x? CD-ROM
Beige Floppy Drive
4W of Generic Speakers

And when I get the rest of the components, those will all be going back in the machine they were in before, and I'll probably put Linux on there and have a happy fun server/toy. Don't remember the motherboard specs on it, but it's got a 1.4GHz AMD CPU in it.

 

[TALewis]

I have some slightly faster machines, but my favorite is the following:

Pentium II, 400 MHz
128 MB RAM
4 GB HD
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

Running Debian GNU/Linux

I surf, I code, I play with perl and php and apache and mysql, I write technical papers in LaTeX for college. Fast and stable. It's amazing what you can do on old hardware with Linux.

When you buy a new computer, make sure your old one ends up with someone who'll appreciate it.

Edit: Oh, I forgot about my little fruity companion, the iBook:

500 MHz G3
256 MB RAM
10 GB HD

The iBook is great too, but the Linux PC is better because it's all free.

 

[Miles]

Ohhhh I always love a computer spec thread

P4 3.0, 800 FSB, 512 L2 Cache with HT
1 Gig PC 4000 Kingston Ram
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
Abit IC7 MAX3 motherboard
160 Gig Hardrive seagate
52/32/52 CD-RW

The motherboard has intergrated sound and network card which are great. I don't have a modem since I have DSL.

 

[TenNen]

Ohhhh I always love a computer spec thread

P4 3.0, 800 FSB, 512 L2 Cache with HT
1 Gig PC 4000 Kingston Ram
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
Abit IC7 MAX3 motherboard
160 Gig Hardrive seagate
52/32/52 CD-RW

The motherboard has intergrated sound and network card which are great. I don't have a modem since I have DSL.

I mean I have the same computer hardsys like yours and that is all!

 

[Artman]

Awesome computer Miles.

My new computer I just built has integrated audio and network. I think these two are good items to have built into the motherboard.

I also just setup a wireless network using my integrated network interface as my router connection.

 

[Anttech]

D800 Laptop
1GB RAM
Centrino WIFI Pm 1.7
60Gig HD (Plus a 50Gig Lacey USB 2 external HD)
WideScreen NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 64MB on-Board
DVD/CD on board burner
All provided by my lovely company :-)

 

[Artman]

Nice laptop Anttech. How do you like the external HD?

 

[Anttech]

Works good for me, would recommend one... USB2 sometime behaves funny with XP... (ie sometimes reinstalls itself when I plug it in) but over all very good :-D

 

[sixian]

Athlon 2800+ Barton

 

[sixian]

whoops sorry
Athlon 2800+ Barton
512 Corsair 3200
Radeon 9700 Pro 128megs ram
Asus A7n8X deluxe

 

[Artman]

Works good for me, would recommend one... USB2 sometime behaves funny with XP... (ie sometimes reinstalls itself when I plug it in) but over all very good :-D

I've noticed this with other XP USB devices (a printer I have). I wonder why it does that?

 

[lala_alak]

AMD Athlon 2500+(i think freq. is around 2.4GHz),
Asus Motherboard,
1GB DDR,
GeForce4 MMX AGP,
Nvidia Sound Blaster.

 

[Artman]

Athlon 2800+ Barton
512 Corsair 3200
Radeon 9700 Pro 128megs ram
Asus A7n8X deluxe

Some nice components in here. Did you build this sixian?

AMD Athlon 2500+(i think freq. is around 2.4GHz),
Asus Motherboard,
1GB DDR,
GeForce4 MMX AGP,
Nvidia Sound Blaster.

Very nice. Another Asus Mobo. Did you build your system lala_alak?

 

[graphic7]

Main workstation:
Dual 866mhz P3 Xeon /w 512kb cache
512mb RDRAM
4 9GB 10000RPM Cheetah SCSI Hard Drives
Matrox GD450
FreeBSD 4.10

Workstation 2:
1.4ghz AMD Athlon Thunderbird
512mb PC133 SDRAM
32mb Nvidia GeForce2
Iwill KK266-R (?) Motherboard
2 80gb 7200RPM Hard Drives
FreeBSD 4.10

Workstation 3:
SGI Octane (not 2)
180mhz R10000
256mb RAM (propiertary RAM, not sure what kind)
SI Graphics Card (no texture memory)
2 9GB 10000RPM Seagate SCSI Drives
Irix 6.5.15

Laptop 1:
864mhz G4 Titanium Powerbook
Mac OS X 10.1
512mb DDR
32mb ATI Mobility
30GB 5400RPM Hard Drive

Laptop 2:
Dell Inspirion 7200 (?)
64mb RAM
6gb Hard drive
8mb ATI Mobility
NetBSD

Server 1 (DNS, Samba, etc)
Dual Pentium Pro 200mhz /w 1mb cache per each
256mb ram
dual 4gb SCSI drives (not sure of what the RPM or brand is)
(no video card, use a serial terminal :-) )
FreeBSD 4.10

Server 2: Mail, Routing, Firewall
266mhz Cyrix (not sure of what the exact model is, SSE, though)
128mb SDRAM
2 8GB IDE Hard Drives
S3 Virge 8mb (might be 4mb)
FreeBSD 4.10

POS Box #1: Sun Sparcstation 2
64mb ram
40mhz Sparc (32-bit) Processor
2gb Seagate SCSI HD
2mb (?) Video "Buffer" card (what Sun used to call their Graphics cards)
NetBSD

POS Box #2: Sun Sparcstation 5
110mhz Sparc (32-bit)
128mb RAM
4GB Seagate SCSI HD
Solaris 7

Sparcstation 2 and 5 have TGFX Framebuffer Cards (I believe)

 

[Artman]

graphic7 is that list all home PCs?! I thought I had a lot with 4 working PCs! That main workstation sounds sweet. Are you a computer tech?

 

[graphic7]

They all are my home computers. I've actually bought most of them off Ebay.

Prices:

Sparcstations: < $100
SGI: $600 (came with a 21" SGI monitor)
Workstations: ~ $1500 (for both)
Powerbook: $2500
Dell Laptop: $2500

As you can see, the most I've paid is for the laptops.

I was a Unix Admin up until last year (need a job while I'm in college). Till that point, I was going to be major in Computer Science. Took up math, now I'm a full-time physics major. :D

 

[vladimir69]

Asus P4P800-E-Deluxe
intel p4 3.0ghz prescott
1gb PC3200 DDR400 RAM
ati radeon 9800xt with 256mb memory
74 GB Western Digital 10000RPM 8mb cache / buffer

 

[7590]

this is what I have for now!

So far I this is my current setup, only 2 computers for now.

Computer #1

Amd XP 2600+ 333MHz
Asus A7N8X MB 400MHz
512 MB 333MHz
Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 256MB
Western Digital 200G IDE
Maxtor 120G SATA
Western Digital 200G SATA
LG DVDRAM GSA-4082B
Pioneer DVD-ROM 16X
nForce Sound Card
MSI USB2 TV Capture Card
ATX 400W Power Supply
USB Track Ball
PS2 Keyboard
Digital 17" Monitor
Samtron 17" 76V Monitor


Power usage for ATX Tower when idle 120 watts (No power saving mode), Digital Monitor 110 Watts, Samtron Monitor 60 Watts


Computer #2

Amd XP 2100+ 333MHZ
Asus A7V333 MB
512 MB 333MHz
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB
Western Digital 80G IDE
Western Digital 200G IDE
LG DVD (16X) / CDRW (32x/10x/40x) IDE
CMI8738/C3SX PCI Sound card Intergrated
ATI TV Capture Card PCI Value
ATX 300W Power Supply
PS2 Mouse
PS2 Keykoard
Samsung 17" Monitor

Also power usage for ATX Tower idle 130 watts (No power saving mode), Samsung Monitor 50 Watts

 

[lala_alak]

Well its not a big deal of work to assemble a comp once you have the components.Yes I did build it myself.

 

[Artman]

Well its not a big deal of work to assemble a comp once you have the components.Yes I did build it myself.

You're right. I just assembled my first complete system about 2 months ago. I was pretty pleased how easy it was.

vladimir69, very nice system.

7590, nice pair of AMDs. I don't see network cards, are they networked?

 

[lala_alak]

You're right. I just assembled my first complete system about 2 months ago. I was pretty pleased how easy it was.

vladimir69, very nice system.

7590, nice pair of AMDs. I don't see network cards, are they networked?

Just wanted to ask,which is the best video accel chipset availaible at your place and the ruf price of it,wud be gr8ful.

 

[Artman]

Just wanted to ask,which is the best video accel chipset availaible at your place and the ruf price of it,wud be gr8ful.

I'm not a big gamer, however, I do 2d computer art sometimes. When I picked out my components, I picked a combo deal that included an 8x AGP card with the nVidia GeForce MX440 chipset. It is old technology, but is more than adequate for my graphics needs. There are a lot better ones out there, for a lot more money. One like mine goes for about $30-$70. Top of the line stuff is about $250 - $400.

The one that vladimir69 has, ati radeon 9800xt with 256mb memory, or 7590's, Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 256MB both look pretty current.

Some others here may have a better handle on the current state of the art in video. This would be a good topic for a new thread.

 

[Maxwell]

AMD Athlon 1800 (Roughly 1.5 ghz)
1 GB of RAM
2 80 gb HD's
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb graphics card

I play a lot of games. I could use a faster speed of RAM (currently PC2100).

Update - I bought a 200gb Seagate external HD. Works great.

 

[Artman]

Wow, 200 gb! I remember when a big HD was 10 mb.

I have an update as well, I added 512 mb of Kingston 333 DDR RAM and a Maddog Combo 52-24-52 16DVD player CDRW. Got a great deal on the RAM and the burner. The RAM was marked $169.00 it was on sale for $69.00 with a $20.00 rebate! I couldn't leave it there for that. the burner was $59.00 and also had a $20.00 rebate. I put them in later that afternoon and they are both working great!