Computer system curious question

[Artman]

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).

 

[kawikdx225]

P4 1.6Ghz overclocked to 1.9Ghz
512 meg DDR memory
64meg AGP graphics Geforce 3
raid 0 ata133 hard drives
sound blaster live
21" CRT
optical mouse --> best upgrade

I built this almost two years ago for gaming but since I discovered the xbox I haven't kept up with the upgrades.

 

[Zantra]

Intel P4 2.6 ghz
512 Ram-pc2100rdr(need 1GB really)
17" CRT(flat screens suck for high FPS games.. hehe)
40 GB HD, adding another 100 shortly.
50X38X50 CDR
Radeon 9800 vid w/128 VRAM
wireless mouse/keyboard.
Dual Boot XP/Linux redhat

next PC will be alienware- just because

www.alienware.com

I recently upgraded this though, from a PII 350 MHZ, because I was tired of being embarassed to tell people that my computer wasn't even from this decade

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by Zantra
Intel P4 2.6 ghz
512 Ram-pc2100rdr(need 1GB really)
17" CRT(flat screens suck for high FPS games.. hehe)
40 GB HD, adding another 100 shortly.
50X38X50 CDR
Radeon 9800 vid w/128 VRAM
wireless mouse/keyboard.
Dual Boot XP/Linux redhat

next PC will be alienware- just because

www.alienware.com

I recently upgraded this though, from a PII 350 MHZ, because I was tired of being embarassed to tell people that my computer wasn't even from this decade

Hey Zantra, very nice system. Is your P4 one of the Hyper-Threading models? I'm thinking about upgrading my Motherboard and I want to get one that supports HT (not that I can afford a CPU that has it ). That is part of my reason for this survey. I want to know where I currently fall in real world technology level. I know about where I am in relation to what is available (about 5 or 6 years out of date with a low end CPU).

kawikdx225 decent overclock. Sounds like it is still a pretty hot system.

 

[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).

 

[ShawnD]

Athlon 2500+
1GB RAM (PC2100)
ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2)
60GB HDD (5400RPM)
Radeon 9600XT
52x CD-rw
Sound Blaster Live 5.1

 

[Pergatory]

AOpen AX4SPE-N motherboard (P4 3.0GHz Northwood)
512mb DDR400 Mushkin (2-5-2-2) RAM
Asus V9280S/TVD 128mb GeForce4 Ti4200 (overclocked)
Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120GB
Seagate Barracuda ATA IV 40GB
Teac 50x24x24 CDRW
Enermax silent power supply
Zalman silent CPU heatsink
Lian Li PC60 case
Logitech cordless/optical mouse
Dual 17" CRT's

 

[Monique]

Oh, the smell of testosterone in here I don't have 1 Gb RAM, I wouldn't know what to do with it :P

My specs:
AMD athlon 2500+
1.86 GHz clockspeed
512 Mb DDR
40 Gb HD
32 Mb shared video
15" TFT XGA
Li-ion battery
and the best of all DVD/CDRW combo ;)

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by Monique
Oh, the smell of testosterone in here...

Welcome to this cigar-smoke-filled-poker-game-room post.

One of my interests in this survey was to see if any women joined in. Interesting that you should enter with the above quote Monique. Nice computer system, by-the-way.

To others out there, if you are viewing this thread and thinking, "Don't know, don't care," or more general comments such as "it's slow, but it's fast enough for me," or "I'm not sure it's a Dell model such and such," post those too. Or even how old it is.

Pergatory, ShawnD, Maxwell, Monique Thanks, great systems. Did you build them yourself?

 

[Monique]

*dodges a passing cloud of cigar smoke* I actually did quite a bit of research, finding out what kind of specs I wanted.. but I guess building a notebook is a little out of my reach.. anyone's reach for that matter ;P

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by Monique
*dodges a passing cloud of cigar smoke* I actually did quite a bit of research, finding out what kind of specs I wanted.. but I guess building a notebook is a little out of my reach.. anyone's reach for that matter ;P

Yup. Totally different animal. Those are great specs for a notebook.

I was afraid this was going to get moved here. I wanted a more general overview not just the computer types. Oh well.

 

[ShawnD]

Yes I built my own.

 

[dduardo]

1.4GHz AMD Thunderbird
512 MB DDR
2 x 60 Gig HD
Geforce 3
19 inch Viewsonic GS790
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Microsoft Explorer USB Mouse
16x CDRW
DVD
Floppy

Harddrive A

10 Gig Windows XP (NTFS)
50 Gig Gentoo Linux (Resier v3)

Harddrive B
60 Gig Linux Backup (ext3)

--------------------

Btw, Hewlett Packard now sells Linux desktops and laptops. You can choose from Redhat, Mandrake or SUSE.

You can even buy a linux machine from Walmart.

 

[russ_watters]

[homebuilt - I don't ever plan on buying a pre-built machine again]
Athlon XP 2500+ (overclocked to impress Monique)
1GB ddr sdram @ 360mhz
2x WD SE 120GB drives (raid 1 - striping)
Epox 8rda Nforce2 motherboard
ATI All-in-Wonder 9700pro
Lite-on 4x dual format dvd burner
21" used monitor (don't ever buy a new monitor)

I also own a Compaq Presario P3 750 laptop. Nice machine except it has poorly designed display hinges that fail due to metal fatigue.
[b(]

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by russ_watters
...(overclocked to impress Monique)

Did it? [?]

Originally posted by russ_watters
21" used monitor (don't ever buy a new monitor) [b(]

Someone has to, right?

Hot system Russ. I'm currently researching the P4 HT motherboards I want to build my next computer.

dduardo, I should have guessed you were a Linux guy. The penquin avatar should have tipped me off. Nice system.

 

[Dagenais]

specifications of your fastest home computer?

3.00GHz Intel P4 w/ HT Technology
512MB DDR SDRAM
160GB Hard Drive
DVD+RW/CD-RW/CD-R 48x
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 128DDR Memory

Tons of high-speed USB/FireWire ports, nice altec-lansing satellite speakers, logitech webcam, optikal mouse, 17" Viewsonic LCD, Logitech Gamepad, 1 photosmart printer, 1 office jet printer/fax/phone/scanner/photo copy machine.

Not bad, eh? ;)

 

[Integral]

I am running a AMD xp2000+ (1.7Ghz) 256Mb Ram on a Gigabyte mobo,Via kt400 chipset, Gainward GF4 Ti4200 Ultra, 80Gb Hd.

Build my own, this is one of 4, 3 xp2000, 1 1.2Gb Tbird, all in viakt400 mobos, 2 systems have a FX5600 Video Cards, one a poor old GF2. (I retired 2 TnT2 M64 boards this winter.

Build my own. have been since 1992, so I am kind of BYO pioneer. I started with a 286, The black tower case that I put a 286 board in is still running, in now has a AMD k62 450mhz, my mom ran this for several years now my brother has it. That case is going on 14yrs of use.

 

[Artman]

3.00GHz Intel P4 w/ HT Technology
512MB DDR SDRAM
160GB Hard Drive
DVD+RW/CD-RW/CD-R 48x
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 128DDR Memory

Tons of high-speed USB/FireWire ports, nice altec-lansing satellite speakers, logitech webcam, optikal mouse, 17" Viewsonic LCD, Logitech Gamepad, 1 photosmart printer, 1 office jet printer/fax/phone/scanner/photo copy machine.

Not bad, eh? ;)

Screaming system Dagenais.

Integral, It doesn't surprise me a bit that you have been building your own computers for a while. I've upgraded just about everything, HDs, memory, Video card, Sound card, CPUs, but never did a motherboard or a complete build yet. I see that you are an AMD man. With some of the P4 advancements such as 800 bus speed and HT, what are your thoughts on Intel, at this point in time? Looks like you have a pretty hot AMD setup.

 

[hitssquad]

Dell 4100 laptop. 1.066 MHz PIII Tualatin Celeron (256 KB backside cache). 1 GB RAM at 133 MHz. 18.6 GB 4200-RPM 2.5" 2-platter hard drive. ATI display adapter (16 MB non-shared video RAM). 14" XGA (1024 x 768) screen. Synaptics trackpad.

I'm using ClearType, so my horizontal resolution for text display is actually 3072 addressable pixels (3 x 1024). This let's me use smaller font sizes, as if my total resolution was greater than it is. I also compensate for the limited resolution by minimizing my scrollbar size and instead scrolling with the Synaptics trackpad scroll-function; by using the F11 fullscreen mode a lot; and by using the keybindings (shortcut keys) to flip between windows and applications (so I can keep each window at full size, hence maximally using my XGA screen's resolution).

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

What are the specifications of your fastest home computer?

Celeron 433MHz, 320 MB RAM, 20GB HDD, integrated video ...

 

[Integral]

Screaming system Dagenais.

Integral, It doesn't surprise me a bit that you have been building your own computers for a while. I've upgraded just about everything, HDs, memory, Video card, Sound card, CPUs, but never did a motherboard or a complete build yet. I see that you are an AMD man. With some of the P4 advancements such as 800 bus speed and HT, what are your thoughts on Intel, at this point in time? Looks like you have a pretty hot AMD setup.

The main reason I am running AMD processors is that I am cheap. I simply cannot understand why I should pay more for less performance. That said I would love to build a P4 system :).

As it is my systems are way over powered for the use they get. I am having trouble justifying upgrading just for the fun of building a computer.

Take the plunge, building a system from scratch is getting easier and easier, it can be very rewarding when it is all working. Needless to say there can also be periods of extreme frustration!

 

[kronchev]

AMD XP-Mobile 2400+ at 2.5 ghz, 1.825 volts, 12.5x200
1 gig PC2700 @ 166 mhz (Not kind to overclocking)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Powercolor Radeon 9800SE softmodded to 9800Pro
2x80 gig 7200 RPM ATA100 drives
Dangerden-based watercooling

Obviously I need to upgrade my RAM and the drives but everything else kicks the crap out of most other computers

 

[Artman]

Dell 4100 laptop. 1.066 MHz PIII Tualatin Celeron (256 KB backside cache). 1 GB RAM at 133 MHz. 18.6 GB 4200-RPM 2.5" 2-platter hard drive. ATI display adapter (16 MB non-shared video RAM). 14" XGA (1024 x 768) screen. Synaptics trackpad.

I'm using ClearType, so my horizontal resolution for text display is actually 3072 addressable pixels (3 x 1024). This let's me use smaller font sizes, as if my total resolution was greater than it is. I also compensate for the limited resolution by minimizing my scrollbar size and instead scrolling with the Synaptics trackpad scroll-function; by using the F11 fullscreen mode a lot; and by using the keybindings (shortcut keys) to flip between windows and applications (so I can keep each window at full size, hence maximally using my XGA screen's resolution).

Nicely configured. I bet it works very well for you set up like that. At work I set up my start bar to disapear unless I drop the cursor down to keep my desktop as clear as I can. The PIII CPU's perform very well, I think. My Coppermine Celeron 1.1 benchmarks like a 1.4Ghz P-4 (except for cache intensive stuff.).

Celeron 433MHz, 320 MB RAM, 20GB HDD, integrated video ...

That is an ideal system for a workstation computer. Fast enough for productivity, and the integrated video doesn't matter for that. I had a 566 Celeron. It was pretty fast and you could overclock the hell out of it (I had it up to about 700Ghz). I bought the 1.1Ghz Celeron and a Voodoo 4500 PCI graphics card (no AGP slot. I bought the Voodoo card before 3dfx went belly up. It's not bad at all for PCI.) I wanted the graphics card to do 2d artworks with a painting program (but now I also play games with it. )

Take the plunge, building a system from scratch is getting easier and easier, it can be very rewarding when it is all working. Needless to say there can also be periods of extreme frustration!

I really do want to try it, but...

As it is my systems are way over powered for the use they get. I am having trouble justifying upgrading just for the fun of building a computer.

My wife thinks ours is also and we haven't much spare income at present. Although I have the entire project down to about $150.00 using some existing components, that's still too much for us right now.

...but everything else kicks the crap out of most other computers

I'll bet it does!
You listed your CPU as a mobil, but with the watercooling, I assume it's in a desktop or tower. Do you find the mobil CPU handles the heat a little better while overclocking, or wasn't that a concern since you have the watercooling?

 

[MikeH]

Athlon 2800+ (2.09 ghz)
1 gb dual channel pc3200 ram
Asus a7x8n-e mobo
Geforce FX5600 256mb
120gb harddrive
CD-RW, CD-Rom

 

[Artman]

Athlon 2800+ (2.09 ghz)
1 gb dual channel pc3200 ram
Asus a7x8n-e mobo
Geforce FX5600 256mb
120gb harddrive
CD-RW, CD-Rom

Very nice MikeH. I bet you get some great frame rates with that setup (it sounds like a kickbutt gaming computer).

 

[Memnoch]

AMD64 3200+ (2.2 ghz)
1 Gig Corsair XMS DDR400
MSI FIS2R MB
OS Drive= 40 Gig Seagate
Storage1= 80 Gig Seagate
Storage2= Dual 250GB Western Digital SATA drives Raided (500 Gigs)
GeForce 4 ti4600
Hercules Game Theater XP
Plextor PX-712A DVDR-CDRW drive

I really should upgrade my video soon.
-=|peace|=-

 

[Artman]

AMD64 3200+ (2.2 ghz)
1 Gig Corsair XMS DDR400
MSI FIS2R MB
OS Drive= 40 Gig Seagate
Storage1= 80 Gig Seagate
Storage2= Dual 250GB Western Digital SATA drives Raided (500 Gigs)
GeForce 4 ti4600
Hercules Game Theater XP
Plextor PX-712A DVDR-CDRW drive

I really should upgrade my video soon.
-=|peace|=-

State of the art stuff there Memnoch (even the video card is not that far out compared to my Voodoo .)

Well, I went ahead and bought some upgrade stuff, (keep in mind I always do cheap. ) I got a Soyo P4X400 478 Mobo, a Celeron 2.6 CPU and fan, 256 MB DDR 266 RAM an PNY 8X AGP 64mb card (not the fastest, but I'm not a big gamer) and a new case. Here is the kicker, I got all of that for around $200.00 including shipping. Nearly half price for everything.

 

[Memnoch]

Ahhh, Voodoo's ROCK. I still have my VooDoo5500 around here somewhere. Such a stable beast and great for Overclocking :)
Nothing beats those Dual Procs. heh Works great in Linux too. :)

 

[Artman]

Ahhh, Voodoo's ROCK. I still have my VooDoo5500 around here somewhere. Such a stable beast and great for Overclocking :)
Nothing beats those Dual Procs. heh Works great in Linux too. :)

My Voodoo 4500 is actually quite good compared to other PCI cards, but alas, it is just PCI.

 

[dduardo]

Voodoo was the Geforce of the late 90's. I had two voodoo 2's hooked up together in what they called SLI mode. I had killer framerates with Doom 2.

 

[Memnoch]

Ah NICE.
I was actually able to run Serious Sam: THe Second Encounter pretty well off my SLI'd Voodoo2's. I use to be a major Voodoo freak a few years ago. You can still find awesome drivers at www.voodoofiles.com. I believe I had 24fps on Serious Sam with 800X600 res and 15-20 on Q3A. Old Celeron 500 with 512 dual boot with Mandrake ran it well. heh

 

[ShawnD]

Athlon 2500+
1GB RAM (PC2100)
ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2)
60GB HDD (5400RPM)
Radeon 9600XT
52x CD-rw
Sound Blaster Live 5.1

Update: I've overclocked the CPU to 2.32ghz which makes it faster than a 3200+
Right on

 

[kronchev]

I'll bet it does!
You listed your CPU as a mobil, but with the watercooling, I assume it's in a desktop or tower. Do you find the mobil CPU handles the heat a little better while overclocking, or wasn't that a concern since you have the watercooling?

Well, yes. It has a default voltage of 1.45v so I could get higher speeds at a lower voltage than with a regular 2400+. Heat however isn't an issue, I believe I'm 10C above ambient, that's a lot (to me, I'm a little too insane :D) but since its 10C if I'm OC'd or not, that speaks highly of watercooling ;) I got screwed on this chip however, I just Prime95 torture tested it again and it nearly immediatly failed, so I had to clock it down to 2.4. People I know are getting 2.8 at my voltage, 3.0 at 2.1v, with other chips. I'm thinking about selling this to my friend whose going to put it in his carputer (he'll be underclocking it in any case) and buying a guaranteed good chip from a company that specializes in picking out these things.

Oh well, I still have the fastest here ;) Gotta get that RAM however...

 

[hitssquad]

Speed shops for computer geeks

I'm thinking about ... buying a guaranteed good chip from a company that specializes in picking out these things.

What company or companies are those?

Gotta get that RAM however...

Mushkin is supposed to make excellent RAM.

 

[ShawnD]

All RAM is basically the same unless you are thinking about overclocking it.