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What ya got, and how d'ya use it ...

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JavaJones:
Oho! This is always a fun one. OK, um... should I just list the computers I *actively* use? Because by rough eyeball count my storage area over there has, um... 50-odd full computers, another couple 10's of separate motherboards, boxes of other misc. cards, yadda. So yeah, we'll stick to the actively used ones. :D

First off, I don't buy commercial machines. Being a system builder it just doesn't make much sense 99% of the time. Occasionally there's a really good deal, but I haven't found one yet at the time that I want to buy anyway, so all my machines are "home built".

Primary system:

Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Antec Sonata II case with 480W stock power supply (love this thing! fantastic deal to this day)
3GB RAM
120GB SATA HD (just bought an additional 500GB SATA drive, but haven't installed yet)
Geforce 6600GT 128MB
21"  Nokia CRT (a bit old and actually has some little scratches, but I've learned to live with it; got a good deal on it and I hate LCD's - yes even the new 2ms ones :D)
LG Electronics DVD Writer
Microsoft Intellimouse (best mouse ever - how come these things are so hard to get these days?)

Canon IP5000 Photo printer networked to everybody (dig it, very nice photo quality, decent text, very fast, and after-market ink cartridges are available, unlike the newer x200 models, e.g. IP5200)

LAN: Buncha Linksys equipment of questionable reliability. Our 8 port router was giving out under high load for a while (overheating? just needed a reboot every time) and I have a wireless router from a friend on which the wireless doesn't work, lol.

Internet Connection: 6000/768 ADSL from Sonic.net (fantastic ISP, great support)

Occasionally used:
Wacom 8x12 USB (Intuous II I think)
Some random old Epson scanner

Uses:
Audio, video and image editing with a variety of programs
Rendering (Terragen 2 mostly)
Lots of web surfing
Media playing - even split between music, movies and TV shows
Occasional gaming (last played: Hitman Blood Money, verdict B+, I'm a harsh critic)

Software Used:
Opera
Photoshop CS2
Filezilla (lots of website admin)
Terragen (current release plus TG2 alpha)
Miranda IM
PSPad Editor (*love* this thing - awesome editor, very good for web admins with built-in FTP management and auto-backup!)
Foxit Reader
AVG Antivirus
XnView
Microsoft Office (2k3/2k7 beta)
KMPlayer (currently in love with this as a general media player, especially video - if I can get it to use modern Winamp media library I will toss Winamp altogether I think)
Winamp (great audio support, *love* the online media content in the media library)
Tugzip
UltraVNC (god bless VNC - very full-featured client)

My other personal machines:

Render boxes:

2xAthlon MP overclocked machines at ~2.4Ghz per CPU (total 4 CPU's at 2.4Ghz, 2 in each system)
1-2GB of RAM in each
Crap ass graphics cards (don't need much just for rendering)
Not much else is important with these babies - it's all about CPU :D

Shiny new laptop:

Toshiba A105-S4114
1.73Ghz Core Duo CPU
2GB RAM
120GB HD
8X DVD writer
15.4" screen
802.11 A/B/G
Fingerprint scanner! (hehe, this thing is really gimmicky but really cool)
Built-in multi-card reader for flash media (supports my less popular xD media for my Olympus C7000, so that rules)
Weighs about 6 pounds

Battery life is not fantastic, a little under 3 hours, but it's decent. I got it with everything above stock at Circuit City for about $1150 after $200 in rebates (including sales tax). So a pretty sweet deal IMO. Get your own here http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=153876&catOid=-12963  8)

Primary uses:
Offloading photos from my digicam
Client work - backups, DVD burning on-site for drivers, etc.
Showing photos to friends on the road
'net access on the road
File transfers
Rendering

Old e-mail box:

Dual PIII 600
512MB's RAM
ATI Rage 128
2x18GB SCSI2 HD
Lite-on DVD writer

This guy is getting phased out as soon as I can figure out what mail program I'm moving to.


Other Systems:

Roommate's gaming box:

Athlon 64 socket 754 3400+ @ 2.4Ghz (that's stock - it's just that there were several 3400+'s, most of which were slower, clock speed matters more than cache in most cases)
Thermaltake Tsunami Silver case with default 420W PSU (nice case but not the best)
2GB RAM
120GB SATA HD + 200GB IDE HD
ATI Radeon X800 XT 256MB (last of the great AGP cards, really)
21" Brand new Philips CRT (My roommate hates LCD's too - he recently did a comparison buy, a 21" LCD vs. 21" CRT; the CRT won, even though it was more expensive. He's a big gamer so refresh rate is huge and both he and I can still detect flicker even on a "2ms" LCD)
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Lite-On DVD Burner
Microsoft Intellimouse

Primary uses:
Gaming
Web browsing
Recording and editing audio (he's really into this amateur voice acting thing right now)

Server:
2xAthlon MP 1600+
Antec white full tower case (big, roomy, HEAVY - love Antec's cases but I don't love full tower cases much)
1GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9200 passively cooled
8 HD's from 160GB to 500GB - about 1.6TB total space (upgrading to more soon)
2 NIC's + onboard (will be used for bridging 2 DSL connections)

Primary uses:
Serving files to other machines
Downloading and archiving stuff

Media Machine:

Athlon XP 2000+
Antec black mid-tower case, 400W built-in PSU (nice, basic case)
1GB RAM
nVidia Geforce FX 5700 128MB
Lite-on DVD reader

Primary uses:

Playing movies, tv and music through our TV and stereo (need to upgrade TV soon to HDTV)


I access most of these machines through VNC to control them and do stuff. My main X2 machine is attached directly to the monitor and the e-mail machine is close enough to also connect to it occasionally when needed. I have an old 7 port Belkin switchbox I may hook up to handle that soon.

There's a potentially interesting story behind each machine, too. I work very hard at picking "sweet spots" when I purchase hardware. So for a brief example my roommate's Athlon 64 was bought a little while after socket 939 came out and PCI-X was just starting to get big. We had the option of either spending more for a more upgradeable 939-based system at a slightly lower clock speed and with a PCI-X graphics card (meaning ultimately less performance in the near-term) vs. paying less for a slightly faster CPU and being stuck with AGP. I advised him to stick with 754 and go for the 3400+ at 2.4Ghz rather than the higher rated but actually slower 1MB cache versions, etc. In benchmarks and actual use since he purchased a couple years ago I think it has become quite clear that it was an excellent buy at the right time. He has upgraded the graphics card only a couple times; the upgraded cards always go to other in-use machines in the house, so nothing is wasted.

Aaanyway, that's about enough of that, eh? Hehe. I'm sorry, I just love to talk about my babies. :P

You might think from that list that I'm a rich little bugger but honestly I'm just a bargain hunter. I've probably spent little more in the past few years than anyone who goes out and buys a nice new PC. Most people spend $1-2000, and I'd say I've spent about $2500 over the past couple years. The laptop is my biggest splurge of all time, lol. But it'll easily pay for itself on long photo outings, amongst many other uses.

- Oshyan

Carol Haynes:
Wow - looks like a hypermarket ...

LAN: Buncha Linksys equipment of questionable reliability. Our 8 port router was giving out under high load for a while (overheating? just needed a reboot every time) and I have a wireless router from a friend on which the wireless doesn't work, lol.
--- End quote ---

I am glad you said that - I have been having problems with my router recently - probably the hot weather but it has needed rebooting a few times to get the thing to work. Doesn't help that it has never let me get to the config screen consistently (web browsers often seem to give up trying to connect even when the thing is working properly). Frustrating.

Any UK based users got any recommendations for an integrated ADSL/WiFi (11g) router ?

nudone:
Carol, my netgear one that i complained about a few months ago has been working perfectly since i did the flash update on it.

f0dder:
Any UK based users got any recommendations for an integrated ADSL/WiFi (11g) router ?
-Carol Haynes (July 23, 2006, 04:18 AM)
--- End quote ---
.dk based, but it's pretty damn hot and humid here, so... :)

I got my mum a Netgear FWG114p - it does ADSL routing, firewalling, access-pointing (11/54mbit) with security, print serving (unfortunately our printer isn't supported :( ), etc. It's been very reliable, never needed a reboot, and looks sexy.

Carol Haynes:
Any UK based users got any recommendations for an integrated ADSL/WiFi (11g) router ?
-Carol Haynes (July 23, 2006, 04:18 AM)
--- End quote ---
.dk based, but it's pretty damn hot and humid here, so... :)

I got my mum a Netgear FWG114p - it does ADSL routing, firewalling, access-pointing (11/54mbit) with security, print serving (unfortunately our printer isn't supported :( ), etc. It's been very reliable, never needed a reboot, and looks sexy.
-f0dder (July 23, 2006, 04:33 AM)
--- End quote ---

Unfortunately that doesn't actually have an ADSL modem built in.

The http://netgear.co.uk/wireless_broadband_router_dg834gt.php looks possible - shame it doesn't include the print server too.

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