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Techs Home PCs

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I have noticed there are 2 distinct kinds of tech people…

Set 1 are the people who have really old PCs at home & devote love & energy into keeping them alive.

Set 2 are the ones with the latest Carlos Fandango bleeding edge PCs at home.

Which sort are you?

I personally have a dual SLI rig with 2 7900GTX graphics cards, 2Gig ram, 1 terrabye raid array running off an AMD FX-62 processor plus an older 64bit 3600 that I use as a media server (I am so 2nd set)…

Topic

A painter’s house is never painted, a roofer’s house is never roofed…

In reply to Techs Home PCs

At least that’s the way it is with me. Too busy with everyone else’s computers, that when I finally do get home, I just want to be out of doors or just collapse in a chair with a drink in one hand and the remote in the other. My work computer is hot – my home computer sucks and cable is the only requirement.

Cobbbler’s children have no shoes

In reply to A painter’s house is never painted, a roofer’s house is never roofed…

I used to build my own, but I find I don’t have time anymore, so the last two I have are factory refurbs, where I typically add a video and sound card.

I have all the spare parts for another computer once I put my mind to it, and I have a couple of lasers which jam that I can fix if I tear them down.

I also have an old Mac that I will give away as soon as I locate all the pieces (ethernet dongle, etc).

James

Sounds like me

In reply to Cobbbler’s children have no shoes

I have 4 computers, none are cutting edge anymore, 2 are ready for Linux. 2 were built up by me, and 2 are refurbed and upgraded several times. I have a photo printer which needs minor work (hasnt been turned on in over a year. But instead of working on it I bought a CLJ to replace it.

When something happens, I just ‘fix it’ temporarily while I await the purchase of a new system, which will likely be a refurb media center.
But the way I see it, for what I do at home on it, I dont need the ‘cutting edge’, nor the expense of another cutting edge system

and my home computer needs work

In reply to A painter’s house is never painted, a roofer’s house is never roofed…

I’m with Vanessa and I’ll carry it a step further – I resent having to spend time fixing the blankety blank thing; I simply want it to work so I can check email, surf occasionally, type a letter, and maybe do a web page now and then.

I recently made the mistake of trying include that reliable old P2/350 running 98 standard edition in a small home network. As soon as I installed that blankty blank Linksys ethernet card, IE, Firefox, and any scheduled software updates such as spyware and antivirus started started crashing.

That was three months ago – and I been futzing with it on and off ever since. Earlier this week I finally applied the millenium edition upgrade that had been gathering dust for 5 or 6 years. Still can’t access the internet on it – the only saving grace is that the network works good enough to share files to my laptop (the zip drive stopped working over a year ago, so my backups left something to be desired.)

The only thing that is more irritating than spending time fixing ‘old reliable’ is shopping for a replacement…

jh

Keep it reiable! It’s a tool.

In reply to and my home computer needs work

My home PC is (and always has been) a tool of my trade, like my favourite screwdrivers and chisels. The older and more reliable they are the better they are for me. I spend all day on customers “lateset and greatest” trying to find out what “new” obstacles Mr Intel and Mr Micro$oft have put in the way of my work getting done. To be able to go home and KNOW I can just jump on the web, or login EASILY to work, is a godsend! Long live reliable PCs and operating systems! I don’t need animated desktops and rounded characters, as long as I can RELIABLY catch up on my work when I get home.
My machine a celeron 400 (integrated everything) with 40Gb disc (30% used) and ME which is stable, reliable, does everything I want and seems less prone to being hacked.

say what?

In reply to and my home computer needs work

“That was three months ago – and I been futzing with it on and off ever since. Earlier this week I finally applied the millenium edition upgrade that had been gathering dust for 5 or 6 years.”

— Ummm, that may be part of your problem. Since when is going from 98 to ME an “upgrade”? Do you not support Windows in your job? As far I’m concerned, ME is the bastard child of the Microsoft family. Especially on that kind of hardware. There’s “old worthy of keeping up because it’s still viable” and “old good for the recycling center”. Otherwise you’re just wasting your time (with Windows anyway).

“I resent having to spend time fixing the blankety blank thing; I simply want it to work so I can check email, surf occasionally, type a letter, and maybe do a web page now and then.”
“The only thing that is more irritating than spending time fixing ‘old reliable’ is shopping for a replacement…”

— You don’t seem to like anything that’s fun about this line of business!

good luck.

Update – no more futzing

In reply to say what?

Foulere,

Just a quick update.

Your observation “You don’t seem to like anything that’s fun about this line of business!” is only partially correct. I’m primarily a programmer/analyst who grew up on big iron and who remembers coding basic programs on paper tape and connections through a 200 baud acoustic couplers. So that probably qualifies me as ‘old fart’. For me desktop hardware is a blessing and a curse – I now have more computing power on my desktop than I had in a roomfull of computers way back when… However, I’d rather not have to deal with hardware (it belongs in the back room.) Give me a business problem to solve or a program to write and I have a great time.

Anyway, I finally bit the bullet and picked up a flat panel monitor, all in one ‘printer’ and new dual processor machine. Everything works like a charm right out of the box. Now I have to get everything I use loaded on it, grrrrrr. With luck it will last me another 8-10 years.

What it comes down to is that what I do at work isn’t what I want to do at home – for me life means more than techology and my daily workdose is enough – my home PC is a necessary evil.

amazing responses.

In reply to A painter’s house is never painted, a roofer’s house is never roofed…

Wow… it’s hard to believe that there are actually people who work in the “IT” field that don’t own a computer at home. I fully understand that you are “repairing/updating and administering” at work, but you are not dealing with co-workers at home. Additionally, the equipment (hardware/software) that you place in your home is not something that has been “forced” upon you, as it may have been at work. I guess it’s kinda like when I was an automotive technician and found out one my co-workers (fellow grease monkey), didn’t maintain his own vehicle. I guess it was worth paying someone else for doing something he could have easily done himself, to be able to spend that time doing what he wanted to do (drink beer and watch football – lol).

Kinda Sorta

In reply to A painter’s house is never painted, a roofer’s house is never roofed…

I kind of the same way to busy with everybody elses computer to worry about mine although i did recently build a new one this last year pretty spiffy, but the one before that was well over 5 years so once in 5 every 5 years not exactly keeping up with the Jones.

3rd Set??

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I must be in the third set or middle of the road for I have neither a really old PC nor a smokin’ bleeding edge machine.

Mine is an Aria box running an AMD 3000+, built in 64MB video, 1GB Ram / 120GB SATA / DVD +/- RW / built in multi-card reader. I am also using a 10year old keyboard (w/ usb adapter) on this system…so I guess I have a foot in both worlds….not outlandishly old but not exactly new either. LOL.

First Set…

In reply to 3rd Set??

The keyboard gives you away…

I’m in 3rd set, too

In reply to 3rd Set??

I have about 4 machines in use (with a few more just collecting dust). None of them are cutting edge anymore.

I think the tops in terms of specs might be my 3 year-old media center PC which has a 2.8 P4, 1GB RAM, 760GB storage (160+300+300), Radeon 9800XT 256MB video, Sound Blaster Audigy 2. I use it to record OTA HDTV content (and stream it to my XBOX 360 in the “manroom”) and watch movies ripped to the HDDs. It is also connected directly to a 26″ HDTV in my bedroom.

4th Set?

In reply to 3rd Set??

My wife and kids use the PC at home, a middle of the road Acer something or other with no mods since she got it 2 1/2 years ago. I have little use for a home PC, and if I need to do something, I use my work laptop.

After 8 or 10 hours at work, I’d rather watch a Red Sox game, or even do some non-screen activity (gasp!) than sit in front of a PC.

4th, Ditto.

In reply to 4th Set?

After spending so much time every day on the things, it’s not an adventure any more, just a job. Every time I look at a PC, I think of work, so I don’t play on them any more. I still rely on two old Sony PCG-N505VX laptops (128 megs of RAM max) as a server/VPN and workstation. Can’t beat the size, and I don’t mess around with them, so never have problems. I use “target” machines to test anything I’m not sure of. So many machines, so little time. Consulting has become my thing.

Seeking Sony N505VX Help

In reply to 4th, Ditto.

(I apologize if this post is misplaced. Don’t have the lay of the
land yet.)

I have a Sony PCG-N505VX (128MB, 6GB) that has become
somewhat unfriendly (strange WiFi behaviour, etc.). I think the
time has come for a fresh OS – either reinstall Win98SE or XP. (I
have XP Pro licenses available.) I use the machine for Word/
Office+web at meetings a dozen hours a week. Networking –
WiFi and wired – with my home network a priority (these days it
is sneaker-net, and it has only ever been willing to talk to
exactly one particular USB memory stick).

I’m thinking XP, FAT32, but I don’t know if the installation is
likely to work. I guess I’ll redo 98SE if needed, but I’m
concerned about no longer getting MS patches for all the
security holes.

I notice adeal is running a couple of these machines. Someone
else might have suggestions.

Thanks very much.

-David

David here is OK

In reply to Seeking Sony N505VX Help

As for running XP you would have to run it as a Minimal Install as the Full install of just XP uses about 6 GIG of HDD Space. Also 128 MEG of RAM will work but it’s going to be painful and slow so I really would recommend keeping 98 installed but if you simply must have XP use a NTFS partition as it will give you more usable HDD Space to work with.

With a FAT 32 Partition you get a lot of Slack or Wasted Space that you simply do not get on a NTFS Partition.

With XP installed it’s going to be slow and you’ll have problems even installing the extra software that is required and you’ll have very little storage space left for data if if was me I would be using 98SE on it.

Col

So…what you’re saying is…

In reply to 4th Set?

all your posts are done on “work time” (not unlike the rest of us)?

Vanessa it is the old balance of worklife vs homelife

In reply to So…what you’re saying is…

Didn’t you know that? Work time is for anything IT. Home time is for ME!

I’m with ya’ll

In reply to 4th Set?

After working on them all day i don’t even want to look at one when i get home. mines at least 4 years old, P4 1.7ghz. I use it to pay bills online and thats about it, and half the time I do that at work on my laptop. I’ll agree with a baseball game, but i’m an Astros fan.

3rd Set again

In reply to 3rd Set??

My last PC was as cutting edge as I could afford at the time, then maintained with regular upgrades (disk capacity quadrupled, and ended it’s life with a second graphics card with DVI).

My current : I stepped down to a Mac Mini; a lower spec but more modern machine. My storage is now largely external – I’ll be getting a NAS as soon as the price falls further. Main reasons : I realised I didn’t need a high power machine, as 80% of my home use is web-surfing.
Our main PC tech at work uses a shuttle form machine too.

yes, 3rd set here too

In reply to 3rd Set??

Nothing too fancy but I ramped it up with 1 gig of RAM and a nifty graphics card (Wildcat Relizm 800)

Not sure which set :P

In reply to 3rd Set??

OK.

Current machine: PCI express, twin nVidia 7800 GTX 256 Mbyte video cards; 4 Gbytes memory, Intel Pentium dual-core extreme @ 3.2 Ghz; mirrored 250 Gbyte hard drives, etc. etc.

Archive machine: Fry’s GC, AMD Athlon 2600+, 256 Mbytes memory, onboard video – used only for sharing files in home LAN; 3 external 250 Gbyte fireware drives attached

Testbed: Hyperthreaded Intel IV; 512 Mbytes memory, nVidea GEforce card of some kind (not turning it on to find out); front-loading cartidges for hard drives containing various versions of Linux, Solaris x86; used for my job
(I work from home)

Compaq portable 286 – working; legacy machine that I keep for Win95 programs and games that I still enjoy

IBM PC XT; Dos 6.2 – same as compaq

Brace yourself: Radio Shack RRS model II, still working; same as above – keeping it for the apps and games that run on it – uses a casette storage system; no floppy drives 😉

So… which category does that put me in?

Typo – should be *TRS* Model II

In reply to Not sure which set :P

Plus, I’m seriously thinking of having Tap Plastics custom-fit a fish tank inside of the TRS; there’s room behind the area where the floppy drives would go if it had any 😉

Whacha all think? Keep it because it works, or convert it to a fishtank?

Wolf

I am with you

In reply to Not sure which set :P

I still have my first original PC. Of course I have upgraded so many time is not the same anymore. It started as a 486 Mhz and 4 Meg of memory. Thru the years I have upgrade with CD-Rom, sound card. Then I new motherboard with a 350 Mhz AMD, then a 400 and last a 500 Mhz. That is how far the motherboard will go. But upgraded the CD-rom to a Kenword multi bean (7) added a TDK burner, a Creative Sound Card with front inputs, 512 Meg of memory and NVidia Gforce 256. Still use it for internet, games, and my wife accounting job for a private company.

I just bought my wife a new laptop, a HP Windows Media 17″ screen. My old HP printer die. Bought a new USB Cannon printer which the old computer had problem working with the USB so decided to buy the laptop.

My daughter had a old Compaq 266 Mhz the my wife boss gave it to me because it was broken. Repair it and my daughter use it for a couple of years until it had a fit with her IPod. So I bought her a new Apple laptop, but the old Compaq still works , just don’t know what to do with it.

BTW, my computer is home made with an AMD 2000+ chip, a Sony DVD burner, a Nvidia 6600GT video card and 768 Meg a memory. The only problem I have is a want to upgrade to the latest, so I am waiting for Windows Vista, Quad chip from AMD, and the latest Nvidia video card.

So I can not get rid of my old PC’s but I also want to have the latest in PC. I have Windows 3.1, Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP pro and XP Media Center and Apple OS X Panther. I use them old for new and old games. So…which category does that put me in?

You must be a gamer

In reply to Techs Home PCs

So its a different rig…..

My factory refurb is a AMD 3200+, with 1GB of RAM (upgrade), X1600 with 256MB (Upgrade), Wireless mouse (upgrade), and a SB Audigy 2 (upgrade).

I did have an X850 XT, which was faster, but it ran way too hot. The X1600 I have has an Artic Cooler GPU/memory cooler which is more stable.

You must have more disposable income – a big factor too. To me the SLI rig, the FX 62 etc are beyond the best Value curve. You sir, are what I sued to call a goodie monster. Gotta have all the best toys – am I right? My wife thinks I am that way but I am not really. I shop carefully, wait till things are on sale.

James

Not all gamers need SLI or Bleeding edge

In reply to You must be a gamer

equipment. I consider myself a gamer, since my system was assembled with that in mind.
I’m running an Opteron 148 (2.2GHz) overclocked to 2.97GHz, 2GB Mushkin XP4000 DDR, 3dConnect X800GTO (BIOS modded for extra pipelines, and overclocked), 36GB Raptor as my OS drive, and 3 x 74GB Raptor in RAID 0. This is my main gaming system… which runs all versions of Battlefield (1942, Vietnam and 2). Until I get addicted to another game, or a new Battlefield version comes out that my videocard cannot play at max settings, I don’t see the need for a new videocard at this time. I also have a Barton 2500 acting as a file/print server, a Pentium 4 – 2.4C that my fiance uses mainly for internet and light gaming, and a Pentium 3 – 800 that is my dedicated firewall box. On my network, I share a color laser (USB), a color inkjet (USB) and (hold on to your socks) a high speed DOT MATRIX printer (parallel). So based on my equipment, I fit both categories. Value DOES come into play… I don’t need the newest CPU or Videocard. I am willing to overclock my components to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it and still get “the job done”.

Don’t I know it.

In reply to Not all gamers need SLI or Bleeding edge

I bought Battlefield 2 when I had a Pentium 1.4 with 512 MB or RAM and an FX5200 video card- the card is not officially supported but since it ran the demo ok, it ran the game ok as well, at least until the patches came out. I upgraded the video card to a used Radeon 9600 Pro (OC’d)and got marginally better performance.

The X850 XT I had in my new system was once the top card by the manufacturer, but that was 18 months ago – the value curve – so I paid $199 for it. Because it ran hot I won’t try to OC it, even though I do know how, and its supported by my drivers.

Frankly it is all about balance. Right now, going to 2GB of RAM would make a big difference to me because of the way the game plays, but even with my middle of the road x1600 I can run at most settings at high.

That is one of the problems with buying Major brand equipment – they tend to have adequate cooling, and to OC you want better cooling. I could buy a new case…..

If all I did was surfing, a low end box would be fine. My son will inherit my old box.

Perhaps we should arrange a fragging match.

James

Fragging is fun for all ages!!!!

In reply to Don’t I know it.

Hey James,

I have not been able to “frag” anything in the past few months due to the many things that need to be done before I get “hitched” (Sept is right around the corner!). Perhaps after the “honeymoon” period has taken place, I can get back into the action! (Just downloaded Armored Forces!!!). BTW, the upgrade from 1GB to 2GB of RAM in Battlefield 2 made a HUGE difference.

I fully understand the heat issues with Overclocking components. I’m a big Zalman supporter. I have a 9500 for my CPU, and a VF700 for my Video. I also recently picked up a Lian-Li 1200Plus to house it all in. 🙂

Jet 7

In reply to Fragging is fun for all ages!!!!

I have a Coolermaster Jet 7 on my Barton… the cpu temperature dropped from 56C to 42C when I put it on.

With a drop in core temperature like that I’ll definately be looking at the upgraded version for my next cpu upgrade. Apart from that it looks pretty good too.

I hear you.

In reply to Not all gamers need SLI or Bleeding edge

My old pc was an old 2.2GHz P4 overclocked to just over 2.8Ghz (Zalman water cooling) with an Nvidia 6800GTX overclocked to the edge of reason. It was a labour of love & when it got nicked I just lost all motivation to build my own again so I bought a prebuilt one (don’t like to plug but I got it from Digitalstormonline.com & it is a very sturdy reliable machine for not a massive amount of cash so well done boys & they deserve the plug – they did a good job & credit where credit is due).

Actually, based on your equipment

In reply to Not all gamers need SLI or Bleeding edge

you are FIRMLY in the first category. Think about it, you use an entire COMPUTER for a FIREWALL… just about says it all, DM printer notwithstanding.

As for me, I also fit the first category. AMD 64 4000+ on an ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe mobo, 2GB RAM and 2TB hdd space, coupled with 2 16×12 DVD-DL burners, 2 GF7800GTXs in SLi mode, and a Creative X-Fi Platinum… the extra memory on the fatality and the top end model (forgot the name) are not used and therefore not useful to me. Watercooled, of course… Zalman Reserator 1+, with extra pump and water blocks for both video cards, and the CPU, keeps everything nice and cool. But I don’t overclock, or rin a RAID array (RAID 0 is useless really, and RAID 1? I like having the space, instead of halving the space. So that puts the bag on 0+1 also…) I use a D-Link DWL-4300 gaming router (GB ethernet with CAT-6… gotta luv it!!)as my firewall/router, and Avast antivirus offers ample virus protection… and it’s FREE!

It’s amazing to me to find so many posts with people who apparently do not love their work, or at least, are not very interested in it. I’m a consultant also, but I got into it because I really like all of this tech, and I really like computers… and that was 20+ years ago (whoever it was with the TRS-II, I heartily salute you. Keep her running… still a good performer). So I will spend a lot on my systems, and I LIKE fixing them, and I also enjoy building and modifying them. It’s not just “a job” to me, it’s my choice of career and lifestyle. I guess it just goes to show that even now, there are still geeks, and suits… and never the twain shall meet.

Smoothwall on a 386…

In reply to Actually, based on your equipment

Most reliable firewall ever!

(Does this put me in the other set here?)

You are absolutely right…

In reply to You must be a gamer

It was a bad luck/good luck situation – my apartment got robbed (XBox 360 & my old PC, digital camera & a few other bits n bobs) – whilst I was gutted to have been robbed they left the raid array with most of my data on it & the insurance money paid for the new rig. Now I just need to replace the digicam & I’m all square.

Middle of the Road Here, I think

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I’ve got 4 machines — an old PIII, 500 MHz with 256 RAM and an old CRT, and old Mac and my most recent machine is a Toshiba Tablet with 1 gig of RAM. Nothing too sexy.

Middle of Road too

In reply to Middle of the Road Here, I think

both of my machines at home are PIII’s one is 500Mhz and the other is 450 or something like that, however, I have upgraded just about everything on them to about 750Mb RAM, Wireless network, with wireless keyboard mouse, XP pro OS, Audigy 2Zs Platinum Sound, I forget which Gforce video (middle upper end). the beauty thing for me is that I don’t play games, I tend to use my system as my media center (aka, jukebox) for my 175Gb of Mp3s, plus I ‘backup’ my DVDs as well, I have the audigy patched into my home theater (Harmon Kardon receiver) for superior sound and am able to view on my Panasonic HD TV for easy surfing, chatting and e-mail from the comfort of my couch. Its great when friends are hanging out and someone asks that one question no one knows the answer to, just a quick Google search and I usually resolve the question within two minutes or less. My system does exactly what I want it to, anything more would be wasteful on my behalf. Total cost for both machines and upgrades? maybe $500 total out of pocket, the machines where originally work machines that were saved from the garbage bin, I’ve been moving and upgrading harddrives since my 333hz E-Machine from 1998. Not top of the line, but definitely a workhorse for my needs!

175G?

In reply to Middle of Road too

Greetings and salutations,
are you serious 175G? prople think i’m insane because i’ve got a 72G collection.
alex

http://www.alexcooper.org

175??? Lightweight…

In reply to 175G?

At last count my MP3 collection was bordering on 1/2 a terrabyte (all legit, most of which from my own CDs – last count 3500 of them) – the files are large as I record everything at the highest possible bitrate (320). I know this is possibly unneccessary but if you have the space, why not?

bit rate

In reply to 175??? Lightweight…

the AVERAGE person could not tell the difference of anything over 96, especially if listing to them on a standard work PC. I bump mine up one to 128. A good compromise of size to quality ration.

Only about 20 gigs for me. My boys listen to all of it and love it all.

I think your site

In reply to 175G?

is definitely worth a surf. I’ll be checking it out in more detail.

Middle of the road, III

In reply to Middle of the Road Here, I think

I have four PC’s in my home network and a presently stand-alone. Only 2 have P4 technology with 1Gb RAM and above 2.6Ghz each, one with XP, the other with W2K. Another has 1Ghz with 1Gb RAM and I will soon upgrade the legacy 10Mbps and runs Win98SE. The fourth is a WinNT 4.0 server I rarely use and has MMX 233Mhz with 378Mb RAM, and yes, the CRT it has is rather old but still good and bought used in 94′ (I’ll use it until it smokes, goes dead, or both). The standalone is identical to the latter (these were the first two computers I built from motherboards I bought at a buck each, then built them up.) except it runs Win98SE. The nice thing about having all these is the ability to refresh my gray matter whenever I need to remind myself of how a particular version functions or navigates.
I use SpinRite 6 to keep all the HDs maintained.

toys vs tools

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I am a set 1 because all my money went to a divorce and then the amusement of my twin boys.

My main system is an IBM thinkpad T20 (PIII 800).

My home pc is a PII 400 and does everything but play shooter games.

My “gaming” system is an AMD 1900 w/128 radon vid.

Sure, there are new games that we would like to play, but buying hunting gear, or going golfing seems like a much better investment than to sit in front of the computer?

Just got some used parts giving to me, to make a AMD2200, so both of the boys can play at the same time.

Toys are tools.

In reply to toys vs tools

Yep, my PC is a gamer rig but I also use it for work where it pretty much rips through anything I give it to chew on (although admittedly a PII could probably rip through one of my spreadsheets). I like to think of it as a dual purpose tool which spends a lot of it’s time masquerading as a toy.

There is nothing wrong

In reply to Toys are tools.

with having toys. And it is fine to have cool tools, that are fun as well.

Just not as high on the priority list right now or I would have something more current. Twin boys means no “hand-me-downs”.

Okay I admit

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Partner has a duo core with the huge nVidia and every bell and whistle that HP could load on a 17 inch laptop.

I have a Dell D600 that I will be happy to give the boot to. Looking to acquire a Mac Intel core and boot camp it so that I can run my XP as well as the OS X it ships with.

I will be a VERY happy camper- OS X but unix under the hood, XP for my clients.

FUN!

Well I was bleeding edge for about three minutes.

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I upgraded from an AMD K6-550 with 1 meg of memory and a 30Gig HDD. It had an ATI Wonder card with 64 meg of ram. This is now a Linux machine.

I got an AMD fx-62 4200+; 2x 200 Gig SATA drives; 2 Gig of ram; ATI 850 PCI graphics with 256 of hispeed video ram and a 500 Gig Barracuda Scuzzy II back up. An Audigy sound card was included, don’t ask me which version but it is adequate for my needs. I’m not a gamer but do a lot of graphics work which is why I added a 17″ wide Epson eight colour printer which allows me to print out 11″ X 14″ or 16 x 20″ photos while I’m having supper and will also yield me C size drawings. Originally I was going to get the 11″ wide Epson but I was able to save so much on the box, that I could justify the additional cost for the printer. A few months later AMD started shipping dual core chips, so I slipped off the bleeding edge. It has a card reader and a dual layer 16X DVD drive, to which I added a second about a month ago.

When I’m buying a new box, I follow the principle of getting all I can, while I can. Oh yeah, one other item, I upgraded my old 20″ Nec Multisync to a 21″ 8ms LCD monitor which supports several levels of resolution but which I run at 1280 X 1024 most of the time. I’m not sitting in front of it at the moment so damned if I can remember the brand but Sharp seems to come to mind. The old NEC is on the linux box and is still a damn good monitor for being all of 13 years old.

As for laser printing, I’m still using my HP-4M which still works well and see no reason to upgrade to a colour laser just yet. Toner is quite expensive for those and the photo print quality, in comparison to an 8 or 6 colour ink jet, still leaves a lot to be desired.

I have no idea when I’ll upgrade again but it won’t be before I see the programs that will require it. To date, 64 bit software is not widely available and what is available isn’t very good; witness 64 bit Windows XP.

As I said I’m not a gamer but I do watch movies. One of the browsers I use is Opera and the beta version of Opera 9 has Bittorrent included. This just happens to be the best beta version of any program I have ever seen and I have been testing and pishing it since the beginning of March.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

Old but steady

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Mine was out of date when I ordered the parts, but I needed a PC quickly to stay in school.

PIII, 866MHz
512MB RAM
ASUS CUV4x-e
Radeon AIW
built-in audio
W2K

It sure isn’t fast, but it is very stable.

My other beast is a cast-off PIII on which I run Debian Linux or Win98 (for an old flight sim) depending on which drive bay I put in.

Im the second

In reply to Techs Home PCs

But I keep the old stuff for trying things out and for servers ect. I just built two new systems, one is a 3.6 Ghz, 800FSB, Two gig memory, two 500 gig drives. It supports SATA but I have yet to use the two drives yet.

learning all I can, becoming a pack rat

In reply to Techs Home PCs

While I’m still learning all I can about building a good running network I have a decent collection of computers. Here are a few of the computers:

HP Netserver LH3 – dual P3 600 – 512 ram – 12 18.2 GB drives, 2 are mirrored, 2 (5 drive) raid 5’s

Dell PowerEdge 2500 – dual P3 933 – 1gb ram – 5 9.1 GB drives raid 5

Dell PowerEdge 2400 – P3 450 – 512 ram – 2 9.1gb mirrored drives

3 P3 933 compaq deskpro’s each with 512 ram and anywhere from 20-250 gb drives.

and my main computer is an HP 1206n with an AMD64 3200, 1gb ram, 250 gb drive

so I would guess I’m in the middle of the road, but I am a pack rat when it comes old computers and servers.

AHHH the collection….

In reply to learning all I can, becoming a pack rat

I have to agree the collection is the way to go. I try to mimic the network at work, At home. (But on a smaller scale.) All my machines are less than 1ghz.

Quanity vs Quality

You had best not tell my wife that

In reply to AHHH the collection….

I collect things like they are going out of fashion. The last job I did at an ISP involved replacing all their Blades so I picked up a couple of IBM Netfinities Dual P11’s with 2 GIG of RAM and other than the CD Drive all Hot Swap SCSI.

One is running Nix and is the gateway with all sorts of security and monitoring tools on it.

Then I have 7 Pentium MMX 200’s all with different Nix Versions on them 1 Quad 200 MMX M’Board with SUSE 10 on it as well as a heap of SCSI drives and all the bells & whistles. A couple of XP boxes with various configurations I use a Dual 1 GIG P3 for Recording it’s only got 4 GIG of EEC RAM , then a Dual P3 550 on a Gigabyte GA6BXDU M’Board fully loaded with the biggest CPU’s it will take 1 GIG of RAM again all it will take and 16 SCSI Drives [i] allI can fit in the case[/i] in it so I have a bit of space to play with. Another unit on the same M’Board but with only 500 MHZ P3’s for general recording music and the like but only 2 X 40 GIG IDE drives in it.

My NB has a 3.6 P4 with 1 GIG of RAM again all that the unit will take and an 80 GIG HDD with a built in Web Cam WiFi & Blue-tooth then there are 3 spare drives for it all mounted in USB Caddies and all with working OS’s loaded I generally switch between Debian and XP Pro depending on the job but that’s just a tool that doesn’t see much use at home.

I’m currently building a Dual Xeon 3.2 Unit as a new workstation but so far I’ve only had the time to mount the M’Board CPU’s Heat sinks & RAM so currently it a [b]No Go![/b]

For printers I have a range from an old Epson LQ100 Dot Matrix that I tend to use to cut stencils for an old Gestenta or however it’s spelt then a LBP 1760 Canon Laser both are very old and both work perfectly. To print CD/DVD Faces I have a Canon i965 only a 6 Colour model and it is only used for Disk faces a Canon BJC6000 that was a general purpose Bubble Jet with separate Ink Tanks that are interchangeable with the 965 and a Samsung Colour Laser CLP-500 it’s only corporate Colour and fairly new less than 2 years now which gets used quite a lot now as it has all the goodies built in. I only picked that one up as it was at such a great price from my main supplier after I did them a favour apparently it was supposed to come with a digital camera which they had misplaced and I got it really cheap with a spare set of Toners and waste Toner Container and the extra paper tray so I just couldn’t say no even though I was going to wait for the 550 to become available so I could use the LAN connection instead of a USB connection to a computer.

I don’t know which camp I would fall into as I work from Home or at least I take service calls at home and do a lot of On Site Work so my home is actually my work place. Well that my story & I’m sticking to it. :^0

Col

Pack rat…me too

In reply to learning all I can, becoming a pack rat

Where does anyone find space to contain all this technology? Old computers, old CD drives, old monitors, etc.
We are down to just 3 systems after I gave away an old 233 to a Katrina victim. What’s left is a 400 Mhz system on Win98SE, a 1.5 GHz system on W2K Pro and my 1.7 Ghz system soon to be upgraded from Win98SE to XP Home, all desktop systems. When I bring home the work laptop, that’s 4 systems worth of space. None of it wireless.
It takes significant time just to do the software installs, so all the hardware was assembled by others. It’s all a matter of space and time.

Getting a rack solves a lot of footprint problems

In reply to Pack rat…me too

Because I work from home, I have my main machine for doing the work; another machine serving as a data and file archive; and two more machines with drive bays that I use to test and document application installs on various flavors of UNIX and Solaris x86.

Space became a problem early on; so I purchased a rack and enough shelves to put all of the above into, as well as my printers.

The rack contains all four machines; an HP 4000 TN printer and a Canon 9000 printer; an 8-port KVM; my DSL modem and firewall/router, and my flatbed scanner.

All in a footprint measuring roughly 20 inches wide by 20 inches deep by 6 feet all.

Imagine all of the above equipment sitting on and in computer desks! Cost me roughly $180 for the rack and the shelves; very worth it 🙂

Wolf

Group 1.5

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I have a gaming rig I bought about a year ago, Athlon 3800, ASUS A8N-E mobo, Geforce 6600 GT, 1GB RAM (it will be upgraded to 2 as soon as I get off my arse and go the store, which could be anytime in the next year). I use this for games, I haven?t found a game it wont run, I haven?t had a game that wont run well at 1280×1040 (I don?t play WoW though, I pretend I have a life instead :^0 ).

As it is tax time in AU and bonus time at work I will be upgrading, either to SLI with a 2nd 6600 GT and new mobo or if I get enough as a bonus/back from tax, I will possibly upgrade to an AM2 system. Also I’m thinking about the Audigy 2 as well but I haven?t decided if it?s worth it.

This being said I have 5 computers (PIII’s and early athlons) that are all missing a bit each (HDD’s, PSU’s, RAM,) which I just haven?t gotten around to sourcing spare parts (Free or cheap 2nd hand) and actually getting around to repairing them. I have a PIII 1GHz and another board with 768 MB RAM (the 1GHZ is currently on a board using RD RAM which is too expensive to upgrade) which when I put the two together with a pair of HDD’s running Linux would make a great file server. I have a complete AMD K-6 350 which will become a smoothwall firewall as soon as I can find a 1 GB HDD. Things I have been meaning to do.

Edit – Emoticons

Audigy2 is well worth it…

In reply to Group 1.5

I got mine yesterday & it takes 5% – 8% off of my processor load whilst gaming.

But what you failed to mention

In reply to Audigy2 is well worth it…

Was how well it works and that it has a MIDI Port on it which most of the current generation On Board Sound lacks now.

I find the Audigy 2 ZS to be a good compromise in fairly good sound reproduction and recording at a reasonable price. For what it does I find them excellent.

Col

Absolutely right…

In reply to But what you failed to mention

But if you want to get the best out of it be prepared to spend an hour or two (or three or four)fiddling with the settings. I spent most of last night fine tuning & now it sounds excellent (Strangely enough it is perfectly adequate through my Creative 5:1 Surround but it absolutley loves my Altec Lansing Stereo setup).

It’s only going to be used with a pair of AU$50 headphones

In reply to Absolutely right…

But will give me a few more clock cycles to spend on other things (games) so an Audigy is being added to the budget.

Creative Labs XFI-Extreme Platinum is good too

In reply to Audigy2 is well worth it…

I’ve installed one in my main machine (dual-core Intel Extreme); twin nVidea 7800 PCI-express 256 Mbyte cards; 4 Gbyte RAM –

Have 7.1 surround hooked up, and haven’t noticed ANY CPU load at all, regardless of media (DVD, games, CD music, AAC, etc.)

Only one thing I hate about the XFI-extreme: It sounds FAR better than my high-end home entertainment system 😉

Wolf

I always knew I was atypical :p

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I have a bleeding edge 64 bit intel with maxed out ram. Also a P4 3 gb for my son, a P4 1800 mhz, a P3 550 mhz, a P2 266mhz, a Pentium 166 mhz and a 486/100. all running on the network. The 486 does wonderfully as a connection control machine and minor file server. the others a to make life interesting playing games across the LAN. Diablo II with Lord of Destruction gets real FUN when you have three non active computers logged in to the game and allied, with just little ol’ you fighting all them monsters. Really ads to the challenge. Yes – I’m a masochist.

Just a laptop & wlan

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I use it only for internet browsing & watching movies in bed, on porch, or wherever.

Must be 3rd Set

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I have Dell 4600 with 2.4GhZ P4, 1.5GB RAM, 500GB HDD. LAN and WLAN in house for other pc’s and 2 laptops.

Various

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Shuttle with 2200 AMD, 512 MB ram, 80GB disk running Suse 10 and XP, although the partition XP is doomed and going to be removed. Workhorse, probably will last for anopther 3 – 4 years on top of the 3 it has already bagged.

iMac running OSx for my 17 year old daughter, who would only swap if for a linux box.

Old P3 running W/2000 for my 14 year old who thinks she can’t live without MSN. Tried XP, but I spent 3-4 hours every week cleaning out badware, so back to W/2000 which for some starnge reason isn’t hit that bad. Anyway this PC takes up 2-3 times the maintenance of the rest.

Everything coupled together sharing printer and scanner.

My motto? If it works don’t fix it. Upgrade when you see a real benefit, not just because someone wants more of your cash. Especially in the PC world an upgrade means more processor heavy eye candy, more clutter, more stupid wizards, more bugs, and more bloat.

At work I normally use a thin client, and a remote connection the the server administration.

The servers however are bleeding edge, nothing is too good, fast or poweerful enough. Easy as you don’t spend money replacing or maintaining PC’s.

The proportion windows/*nix server is moving in *nix direction.

Set 1 with add-ons

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I’m running a Toshiba Equium 100 (rotatable flat-panel all-in one) P-300, and a P-500 IBM Thinkpad, but I just replaced the 10BaseT hub to my cable modem with a 100BaseT Router, and added a Print server, because my 11 year old parallel-AB connected printer died, and the replacement printer was USB only. Also added a Buffalo LANstation with 160GB of storage – a server the size of a softcover textbook, available to either PC. Kinda fun! I am beginning to think about digital video, video editing and such, so there might be a new machine in the future – sometime! Oh yes – still have a Colorado flatbed USB scanner – works just fine!

2nd set

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Winbook v240, 3 ghz CPU … only wish it could carry more memory. Way beyond what I really need for anything, especially when you consider the 3-node mixed OS server farm in the basement.

Looking forward to a dual core laptop with 2 gig of memory, 160 gb HD … just because.

1.3-1.8

In reply to Techs Home PCs

My file server/gateway/mail server/spam filter/firewall (ya…it’s a little over tasked), is an old P3 500mhz, 128mb RAM with a 40gb HDD. Runs Slackware (after a recent hdd death)

I have an oldish laptop (1ghz, 256mb RAM) that runs Gentoo. It is my portable along with being my honeypot toy (now).

My desktop machine is a 2.0ghz AMD 1gb RAM with a sweet 256mb NVidia card. It runs Fedora Core 4.

Lower End

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Matching E-Machines, Model T3256. One for me, one for the wife. AMD Athlon 3200+, XP, (2200 Mhz) 160 G hard drive, 512 DDR later upgraded to 1024 for 50 bucks. Onboard Nvidia Geoforce Graphics, sound, Lan etcc.. Plays City of Heros, City of Villians, Elder Scrolls Oblivions, Syms 2 plus expansions and World of Warcraft just fine. I put a Mid range Geoforce 6000 card in mine to accomodate Dungeons and Dragons On Line, which it will play now, but shuts down a lot more unexpecteldy then ever before. I’ll probally pull it and go back to the Motherboard graphics. I haven’t played DDO since the first week it came out.
Anyways, got them both at Circuit City almost two years ago for $500.00 each.

I have twice in the past paid $2,500+ dollars each for bleeding edge systems. Not much use for that Tandy SL/3 or Micro Machines 386 DX anymore.

Now sure, I’d love to by the overclocked, FxF 7950GX2, graphics card, that thing is freeking, screaming sweet, but I’ll probally just get another two computers instead.

Really Sad

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I once had a Vax 11/750 in the house. My wife put up with it for six months by putting a tablecloth over it and telling visitors it was a sideboard.

Modest setup

In reply to Techs Home PCs

1.8GHz homebuilt Duron tower with 1 gig RAM, 250 gig hard drive, 19″ Samsung TFT, 16x Panasonic DVD writer and 52x Sony CDRW.

Joining Mr.Wiz in the 3rd Set

In reply to Techs Home PCs

PC’s not old and its not a carlos, it has 1GB Ram, 128Mb GFX Card, 2 GHz processor and is quite capable of handling all the tasks I throw at it.

So into the 3rd set I go !!!

It only matters if you have a use for it!!!!!!!!!

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Who’s Carlos?
Who cares!
I’ve seen plenty of PIII’s & PIV’s, Athlons,Semptrons which wouldn’t run much better than a PII.

The system is only as good as the config, not the hardware.

Software never wears out

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Bought a brand new PC for a business opportunity about 3 years ago because at the time I needed latest MS Office.

The original home machine still runs Windows 98.

An intersting point is that the Windows 98 machine will run the latest AOL software (v.9) whereas the newer Windows XP won’t run a version higher than v.7 – at least not on dial-up!

When the business collapsed and I brought the “new” PC home, the Windows 3.1 PC was relegated to storage in the loft.

If all you need is to type letters and do simple spreadsheets then 10-year-old machines are just as good as the latest. If you have a compulsion to get the very latest games, then you need the latest machine. If you still have fun with older games, why bother?

Two Perspectives

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Well, let me approach this from two different ways.

The first would be that money, technology, and the most modern software can solve all ills versus the ols school of thought that DOS, Binary, and many years of technical knowhow is the go, especially on ‘older’ computers.

The ‘second’ thought I had is that it may be a work of ‘love’ to keep ‘older’ boxes going, but much more importantly in our buisiness with older clients and even some younger clients without the resources to upgrade you simply make do with what you have.

Having said that, In a rural and mostly ‘poorer’ community in Australia, Comp Tech Firms charge anywhere from AUS $80 and up, whereas we are a part of the ‘community’ and charge only $30 an hour for IT sevices that are better and can handle problems the so called ‘experts’ won’t or can’t touch. Including removing Nortons from a 486 or Pentium I or II with 64 meg memory..and digging all remnants out of the registry, installling freeware but very adequate security programs to help those that need the most help.

Programs like SpywareGuard, SpywareBlaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware, Crapcleaner, RegEditXP, AVG7, Avast Free, AntiVir and many more.

Just our way of giving back to the community. Of course we do much higher priced consultation, Nework, Server, and Corporate and Business work.

We think rather a nice balance. But there are many ways to approach this ‘subject’ and follow on queries.

I personally run XP Pro, AMD Athlon 2000+, 512 meg ram and my wife (and Partner) runs much the same but with an AMD Athlon 2500+ CPU. Networked at home, wifes box is gateway on ASDL 1.5MB pipe.

IMHO,

Terry Mathis
Goulburn NSW
Australia

Old Boat Anchors

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Set 1 – I have an old IBM Netfinity 3500 with dual PII 400s running 1 GB of SDRAM and Win2K Server. It never complains; it just keeps handling file and print duties as well as authenticating for the six computers that function for homeschooling my children. Their computers consist of nothing newer than P4 2.4 GHz. Our HP 6P printer doesn’t miss a beat either. I like old stuff so much that I am about to restore a 1952 Ford 8N tractor.

Home PCs

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I think what you’ve really described is 2 ends of a spectrum rather than 2 sets.

I work with people in the 2 groups you mention but then theres…

People who keep their box right up to date but hold onto keyboards, mice and ancient CRT monitors
People who have an old box but shiny new peripherals
People who have an old box with PDA’s, cameras, and MP3 players plugged into every USB.

Then theres the people who buy what they need i.e just a web browsing machine or media centre or buy whatever they can afford.

Andy.

I’m a virtual set-2… ha!

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Ya – I want to be a 2, but don’t want to pay exhorbitant monies just to keep up so I usually am a couple years behind the bleeding edge.
I def don’t want to be a 1 b/c I have other things to do besides tending to obsolete equipment. The whole point of computers “is” to have them work for me; wonder if we will ever get there and if we do whether I will wish for the old days when we all used our minds more… ha!!

Set 1 without a doubt

In reply to Techs Home PCs

If I were more organized, I could probably open a technology museum. I enjoy seeing how much use I can squeeze out of old machines and how much I can add to them. I like to salvage stuff that other people throw away. The kids usually have older computers that I fixed up good enough for homework, projects, & a little game playing (never online gaming) & web-surfing. I have everything networked & behind a router/firewall and I monitor what the kids do using VNC, logging, & all emails come through my account. I rummage through clearance bins like a kid on Christmas. My primary computers are 2.4 GHZ & 2.8 GHZ p4s. You can spend premium $$ on cutting edge, but it won’t be cutting edge by the time you get it home & get everything set up the way you want, so why bother. I still have a couple of 486’s that still work, but their not hooked up right now. I’ve been planning to load linux on them, but haven’t got around to it. I can’t get people to understand that, even though I work at a computer all day, it’s someone else’s computer and I can only do what my job permits me to do. When I get home, what I do on my own computers is completely different and much more of a learning experience & challenge.

Set 1 also

In reply to Set 1 without a doubt

My primary computer is a Pentium II 400 MHz running 98 original. I have added as much ram as the box would hold, upgraded the video card (after some of my kid’s games berated my previous card), and replaced the hard drive. I repair computers all day long, all I want at home is a working computer.

Techs Home PCs

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I’m sort-of in the middle of that. For myself I generally have a fairly recent PC (a laptop) since that’s what I do for a living; I keep within a year or two of the bleeding edge with my equipment.

As for the rest of the family I’ve found that getting laptop systems for them on eBay works really well. I generally buy 3 or 4-year-old ThinkPads, set ’em up and let the wife and kids have them. They absolutely use ’em … and they cost me less than $500 apiece to get them fully configured and operational. They don’t need (or care about) having the front-edge stuff to do schoolwork or any of their other things on. If they need photo-processing or music downloaded to their iPods or something they just come to my machine and do that.

-CB

I guess I am in both

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I have a couple of older P2 class machines that I keep running and I have an HP that is about 3 years old and then I have my machine I built last year, running an AMD 3400 chip, 1 GB RAM, dual 80MB hard disks in a RAID 1 config, 128MB video card. I keep the older stuff running as long as I can and then I will pitch it. Presently doing research to build my son a new machine. Debating whether to go with AGP or SLI, etc. for the video. I don’t have the $$ to go with a high-end video card.

Techs Home PCs

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Hmm. I beg to differ with you. In addition to my latest and greatest I also have an older pentium 4 running WIN 98 SE as well as a couple of older laptops I use for testing. Maybe I qualify as a set 3?

ONLY 2 sets?

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I’m definitely in Set 3. I can’t AFFORD new computer equipment.

And besides, with all the ‘gov’ spying that’s being facilitated with with hardware spyware and troubles with wireless security who REALLY wants the hassle of the ‘latest/greatest’?

Don’t give me that male bovine fecal matter about “if you have nothing to hide…” THAT has NOTHING to do with anything except the Principles upon which our Founding Fathers wrote into the Constitution/Bill of Rights. These documents are NOT “…just G/D pieces of paper!” as our current President is on record as stating.

If it Ain’t broke…

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Ok… maybe I am in a minority, but I don’t believe in technology for technology’s sake. I will have a computer that will support my needs with room to grow.

Having said that, I have 4 p2 400’s running various network packages all running Slackware 10.1. I have a P4 that I found on the side of the road running my main web server, I work on a 1GHz machine with 512K of RAM running WIN2K (because I need some windows programs)… I have been given an older Compaq server that I will bring online as soon as I get some SCSI drives for it…

But the point is… use what you have while you can for what you need… if you want to bleed ride the edge and don’t fuss about the bugs. If you are happy where you are at, live there and don’t fuss about the new stuff….

As the Partridge Family used to sing “C’mon get happy.”

Both

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I’m both. My next purchase for home will be a MacBookPro. That way I can run Windows and Mac OS at the same time.
But I also give old PC a second life. I make them into servers or Linux desktop machines.

Ditto – except

In reply to Both

most recent edition was Pent dual-core XPS box from Dell for Vista-ing.

I did officially retire the last 386 last summer though.

Whatever’s free

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I’ve built an entire home network using only scrounged hardware. But you’d be surprised to know what you can scrounge up if you gut a few dead systems, talk your boss out of a couple of retired servers and run either Action Pack OS and software or open source software on FreeBSD.

My desktop’s a 3.0G P4 with 768M RAM 40GB HD and an old 128M GeForce4. My wife and daughter are both in the domain as well with somewhat lesser systems.

Exactly

In reply to Whatever’s free

If only everything would work as well, and be free!

You know this is really a hard question to answer.

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I guess it how you approach your view. A smart tech builds a clone that they can always upgrade to the lastest and greatest. A lazy tech will just buy what I call a toss away machine or take a hand me down from an upgrade from a client. Personally I fall in between this category. I would say my case and power supply are older and my motherboard can be considered middle of the road as it is not ancient nor is it the latest and greatest. However, I upgrade components to suit my needs of what I am doing at the current point in time. I have a 3.4GHZ Intel processor so that is not really that bad. I use an older motherboard becuase I did not want to give up 3GB of RAM that I had already purchased to go to DDR2. I have a 512MB AGP video card and 7 200GB Hard drives to do Video and Audio production as a side hobby. I have a DVD burner and a DVD reader and a 20″ LCD from Dell. So you tell me which category I fall into.

But to defend myself I have been researching going to the Dual Core AMD with the new AM2 socket by the end of this year. Just so much to upgrade to do it right.

1st Set

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Sorry, I just dont pour alot of money into my home PC’s (have a network). Once in awhile i’ll buy a new part (video card etc)…but i can honestly say i have NEVER purchased a new computer for myself – Home Grown all the way!
🙂

166 Thinkpad laptop

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I’m going with number 3….my husband has the bleeding edge Systemax AMD 3800+, then comes my Dell Dimension 2400 which he is going to get also since his 500 Gateway died and that I’m going to rebuild and make into a linux server. I’ve quit using the Dell in the last month and am learning and learning and learning linux on an old Micron 500mhz with 700 something in Ram….runs linux like a champ. And of course I do have the old 166 Thinkpad that has milleunium (sp) on it. I was going to put puppy linux on it, but found that the nic card I bought was the wrong one….so left what it had and use it to play Mahjong at the kitchen table.

Seems like you should never give anything up, never know what or how you can use it. Still doesn’t mean that I don’t pour over the ads looking for the next laptop or desktop that will be bleeding edge ;)))

Set 1: guilty as charged

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Well, in honesty, I rarely do more at home than the average home user, so why do I need a beefy computer? And I have the skills to get around the limitations of the older box/OS, so why waste money? Especially since my husband got frustrated when he wanted to use my box to help test something he was working on and got me a new one for Christmas.

386 DX20, Win31

In reply to Techs Home PCs

It runs really great, Wordpad saves as RTF, I don’t do spreadsheets at home, and I haven’t yet figured out how to configure the DVM so Scorched Earth runs on a Windows box.

But I’m waiting for all the parts for a new AMD 64 3600 so my son can do his game design homework.

Set 1 times 3 (or 4)

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Have two PC’s in use. One is an old (4 yrs or so) HP with 512 MB Ram, 60 GB HD and a Pent IV processor.

The other is a HP Vectra that’s ancient (8-9 yrs I’m guessing) that I got from work and gave to the kids. Am going to attempt to swap out the CD drive for a CDR-Drive that I have in PC #3.

PC #3 is a sad unit that shorted out half it’s original power supply so it has a second power supply (pulled out of an old Acer) and a second hard drive (also from the old Acer) all shoved in wherever it “fits” (course the cover doesn’t fit anymore). And still it has only 2 MB (yea MEGAbytes) of HD and 64 MB Ram.

PC #4 (I didn’t count it really, cuz it’s not a PC anymore) is the archaic Acer. Now minus power and HD. It is used as a monitor pedastal.

I’m definitely a Set 1 type but that’s because we can’t afford new computers and usually get them as hand-me-downs from my places of work.
🙂
Tink

Need a good system when it’s “Killing Time”

In reply to Techs Home PCs

After a long day of reading, writing, and PowerPoint creating I need to kill something and nothing is more depressing than to be whacked by a 9 year old with a better system, so to that end I try to keep my system on par with 80% of the gaming community. Don?t tell my wife she thinks I?m investing in our future.. silly wife..

5th kind

In reply to Techs Home PCs

There are those, at least one of us anyway, that do not even own a computer. I get to do repair, upgrade and LAN administration all day, I sure dont want to do it at night too. I could always bring the work laptop home if I had a use for it at all. And, btw, the work one I keep for myself is an “old reliable”, p4 1g, 512m Compaq, it does anything needed so I dont need the latest greatest laptop I make up for all the managers with computer envy. Does it really matter if you can open a spreadsheet a few nanoseconds sooner than I can?

The no pc at home, many at work theory

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I have too many computers at work to worry about so I don’t even have one at home!

Not necessarily distinct

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Ciderick you may be right in general, but I have my latest AMD toy and a couple of older machines, the dual processor PIII SCSI server being a favorite. Or does it have to be a PII to be really old? They can be handy for keeping the door open, occasional tables and boat anchors

I am a gearhead

In reply to Techs Home PCs

At the end of the day, when I finally make it back to my lair, I relax by crashing through a police barricade with a cement truck loaded with 10 yards of concrete. (Need for Speed-Most Wanted). At 52 years old I am a gamer and an audiophile and this requires cutting edge equipment.

My system is housed in a Silverstone TJ-06 wind tunnel case, ASUS A8NSLI-Deluxe mainboard, dual 7900GTX graphics, Soundblaster X-FI extreme audio, AMD64 3800+, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB seagate ATA drives x 4, creative 650 Watt 5.1 surround sound speaker system, dual 19 inch LCD,s.
I have a music collection of complete albums, no singles, that is almost 300 GB in size that has taken me years to collect.

I am now getting ready to upgrade to dual core. I have 4 other networked computers in the home.

I’m maybe in the 3rd or 4th set..

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Of those who leapfrog technology…

I tend to replace my system at home whenever the *next* leap occurs.

I skipped the whole P4 phenomenon and bought a Sempron 2800+ & MB to upgrade my Athlon 1.4… Which was an upgrade from a PIII-1GHz. And I also skipped replacing my GeForce3 video.

Now, I’m either getting an Athlon 64 something, or more likely going back to Intel for something in the new chipsets, Woodcrest of Conroe.

It’s taking all I can do to not buy a Pentium D805 and clock it up!

rick

Mostly set 1, but it varies

In reply to Techs Home PCs

My 1.3Ghz P-III, 512.Meg, 160.Gig, dual monitor XP-pro home system is running fine, but it has components that vary in age from a >15 year old clicky keyboard to a <1 month old DVD burner. I have most of it listed on my web site.

I might upgrade some parts sometime soon (though soon is relative) to make it a modern Dual-core system (probably Core 2 Duo). Before this setup, I ran a dual P-III/500.Mhz system, and I did notice advantages to having dual processors (like 2 apps being able to run at full speed at the same time, even if one was hogging 100% of one CPU), and it would be nice to see those advantages again.

(My work computer is a 3.Ghz P-4, 1.Gig, 80.Gig, Dual monitor XP-Pro system, which I have been using for a couple years.)

- Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/

Techs Home PCs

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I classify myself in the second group. Have recently acquired a new XP Media Center and givin my old system (P4 1.8Ghz, 256mb ram, 160gb HD, ATI Radeon 9650 256MB Graphics Card)to my son. Connect both systems via a wireless router. Now have no competition for Internet access.

I got a new HP m7480 Media Center PC (2Gb RAM, 300GB HD, nVidia GeForce 7300 LE 256MB RAM, P4 Dual Core 3.0 Ghz, TV Tuner, 7.1 Dolby-Digital Capable. Ah! And a 19″ WideScreen ViewSonic LCD Display.

wrong, there are three types of us

In reply to Techs Home PCs

i have about 8 “hardware” pc’s (and vm’s) networked, ranging from a 486 to a amd X-2 4400 and i can find a use for almost everything. i even have uses for defective components. i don’t know about the love thing, with me it’s a matter of doing the best you can with got.
as far as the bleeding edge goes, sometimes i stay on it and other times i don’t. for example i might buy a bleeding edge sound card or video card but NEVER a mb, cpu, or memory. prices drop to drastically. when i got my X-2 i chose the third fastest available, it was the best compromise between price and performance. and your talking about a $700.00 or $800.00 difference in price.
you can check out my “advanced” computer insanity at http://www.alexcooper.org and see what i mean.
alex

Both, of course.

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Doesn’t everyone?

All my computers built before 1995 are my own designs, including a 32 user unix system, so they have sentimental value even if they have little utility compared to much newer, faster systems. I don’t know how long I can keep all of them running since parts for the older ones are very hard to find.

But my main server is less than a year old and was state of the art when it was purchased. My test server was last years main server. I expect to upgrade sometime later this month to a dual core processor with 2 gigs and a terrabyte of disk storage, and upgrade my main workstation and laptop as well.

Now that I think about it, I still have every machine I ever owned (for over 30 years), and all but two unremarkable pentium systems are still running. And connected to my local network.

Both, of course.

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Doesn’t everyone?

All my computers built before 1995 are my own designs, including a 32 user unix system, so they have sentimental value even if they have little utility compared to much newer, faster systems. I don’t know how long I can keep all of them running since parts for the older ones are very hard to find.

But my main server is less than a year old and was state of the art when it was purchased. My test server was last years main server. I expect to upgrade sometime later this month to a dual core processor with 2 gigs and a terrabyte of disk storage, and upgrade my main workstation and laptop as well.

Now that I think about it, I still have every machine I ever owned (for over 30 years), and all but two unremarkable pentium systems are still running. And connected to my local network.

Whatever works

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I never buy bleeding edge, i don’t need the performance they deliver and am not willing to pay the high price.

I also don’t keep old hardware alive.

The pc’s I buy usually are about 9 months to 1 year on the market and I will use them about 2-3 years.
Most software I use runs nice on this hardware.
Most of the time RAM is the first hardware that is not sufficient and extra is cheap to add.

Workstations (SUN) are somewhat different.
That’s my ‘hobby’, I buy whatever I can afford.
Used ones, that is. They are still somewhat expencive, due to a low number of sellers in my country.
Right now, I own a blade 100, which does it’s work (basic workstation and light webserver) fine.
So I don’t need a better one yet.
Furthermore, I own a couple of older sparcs, but I will sell then because they produce lots of heat (and noice).

Re: Whatever works

In reply to Whatever works

Quite an active thread! The working title of the post I’m replying to is what appeals to me the most.

I have a Celeron 2.2GHz system which I’ve had for about 3 years with 512MB RAM, an nVidia FX5200 display card, 2x40GB HDDs, an 8x DVD-RW, and a DVB-T Tuner card. The display card I was given just a few days ago, though not really necessary as my entertainment side of using my PC boils down to just watching TV or playing Baldur’s Gate (somewhat old game now but still gives hours of enjoyment for a long time yet to come, even through all the hardware advancements on the market so far).

I used to own a Sun 3/60. Would’ve liked to have kept it, but with the frequency of moving house, it just wasn’t practical as it was so heavy. I still use Solaris 10 (x86) from time to time on the 2nd 40GB HDD, the pretension of it feeling like a big iron machine is good enough for me. My main PC usage is in Windows XP.

I support a small network of computers at a Church that have Windows98SE and/or WindowsXP, with a Debian Linux server. Most of the hardware and software was donated (believe it or not Microsoft donated the licenses for the Windows OS’s – not so evil as many people think are they?). The hardware is quite varied.

Having said all that, I can say there are three things that prevent me from religiously recommending a certain hardware configuration: personal preference, money, and practicality. It does help to be an all-round IT support person because of these three reasons. Not everyone can afford bleeding edge hardware, not everyone feels the need to compete with their friends and their hardware either. I think there are just as many people in one camp as there are in the other. Personally, I’d rather ‘support’ others than compete with them. If you want to be paid to be an IT support person and you have some rather stubborn opinions about what people should or shouldn’t be using, then you may just be losing out on potential support jobs.

Whatever works. Indeed!

Re: Whatever works

In reply to Re: Whatever works

I suppose I should answer the question!

I don’t fit in either set. Though I would say there ARE two distinct groups, though, based on the support jobs I’ve done (having been employed in the Corporate/IT sector and doing home PC support). I would fit somewhere in between, but I’m of that group that is very much a minority. I wouldn’t think you get too many home PC owners, not employed in the Corporate/IT sector, reading this site to really find that out. The Corporate/IT sector would more than likely go for bleeding edge hardware as much as possible. The home users would be the gray area.

Ciderick, any definite statistics on this? It’s piqued my curiosity now.

Mac at home

In reply to Techs Home PCs

When I get home from a hard day in the Mines of Madness…uh..Microsoft, I sit down to my Mac Mini, a very relaxing change of pace.

Mac mini

In reply to Mac at home

I’ve decided to buy myself one of those for christmas. I was going to build an itx, but I keep getting asked how to do things on a mac. So now I’m curious and want to find out for myself (Macs are fairly rare in the UK where I come from). I’m also very into graphics which I’m told they’re very good for.

Set 2?

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Unfortuneately I’m one of the techs that his job is his hobby and his hobby is his job. My wife calls me the Tim Taylor of computers, more power yea. My home computer is probably one generation behind now, of course when it was built it was top of the line. It’s an Intel 3.4 on a ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with 2gb of ram, an ATI X1600 512mb video card, 850 gb of total hard drive space, and all of it sets in a LIAN LI mod aluminum box, and a 19″ monitor. Then I have a Solo 9550 Gateway laptop that I use for whatever.

tech home pc’s

In reply to Set 2?

Well after spending endless hours repairing other peoples windoze machines, I have rently switched to a MacBook Pro 1.8GHz Intel dual core laptop with dual-boot OSX and XP, and am working on a safe Triple-Boot machine, want add some Debian distro leaning towards Xubuntu (a light weight version of Ubuntu that works well on older laptops and smokes on new ones). I convinced my daughter to switch to Mac, but my 16yr old son has a Dell E1705 dual-core with Nvdia 7800 256MB video card and 2 GB PC5300 memory and a 100GB Sata 7800rpm hard drive, which smokes for a laptop, but Dell east India support is very diffecult to deal with, tha=e video card was bad when we first recieved the laptop from dell, then the AC converter went belly-up, the machine runs alot hotter then the MacBook Pro with same intel chip-set? Oh And XP runs really well on the Mac, but I never take windows online anymore as it acts like a pettri dish about attracking malware of all kinds.
John

Hmmm

In reply to Techs Home PCs

Lemme see, I think I sort of fall into the middle ground. My main machine is an Abit KV8 with a Barton 2500+, my second is an Abit KT7a Rev 1.3 with 1GHz TBird OC’d to 1.33(1.775v) and I have 2 older machines. Both are multibooted with Windows and Linux OS’s.

My Aser laptop I bought last year and I’m planning to buy myself a mac mini for christmas. 🙂

I tend to upgrade my PC’s rather than buy totally new since I like my modified cases… and then end up building another with the castoffs… lol

So I guess I’m in the 3rd group. 🙂

Oh Dear

In reply to Techs Home PCs

I have a Carlos Fandango bleeding edge kind of PC at home.

Intel 3.2GHz Clocked to 3.4 but goes up to 3.8.
1.5 GB Ram
over 500GB of HDD space
Dual Flat Panel Monitors
Powerful MSI Graphics card (cant remember what model)
Magneto Optical Drive
DVD Reader and DVD-RW Drives

Its got 9 Fans in it to ensure its cool and no dust settles

It does everything i want and more. But Damn it makes a lot of noise with all them fans in it.

looking into getting a RAID and more RAM.. Maybe knock it up to 4GB.. lol

Thermaltake

In reply to Oh Dear

I’ve got a Thermaltake XazerIII 1000v Full tower case with 7 silent fans, a hardcano 9 and a 420 Watt Pure silentpower PSU… makes considerably less noise than my normal bog standard desktop that has 3 normal fans.

But then I was deliberately looking for silent when I built it. 🙂

Arctic Cooling

In reply to Thermaltake

I have even put in a Freezer Pro 7 to keep the CPU cool cos the Intel fan just couldnt do it and made so much noise

Jet 7

In reply to Arctic Cooling

Well I built this system about 3 years ago so it has a Barton 2500+ cpu with a CoolerMaster Jet 7 heatsink and fan.

It original Had WinGlobal heatsink and fan but was running at about 56C at rest, so I tried the Jet 7 which reduced it to 42C. Even underload it rarely goes above 45C, so I’ll be looking to see if i can use the updated version for my next upgrade.

It blows air across the whole of the die so you don’t get the dead area in the centre as you would with a conventional fan.

Personally I prefer AMD’s so I’ll probably have a good look at the Arctic-Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC (SKT 754/939/940) and the Arctic-Cooling Freezer 64 Pro (SKT 754/939/940) when I upgrade.

Zalman

In reply to Jet 7

Been sitting on it for a couple of days, going to install my Zalman Reserator this weekend (Yay!) – both graphics cards, the CPU & northbridge are going to get waterblocks. Only fans left are going to be on the PSU which is an Antec so it only makes the noise of a mouse’s fart anyway…

Eek!

In reply to Zalman

I get incredibly nervous when you start mixing water with electronic equipment… LOL

Same Here

In reply to Eek!

Hence the large number of fans.

The problem i have is that the Base Unit is Tucked away between a Wall and a Desk so not much Air-Flow.

Ditto…

In reply to Eek!

I’m incredibly paranoid about not sealing something correctly and frying every with some stray liquid..

I have a room fan pointed directly into my computer, running 3.06ghz/2gb ram/512mb Vid and it rarely gets above 41C.
Of course I manually hit the power level of the fan based on what I’m doing… general use 1 (low), higher end use (large photoshop images etc) 2 (medium), high end games and other heat generating tasks go on 3 (High).
Its only a temporary solution until I have the time and money to invest in a better cooling solution (will involve a new case, better heatsinks and many fans plus a controller unit).

Though on the flipside, my PC’s interior is immaculate, everything looks brand new, not a speck of dust in there. Its been sitting there like that for six months now.

As for noise, I barely hear it as the speakers are between the Fan and I.

Needless to say, all drinks go on the other side of the desk (that liquid paranoia again!).

Used to use freon cooling…

In reply to Eek!

… which was very nice – had a 1.8 Athlon running at 3GHz. Biggest problem there was condensation, if you don’t seal absolutely everything perfectly. Of course, these days I am much more environmentally friendly hence the water (although there is something about seeing your CPU temperature at -30 that brings a tear to the eye).

Cely, you are absolutely correct though – never mix water with electronics unless you are absolutely certain of what you are doing, or you don’t mind getting it wrong & losing some money (& gear) – that’s how I found out about condensation, video card go buh-bye…

Phase cooling

In reply to Eek!

I’m actually seriously interested in phase-change cooling rather than water cooling and more specifically the Asetek Vapochill Extreme Edition II Case or the Asetek Vapochill Lightspeed , but I’d have to be seriously overclocking a much more powerful cpu than I have at the moment and with the ?500+ price tags it’s a project for the future when I’m a very well paid Systems Administrator. Until then I’ll just have to dream of the OC’ing possibilities… LOL

Its a Sad Day

In reply to Jet 7

I have to dig out my computer from where it is and rip it apart… One of the Fans has developed a rattle and its doing my head in.. :o(

Not looking forward to that job in the slightest.
I have a feeling its the fan on my Graphics card.. I just hope it dont go “Bang!” in the mean time.. lol

I might just upgrade all the fans to silent ones.

My office setup

In reply to Arctic Cooling

I recently changed everything around so i can be more comfortable while working on my computers… I’ve been known to sit here for days… lol

My second desktop is tucked in the trolley-desk behind the chair and the surge protector, all the plugs and the central base unit are on the righthand side so I can reach them easily. which means I have plent of air circulation and it’s easy to vacumn round and keep the dust at bay.

The desk you can just see on the right I use for building on as it’s got a nice non-conductive surface. But it’s covered in junk right now… lol… my messy area. 🙂

It’s nice having a room entirely dedicated to my pcs, and since it has it’s own outside entry that’s even better if I do decide to work for myself.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/lawli56/office.jpg

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