The Computer Thread

inorite?

Peripherals: A 4 Tech X7 G800 gaming keyboard, A 4 Tech X7-710BH gaming mouse, some other cheaper A 4 Tech keyboard/mouse combos.

Wow, most of you guys seem to have rigs that make my computer look like my netbook does compared to my computer.

i5 ~2.24 GHz, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, 500 GB HDD, and a GeForce GTS 360M. I'm hoping to get a new computer next year or so.

Yeah, that explains it.

edited 8th Jun '12 10:18:16 PM by IraTheSquire

Welp, I think that after Deboss, I have the worst desktop: Core2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.3 GHz, 8 Gigs DDR2 RAM, 750 GB HDD (That doesn't actually work anymore), Radeon HD 5770, and (Spoilered for the faint-of-heart) Vista. Oh, and it's full of dust. I use my Laptop for everything, it can run games at the same framerates, despite having a higher resolution monitor. Also Blu-Ray.

e: gods this site has weird markup.

edited 9th Jun '12 12:25:11 AM by SeventhSeal

Vista isn't that bad I found.

I got it fairly late. (It was actually on sale, because the store was trying to get rid of their Vista machines to make room for ones with 7, which was released a few months later.) So a lot of the issues with Vista had been patched out by the time I got it. That said, 7 is still miles better. (though when it comes to Operating Systems, I personally prefer Linux ones, but I like to play PC games, and Wine is a pain in the ass.)

HP Pavillion of some sort, running what, if my memory is right, is a quad-core processor (couldn't tell you what sort), 8 gigs ram, a spiffy soundcard (which I stupidly took instead of a proper graphics card), an ATI radeon graphics card which resembles in color, size and weight a brick, Razer Mouse and Keyboard (bought separately. I love the keyboard, but think that whoever designed the underside of the mouse doesn't live with a dog which has very, very fine hairs), with a 1TB hard disk drive and running 64-bit Windows 7.

I keep it on the floor, and use a box and a book as a surface for the mousepad to sit on.

@Seventh Seal: I just go with 64-bit Windows 7 these days.

^I used to have two HP Pavilions, but I hated them. One had its power supply conk out one morning and the other became useless for playing games on because it Bluescreened whenever I tried to play something for more than a few minutes.

edited 9th Jun '12 1:30:32 AM by RocketDude

Yeah, Windows 7 in any flavour of 64-Bit will allow you to throw as much RAM as you like into your system without spitting out the dummy.

Anyone else NOT planning on getting the Windows 8 downgrade when Microsoft brings that out?

Mine's actually a laptop.

^^Me, I'm not hyped about this whole smartphone-oriented minimalism. Like, if I wanted stuff to handle like I was operating a smartphone, I'd get a bloody smartphone.

edited 9th Jun '12 12:29:39 PM by RocketDude

As much as I've been online, it still amuses me a bit how some people brag about how slow/old their system is.

That said, my desktop is running: Athlon X2 7850 (2.81 GHz), 2 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, nVidia 8400GS w/ 1 GB RAM, Windows XP SP3, SB Live, on an Asus M2N68-AM PLUS mobo.

My laptop is a pretty old IBM Thinkpad R51, takes like five minutes to boot up to a usable point. It was, however, cheap, and I only need on-the-road computing rarely nowadays so it's not really an issue.

edited 10th Jun '12 9:37:04 AM by Nohbody

Yeah, mine is quite old already, now that Ivy Bridge is out, Z77, GTX 600 series, making my Sandy Bridge, Z68, GTX 500 series cards, "previous generation" hardware.

LOL

I have an iMac Lampshade G4 model that I'm doing nothing with.

I'm going to see if I can upgrade and sell it. If not, I'll try to use the case to build another computer. If not still, I'll make a lamp out of it.◊

Even without upgrading, your Imac will sell for a lot on ebay. I have checked recent listings and the prices that folks have sold them for are high.

Dual-core CPU @ 3.0Ghz, 8GB RAM, GTX 550i, 500GB HDD, two 24x DVD burner drives, a fat power supply, 64-bit Win 7 Professional (the best decision in years) and low-noise cooling fans allround.

Ordered online about a year ago from a shop that lets you configure pretty much exactly the machine you want and builds it for you, at a reasonable price. I'm very happy with it, games usually run very nicely and copying/moving files is noticeably quicker than on the old computer. As for peripherals, 24" Acer screen, 1250GB of external drives and a wireless mouse and keyboard set that cost only 20€ but is entirely brilliant.

I now understand why my Lycosa in Phoenix is called the Mirror Edition, because the keys on this regular Lycosa that I have replaced the iBuyPower keyboard with are made of this...soft plastic stuff? The Mirror Edition uses the same semi-reflective hard plastic, but it looks good.

This is fine, though.

Well, the furthest I could upgrade the iMac G4 is:

• Up to 1 GB RAM
• New DVD writer
• Larger hard drive

And that would take awhile. other than that, there's not much I can do.

I really wish I could install an Intel CPU though.

Still, I'll get experience, and $300. That's what I'm aiming for.

edited 12th Jun '12 3:35:15 PM by Shaggy

Once they have decent tablet computers at reasonable prices that run Windows I probably won't even want to use my desktop too much except for gaming. Oh well, that's the dream anyway.

My PC:

Windows 7, 64 bit
4GB of Ram
Intel Core i5 3.30GHz
1TB Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce GTX 570
Mouse
Keyboard

It's slightly more temperamental than it should be, especially since the USB ports randomly overload occasionally shutting my computer down, but it runs Skyrim fine. I guess I could install more RAM too, but I'm not worried.

Well, I bought it cheaply enough, so it's good enough for now. The last one I built myself was more reliable though.

Actually I'm thinking of starting my next computer now. Buying the pieces slowly so it won't seem like so much money.

Either that, or I'll just buy a laptop to use for studying but... I can't say I really like laptops.

edited 18th Jun '12 4:13:47 AM by UltimatelySubjective

I'm thinking about a slight upgrade to my video card from 8800GT 512 MB to... Something for probably less than $100 so that I can run Skyrim without it crashing all the time (rendering error). Suggestions?

Look for a pre-owned AMD Radeon HD 6870 on Ebay. They run really nice and have more ports than the Royal Navy.

and here's Johnny, er, mine.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6870/

edited 18th Jun '12 3:14:54 PM by TamH70

@Ira— I agree with Tam. The 6870 is the best choice.

You'll need a 500+ watt PSU to support it. Also, what CPU are you using?

edited 18th Jun '12 10:17:30 PM by Shaggy

All this talk about modern components makes my rig feel old.

My computer, if anyone's wondering: a Dell XPS 410 with a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo Viiv processor, a Western Digital 320 GB hard drive (can't recall the exact model, ends in 3200AAKS), 2.5 GB DDR 2 RAM (can max out at 8 GB), and a Nvidia GeForce 9400 GT with 1 GB of video memory that somehow idles at 70c even with a fan on it (I doubt the fan really works at this point, and the card's just being passively cooled). Windows 7 actually runs pretty well, though I ditched it anyway in favor of Ubuntu 12.04.

Have to check the PSU, but my CPU is Pentium Dual-core 2.66 G Hz from memory.