Poll: Computers

[SovietSecrets]

Dual core for me at the moment. Prob gonna upgrade to quad and overhaul some of my system next year.

Specs:
Intel Core 2 6600 @2.40 ghz
8800 GTX 768 MB
2 GB of Ram
Motherboard forgot but its some bad intel one.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Still on a single core machine.
Mesh Case
320gb HDD (2X 160GB)
AMD 3200+
Radeon x1600 512mb
1500mb DDR RAM
Bought in 2004, runs Fallout 3 and Dead Space fine on high(ish) settings, will replace when it stops running Valve games smoothly on high, hasn't happened yet...

 

[SinisterDeath]

My setup is this.


Q6600
Freezer 7 Pro Arctic Cooling CPU Heatsink/Fan
EVGA 680i SLI
PNY GeForce 9800 GTX (Get an Evga over a PNY any day of the week)
2GBz of Crosair Memory (800mhz I believe)
Western Digital 500GB HDD
Crosair 750W ATX12V-60 Amp Rail, SLI/CrossFire Ready.
Antec 900 Ultimate Gamer Case
http://www.antec.com/images/160/900_q.jpg
+1 Arctic Cooling 120mm Case Fan.
Popped in 1 standard DVD Drive.
I had Orginally built this for $600.
But, I had to
A) Buy a new Case (That was like $100)
B) Buy a new PSU (That cost another $100, however if I hadn't bought a shitty one to beginwith, it would have still been $600, the new case was purely optional, mostly because my old one was full of 60 or 80mm fans, and you need at least 2 120mm fans to support a Quad & Geforce 8800 + in your case with out running a bit to hot.

Btw, if you are running a GeForce 8800, or a 9800, you need at LEAST 26Amps on your 12volt rail. If you don't YOU WILL have problems on your pc. (reboots for no reason, ect.)
750W psu was a bit much for my pc, but I needed a 60amp one and finding them that aren't high in watts is a bit tricky,
But hey, I already jammed a TV-Tuner into the pc.

You know how awesome it is, being able to watch tv, and play L4D at the same time?

 

[Lt. Sera]

I bought a quadcore, purely because it'll scale better in the long run and I intend to keep this PC for quite a while. If you're upgrading next year, or the year after that, go for the dualcore.

 

[PersianLlama]

Three of the hard drives are dedicated to VSTi samplers.

The rest is for an insane amount of music and HD movies/tv shows.

Nice.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Three of the hard drives are dedicated to VSTi samplers.

The rest is for an insane amount of music and HD movies/tv shows.

What's VSTi? Let alone a sampler?

Could have picked a better time to get banned, Eggo. Anyone else that knows?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Three of the hard drives are dedicated to VSTi samplers.

The rest is for an insane amount of music and HD movies/tv shows.

What's VSTi? Let alone a sampler?

Could have picked a better time to get banned, Eggo. Anyone else that knows?

I don't know, but you can PM him still.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Three of the hard drives are dedicated to VSTi samplers.

The rest is for an insane amount of music and HD movies/tv shows.

What's VSTi? Let alone a sampler?

Could have picked a better time to get banned, Eggo. Anyone else that knows?

I don't know, but you can PM him still.

Really?

I haven't been banned, so I wouldn't know.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Three of the hard drives are dedicated to VSTi samplers.

The rest is for an insane amount of music and HD movies/tv shows.

What's VSTi? Let alone a sampler?

Could have picked a better time to get banned, Eggo. Anyone else that knows?

I don't know, but you can PM him still.

Really?

I haven't been banned, so I wouldn't know.

Yup, I PM'd him to say tell him I was sorry.

 

[Slayer_2]

For pure power, Quad core, for stability, and software support, dual core. Intel and Nvidia are the way to go IMO.

My specs:

Nvidia 8800GT 512MB
Intel 3.0Ghz Dual core
2GB of OZC gaming RAM
250GB hard-drive
450W power supply
Gigabyte S-series motherboard with Dual and Quad core support.
And to top it off, an Antec 300 mini-tower (mini my ass, lol)

Crysis runs at 30+ FPS on Highest at something like 1200x1000 4x AA, need I say more?

 

[stompy]

The worst part, my mobo only supports agp.

You too?

You guys too?

And for those that are saying quad core is too expensive, the place I'm planning to get my computer is selling the E8400 for $265, and the Q6600 at $295. One guess what I'm going to get...

 

[Lord Krunk]

The worst part, my mobo only supports agp.

You too?

You guys too?

And for those that are saying quad core is too expensive, the place I'm planning to get my computer is selling the E8400 for $265, and the Q6600 at $295. One guess what I'm going to get...

Please Share. (I think) I live nearby.

 

[stompy]

[Please Share. (I think) I live nearby.

Of course. MSY [http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/msy.htm] is used by pretty much everyone I know that buys parts. It's damn cheap, but its a wholesaler, so they won't build the PC for you.

Oh, and off-topic, you doing ABW?

Edit: The shop I'm going to is in Auburn. They have other shops, which are found on their homepage [http://www.msy.com.au/]. That, and their price changes according to the exchange rate. So, watch the prices over time, and be aware they change.

 

[Lord Krunk]

[Please Share. (I think) I live nearby.

Of course. MSY [http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/msy.htm] is used by pretty much everyone I know that buys parts. It's damn cheap, but its a wholesaler, so they won't build the PC for you.

Oh, and off-topic, you doing ABW?

Edit: The shop I'm going to is in Auburn. They have other shops, which are found on their homepage [http://www.msy.com.au/]. That, and their price changes according to the exchange rate. So, watch the prices over time, and be aware they change.

Okay. But what's ABW?

And I live a short drive away from Auburn, so that will probably be the place I'm going.

 

[iamnotincompliance]

Alright, my specs it is...

Case - Cooler Master Centurion 590

Cooling - 6 Thermaltake TT-1225s. That's 6 high-powered fans with blue LEDs. Excessive cooling, but not as loud or as bright as you'd think.

CPU - AMD Phenom 9550. Quad Core, 2.2 Ghz, 95 Watts at full throttle (which I don't think it ever has been)

Motherboard - Asus M3N78 Pro. Onboard video is an Nvidia 8300, almost enough power to play Portal.

Video - XFX Nvidia 8800 GT.

Hard Drive - A lonely 250 GB Seagate Barracuda.

DVD - Pioneer (random numbers and letters go here) that'll take damn near any disc you can throw at it short of Blu-ray.

Power - 550 Watt Ultra X-connect 2

Operating system - Windows XP SP3

Memory - 2 GB Kingston Twinx DDR2

...and sound - A comically out-of-date Sound Blaster Live! (yes, with exclamation point) 5.1 channel surround sound card.

So, you seek advice?

Graphically, I wouldn't recommend any less than the 8800 GT. They run around $100 US and will handle damn near anything you throw at them. Nvidia has been good to me, ATI has not, although I'm sure others here will say the opposite.

Any motherboard the handles quad core processors will take dual cores as well, so spend money here. If money is tight, get a dual core now and upgrade later when that power can actually be used. Intel is the performance leader in CPU-land, AMD the price leader. A quad core like mine runs about $150 US, and I have yet to tap all of it's power yet. AMD fan that I am, any dual or quad from either company will serve you well.

(Yes, I realize I called myself and AMD fan, and yet I'm not a fan of ATI. Deal with it.)

Memory seems to be dirt cheap these days, so max that out. If you still run XP, 3 GB is about the limit. If you run Vista (or plan to run it), go nuts, you will not be able to buy enough to max the OS' limit.

The rest is pretty much minutiae. As for you AGP users out there, [a href=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129116]you're not done for yet.[/a]

 

[Lord Krunk]

Alright, my specs it is...

Case - Cooler Master Centurion 590

Cooling - 6 Thermaltake TT-1225s. That's 6 high-powered fans with blue LEDs. Excessive cooling, but not as loud or as bright as you'd think.

CPU - AMD Phenom 9550. Quad Core, 2.2 Ghz, 95 Watts at full throttle (which I don't think it ever has been)

Motherboard - Asus M3N78 Pro. Onboard video is an Nvidia 8300, almost enough power to play Portal.

Video - XFX Nvidia 8800 GT.

Hard Drive - A lonely 250 GB Seagate Barracuda.

DVD - Pioneer (random numbers and letters go here) that'll take damn near any disc you can throw at it short of Blu-ray.

Power - 550 Watt Ultra X-connect 2

Operating system - Windows XP SP3

Memory - 2 GB Kingston Twinx DDR2

...and sound - A comically out-of-date Sound Blaster Live! (yes, with exclamation point) 5.1 channel surround sound card.

So, you seek advice?

Graphically, I wouldn't recommend any less than the 8800 GT. They run around $100 US and will handle damn near anything you throw at them. Nvidia has been good to me, ATI has not, although I'm sure others here will say the opposite.

Any motherboard the handles quad core processors will take dual cores as well, so spend money here. If money is tight, get a dual core now and upgrade later when that power can actually be used. Intel is the performance leader in CPU-land, AMD the price leader. A quad core like mine runs about $150 US, and I have yet to tap all of it's power yet. AMD fan that I am, any dual or quad from either company will serve you well.

(Yes, I realize I called myself and AMD fan, and yet I'm not a fan of ATI. Deal with it.)

Memory seems to be dirt cheap these days, so max that out. If you still run XP, 3 GB is about the limit. If you run Vista (or plan to run it), go nuts, you will not be able to buy enough to max the OS' limit.

The rest is pretty much minutiae. As for you AGP users out there, [a href=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129116]you're not done for yet.[/a]

XP has a limit? Aww...

And funny, I have that Graphics Card in my old compy.

Also; what do sound cards do? What one is recommended?

 

[stompy]

And funny, I have that Graphics Card (HD 3850) in my old compy.

And you're complaining? Jeez, I've got a 7600GT in my one, and that was after an upgrade from a... FX 5200 (you can stop laughing now).

 

[Jamanticus]

SLI is only worth it if you have a widescreen monitor

wrong, SLI will work just as well on a normal monitor as it will on a widescreen one

What I meant to say, as Eggo pointed out (thanks, Eggo), was that SLI is only worth it at extremely high resolutions (1680x1050 and stuff around there). If you're running an SLI setup in low-res situations, then noth cards do not have the proper opportunity to really work together properly...I mean, with low resolutions, you might as well stick with one card.

The reason I said a widesreen monitor is that's when the resolutions get to their highest, and thus provide the most performance increase when you're running SLI.

If you've got a monitor that doesn't go up to really high resolutions, SLI is only a slight performance boost, at best.

 

[perfectimo]

The worst part, my mobo only supports agp.

You too?

You guys too?

And for those that are saying quad core is too expensive, the place I'm planning to get my computer is selling the E8400 for $265, and the Q6600 at $295. One guess what I'm going to get...

Unfortunately yes. Although just 3 hours ago I bought a monitor [a]http://www.benq.com.au/products/LCD/?product=1368[/a] for my 9600 so now I have a use for the DVI port on the back.

 

[Lord Krunk]

And funny, I have that Graphics Card (HD 3850) in my old compy.

And you're complaining? Jeez, I've got a 7600GT in my one, and that was after an upgrade from a... FX 5200 (you can stop laughing now).

I don't understand what you just said...

...

...

(You can stop laughing now)

Anyway, my graphics card is the best thing about my computer; the rest is just crap.

I have a Pentium 4 3.2 gHz Processor,

A 30 GB Hard Drive,

A 50 GB Hard Drive,

A crappy ATI motherboard,

256 MB RAM

And so on.

See what I mean?

(By the way, I'm using my Mac to type this.)
No way I'm using that thing, unless I'm in dire need of a Windows computer. It (laggily) runs Oblivion, and barely runs CS:Source. Barely.