Post your system.......

[Topcat]

Re: Post your system.......

^
A 30" 16:10 @ 2560x1600 IPS, you'll never want to ever look at any other monitor again!! Such pixelated beauty!!

[Compgeke]

Re: Post your system.......

Got the Mac Mini built up.

When I got it:
1.66 GHz Core Duo
2 GB ram
320 GB HDD
Mac OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).

Now:
1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo
4 GB ram
160 GB HDD
Mac OS 10.7 (Snow Leopard).

I had to flash the Mac Mini 2,1 EFI to it so I can use 4 GB ram max. Afterwards to get 10.7 installed I just used an iAtkos disk image but deselected all the hackintosh addons so it just did a base 10.7 install. Downgraded the hard drive as I can use the 320 in other systems where the space will be put to a better use.

[shovenose]

Re: Post your system.......

Got the Mac Mini built up.

When I got it:
1.66 GHz Core Duo
2 GB ram
320 GB HDD
Mac OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).

Now:
1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo
4 GB ram
160 GB HDD
Mac OS 10.7 (Snow Leopard).

I had to flash the Mac Mini 2,1 EFI to it so I can use 4 GB ram max. Afterwards to get 10.7 installed I just used an iAtkos disk image but deselected all the hackintosh addons so it just did a base 10.7 install. Downgraded the hard drive as I can use the 320 in other systems where the space will be put to a better use.

I'm impressed that it let you go from Core Duo to Core 2 Duo. Now it's actually maybe useful Also pretty much doubled the resale value.

[Compgeke]

Re: Post your system.......

For the most part if a system shipped with a Core Duo it can be swapped for a Core 2 Duo - the chipset's the same. Most systems you could get a Core 2 as an option anyways such as Latitude D620s and Thinkpad T60s.

The 4 gig ram upgrade required the EFI to be flashed to that of a Mac Mini 2,1 as the stock EFI (Mini 1,1) has a 2 gig cap and won't boot with more.

[Fast Alpha]

Re: Post your system.......

I got a Zalman Z5 plus that had brown ( rust/paint ) on it.
Sold a Novatech UK. Once good now bad seller.

https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.novatech.co.uk

[cheapie]

Re: Post your system.......

I'm posting this from what my Packard Bell Legend 115 Supreme has been turned into:

Original case
Seasonic S12II Bronze 520W power supply (with lots of rewiring to turn it into an AT-style unit)
Original (PB600) motherboard
Integrated video (Cirrus Logic CL-GD5430)
Original CPU (Pentium 100MHz, overclocked to 120 MHz)
Stock Cooler from an AMD FX-8350
136 MB RAM (8 MB soldered to motherboard + 4x32MB sticks)
3Com 3C905-TX Fast Ethernet PCI NIC
Promise Ultra66 Dual Channel IDE Controller (only one channel in use)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB IDE Hard Drive
Das Keyboard (with key markings, MX blue switches) with a USB-PS/2 adapter
Compaq-branded PS/2 ball mouse
Sansui HDLCD185W 18.5" 720p LCD TV used as a monitor

This computer is running Debian sid, but as it isn't powerful enough to do much, I just have it set up to SSH into my server, and use X forwarding to run all of the programs on that box, which consists of:

Case from a cheap Compaq computer
ASUS Amberine M (A8AE-LE) motherboard from the same computer
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ from a cheap HP computer
"AVC" CPU Cooler from the Compaq
3GB RAM (2x 512MB Hynix from the Compaq, 2x 1GB G.Skill from the HP)
TRENDnet PCIe Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Vantec PCI SATA Controller (Silicon Image 3512, IIRC)
Motorola SM56 PCI winmodem (from the Compaq, never bothered to take it out)
Some kind of Ensoniq PCI sound card from an old Gateway (again, just never got around to removing it)
Seasonic S12II Bronze 380W power supply (from the HP, it was that computer's 4th and final power supply)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 120GB 3.5" SATA hard drive from a different Compaq (OS)
Toshiba 5400RPM 500GB 2.5" SATA hard drive (Debian package repository mirror)
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 500GB 3.5" SATA hard drives (in RAID 1 (mdadm) for everything else)
Debian wheezy

Also, thanks to VanessaE from #minetest on InchraNet for helping me get X working on the first box mentioned.

[goontron]

Re: Post your system.......

Also, thanks to VanessaE from #minetest on InchraNet for helping me get X working on the first box mentioned.

huh, one of the first things i learned when i learned unix was X forwarding.

[cheapie]

Re: Post your system.......

huh, one of the first things i learned when i learned unix was X forwarding.

The X forwarding was the easy part (and I already knew how to do that). Getting X to work in the first place was much more difficult.

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

Here's my now "school-secondary PC / gaming PC"...

The dumpster-picked Gateway GT5656
ECS MCP61SM-AM socket AM2 motherboard
Athlon 64 X2 6000+
3 GB of DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon HD2400 XT 256 MB with single DMS-59 out.
80 GB 2.5" SATA HDD (at least while still deciding what to do with the original 500 GB that came with the PC)
DVD drive with lightscribe
universal card reader
Delta Electronics DPS-300AB-15B 300W PSU

mods: swapped the positions of the CPU fan (80 mm) with the system exhaust fan (also 80 mm). CPU fan is still connected to it's 4-pin PWM header, but I connected the system fan to the chipset fan header. That way, the system fan is not fan-controlled by the motherboard (i.e. going full speed) in order to keep the CPU VRM area cool.

My Pentium 4 went through some changes:
...
Pentium 4 1.8A "Northwood" CPU - Socket 478

You should try overclocking that thing. See if you can get 2.2 to 2.4 GHz out of it. The Northwood run faily cool, so I doubt you will run into heat problems.

If not, try finding a higher-speed one with HT. Prescotts are very cheap these days - you can easily get one for less than $5 here (they usually go for $2-3). I know some of you here may frown upon this, but the Prescotts aren't all that bad. And with HT, you will see a significant performance boost, especially online. Just make sure you have a good heatsink and good PSU for it.

The 2.8 GHz Prescott in my Dell OptiPlex 170L idles at 74 Watts and maxes out at 130 Watts (wall usage measured with Kill-A-Watt, so accounting for PSU inefficiencies and other connected devices, the actual power draw by the CPU is probably less than that).

[Dan81]

Re: Post your system.......

You should try overclocking that thing. See if you can get 2.2 to 2.4 GHz out of it. The Northwood run faily cool, so I doubt you will run into heat problems.

Every motherboard I use it with auto-overclocks it to 2.4GHz,because somehow they see the CPU's FSB as 133MHz,not 100 as they're supposed to.

And the reason I'm not changing it is Prescotts are hot as hell (at least for me) while Northwoods are arctic cool.

[bermor]

Re: Post your system.......

Just Want to Share my Old System Build

Intel Core i5 4570 4th Generation
MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Edition
4x2 8Gb Kingston Fury 1866Mhz
2x1TB 2TB WD/Seagate HDD Storage
EVGA Nvidia GTX680 2Gb 256bit Signature 2 Video Card
Cooler Master V750 Semi Mod PSU
Cooler Master Stryker Chassis
Cooler Master V8 GTS CPU Cooler
3x2 120MM Cougar Green LED Fans
2x2 140MM Cougar Green LED Fans
DVDRW

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

Every motherboard I use it with auto-overclocks it to 2.4GHz,because somehow they see the CPU's FSB as 133MHz,not 100 as they're supposed to.

In that case, if it runs at 2.4 GHz stable, then let it be. In older games, like Half-Life 2, this speed increase can give you an extra 5-10 FPS boost. Doesn't sound like much, but when I had nothing but crappy computers a few years back, going from low-20 FPS to mid-30 FPS was like a night and day difference in gaming experience!

And the reason I'm not changing it is Prescotts are hot as hell (at least for me) while Northwoods are arctic cool.

Not necessarily. If you compare the high-end CPUs from these families, there isn't that much of a difference. Let's take the 2.8 GHz HT variants of the Prescott and Northwood here.
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentiu...6PG2800E).html
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentiu...2PG2800D).html
With a copper-base heatsink, a Prescott will run only marginally hotter. About 20W extra worth of heat, if you want numbers, that is (100W max for the Prescott and 80W for the Northwood).
The real kicker is the extra cache - 1 MB for the Prescott vs. 512 MB for the Northwood. And it does help.
SSE3 is another plus, though nowhere that big probably. I'm not sure if Flash takes advantage of it or not.

[Dan81]

Re: Post your system.......

In that case, if it runs at 2.4 GHz stable, then let it be. In older games, like Half-Life 2, this speed increase can give you an extra 5-10 FPS boost. Doesn't sound like much, but when I had nothing but crappy computers a few years back, going from low-20 FPS to mid-30 FPS was like a night and day difference in gaming experience!


Not necessarily. If you compare the high-end CPUs from these families, there isn't that much of a difference. Let's take the 2.8 GHz HT variants of the Prescott and Northwood here.
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentiu...6PG2800E).html
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentiu...2PG2800D).html
With a copper-base heatsink, a Prescott will run only marginally hotter. About 20W extra worth of heat, if you want numbers, that is (100W max for the Prescott and 80W for the Northwood).
The real kicker is the extra cache - 1 MB for the Prescott vs. 512 MB for the Northwood. And it does help.
SSE3 is another plus, though nowhere that big probably. I'm not sure if Flash takes advantage of it or not.

Eh,I don't think I even use SSE3.

And for a fact,I recall testing a few months back a Celeron D 330 (Prescott) and my Pentium 4 1.8A (Northwood) and the Celeron D clearly went skyrocket with the temps (60-95*C) with the heatsink I was using (Intel retail one) while the Northwood was way colder. In fact,it was as cool as my Willamette,which ran at 35-40*C.



Back to the system itself,I've found an good Award BIOS for my board - Magic Pro P6VM-A / Jetway P4MBMS-VC - and a better videocard for it,which I went through the quite hard process to recap (using a 40W soldering iron),which is a Palit FX5500 256MB DDR.

The blown caps were SACON FZ.I replaced them with Rubycon YXG caps from a ASUS P2L97 - funny thing they had 1997 date codes printed on them. The ones from my 128MB FX5200 have 2005 date codes.

Now it happily chugs along with Windows Vista Ultimate SP2. The only thing that doesn't work in the BIOS is the temp and voltage readings,but they're not something I'd need,as my stuff runs in normal parameters.

Long story short : a OC'd Pentium 4 + a recapped FX5500 (yes,I like dem FX series) = очень хорошо (ochen' khorosho - very good). At least this is from my point of view.

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

Eh,I don't think I even use SSE3.

It's software dependent. Some will use it, other won't.

And for a fact,I recall testing a few months back a Celeron D 330 (Prescott) and my Pentium 4 1.8A (Northwood) and the Celeron D clearly went skyrocket with the temps (60-95*C) with the heatsink I was using (Intel retail one) while the Northwood was way colder. In fact,it was as cool as my Willamette,which ran at 35-40*C.

To get the temperatures on a Prescott that high, either your heatsink or thermal paste are not good (or both). The all-aluminum Intel retail heatsink that was used on the Northwood and Willamate isn't adequate for a Prescott (not enough fins, and the base is too thin). For Prescott, you need all Copper or Copper base with aluminum fins and at least a single heat pipe. If it's all-AL, it needs to have a really thick Al base, like the Intel retail ones that come with the Core 2 Duo.

Long story short : a OC'd Pentium 4 + a recapped FX5500 (yes,I like dem FX series) = очень хорошо (ochen' khorosho - very good). At least this is from my point of view.

Yup, that should be enough to make a modest sweet little system.
I have something similar back at home as a secondary computer. It's got an ECS P4VXASD2+ mobo with a 2 GHz P4 Northwood, 1GB RAM, 60 GB HDD, and a MSI GeForce FX5600 in it. The mobo originally came with a 1.7 GHz Willamate, Radeon 7000 video card, and a really crappy CyberLink CWT-320ATX PSU. All came free in an old-but-decent beige case with one of its sides missing.
As time passed, I found some cheap parts here and there to upgrade it a little. The MSI FX5600 was $5, the 60 GB Seagate Barracuda ATA IV HDD was $3, and a new used HiPro PSU, was also $5. The RAM was given to me for free due to being finicky with most computers (and it really is!). It's DDR3200, but underclock it to 100 MHz or 133 MHz, and it runs just fine. Also briefly tried a 2.66 GHz P4 Northwood CPU in that PC (another $5 special), but the OST caps in the VRM tend to run extremely hot with that, so I put back the 2 GHz CPU. When I get to recaping it one day, I'll put back the 2.6 GHz P4.
I still use that PC quite a bit alongside my other computers. Mostly for Multisim and playing Collin McRae Rally 4 and NFS Underground 2.

[Dan81]

Re: Post your system.......

Yup, that should be enough to make a modest sweet little system.

Thanks. It was fun to recap the FX5500 anyways,at least it's a bit better than the FX5200. Not to mention,I've got 256MB RAM on it.

I have something similar back at home as a secondary computer. It's got an ECS P4VXASD2+ mobo with a 2 GHz P4 Northwood, 1GB RAM, 60 GB HDD, and a MSI GeForce FX5600 in it. The mobo originally came with a 1.7 GHz Willamate, Radeon 7000 video card, and a really crappy CyberLink CWT-320ATX PSU. All came free in an old-but-decent beige case with one of its sides missing

Ewww,ECS? Last time I dealt with them I had nothing but trouble with them.

In fact,right after my K7S6A died,I went and bought a ASUS P4P800-VM w/ a Celeron D 2.4GHz. Quality just right there - Rubycon and Panasonic all over the board. After a long period of use,I finally retired it and put it as a backup board (needs a BIOS chip tho ) and it now is replaced by a ASRock P4VM800 - another good board,but as usual ASRock installed a KZGs and OST caps all over. However,as I really like it,I'm gonna recap it as well,using the P4P800-VM's caps - basically I'm going to swap 'em over.

As time passed, I found some cheap parts here and there to upgrade it a little. The MSI FX5600 was $5, the 60 GB Seagate Barracuda ATA IV HDD was $3, and a new used HiPro PSU, was also $5. The RAM was given to me for free due to being finicky with most computers (and it really is!). It's DDR3200, but underclock it to 100 MHz or 133 MHz, and it runs just fine. Also briefly tried a 2.66 GHz P4 Northwood CPU in that PC (another $5 special), but the OST caps in the VRM tend to run extremely hot with that, so I put back the 2 GHz CPU. When I get to recaping it one day, I'll put back the 2.6 GHz P4.
I still use that PC quite a bit alongside my other computers. Mostly for Multisim and playing Collin McRae Rally 4 and NFS Underground 2.

I've got 2.5GB of RAM on this one,a 80GB Western Digital Caviar SE,a Delux 400W PSU that holds strong (AT-2005B platform and YC/Saturn caps )and a 1.8GHz Northwood OC'd up to 2.40GHz,due to BIOS seeing it as 133 x 18.0.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Post your system.......

Interestingly, the Northwoods seem to run on the hot side for me. At least on a motherboard I was using, kept showing 45 C for idle.

[Compgeke]

Re: Post your system.......

Working off what I picked up the other day:

Dell Precision T1500
2.93 GHz Core i7 870
8 GB DDR3
Two 500 GB HDDs in RAID 0 - I have backups to deal with failures
Radeon R7-240 until I get my old tower unpacked in which case it'll get an HD4850 (slightly better).

[AllGo'N'Show]

Re: Post your system.......

Some nice rigs on here, just using this one as a 'work' PC, no fun or playing on this one just surfing and working.

Needs some new ram, video card and maybe an HDD but I got other things to buy first, found two slow 512mb sticks I took out and she runs much quicker now.

Processor Intel Pentium 4 Dual 3.60GHz
Motherboard ASUS P5B
Memory 3072MB
Disk 160GB Seagate ST3160811AS
Graphics Sapphire AMD Radeon X1300/X1550 256MB
Monitor BenQ G2000W
Network Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411
OS Ubuntu 14.04

[Dan81]

Re: Post your system.......

Just dug out my 3rd system:

AMD Duron 1300MHz CPU
Fastfame 6VHF motherboard
640MB RAM
20GB Maxtor 6E020L0
MSI Geforce FX5200 PAL 128MB
Realtek 8139 NIC
Windows Vista Home Premium
Horizon H-W2204S

[parker.stephens]

Re: Post your system.......

I have probably the two WORST computers in the world. My main computer is a Sony which I have customized a teenzy bit.

Specs of Sony

3.0GHZ Intel Pentium 4 Dual CPU
1GB RAM
200GB HDD
Dual OS (Windows XP+Windows 7 ULTIMATE)
Asustek Motherboard
Nvidia Geforce GO 5700(hate it)
Realtek Family Network
PC Card Port
Texas Instruments 1394
Coaxial
Phone Line

Laptop Specs

ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf
2GB ArchMemory
900mhz Intel Pentium(GAHHHHHH)
Realtek Audio
SD Card Reader
Windows XP Home Edition
Atheros L2 Fast Ethernet

I HATE THE LAPTOP SPECS!!