Post your system.......

[BigTroll]

Originally Posted by Topcat

I never thought I'd have such a boring/unexciting home system....but anymore, I don't use it for anything but web browsing and playing a little Diablo2 with my wife....

Dell Optiplex 990 SFF
i7-2600 @ 3.4GHz
16gb DDR3 RAM
Quadro K420 2gb GPU low-profile
Sound Blaster FX audio low-profile
240gb Kingston A400 SSD
Logitech G15 v1 Gaming Keyboard (bought new ~12yrs old with now very dim lighted keys, a mod is in the works! )
Logitech MX1000 laser mouse
Dell U3011 30" 16:10 2560x1600 display

It's quiet, efficient, and quite snappy....no complaints after a couple customization's. The onboard audio is lame, disabled it for the FX so I can use my 7.1 speakers. I also don't care for Intel HD GPU's, so I added the K420...which screams with D2 with Sven's Glide wrapper. Anything Glide pukes big chunks on Intel GPU's. The system was given to me in a large lot I hauled away from one of my EDU clients. I added the extras, all was ~$50-ish. Recapped the PSU pre-emptively. OS is Server 2012 R2. It's just dandy for the functions it performs.

sounds like a pretty cool rig so what would the quadro be equal to in terms of consumer radeon/geforce cards? I put a 240GB A400 in the girlfriends laptop they are a great budget SSD.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by BigTroll

sounds like a pretty cool rig so what would the quadro be equal to in terms of consumer radeon/geforce cards? I put a 240GB A400 in the girlfriends laptop they are a great budget SSD.

I needed something low power and low profile... It keeps up with everything I demand of it, no problem...it's the 2gb version (there's also a 1gb). I got it for ~$20 shipped.

A quick search: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/quadro-k420.c2599

[Miquell210]

Yummee
-Midi tower ZALMAN
-Motherboard:MSI MPG Z390 GAMING PRO CARBON AC
-CPU: Intel i7-9700K
-Memory:16GB Corsait Vengance RGB DDR4 3000
GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 2080 VENTUS 8G, Black
-Data: 240GB SSD M.2 OS, 240BG Samsung Evo840 Pro - data1, 500GB SSD Samsung Evo 850 - data2
- Pioneer DVD-RW
-2020 KLIMTM AIM Chroma RGB Gaming Mouse and KLIMTM RGB Chroma Mousepad USB
PSU: Gold EVGA 750W modular

[Retrorockit]

Dell Optiplex 380 MT . Originally a bottom feeder 2 core 4GB BTX office compter. $20 with Win7 COA
Off label upgrades-
120W X5470 LGA771 Xeon swap, 3.33GHz 4 core. (running 3.37Ghz SetFSB tweak)
2x4GB DDR3 @1066RAM
120GB SSD SATA2
MSI GTX1060 3GB OCV single fan GPU converted to single slot. (MSI afterburner tweaked)
P4 BTX heatsink D9729 https://external-content.duckduckgo....jpg&f=1&nofb=1
AFC1512DG 1.8A. 150x50mm Delta fan. Quiet and 265CFM. ( Dell 2x CPU workstation fan)
Dell 375W PSU from Dimension 9150 BTX, or Precision T3400. not sure.
Scores are here.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11864164
https://benchmark.unigine.com/result...5f5fe38c56c90d

For this sytem another proven option would be the 2 core E7500 with a BSEL tapemod to 3.67GHz for faster single thread gaming.

[momaka]

So in the Winter of 2017, I acquired a bunch of used/broken desktop PCs from a shop that was cleaning out its storage. Most of them were from the Core 2 Duo and Athlon II era or older. There was one “modern gem” among them, though (at least by my PC standards ): a Dell Optiplex 790 MT (“mini tower”) with a Core i5 CPU.

For a few years, I kept the system mothballed, thinking I still wouldn’t need a Core i5 for the games that I played currently (Fortinite, CSS, CSGO, Dirt Rally, and some others.) And for the most part, this was true. My EVGA 780i-SLI / OC’ed Core 2 Duo Q6600 build (posted here) was still holding up in the previously mentioned titles. However, Fortnite with its constant updates really started bogging that PC down to the point the game was unplayable (FPS in the 20’s on average, frame time full of spikes lasting up to 1-3 seconds and sound stutter – a sign of severe CPU bottleneck.) Moreover, I started getting into frequent instability issues with the Q6600 build (I suspect a dying nVidia chipset on the motherboard.) On top of that, the heat output from the OC’ed Q6600 with the GeForce 560 GTX GPU was a little too much for hot summer weather.

Therefore, it was time for something new(er)… but something that still had PS/2 ports, because apparently I’m still stuck in the stone ages with my oldschool mice and keyboards with no intent of changing those any time soon.

The Dell Optiplex 790 fit the bill. The Optiplex 790 not only has two PS/2 ports, but also even a serial port (now even I don’t need something that legacy! ) Ports aside, I picked up that system completely barebones – only CPU, motherboard, a single 2 GB stick of DDR3 RAM, and the stock Dell 240 Watt PSU. No video card or HDD included. The case was also missing a side panel and damaged… but more on that in a bit. I can’t complain, of course – it was a freebie PC after all!

When the warm summer weather of 2019 rolled in, I had enough of the hot-running and crashing EVGA 780i-SLI mobo. I took the Optiplex 790, threw in a spare 250 GB HDD (WD Blue), 4x 2GB Samsung DDR3 RAM (to test all RAM slots), and a better PSU. I then proceeded to install Windows 7 Pro (as per the COA on the case) in order to test the system. All tests passed and the stock CPU cooler actually seemed good enough for the job. After this, I swapped the RAM to 2x 8 GB modules and put a Diamond Radeon HD6570 2 GB DDR2 video card. Then, time for games – namely Fortnite first, because this one seemed to be the most CPU heavy. It ran very well, with consistent frame time and 45-60 FPS (capped at 60 FPS) – more than double of what I was getting on the Q6600 build, despite it having a much superior GTX 560 video card. Of course, for the HD6570, I did have to drop the render scaling to 50% on a 3D resolution of 1280x960. This shouldn’t be surprising, though, given the HD6570 is a rather weak card with only 8 ROPs and 24 TMUs. But even running the same graphics settings on the GTX 560 and Q6600 didn’t improve performance – still had terrible frametime and low FPS.

So, compared to the OC’ed Q6600 build, the Optiplex 790 system really was flying. Not only that, but it gave me ZERO issues during any time of the setup and testing process (unlike the EVGA 780i-SLI mobo, which took a lot of convincing to get it to work with 8 GB of RAM.)

Eventually, I upgraded the GPU in the Optiplex 790 with the Gigabyte Radeon HD6850 I rescued (posted here), and BOOM - my new gaming PC was born! Less power-hungry and faster at the same time.

Current specs of the Optiplex 790 system:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500
RAM: 16 GB DDR 3 PC12800 @ 667 MHz (2x 8 GB Samsung M378b1g73eb0-yk0 sticks)
Video: Gigabyte Radeon HD6850 Windforce with 1 GB DDR5 [GV-R6850C-1GD rev 1.2]
HDD: single 250 GB Western Digital Blue (7200 RPM, 3.5”, SATA)
Optical: Samsung Writemaster DVD-RW of some kind (currently disconnected, but still installed in the PC if needed. Reason: it’s complicated.)
PSU: 350 Watt continuous / 400 Watt max. FSP Group AX400-PN recapped
OS: Windows 7 Professional SP2

For keyboard and mouse, I stole the Gateway G9900H and Logitech M-S69 combo from the Q6600 build. Monitor: a CRT of some kind, as always. (a 19” Dell currently.)

Some pictures/screenshots of the hardware...
Front:


Side (and lack of sidepanel )


Specs from CPU-Z and GPU-Z:






Of course, this wouldn’t be a momaka build without any ghetto repairs, right?
I’m sure many have already noticed the loosely “installed” side 120 mm fan and un-mounted HDD. But those are not the only thing. The main issue with that PC was with the rear expansion card bracket, which I fixed in the following manner:

I’m not exactly sure what happened to the case, but when I picked it up from the repair shop, the expansion card rear bracket area was all mangled and chewed up. Even the I/O shield on the motherboard was damaged. The simplest and cheapest solution/fix was to cut and grind all of the damaged metalwork with my angle-grinder and rotary cutter. After this, the case had no bracket for the expansion cards, so I made my own from an aluminum L-channel piece. This was much needed in order to have a discrete GPU card in the system.

It’s a ghetto fix sure, but it works well enough.

I’ve had this PC running since the end of last summer… or almost a year now. It’s had zero issues since then, so I’m not sure why that shop was getting rid of it. Probably the damaged case, if I had to guess. Also, in the winter, I temporarily switched the GPU to a Sapphire HD5830 1GB DDR5 to test it out, and because it was a GPU with higher TDP (good for making my room a little warmer/cozier in the winter months ). But with warm summer weather approaching again, it’s back to the HD6850. PC has no problems staying cool in 27°C / 81°F room temperature, which is the norm here for early summer. I suppose we will have to see how it does later in the summer when temperatures approach 30°C / 86°F __inside__. In any case, I really like the Optiplex 790 MT PC. It may look boring and unassuming much like all my other Dell PCs, but I think it’s another reliable workhorse and will likely remain my gaming PC for the summer and maybe up until it gets cold in the winter (at that point, I have a better but more hungry rig... that also needs postin' here. )

[Topcat]

A modified case....I love it!!

[Dan81]

Let me go back to the classics for a lil' bit.

MB: Soyo 6BA + IV (recapped with Rubycon, Sanyo and Panasonic)
PSU: modified P&O LC-B400ATX (complete filtering and replaced 12v sillicon)
GPU: 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 16MB AGP2x
HDD: 10GB Seagate ST310211A + 40GB Maxtor 2F040L0 Fireball III & 40GB WD400BB
Soundcard: SB16 Value CT2770 ISA
ODD: ASUS DRW-1814BL (white bezel)
NIC: RTL8139C
CPU: Pentium 3 650MHz Coppermine Slot1 (real SECC cart, not slotket)
RAM: 384MB PC100
OS: Windows ME 4.90.3000 (+ various fixes, KernelEX and a lot more goodies)

[Retrorockit]

A Throttlestop overclocked Dell XPS XPS420.
QX9650, 12GB DDR2 800,MSI GTX1060 6GB, Dell 425W (3x18A. 12V. rails)T3400 PSU.
Delta AFC1512DG 150x50mm 259cfm fan and TJ258 heatpipe cooler with 8mm pipes.
120x38mm150cfm cage fan.
4.3GHz marginal stability. 4.15Ghz seems OK.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

Let me go back to the classics for a lil' bit.

A few weeks back, I put together a Windows 98SE system as a test, since I’ve never done a Win 9x install before. (Almost too embarrassing to admit but Windows XP and 2k were too good when I started getting around understanding PCs, so I never found a reason to move back… or too much forward for that matter.)

So this test “build” (actually, it’s just a bunch of floating hardware on the floor) is based around a no-name socket 462 motherboard with SiS730 chipset/MCP that looks very similar to the motherboard found here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=45595
Hardware-wise, mine is the same (SiS 630/730 integrated video, SiS 7018 Audio, and etc.) But in terms of PCB, mine is yellow and has a few small changes, mainly around the BIOS chip and CMOS battery.

Anyways, system specs:
Motherboard: No-name (PCChips M810LU clone perhaps??) socket 462 with SiS 730 MCP
CPU: AMD Duron Spitfire 750 MHz (D750AUT1B, I think)
RAM: 1x 256 MB PC100 SDRAM (no-name with Micron 48LC16M8A2-75E chips)
Video: integrated SiS 630/730
Audio: integrated SiS 7018 based on Avance Logic ALC100p
Network: integrated SiS 900 based on Realtek RTL8201L
HDD: 10 GB, 2.5”, IDE (Toshiba MK1016GAP)
Optical: LG CRD-8483b CD-ROM
Floppy (Drive A): Mitsumi 3.5” (Drive A)
Floppy (Drive B): TEAC FD-55GFR 5.25'' (yes, it’s working!!! test results here)
PSU: Bestec ATX-1956d 200W (trash rescue with cut wires but works fine)
OS: Windows 98SE





I built this system for several reasons.
1) Like I said, I’ve never done a Win 9x install before this, so this was more or less done for practice.

2) The no-name motherboard I used above has always been problematic. It’s littered with G-Luxon caps. Initially, I thought this was the issue, as the system could never complete a Windows 2000 or XP install. It would start, and then 50-70% through copying files to the HDD, it would start saying that the files from the CD are not readable. I tried with several known good HDDs, but still the mobo refused. And what’s more confusing is that it always stopped at different points in the install, never on the same file. I know it wasn’t my Windows 2000 and XP CDs, because I’ve used both on more PCs that I care to count and with that particular optical drive too (so I know the two work with each other.) Well, the issue turned out to be a very interesting one: this no-name motherboard seems to not like NTFS partitions for whatever reason, and that’s what I’ve been trying all along with both the Windows XP and 2k installations. It never crossed my mind to try FAT32 formatting. But since Windows 9x naturally can only use FAT file system, this is the only option I had for it. When I did that, it installed without problems right from the first try. (After this, I also tried a Windows XP install on the same mobo on a different drive with FAT32 formatting with the same hardware and CDs, and it went without a hitch.) Thus, this experiment finally allowed me to figure out how to get this motherboard working with an OS.

3) There’s an old tool/program for opening VIV files from old Need For Speed games, called NFS Wizard. This tool only works under Win9x for whatever reason. In XP and 2k, it only works sometimes, and more often than not it crashes randomly within a few minutes of it running. As I wanted to look into a few old modded VIV files for Need For Speed High Stakes from 15 years ago, this was the only way… and it worked beautifully.

4) I had a bunch of 5.25” floppies with old games for Windows 3.1 and 95. I figured this would be a good time to try out the TEAC FD-55GFR 5.25'' floppy drive. It worked, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to read anything from the 5.25” floppies. They’ve been sitting unused for over 25 years and were moved around quite a few times. So probably not stored the best way. However, I did try formatting one of them and the Teac FD-55GFR drive was able to do that, albeit with quite a few bad sectors discovered by the drive.

So yeah, this is not really a complete system and probably won’t ever be… but who knows. I have to say, though, Windows XP (after finding out the motherboard could take it via FAT32 file system) did run much better. It took me a whole day to find all of the drivers that were needed for the motherboard… and even then, the Windows 9x drivers for the onboard audio are a bit finicky. On that note, I couldn’t for the life of me find an old version of WinAmp that works with Windows 9x. Luckily, back in the day when I only had a 20 GB HDD with my first PC, I was constantly burning CDs to free up HDD space for new games and music. So I remembered that I burned a few CDs with software programs from the early 2000’s. And that’s where I found a copy of WinAmp 3. Also had to look for an old version of WinRAR and Deamon Tools, but was able to find those online. Old WinAmp copies, on the other hand, really seem to have vanished from the web. (I'm thinking about uploading mine here, but not sure if that would be OK due to copyright reasons. Otherwise, why would it disappear everywhere from the web?)

Anyways, finding the right drivers for this kind of old hardware was probably the hardest part of the whole build. But it was still fun...

[Dan81]

Ah yes, the PC133 variant of the M810 (there is a DDR version afaik, completely different from that one you have).

I do have one of those as well (branded as Totem TM-S730LMV) and as far as I could find it's basically M810LR PCB ver 8.0. Haven't recapped it yet, don't exactly remember the cap brand, but it's either same G-Luxons or green OSTs (because ECS/PCChips loved them)

I guess I might recap it when I have time, I do need a machine for my ATI Rage Pro Turbo All-in-Wonder 8MB, and I wasn't sure what to go with. It was either this or a recapped K7VZA (KT133A+686B) w/ Chaintech BIOS (which actually works much better than ECS's own BIOS ) I do wonder if recapping the SiS 730 board would prevent the issues you had from happening.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Originally Posted by momaka

Wrong BIOS year stamp, LOL!

[lti]

Originally Posted by momaka

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=45595

Those 3DMark scores are higher than what I get on that old HP laptop with S3 graphics. Now I want another "retro" computer, but I don't want to add to my junk pile.

I have a new laptop on the way to replace the Toshita, but it already sucks because it has an Intel CPU. It's still total overkill for me, but laptop prices are pretty screwed up right now. Anything with the RAM and storage I was looking for (while avoiding HP, Dell, and the LED-covered gaming laptops) ended up around the same price. (This is where someone posts a link to a cheap ThinkPad P51 or something.)

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Originally Posted by momaka

I never found a reason to move back… or too much forward for that matter.

"why must we always move forward? why cant we move backwards?" to quote a line from the steven spielberg movie "ready player one" which they were showing here on tv for national day last night. hehe!

[TechGeek]

Been here 5+ years and only now am I posting one of my systems here. The Dell Dimension 2400 I posted about around 4 years ago has long since been parted out.

Main Computer
Motherboard: MSI MS-7850 (PC Mate Z97)
CPU: Intel Core [email protected] (EIST and C-States disabled)
HSF: Noctua NH-D14 (and it's needed as under load, the CPU still reaches 50s and 60s C)
RAM: 16GB DDR3 (4x4GB)
GPU: XFX XXX Edition Radeon RX580 8GB
PSU: EVGA Supernova G2 750W
SSD: 128GB SanDisk z400s
HDD 1: 2TB Western Digital Black (used for /home)
HDD 2: 2TB Western Digital Black (used for video editing stuff)
ODD: LG Blu-Ray Writer
Card Reader: Manhattan-branded 60-in-1 multifunction thing
Fan Controller: NZXT Sentry II
Fans: 4x Cooler Master Sickleflow 120
Case: Deepcool Kendoman TI (Full Tower ATX)
SCSI Controller: LSI Logic LSI22320SLE
Wireless Controller: Asus PCE-AC68
FireWire Controller: LSI Logic FW322/323
OS: Debian Testing x64 with encrypted LVM

External Hardware
Monitor 1: 2020 LG 32ML600M-B 32"
Monitor 2: 2002 Apple Cinema Studio Display 27" (with DVI to ADC adapter)
Monitor 3: 1999 Gateway VX700 (Rebranded Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 710) 17"
Keyboard: Unicomp Model M PS/2 (Model Code UB40446) (USB sucks for keyboards and mice)
Mouse: Elecom EX-G Pro
Stereo Amplifier: 1980 Fisher RS-2010 (100WPC x2)
Speakers: Sharp Bookshelf Speakers (75W cont, 125W peak)
External HDD 1: WD My Book 8TB (Boot and /home backup)
External HDD 2: WD My Book 8TB (Video Editing backup)
Tape Drive: HP Ultrium 448 LTO2

[televizora]

This is my system. I use exclusively laptops.

[Dan81]

Just a random build:

MB: Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2V
CPU: Intel Core i3-540
RAM: 2GB DDR3 (for now)
HDD: 250GB Seagate (out of an ICY BOX USB3 enclosure)
PSU: 430W HKC
GPU: Radeon HD4850 512MB
DVD-RW: Samsung SH-224DB
OS: Windows 10 Enterprise N 20H2

[dmill89]

My new work machine.

HP Z-Book Studio G5.

CPU: I7-9850H (6-core)
Ram: 16GB DDR4
SSD: 512GB
GPU: Nvidia Quadro P1000
OS: Windows 10 Enterprise



Overall it has decent specs and performs well, but unfortunately the new "mobile workstations" are becoming little more than really powerful ultrabooks (it seems everyone is trying to make a mac-pro copy these days).



It is thin (which means the tiny little fans absolutely scream under heavy load) with limited ports (2 USB-3.0, 2 USB-C, power, headphone, HDMI, and an SD reader, this thing doesn't even have a RJ-45 LAN port unless you use the dock or a USB-dongle).






It also has no aces panels and accessing any internal hardware requires removing the entire bottom (and 9 torx screws in the process), it also has an internal li-po battery.




And speaking of the dock, it is a USB-C unit, there is no "proper" dock connector on this laptop either:

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by dmill89

OS: Windows 10 Enterprise

Whats the difference between 10 Enterprise and 10 Pro? With 7 on those platforms IIRC, it wasn't much more than simply a VLK and no activation...but functionality they were the same.

[Per Hansson]

In Enterprise you can set the telemetry level to off, this is not possible in other releases.
And you have access to the LTSB / LTSC branch.
For me these two are the biggest advantages, of course there are many more.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

In Enterprise you can set the telemetry level to off, this is not possible in other releases.
And you have access to the LTSB / LTSC branch.
For me these two are the biggest advantages, of course there are many more.

Thanks! Note to self! Telemetry can be killed off in Pro, but for it to be off by default in Enterprise, I'd be happy!