The Ultimate New Computer Thread

[Tyrion]

Quad core scares me. You could have one core cracking security codes for a nuclear launch site, another core looking up the coordinates of all the capitals in the world, yet another core looking up the coordinates of that bloody annoying kid on the internet who keeps insulting you with fifth grade insults, and the last core, I dunno, looking up Wikipedia on how to make a good sandwich?

 

Tip: A little mayo goes a long way.

 

(P.S. Ur mom's so phat, she starred in Girls Gone Fat! lolomgwtfbbq!)

[MrWally]

Quad Core?

 

Zomg

 

I only have a dual-lobe brain...

 

 

(pssst... can I have some of your old parts?)

 

(pssst... well i'm putting my old graphics card in my old old computer, but there may be a gig of ram that's not being used just sitting around somewhere....)

 

And for those that are curious, the system idles at about 37 degress C, and while running graphic intensive programs tend to level off in the high 40s.

[Lightsaberboy]

I couldn't afford a better case, but this one works just fine! You guys like?

 

 

and no, this is not really my computer. I just found these pics online and thought to add something with all these other computer threads popping up.

[Lady Jedi]

Yay! Now we have one big happy computer thread, for all to share.

 

And, I must say that Lighsaberboy wins. I mean, look at those decals! It's perfect!

[Crow_Nest]

Good, 'cause it's not gonna be here 'till next week.

 

Dang it, oh well. At least that'll give me more time to finish my donuts.

 

And thats a cool pizza case, and i used to think the shoe box was cool.

[swphreak]

Awesome Specs. I have the QX6700 OCed to 2.99Ghz. I can have Folding@Home running and play Half-Life 2 on highest settings and still run smoothly.

 

I also do the occasional video editing/encoding, and I've noticed that things go faster than with just a single core.

[MrWally]

Well, I'd hope they go faster than with just a single core. Seeing as, you know, you have four.

 

[Nerd_Annhilator]

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=1004258&navigationPath=n32009n100298n100192

 

That one because im too lazy to type stuff out.

[Sabretooth]

Around $3,800

 

Damn you rich Americans!

[TiE23]

Damn you rich Americans!

Dude, he worked at Wal-mart for like 750 hours, that's not easy. : P

[Boba Rhett]

It's a hell of a lot easier when you get to spend all the money you earn on fun things.

 

I find solace in the fact that when IG hits college and is paying $150+ for each text book and is living off blocks of dry ramen noodles he'll look back and wonder what the hell he was thinking dropping 4 grand on a computer.

 

 

 

Hey, wait a minute. He already is in college! Damn you and your kickass computer, IG!

[Kjølen]

CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 2.0GHz

OS: Windows XP Home

Memory: 2GB Patriot DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) SDRAM

Hard Drive: 500GB Samsung SATA 3.0Gb/s

Monitor: 20.1" Samsung SyncMaster 204B (1600x1200)

GPU: Geforce 7950GX2 1GB GDDR3 Memory PCI-Express

 

My video card, monitor, and hard drive rawks, but everything else is due for replacement... if I had money. Anyone want to buy one of my old computers for $400?

 

1.8GHz Athlon 64 3200+ (Overclockable to about 2.2GHz)

1GB DDR400 RAM

160GB Hard drive, No OS included

DVD burner

Radeon X800XT Platinum 256MB GDDR3 memory, AGP

Loud, bright, big case.

 

For $550, I'll double the RAM, change the hard drive to 400GB with Windows XP and Unreal Tournament 2004 preinstalled.

 

I'm also selling a crappy 2.66GHz Pentium 4 laptop.

[Boba Rhett]

I'm in need of a workhorse laptop that I don't need to live in fear of dinging. How much are you wanting for the laptop?

[Kjølen]

I bought it for about $1500, I think, and I was thinking about $250 ($200 for the notebook, $50 because I need to buy a new battery) since, as a computer it still works fine. I suppose I can write out the full specs:

 

2.6GHz Pentium 4

768MB DDR RAM (Shared with Video)

60GB Hard drive with Windows XP Home

DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive

Mobility Radeon 9000 Graphics with 64MB Shared Memory

15" SXGA+ Screen with 1400x1050 Resolution.

 

Seems pretty decent on the outside, YES. But it might more trouble than it's worth:

The laptop loses the connection to the power cord momentarily if you jiggle it a bit (Not a problem if your battery is charged, but without the battery it would just shut off), the sound is very flakey, and you have to sometimes put pressure or shake the notebook a bit to get it to work, no problem if you use the speaker/headphone jack, though. The wireless is just as flakey as the sound. On off on off on off. Use ethernet. Very, VERY rarely, the screen turns blank and you have to reboot. If you can handle the jiggly power cord, the half-working speakers and wireless, it's a great notebook, really.

Here: Clicky for Piccy

[BongoBob]

Is the flaky wireless built in? Or is it a card that's wonkey?

[Boba Rhett]

I think they use a PCI wireless card. Check your PMs, Kjølen.

[Kjølen]

All built in. I wouldn't even have mentioned it if I could has just tossed the card. These are problems that you might actually have to DEAL with.

 

EDIT: Sound is messed up. Wireless is worthless. Get external sound and wireless or live with a soundless notebook and ethernet connections. Working on it... Man, I'd forgotten how nice it is to type on a laptop keyboard. and the resolution is beautiful (1400x1050). Hmmm, it's currently stealing 128MB of memory from my RAM for the video card, though. Oh well, that can always be changed in the BIOS.

 

Check your PMs, Kjølen.

 

Hey, hey! They're not supposed to know it's my time of the month. D:

[IG-64]

Well, I got an email from Dell earlier informing me that the shipping of my order has been delayed another week, so I probably won't get it before the school semester starts. :/

 

Oh well, I guess they need the extra time to build it.

[Kjølen]

Nah, Dell just sucks that way. At any rate, I'm still selling either that $350 machine or the upgraded $550 machine, if anyone's interested. I'm also selling an Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo 64, all with varying amount of games and controllers and prices.

[IG-64]

Update: I was just informed that my computer has been (finally) shipped today. It should arrive within a week. I am planning stress tests that I will post here when I get everything up and working.

[PR-0927]

That is good to hear. I actually got my Dell Vostro 1500 12 days early, LOL. However, it had an issue - it froze randomly for 30 seconds to two minutes, no matter what applications were being used. The cursor still worked and all, (the circle timer appeared) but everything else froze, mostly. I spent days trying to fix it. Then, I did something embarrassing - I called Dell's Technical Support (I usually fix stuff by myself, so it was an embarrassment). However, after four hours on the phone with them, they had no idea what the problem was. In fact, even the most qualified technical experts there couldn't help. We did hardware diagnostics, and nothing showed up as damaged. However, those diagnostics don't account for much. So, I opted for a free exchange - the same exact computer, free of charge (free shipping and no taxes as well). The laptop came, and I am using it right now. It actually arrived on the 27th of August. It works great. It looks like the old one had hardware issues. I also got some CDs that I wasn't given last time for some odd reason (Windows Vista Business installation disc, Roxio disc, and Cyberlink DVD disc).

 

- PR-0927

[The Seeker]

Well, since I'm not a damsel, I built my own, thereby staying true to my vow to never buy a store bought, mass made PC again.

 

My specs are:

Intel Core2 Quad 2.4 GHz x 4

 

GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported

 

4GB DDR2 RAM

 

370 GB SATA Hard Drives (120GB + 250GB)

 

Thermaltake Big Typhoon CPU Cooler

 

700 Watt PSU

 

Windows XP (pass on vista thanks)

 

Along with the obvious DVD burner with lightscribe, super cool, whisper quiet case and all that

 

This rig is a beast that nothing can stop till bigger, faster hardware comes out in six months.

 

So, bow in wonder mortals. Bow in wonder.

[Jeff]

Damn, that is one hell of a rig. Mind sharing how much you spent on it?

[IG-64]

That rig is pretty good Seeker. And since you're gonna be all "bow in wonder" about it I might as well do a fair comparison.

 

My processor is better, runs at 3.2 GHz per core.

 

Your RAM is better, you have 4 GB, I only have 2. Sadly, upgrading to 4 would've added an extra $700 to the package. This is a sacrifice since important parts of 3ds max are RAM-heavy. I should be able to upgrade this in the future, however.

 

My GPU is marginally better, since I have the GTX and you have the GTS.

 

My Hard drive is betterer, I have the Hitachi 1TB *dances* X)

 

However, with the PSU and the cooling, I have no idea who's is better because I don't know what Dell put in it, which is one of the drawbacks to getting a pre-built. But they said their power and cooling system was enough to run the overclocked processor when I asked, so I guess they know what they're doing.

 

Oh, and I'm kinda iffy about Vista too, but I think I can put up with it now just for the DirectX 10 functionality (go cryENGINE2, go) until it gets better (like XP eventually did). Also, my current copy of XP is not the 64-bit one.

 

So now, mortals, decide who you want to bow to. Or we could just join forces and create an uber coalition of computing awesomeness to govern all the digital world.

[The Seeker]

Damn, that is one hell of a rig. Mind sharing how much you spent on it?

 

Well, to get it up and running, I spent $1025.10 on it. However, I got the hard drives, DVD-ROM, and the CPU cooler and XP disc from one of my other rigs that I was decomissioning, traded the awesome graphics card to put in mine for a lesser GeForce 6600 from said decomissioned rig.

 

So, what I bought up front was the CPU, Motherboard, PSU, DVD Burner, Case and RAM. If you add the Graphics card, Hard drives DVD-ROM and CPU Cooler, you would add another 600 or so.

 

But still, 1600 isn't bad for this kind of rig.

 

Forgot to mention that I got a motherboard with SLI support and 8GB RAM capacity for the future.

 

And IG-64...If we join forces, with our rigs, we could take over NASA and thus control the universe as well as the earth.

 

Also, I have yet to see a prebuilt rig that has upgrading in mind with the PSU or hard core cooling in mind with the CPU heat sink. But that's still a heavy hitting rig you go thtere.