# Your Home PC... How New, How PowerFull



## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

As a new owner of an iMac (sometime today when it is delivered).

It got me looking at my PC's.... and I realized, that my oldest one... is still pretty solid of a performer... 2.4 P4, 2GB Ram, 1tb of HD space.... 

What is your most powerfull system like (Since we all have many)...
And how old is it?


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## ejeffreyhorn (Sep 11, 2007)

Here's my config from a build last fall:

- Core2Duo
- 500GB (1TB Drive on it's way)
- 2GB RAM
- 8800GTS Video Card
- Maudio Revolution 5.1 surround card

Run's like a champ streaming media to my HR20's even when transcoding HD video via tversity.


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## gcisko (Sep 27, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> What is your most powerfull system like (Since we all have many)...
> And how old is it?


My main home PC is as follows:
3.06Ghz (hyperthread) CPU, 1GB ram, 160GB hard disk, ATI X800 Pro video card.

It is probably 4-5 years old and had a 2.4GHZ CPU when I first got it. I added the 3.06Ghz CPU, 512MB more ram and replaced the video card with the ATI X800 Pro. Then I stopped gaming on the PC and now do it via a PS3.


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## dmurphy (Sep 28, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> As a new owner of an iMac (sometime today when it is delivered).
> 
> It got me looking at my PC's.... and I realized, that my oldest one... is still pretty solid of a performer... 2.4 P4, 2GB Ram, 1tb of HD space....
> 
> ...


My newest Mac is a Power Mac G5, from late '05. dual 2.3GHz PowerPC processors, 4.5 GB RAM, the thing's a beast.  No need for replacement.

My laptop is a '03 PowerBook - 1.25GHz G4 processor, 2 GB RAM, still sufficient for most things.


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Earl Bonovich said:


> As a new owner of an iMac (sometime today when it is delivered).
> 
> It got me looking at my PC's.... and I realized, that my oldest one... is still pretty solid of a performer... 2.4 P4, 2GB Ram, 1tb of HD space....
> 
> ...


Earl, your old, disposed-of system is better than my current one - wanna sell it? :nono2:

2.8(?) P4 Dual booting XP and Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn
1GB Ram
500gb HD


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

My newest desktop is a 2.6Ghz Pentium IV with 1.5GB ram, 80GB harddrive for everything except video capture storage and that's 120GB drive. I'm trying to remember but I think it's about 3 years old. Gee, maybe time for a new one


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Earl's trying to stimulate the economy by making us think about how crappy our toys are and how we "need" new ones! Or he's making a plug for just Apple's economy!


!pride


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## kocuba (Dec 29, 2006)

3.0Ghz P4 2.5GB RAM 80GB Main Drive with a320GB Data Drive.
Built during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics so it is almost 4 years old.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

tcusta00 said:


> Earl, your old, disposed-of system is better than my current one - wanna sell it? :nono2:
> 
> 2.8(?) P4 Dual booting XP and Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn
> 1GB Ram
> 500gb HD


It isn't disposed...

The Mac is replacing a Sony P4-RAMBUS (or what ever that failed memory experiment was) based system.
Memory is just too expensive to get it up to 1GB...


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

tcusta00 said:


> Earl's trying to stimulate the economy by making us think about how crappy our toys are and how we "need" new ones! Or he's making a plug for just Apple's economy!
> 
> !pride


Neither...

I am actually amazed out how long PC's are still "powerfull" today.
Even if they are 4-5 years old.


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## jclarke9999 (Feb 10, 2007)

My best system:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
2 GB Ram
275 GB HDD
ATI X1300 PRO 256 MB
It is about 1 year old.


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## jclarke9999 (Feb 10, 2007)

Earl Bonovich said:


> Neither...
> 
> I am actually amazed out how long PC's are still "powerfull" today.
> Even if they are 4-5 years old.


My low end is an IBM P3 800 MHz laptop with 256MB memeory that I use for work. I got it about 9 years ago used and it still works just fine.


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

Desktop - Dell XPS400 running XP
3MHz Dual Core
4GB
160GB & 250 GB (too small!)
ATI X1600 Pro
HD Tuner
19" LCD

Laptop - Dell XPS M1530 running Vista (  )
2.2Mhz Core2Duo
4GB
250GB
GeoForce 8600M GT
9-cell battery


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## BaldEagle (Jun 19, 2006)

Oldest? I'm using at my business a Gateway P-133 with windows 95. Still works great but I don't have it hooked up to the internet, just use it as a word processor. Has such good software, Windows Office 97 & Corel word perfect, that I cant get rid of it. Have to back up stuff on 3.5" floppies.

Tried to get a new printer for this but had no luck finding one that would work with windows 95. Could not even add a USB port because that version of windows will not support USB. Got the old HP printer with a parallel connection to work so will use it for a while longer.


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## lukep10 (Apr 13, 2007)

ahhhh my oldest? 086 with 640k of ram a power horse in it's day LOL (i also had the 12 lb laptop version of it as well with a 20 mb hard drive. I gave it up when something made the battery burn up which smelled like burnt tuna fish)

my newest arrived tuesday and was a valentines day present from Josh. 2.6 Ghz quad core 4 gig ram 1.3 TB in total hard drives, (500+500+300) 2 gb vid ram with dual DVI and HDMI output custom built in an ASUS box. (going to go vista x ur fingers) i'm also looking at this new LG optical drive with hddvd and blueray builtin to it (it also writes to both formats) but thats another $400 and we're about to build a new house. 

other than that a one of celeron and p4's laying around with anywhere from 8 - 40 gb hd's 256mb ram

two laptops: 1 p3 800mhz 1 p4 2.4 mhz both with 512 mb ram and 40 gig hard drives. 

since i've got my new baby to play with and finish putting together this weekend, my old media center pc is going to become a windows home server (unless i don't like it then it will become a linux home server) celeron 2.8 ghz 2 gb ram 500gb hd soon to have 1.5tb 

oh yeah all my pc's have dvd-rw's in them of varying speeds.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

I am curious in both...

Your "oldest" and then your "newest"...

Kinda just wanted to limit the conversation a bit... as I listed all my active computers.... would be about 7, 8 if you include the new iMAC


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## B Newt (Aug 12, 2007)

My system is a Intel P4 3 gig speed. Ram = 1gb disk storage = 70 gb

My other computer is an Atar ST 520 that I like to play with once in a while....


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

dettxw said:


> Desktop - Dell XPS400 running XP
> 3MHz Dual Core
> 4GB
> 160GB & 250 GB (too small!)
> ...


Have two PCs on different networks on my desk at work:

Dell Precision Workstation 380 running XP
3.6Ghz
2GB
80GB (mainly use network storage)
nvidia Quadro FX 1400
dual 21" LCDs 
remote access to PC & UNIX & VMS machines

Dell Precision Workstation 360 running XP
3.2Ghz
4GB
30GB (mainly use network storage)
nvidia Quadro FX 1000
dual 21" LCDs 
remote access to PC & UNIX & VMS machines


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Oldest: 

Compaq 1.2ghz AMD Athlon Laptop
256mb RAM
80gb HD

Loaded xubuntu last year as the primary kernel (os) and gave it a new life - It's 8 years old


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## phat78boy (Sep 12, 2007)

Most powerful

Quad core 2.66 GHz
8 GB OC 1200 DDR2 Ram
Striped Raid 1 600 GB (4 10K Raptor 150)
Sapphire 3870 X2 1GB 
2 24" Samsung monitors
Vista 64-bit

I still can't play Crysis at full resolution... lol


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## Mallard (Sep 29, 2006)

Oldest computer? Hmmm....

That would either be my TI 99/4A or my Commodore 64.


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Mallard said:


> Oldest computer? Hmmm....
> 
> That would either be my TI 99/4A or my Commodore 64.


Still in use???!:eek2:


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## JeffTex42 (Sep 14, 2007)

My main computer has a 3.2 GHz Dual Core Pentium (D935), 2Gb DDR2-533 Ram, 120 Gb SATA HD, ATI X1900GT graphics, and lots of toys hanging off. This one's about a year old.

We've got another with a 3.2 GHz P4, 1Gb DDR-400 Ram, 80 Gb EIDE HD, and an AGP ATI X850XT graphics card. This one is in the office and the wife uses it for business stuff. This one was rebuilt from parts from a couple of previous builds when I built the one above.

Both built into Silverstone TJ08 cases.


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## johnck78 (Feb 19, 2007)

Dell OptiPlex GX400
Windows XP Professional
P4 1.8 Ghz
1 Gig RAM
80 Gig Hard Drive
Running Media Player 11 for streaming "Music, Photos, and More"
Also Runs a Windows 2003 VM Machine which serves for DNS and DHCP

My Wife's Notebook (My Old One)
HP Pavillion dv1439us
Windows XP Professional
Centrino 1.8 Ghz
2 Gig of Ram
100 Gig Hard Drive


My Notebook (New One)
HP Pavillion dv9740us
Windows Vista Home Premium
Dual Core Centrino Processor
3 Gig Ram
Dual 180 Gig Hard Drive
1440 x 900 HD Display
Blu-Ray ROM
HDMI output


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## Mallard (Sep 29, 2006)

tcusta00 said:


> Still in use???!:eek2:


They both still work. I fire them up once in a while to play some of my old games on them.


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## MIAMI1683 (Jul 11, 2007)

My XPS sucks by comparison to alot of your toys.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

MIAMI1683 said:


> My XPS sucks by comparison to alot of your toys.


What's inside your XPS


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## minorthr (Mar 18, 2003)

Newest PC basics

core 2 duo quad core 2.4 ghz 
4 gigs of ram
1TB HDD space
Nvidia 8600 256 meg video
dvd-rw
usb 2.0
firewire


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## VLaslow (Aug 16, 2006)

About three weeks ago I did a major face lift on my desktop:

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4ghz Q6600

2 gb memory (in my tests I didn't improve much of what I did with 4gb)

3 sata drives, each 500gbs

Dual DVD writers

Windows XP Pro with Vista Home Premium in the wings if needed (or wanted).

The weak link is the ECS motherboard I'm currently using. However, it's fast enough right now.


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## phat78boy (Sep 12, 2007)

VLaslow said:


> About three weeks ago I did a major face lift on my desktop:
> 
> Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4ghz Q6600
> 
> ...


No benefit of anything over 3GB of RAM unless you are using a 64-bit OS.


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## VLaslow (Aug 16, 2006)

phat78boy said:


> No benefit of anything over 3GB of RAM unless you are using a 64-bit OS.


Yes, and it doesn't sound like a MS 64 bit OS is something to use right now.


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## mhayes70 (Mar 21, 2006)

Best/Newest: Dell Vestro 1700 laptop. Running Vista, Intel Core 2 Duo 1.4GHz, 2G ram, 180 G Hard drive.

Oldest/My Favorite: Dell Dimension 8300 Desktop. About 5 years old (I think), Running XP Home, Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz, 1G ram, and 1 130G hard drive (main) and 1 120G hard drive (secondary).


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## phat78boy (Sep 12, 2007)

VLaslow said:


> Yes, and it doesn't sound like a MS 64 bit OS is something to use right now.


I think Vista 64-bit runs great. Have had zero issues. I didn't try to use 2-3 year old equipment though, which is where most people run into issues.

XP 64-bit was horrible. There was basically no support from hardware and application vendors. It was doomed by the lack of support.


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## bakers12 (May 29, 2007)

My only computer - a Dell Dimension 4700, bought refurb'd a couple years ago.
2.8GHz Pentium 4
512MB RAM
160GB hard drive
ATSC and NTSC tuners


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## ccr1958 (Aug 29, 2007)

oldest..6-7y/o
Alienware AMDAthlon 1.70GHz, 2.0GB RAM, 2 80GB HDD,XP Pro SP2
used most..4-5y/o
Dell Dimension 8400,P4 3.00GHz,2.0GB RAM, 2 80GB HDD,Vista Ultimate SP1(beta)
newest...1y/o(not sure of specs at moment)
Gateway laptop...AMD 1.? GHz, 1.0GB RAM,120or160GB HDD,Vista Home Premium


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## WERA689 (Oct 15, 2006)

My newest is just about to be upgraded again. The NEW lineup (after the CPU upgrade):
Core2Duo E8400 3.0GHz 45nm die
500gb HDD
XFi Extreme Gamer Fatality w/digital I/O panel
2x 8800GT 512mb running SLi
2gigs Corsair RAM
LG HD/Blu drive and DVD writer
and a Samsung 22" monitor.

I just built this computer (my first build), and I'm so happy with it, I'll probably leave it pretty much as is for a few years!


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Most powerful right now is my laptop.. AMD Sempron3000. This is a low end processor but it works quite well for my tasks. I am expecting to upgrade, however, as soon as I can get a computer with Vista SP1 shipped on it.


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## kevinturcotte (Dec 19, 2006)

Only 1 computer. Little over 3 years old.

Intel Pentium 4 3.6 Ghz with Hyper Threading
2 GBs PC3200 DDR RAM (4 512 MB sticks)
ATi Radeon X700Pro PCI-E Video Card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound card w/Breakout Box
160 GB SATA Hard Drive
300 GB SATA Hard Drive
Dual Layer DVD Burner SATA
Gigabit Network Card
Windows Vista Ultimate
Flash Card Reader
300 watt Power Supply (Hence the X700 Pro video card)

Plan on doing a major revision sometime soon here. Waiting for Nehalem though.


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

I'm a lightweight (computer-wise, not in real life):

AMD Athelon 2000+ (1.6 GHz), 640 MB
Mac Mini (1.42 GHz G4), 1 GB
Celeron 1.2 GHz, 320 MB


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## Ben Lambert (Jan 18, 2007)

I use to own a Dell laptop, but I gave it to my granddaughter and got a Mac. I absolutely love the Mac.

Model Name:	MacBook
Model Identifier:	MacBook3,1
Processor Name:	Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:	2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors:	1
Total Number Of Cores:	2
L2 Cache:	4 MB
Memory:	1 GB
Bus Speed:	800 MHz


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## Draconis (Mar 16, 2007)

I included my computer in my signature but this is the current configuration of my "Frankenstein". It gets upgraded as needed (or when they have a sale at Fry’s). 

Motherboard : ASUS P5NSLI
Chipset : Nvidia nForce 570 SLI Intel Edition
CPU : Pentium 4 2.40 GHz dual core
RAM : 4 GB (667 MHz)
HDD : Maxtor 6H500F0 (500 GB)
Video : NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS (640 MB RAM)
Audio: Creative Labs Soundblaster X-Fi (SB0469)
OS : Windows Vista Ultimate
Media Sharing Program : TVersity 0.9.11.4 with the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.7.5

My daughter appropriated the laptop and the wife’s PC is just powerful enough to get email and play WoW.


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## dmurphy (Sep 28, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> As a new owner of an iMac (sometime today when it is delivered).


So now that you have it - how's that iMac ???


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## Surveyor40 (Jan 5, 2006)

Newest Computer - 2.2 Ghz core 2 duo with 2 GB ram, 1.5 TB, dual boot WinXP/Vista, HDCP videocard with 512 MB ram, and BluRay burner. 

Oldest Computer - Amiga 2000 (060 expansion card and 256 megs of RAM) with 4GB harddrive running Amiga DOS 2.0, Newtek Videotoaster 3.1 (still in use)


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

I'm currently upgrading my Dell Dimension 8400.
Currently:
3 Ghz CPU, 567 Mhz bus, 3GB Ram, cheesy 128 Mb video card (gonna buy an ATI 3650 512MB DDR3 today). 500GB HD, Dell 20" LCD.

My DVD burner is dead so I'm in the market for a new one.

PC is about 3 years old (4/2005)


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## R8ders2K (Sep 11, 2006)

Earl,

Congrats on your new iMac. And welcome to the *Darkside*...  I'm _*assuming*_ that it's the new Aluminium iMac? What's your screen size?

My oldest computer is a Mac 512K which was upgraded to a Mac Plus, which was later upgraded to 4 MB of RAM and a Brainstorm Accelerator Plus. It's still works. 

Personally, my "_bestest_" is a Power Mac G5 (Late 2005). Dual-core 2.0 GHz PowerPC 970MP, 5.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM, 2x 500 GB HDs, flashed Pioneer DVR-112L, flashed NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX (512 MB), and a 21" Apple Studio Display (CRT).

My wife has a MacBook (2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB) and my mom now has a 24" iMac (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB).

And everyone is running Mac OS X 10.5.2.


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## dbooth (Nov 6, 2007)

Dell XPS720 running XP64Bit
2.93MHz Quad Dual Core Extreme Edition QX6800 (OC to 3.2GHz)
8 GB 1000MHz (OC to 1333 MHz)
3 TB and (2) 150 WD raptors raided 
Dual 8800 GTX in SLI
Ageia PhysX Card
HD Tuner
30" Dell LCD

Crysis runs like a champ

Old System
iMac 800 
15" swivel screen
OSX 10.2 
768 Mb of ram
80 Gb hard drive

about 5 yrs old maybe 6


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## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)

New 20" 2.4 Core duo Imac 4Gb ram/320 HDD, retired Dual 1.25 G4 Power Mac 1gb ram/120Gb HDD, 400Mhz G4 Poer Mac 500Mbram/20Gb HDD


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## bigmac94 (Aug 18, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> As a new owner of an iMac (sometime today when it is delivered).
> 
> It got me looking at my PC's.... and I realized, that my oldest one... is still pretty solid of a performer... 2.4 P4, 2GB Ram, 1tb of HD space....
> 
> ...


Hiya..
about 3 yrs ago had one built pretty much for making DVDs of Colts games in HD amoung other things, Processer is P 4 3.40, 2 gigs of Ram and the card is a ATI 9600 All in Wonder Radeon & 2 150 gig E sata HDs Also firewire to pass through Video.


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## JonW (Dec 21, 2006)

My wife's PC (Core 2 Duo), our HTPC (Athlon X2 4200+), and the soon to be arriving media server PC (Core 2 Duo) are all faster than my P4-2.8. 

It must be getting close to time for me to upgrade my machine ...


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## Pinion413 (Oct 21, 2007)

My config, initially built a few years ago but upgraded as the years have passed. :grin:

Self-built rig. Dual-booted. Running both Windows XP Professional (x86) and Vista Ultimate (x64).

Antec Nine-Hundred ATX Case
ASUS A8N SLI-Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Opteron 180 (2.4 GHz) Dual-Core CPU
2GB OCZ Platinum DDR RAM (PC3200)
2.2TB Hard Disk space (Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung 320 GB's and 500GB's)
eVGA (nVidia) 512MB 8600GT Video Card (w/HDCP)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum eX Sound Card with Out-Box (THX Certified)
(2) Lite-On 20x DVD+-R/W DVD Burners w/Lightscribe
Samsung 226BW 22" (1680x1050) LCD Monitor (w/HDCP)
Logitech Z2300 2.1 Speaker System (THX Certified)


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

I only have one. It's a Dell. About 4 years old.

Dell Dimension 
2.66GHz Pentium 4
640MB RAM
80GB HD


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

AMD 4200+ Dual Core w/2Gb memory and 300Gb Boot drives, others as needed for a couple of years. Home & Work. Vista & XP
Slowest computer is at work. A Pentium II running Windows 98 and our cash register software on 32Meg ram. Boots up quick and shuts down in a couple of seconds. When it's time to go who wants to wait for the computer to shut down?

Opinion: Most of the Pentium 4 and up computers are fast enough for most users.


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## blackcat77 (Dec 26, 2007)

Vista Home Premium
Core 2 6600
2 gigs RAM
EVGA 7950 GT
400 gigs total HD space on the computer + 1 TB home server (best investment EVAR -- It's already saved me the hassle of a reformat/reinstall plus makes files easily available to everybody on our personal/home office network)

Wife's computer is almost identical to mine except it only has one 250 gig HD. Also have a Vista laptop and an old XP laptop now in retirement.

My computer is in a continual state of upgrading so some components are older than others. I built my wife's computer about a year ago and the laptop is brand new -- got it less than a month ago.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Current PC – Compaq Presario 8000T

Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 32 Bit
Intel Pentium 4HT Processor at 3.20 GHz
2 GB DDR RAM
160GB 7200 RPM UDMA Hard Drive
NVidia GeForce 5600FX
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2
8X DVD+R/RW Drive
16X DVD-ROM Drive
17” Compaq LCD Monitor
Compaq Wireless Keyboard & Wireless Optical Mouse 

Coming Next Month – HP Pavilion 9100T 

Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 64 Bit
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor at 2.66 GHz
6 GB DD2 RAM
750 GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
Blu-Ray Disc Burner
16X DVD-ROM Drive
22” HP LCD Widescreen Monitor
HP Wireless Keyboard & Wireless Optical Mouse


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## Spoffo (Jan 1, 2007)

Kinda hard to say:

Most powerful (or at least the biggest) My personal main machine: G5 Power Mac, Dual [email protected] GHz, 3 gb RAM, two Hard drives: 80bg and 200gb, flashed Pioneer 112 Drive/Burner. single 19" LCD (tho the video card would support two.) A bit old, but still very zippy for what I do.

Also pretty powerful, especially the running Windows bit.: Road Machine: Mac Book Pro 15". Intel Core 2 [email protected] Ghz , 1 Gb RAM, 120 Gb hard drive, stock (i.e. anemic) "superdrive" burner. This machine is set up to run Windows XP Pro under both Parallels Desktop and Boot Camp (used mainly for monthly aviation GPS database downloads that can't be run on Mac OS) 

Newest: Wife's Mac - Mac Mini Intel Core Due 1.83 Ghz with 2 GB Ram 120 gb hard drive, stock burner. 2nd hard drive via Firewire. 19" LCD.

Oldest - G3 Powerbook "Wall Street" One of the last of the pre-metal case Mac laptops. Performance specs are pathetic by today's standards, but it runs fine with OS 10.4.9, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB hard disk and read-only CD/DVD drive. I keep it to do things like run a looped slide show at a conference kiosk (so I don't have to worry about someone stealing it!)


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

*Desktop:*

Sony VGC-RB44G Media Center PC (w/ upgrades)

*OS* - Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/SP1
*Processor* - 3.20GHz Intel Pentium 4 w/ Hyper-Threading Technology
*Front Side Bus* - 800MHz
*Ram* - 2GB (1GB Kingston PC3200 DDR-400 x 2)
*Hard Drive* - 500GB Seagate Barracuda
*Optical Drives* - 8x DVD±RW and 32x CD-RW
*Graphics Card* - NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT by EVGA (512mb DDR3; 256-bit; PCIe x16; HDCP Ready; SLI Supported) (on order)
*Monitor* - Samsung 22" LCD (2253LW) - (Dual Input [DVI w/HDCP]; 2ms (G to G); 8000:1 contrast)

*AirRocker's MacBook:*

*OS* - 10.5.2 Leopard
*Processor* - 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
*Ram* - 2GB DDR2
*Hard Drive* - 160GB
*Optical Drive* - 8x Superdrive

*AirRockette's MacBook:*

*OS* - 10.5.2 Leopard
*Processor* - 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
*Ram* - 1GB DDR2
*Hard Drive* - 80GB
*Optical Drive* - DVD-ROM/CD-RW


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## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

In years leading up to this one I built my own PCs. I did this to save a few dollars and to know what I was putting into them. This past Christmas I bought a Dell XPS One for Mrs. Smiddy. It is for the most part the most powerful, depending on one's perspective, of all the machines we use at home.

1) Dell XPS One, Vista
2) MSI MB, 640 MB DDR333, 80 GB ATA-133 HDD, AMD 3000+, GigE, GeForce 4100 Graphics, XP Pro, old digital CRT
3) Asus MB, 2 GB DDR266, 3 x 320 GB ATA-133 HDD, AMD 1900+, GigE, TNT Graphics, XP Home, Flat Panel
4) HP Pavilion Laptop, Intel Extreme 3.0 G, 80 GB ATA-100 HDD, 10/100BaseT, ATI Graphics, 2004 Media Center

I plan to just upgrade 2 on Thursday this week with more RAM, HD 2600 XT Video, and a DVD Burner.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

My newest PC is a Biostar IDEQ-210p barebones small form factor system with an Athlon 64 3400 processor, 1 GB RAM, ATi Radeon 9550 graphics card, Avermedia MCE TV tuner card, Seagate 300 GB. SATA hard drive, WD 300 GB MYBook Essentials external hard drive, Viewsonic 912 19 inch LCD monitor, Windows XP MCE 2005 SP2 and an HP 3210 all-in-one printer.

I also have a system with an Athlon XP1700 processor and an HP ze4327 laptop.


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## jutley (Oct 11, 2006)

The latest upgrade to my PC just happened last week as detailed below. I won't bore anyone with my other PCs/laptop/server.

Motherboard: Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
Processor: AMD Athlon AM2 Dual Core 6400+
RAM: 4 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2
Video: GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512 MB GDDR3
HDD: 2 80 GB SATA 3.0 GB/s drives in a striped RAID
OS: Dual boot XP and Vista Ultimate

This should keep me going for a few years, but I always get antsy after a year and think I "need" to upgrade. Thankfully my wife understands my addictions and doesn't get tooooo angry when I "need" to upgrade.


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## naijai (Aug 19, 2006)

WERA689 said:


> I just built this computer (my first build), and I'm so happy with it, I'll probably leave it pretty much as is for a few years!


Umm you wish


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## naijai (Aug 19, 2006)

Motherboard: Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe
Processor: AMD Athlon AM2 Dual Core 6000+
RAM: 3 GB DDR2 800
Video: GeForce 8400GS<-- too impatient to wait for the 8800GTS to be restocked (9600GT coming soon)
HDD: WD 250GB internal + WD 250 GB external + Seagate 320GB 
OS:Vista Ultimate 32 bit SP1
Westinghouse 22" monitor
Thermaltake 750w modular power supply
Hauppage Tv Tuner card
2 Liteon DVD RW+/- Drives



jutley said:


> but I always get antsy after a year and think I "need" to upgrade. Thankfully my wife understands my addictions and doesn't get tooooo angry when I "need" to upgrade.


I know how you feel


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## ub1934 (Dec 30, 2005)

Earl Bonovich said:


> Neither...
> 
> I am actually amazed out how long PC's are still "powerfull" today.
> Even if they are 4-5 years old.


 Dell XPS Gen. 3 , P 4- CPU 3.4 GHZ , 2 GB Ram , 145 GB HD & Still running XP Pro


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## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

Here's my most powerful computer.










I couldn't get VISTA to run on it and Microsoft Support was of no help.

--- CHAS


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## JcT21 (Nov 30, 2004)

mine aint the latest greatest but its still fast and does what i need it to do...

main pc...

athlon 64 3800+ 2.41ghz
2gb ram dual channel
160gb wd 7200rpm boots vista hpe sp1
80 gb seagate 7200rpm boots xp pro sp3
nvidia 8400gs 256mb pci-x
nforce 4 chipset

my other pc is an old hp i got from walmart.. ive upgraded it a little over the years...

athlon xp 1800 1.53ghz
160gb wd 7200rpm
1gb pc2100 ram
ati x1300 agp
via chipset


laptop ..

dell inspiron
512mb ram
60gb hd
15.4 screen
vista home basic (upgraded from xp home)


i tend to use my laptop more often than not.. its easy and very convenient when im moving around the house while connected wireless.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

I built this PC last summer:

Asus P5B Deluxe Motherboard
Intel Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz (recent upgrade from the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 
3GB RAM
2 - Samsung Spinrite Ulta Quiet 250GB Hard Drives
1 - Samsung Spinrite Ulta Quiet 500GB Hard Drives
20X DVDR Drive
52X CDR Drive
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP
Thermaltake 700Watt Power Supply 

I plan to use this computer to work with the HDPC20, when released, as a Media Center PC and am currently planning a new computer for my working PC.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

In no particular order - running, or capable of running right now.

1) HP Media Center running an AMD 4200+ Athlon X2, 3GB RAM, 1 250GB HD with a 400GB spare, DVD-RW, DVD-ROM (two drives).

2) HP Media Center running a dual core Pentium, 1GB RAM, 200GB HD, 300GB spare, same two optical drives as in #1

3) Compaq Laptop running a 2.8GHz P4, 1GB RAM, 80 GB HD

4) Homebuilt Windows Home Server running Intel Core 2 Duo E4500, 2GB RAM, 250GB C: drive, 3TB (yes, Terabytes) shared drives, 1 DVD-RW, 1 DVD-RW/DL

The network...

- Fios coming into the house.
- Goes to a Linksys Gigabit Ethernet router with Wireless-N. Hooked to the Linksys are #2 above, a Buffalo LinkTheater DVD/Divx/Network media player, a Dell color laser printer and a wire going to the other end of the house.

At the other end:

- wire comes into a no-name switch. Hooked to the switch are:

- #1 above
- a Linksys Wireless G access point.
- 1 Buffalo Linkstation 250GB NAS
- an Xbox 360
- #4 above.

I don't have a PC.

I have a data center.


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## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

Newest:

Toshiba notebook, purchased in December from Toshiba - arrived in January 2008.
Core2Duo T7500 (2 x 2.2ghz)
4gb RAM
2 x SATA 160gb drives (5400rpm)
ATI HD2600 with 256mb PCI-E
Vista Ultimate 32bit

Desktop:
P4.0E (Prescott)
2gb RAM
3 x SATA II drives (500gb, 300gb and 500gb
2 x PATA drives (200gb, 500gb)
ATI x850 AGP with 256mb
Vista Ultimate 32 bit

Test Platform:
AMD X2 4800+
1.5gb RAM
2 x PATA drives (160gb, and 300gb)
1 x SATA II drive (500gb)
onboard graphics, ATI X200 with 128mb RAM
Vista Ultimate 64 bit
and whatever else I need to put on it at the time!
Right now: Vista Ultimate 32 bit in Japanese, Server 2003 R2 Standard 64 bit, Server 2008 Standard 64 bit

All of them have DVD-RW burner.

Two other desktops, lesser specs than those above, one running Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard 64 bit, one running Vista Ultimate 32 bit (hubby's PC). One other notebook running XP Pro, one other notebook waiting for me to get it a new graphics card.... running Vista Ultimate, but currently unable to boot due to defective graphics!!!

D-Link DIR-655 Gigabit router, desktops connected via wired, notebooks connected wirelessly with draft -n, Lexmark Optra S printer connected to network, Canon inkjets... ip6700 and ip4300 to the desktop, ip4200 to hubby's PC, ip6600 to Server (one of the other desktops), i950 to the Test platform. All PCs can print to all printers, Canon LiDE80 scanner connected to desktop, DishNetwork 311 connected to desktop. Canon SD400 and S5 IS cameras and Panasonic DV Camcorder connect when necessary!!

And you don't want to know how many boxes of PC bits I now have in the garage due to redundancy!!!


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

my brand new desktop:

XPS 420 Intel® Core2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)

Memory 3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs

Monitors 24 inch E248WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor

Video Cards nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB

Hard Drive 1TB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)

Operating System Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate

Wireless Networking and Modem Dell 1505 Wireless-N PCIe Card

Sound Cards Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

TV Tuner & Video Accelerator Xcelerator with Hauppauge HVR1250 Hybrid TV Tuner and Remote

Bluetooth Options Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth



my brand new laptop:


dell xps 1530 

Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB)

3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)

Glossy, widescreen 15.4inch LCD (1280x800) & 2.0 MP

128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS

160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate

Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card


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## HongKongPhooey (Aug 3, 2006)

Recently ordered the following parts to build a new gaming PC to replace my aging four year old beast.

Case: Antec Nine Hundred

Power Supply: Thermaltake W0131RU ATX12V / EPS12V 850W Power Supply

Motherboard: ASUS Striker II Formula LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz

CPU Fan: Thermaltake CL-P0114 120mm CPU Cooler

Memory: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB(2 x 2GB) SDRAM DDR2 1066

Video Cards: (2) EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

CD/DVD: LITE-ON Black 20X SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate

Right now I only have a 19" monitor but will be upgrading to two widescreen monitors down the road. I also have a RAZER Copperhead mouse. The only other thing I will have to upgrade will be the keyboard. For that I am looking at the Logitech G15. Will also throw in some additional hard drives down the road for storage purposes.

Hope to have all the part delivered this evening, if not will have to wait for Monday deliver.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

HongKongPhooey said:


> Recently ordered the following parts to build a new gaming PC to replace my aging four year old beast.
> 
> Case: Antec Nine Hundred
> 
> ...


Good choice of hardware... Please post updates as to your adventures with x64 drivers, want to know which ones presented no difficulties at all and which may have required effort to resolve. My next build I am contemplating as a VIsta X64 Ultimate.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

My slowest PC is a 4 yr old Thinkpad T41 laptop with just 512 MB ram and a 1.6 Ghz mobile Pentium.

To your point, Earl, it runs Firefox almost as quickly and smoothly as the 2.4 Ghz DualCore box I built last year that has 2 GB ram.

/steve


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## HongKongPhooey (Aug 3, 2006)

LarryFlowers said:


> Good choice of hardware... Please post updates as to your adventures with x64 drivers, want to know which ones presented no difficulties at all and which may have required effort to resolve. My next build I am contemplating as a VIsta X64 Ultimate.


Finally had a chance to put it all together. Didn't get all the parts until last Tuesday. Got Windows Vista installed pretty easily. The only issue I had was I could only install with one 2GB stick of RAM. Vista would not let me install with both sticks of RAM installed initially but I someone warned me about that ahead of time so as soon as I got the first BSOD I quickly took the second stick out and installation went without a hitch at that point. The only issue I had was getting the second stick of RAM back in there. The ram is PC2 8500 (1066) and I kept getting the BSOD no matter what settings I applied for the RAM in the Bios. Finally installed the Windows patch (KB929777, similar to what my friend had initially told me) that finally took care of the issue. I had Vista updated with the latest critical installs and assumed that patch was part of the update since it dates back to Feb 07 but I guess that's my fault for assuming. No problems since then. Runs great and is a lot quieter than I would have thought.

I do not have too much installed on it as of yet but so far the only issue I had was in trying to install an alpha version of Ventrilo 64bit. The program would not run at all, rather than mess around with it I deleted it and installed the 32bit supported version.

Posted some pics of the comp build here: http://theelders.net/Rich/NewPC/


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

I got cheap and lazy and when I compared buying the parts vs buying a assembled computer.  I Spent $709 on a Dell. I spend my days repairing computers, cleaning out viruses and other malware and did not feel like doing more of the same for myself. 

Q6600, 2 Gb dual channel mode memory, 320Gb drive, DVD burner, XP Home, Built-in video (you can tell I'm not a gamer). I didn't go for the Optional Video card choices or optional Sound card or 19" WS flat panel or card reader or overpriced floppy drive. changing anything is where Dell gets you. $30 for a floppy drive? huh! 

The Dell has two more open memory slots,1 - 16x PCIe slot, 1 - 1x PCIe slot, 2 PCI slots. It came with 2 Hard drive bays, 1 Available. 2 5.25" bays, one available. 1 floppy slot. 2 free SATA connections.

Of course as a Dell you can re-install XP as I prefer to do periodically without having to activate as the Dell OS disc installs it onto a Dell system pre-activated.

Some informal testing on it shows it as approx 3 time faster encoding video than my old AMD 4200+ dual core system that ran XP MCE 2005 that I did build. I put a spare 200Gb and 16X DVD Burner into that system, I paid $35 for a XP Pro license, Sold 1 GB of it's memory seperately, and sold it off @$299 for a quick sale. So my new system cost me $410 in the end. I transferred my old Antivirus and got the key to update it to the latest version. AVG Internet Security 8. It comes up much quicker than the old system that wasn't that bad a system and I still have a XP MCE2005 disc and license that I may sell off. The MCE was nice but I didn't use it that much and the capture device and remote will work with XP Home anyway.

Bottom line, it isn't flashy, however it is smaller and quieter and has 2 more USB ports than the old one. Next thing to do is run the videohelp benchmarks and see how it stacks up. Even encoding video with al four cores going it remains responsive and I can do other things.


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## mikhu (Oct 10, 2006)

I took a quick glance through the thread and I didn't see any as old and slow as mine. What some of you guys consider "slow" cracks me up!!

Dell Dimension 4400 - new in '02
P4 1.6
1 GB Ram (came with 256MB, upgraded to 512MB first and then finally to 1GB)
120 GB HD (came with 40 GB, when that died it got the 120)

It's old enough that it came with USB1.1 - I added a USB 2.0 PCI card to upgrade. 

And ya know what? I REALLY want a new PC but we are having a hard time justifying buying or building a new one, as all we mostly do is surf, email, etc. To this day it still works just fine. I even run AutoCAD and Solidworks (3D modeling) on it frequently, and those work fine too.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

Well what a computer is used for defines the need for speed. I encode video so for me the faster the better. For someone that E-Mails, Surfs the net and Word processes a P3 is fast enough.


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## Slip Jigs (Oct 20, 2006)

dave29 said:


> my brand new desktop:
> 
> XPS 420 Intel® Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
> 
> ...


I got the same system, less powerful configuration but it stilll rocks.

4G 800Mhz RAM (Yeah, I know, Vista can't use it all)
512 Video
24 inch Ultrasharp monitor
320GB HDD, 500 GB HDD non RAID
I opted for the ATI tuner and xcelerator


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## 4DThinker (Dec 17, 2006)

I just bought an iMac too. Bottom of the line, but aluminum 20" with 320gb hard drive 2 GHz Core 2 Duo.

It boots faster than any of the 3 Vista PCs in the house. I haven't done any side-by-side tests to see which would be faster, but I notice I'm spending most of my time in front of the Mac. New is good.


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

dave29 said:


> my brand new desktop:
> 
> XPS 420 Intel® Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
> 
> ...





Slip Jigs said:


> I got the same system, less powerful configuration but it stilll rocks.
> 
> 4G 800Mhz RAM (Yeah, I know, Vista can't use it all)
> 512 Video
> ...


You guys have excellent taste!

My XPS 420 is supposed to ship on the 25th:
Q6600 Quad-Core 2.4 GHz
Vista Ultimate
4GB
nVidia 8800 GT 512MB
24" E248WFP Flat Panel
750GB HD (I'll add more on my own)
Blu-ray Burner
Bluetooth Mouse & KB
Xcelerator with ATI Theater 650 Pro Combo TV Tuner/remote
3-year home service
$1944 delivered (with discount & tax)

Have the XPS M1530 also but with the T7500, 4GB and 256GB video.


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## mikhu (Oct 10, 2006)

TBoneit said:


> Well what a computer is used for defines the need for speed. I encode video so for me the faster the better. For someone that E-Mails, Surfs the net and Word processes a P3 is fast enough.


Well that IS a reason we've thought about getting new. I need to get all those old Hi-8 tapes on DVD, and using Pinnacle on that PC has been an exercise in frustration. Then again, I suspect it may just be a video card problem, not a PC speed problem.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

Actually the video card has a very minimal impact on video capture. The capture device is the key.

Have you visited www.videohelp.com ? Vey helpfull friendly people and plenty of tutorials and a library under tools of freeware, shareware or payware software with reviews. Be sure to read the rules and follow them and you will be able to get plenty of help. You should be able to do what youwant with your present system. What I used to do was get everything set and start the encoding process going at bedtime. In the morning it was done and I'd turn off the computer and go to work.


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## mikhu (Oct 10, 2006)

A while back I had asked some questions here when I couldn't get it to work. I got some good replies and ideas there, I just haven't pursued it yet. 

The first time I tried it I was using an R15 and a football game broadcast (ONLY as a test, I wasn't doing anything illegal with it Mr. FCC official!! :lol: ). The audio came through perfectly but the video was basically a bunch of freeze frames. I haven't tried working with it since then. It's more of a when I get around to it thing.


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## Slip Jigs (Oct 20, 2006)

dettxw said:


> You guys have excellent taste!
> 
> My XPS 420 is supposed to ship on the 25th:
> Q6600 Quad-Core 2.4 GHz
> ...


You were able to use the $400 ecoupon I hope? Dell hid that one pretty good on their site.


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## Slip Jigs (Oct 20, 2006)

TBoneit said:


> Actually the video card has a very minimal impact on video capture. The capture device is the key.
> 
> Have you visited www.videohelp.com ? Vey helpfull friendly people and plenty of tutorials and a library under tools of freeware, shareware or payware software with reviews. Be sure to read the rules and follow them and you will be able to get plenty of help. You should be able to do what youwant with your present system. What I used to do was get everything set and start the encoding process going at bedtime. In the morning it was done and I'd turn off the computer and go to work.


True enough. The machine requires processor power to encode, so the more the better. My first test on my new quad was a 4 minute video that took about a half hour or so to render on my older laptop. Now it's down to under 3 minutes. That makes me want to do even more video, where before it just seemed like a chore.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

when I did some informal testing my old AMD dual core 4200+ vs the new Q6600, the Q6600 was three times faster.

The big problem on laptops doing encoding is the wear and tear. Encoding runs at 100% CPU and laptop CPU fans ramp down and run as needed so encoding means the fan runs full speed for the duration.


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## dmurphy (Sep 28, 2006)

Mike Huss said:


> I took a quick glance through the thread and I didn't see any as old and slow as mine. What some of you guys consider "slow" cracks me up!!
> 
> Dell Dimension 4400 - new in '02
> P4 1.6
> ...


It's not "quite" as old as yours, but my wife's Power Mac G5 dates back to '03. She uses it for everything from web surfing to DVD authoring and everything inbetween. Still a rock-solid piece of hardware, and really darned fast too.

I'd say it's the best bang-for-buck machine we've ever had.


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

Slip Jigs said:


> You were able to use the $400 ecoupon I hope? Dell hid that one pretty good on their site.


Didn't see a "coupon" but there was a package discount of $600 on the system on top of the Employee Purchase Plan 26% discount (my company is a big customer). Now how real is that "discount"? Who can say, Dell changes pricing regularly. :lol: 
If there was a $400 coupon it's likely that it wouldn't have stacked with the EPP discount coupon. 
Used to have inside info when a kiddo worked at Dell but now he's at OU.


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## Tyrnal (Mar 21, 2008)

Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz
1GB DDR2 667
835GB Total Hard Drive space
nVidia GeForce 8500GT
Acer 19" Widescreen Monitor

Going to be upgrading the ram to about 3GB here shortly (as soon as I get the go-ahead from the wife:lol: )


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## Pinion413 (Oct 21, 2007)

Well, since I just had to overhaul this thing due to a defective motherboard, I may as well post the new system specs. 

Self-built rig. Dual-booted. Running both Windows XP Professional - Service Pack 2 (x86) and Vista Ultimate - Service Pack 1 (x64).

Antec Nine-Hundred ATX Case
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66 GHz) Dual-Core CPU
4GB (2x2GB) OCZ Reaper HPC Edition DDR2 RAM (PC6400)
2.2TB Hard Disk space (Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung 320 GB's and 500GB's)
eVGA (nVidia) 512MB 8600GT Video Card (w/HDCP)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum eX Sound Card with Out-Box (THX Certified)
(2) Lite-On 20x DVD+-R/W DVD/CD Burners w/Lightscribe
Samsung 226BW 22" (1680x1050) LCD Monitor (w/HDCP)
Logitech Z2300 2.1 Speaker System (THX Certified)


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