Geek Thread

[Tru2Chevy]

Since we were taking over the x-mas list thread, we'll move here....

Current boxen:

AMD Athlon 1700+ on a gigabyte board - Main system
PIII 700 (OCed to 817) on an MSI board - file server

Powerbook G4 (1.33 Ghz, 1.25 GB RAM, 60GB hdd) - new toy
Acer PIII 650, 256 mb RAM - only working PC laptop
Toshiba Portege PIII 600 - busted LCD
NEC 486DX2 - old tuning laptop, dead 500MB hdd

System I'm building (tentative parts list):

Abit KN8 Ultra 939 MoBo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core
AOpen GeForce 6800GT 256mb vRAM, PCI Express x16
2x 1GB sticks of Corsair pc3200
WD Raptor 74GB hdd for OS and Apps

2x Samsung 940b 19" LCDs

Should be a fun system to play with :)

- Justin

[BigAls87Z28]

Ok, question for the nerds.

I want to add more mem and a larger hard drive to my Dell here.
Can anyone tell me what type of stuff should I be looking for? Are there any specific I need to buy? Are there certain types of stuff I can only put in my computer? I feel like a newb on TGO asking "what are some good headers?"

[96ImpSS]

Since we were taking over the x-mas list thread, we'll move here....

Current boxen:

AMD Athlon 1700+ on a gigabyte board - Main system
PIII 700 (OCed to 817) on an MSI board - file server

Powerbook G4 (1.33 Ghz, 1.25 GB RAM, 60GB hdd) - new toy
Acer PIII 650, 256 mb RAM - only working PC laptop
Toshiba Portege PIII 600 - busted LCD
NEC 486DX2 - old tuning laptop, dead 500MB hdd

System I'm building (tentative parts list):

Abit KN8 Ultra 939 MoBo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core
AOpen GeForce 6800GT 256mb vRAM, PCI Express x16
2x 1GB sticks of Corsair pc3200
WD Raptor 74GB hdd for OS and Apps

2x Samsung 940b 19" LCDs

Should be a fun system to play with :)

- Justin

I imagine you won't get all of that for christmas, you'll have to buy some of it yourself? And you still have to pick up some random car parts right?
Since when did you start knocking off banks?

[12secondv6]

My computer has a neon light!

[Savage_Messiah]

2jz b16 word?!?!??!!!????

[Tru2Chevy]

I imagine you won't get all of that for christmas, you'll have to buy some of it yourself? And you still have to pick up some random car parts right?
Since when did you start knocking off banks?

Not asking for any actual parts for christmas, just gift certs to newegg.com. Too much of a chance for someone to order the wrong part.

All that I listed (not including the monitors) is right around $1,100 with tax and shipping. I can handle that, since I haven't spent a great deal of money on computer parts trying to keep up with the best of the best for the last 5 years. I haven't purchased and built an entire system for myself since the PIII 700 I got in August 2000, before college.

I already got one of the monitors - a refurb for $70 off the original price. Should be here tomorrow or Wednesday :D

- Justin

[Tru2Chevy]

Ok, question for the nerds.

I want to add more mem and a larger hard drive to my Dell here.
Can anyone tell me what type of stuff should I be looking for? Are there any specific I need to buy? Are there certain types of stuff I can only put in my computer? I feel like a newb on TGO asking "what are some good headers?"

What Dell system do you have? You can go on their website and they will tell you what kind of RAM you need, and I think they tell you how much your computer can support as well. Hard drive would be an easy addition, depending on which case your dell is in.

- Justin

[Savage_Messiah]

Not asking for any actual parts for christmas, just gift certs to newegg.com. Too much of a chance for someone to order the wrong part.

All that I listed (not including the monitors) is right around $1,100 with tax and shipping. I can handle that, since I haven't spent a great deal of money on computer parts trying to keep up with the best of the best for the last 5 years. I haven't purchased and built an entire system for myself since the PIII 700 I got in August 2000, before college.

I already got one of the monitors - a refurb for $70 off the original price. Should be here tomorrow or Wednesday :D

- Justin

August 2000 I was getting ready to start high school :p

[jims69camaro]

System I'm building (tentative parts list):

Abit KN8 Ultra 939 MoBo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core
AOpen GeForce 6800GT 256mb vRAM, PCI Express x16
2x 1GB sticks of Corsair pc3200
WD Raptor 74GB hdd for OS and Apps

2x Samsung 940b 19" LCDs

Should be a fun system to play with :)

- Justin

what's the front side bus (FSB) on that MoBo? i'd like to hear at least 800MHz.

oh, and a quick return to basics: the machine is only as fast as its slowest link in the chain. it's usually the FSB, and on the machine i am on currently, it's only 100Mhz, which is why when i upgraded the memory i went with PC100 instead of 400.

and the funny thing about Rambus was that they had multiple FSBs, which made it seem like it was faster than a normal computer with a single FSB. in actuality, they clocked about the same. two FSBs running at 400MHz is actually slower than one bus at 800MHz.

you said it was the geek thread, so i am cutting loose.

[jims69camaro]

Ok, question for the nerds.

I want to add more mem and a larger hard drive to my Dell here.
Can anyone tell me what type of stuff should I be looking for? Are there any specific I need to buy? Are there certain types of stuff I can only put in my computer? I feel like a newb on TGO asking "what are some good headers?"

download and run Belarc Advisor. it'll tell you what you have in your machine, and you can go from there.

[Pampered-Z]

Justin,

I only know details to that level about my car!

Towers:

Newest one is an HP something with lots of cool stuff that I don't know how to use. And it has a real big flat screen, and big loud speakers.

Then there is now older one, another HP with only some cool stuff, most of which I can use, and it has a smaller screen and smaller speakers.

Then there is the real old Compaq 1.3 Gig processor with 16' monitor and little speakers. You can play Solitaire or Hearts on it!

Notepads:

IBM T23 Stinkpad I use for work. No cool stuff, but I can use all of it.

My trusty old Compaq Lite (126 mhz) I use to scan and tune my car. Has DOS, DIACOM, TTS and tunercats, and of course,,, Solitaire!

Sony Vio - broken - just over 3 years old and and where the power cord plugs into the mother board broke. Sony want almost as much to fix as I can buy a new one for! ( won't by from them again ).

So what's my geek rating?????

[Brando56894]

didnt know that about rambus, then again it was always too expensive compared to SD for my blood.

heres my system that i built around 2000 or 2001:
21" Dell WXGA (widescreen) LCD monitor $600 (i got it for free cuz they messed up my dads order :D )
Asus P4C80-E Deluxe MoBo (ICH5R i believe, integrated SATA, the whole nine yards)
P4 2.4 GHZ 533 FSB (hopefully i get a 3 GHZ 800 FSB p4 for christmas, all the newer ones are so damn expensive)
2x256 mb DDR RAM dual channel config, gonna add another 2x256 cuz kde needs more memory :D
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 (was supposed to be a Pro but i was dumb and didnt read what i was ordering, no wonder it was only $50 :rolleyes: )
Plextor DVD-R/RW +/- burner max 4x (piece of ****, never buying a plextor again)
LG CD-R/RW Burner max 48x (i think) DVD-ROM
80 GB Western Digital 8mb buffer
80 GB Maxtor Diamondmax +9 SATA 8 mb buffer
Klipsch 2.1 Surround Sound

as you can see i havent updated it in awhile, most of my money now is goin into my car.

[79CamaroDiva]

Justin, I'll take that PB off your hands if you get bored with it!!

I too have a PowerBook G4, 1.5gHz, 1.25 gb RAM, SuperDrive, 80 GB internal, 250 gb external and 800 mb/s wireless :)

[Brando56894]

Justin, I'll take that PB off your hands if you get bored with it!!

peanut butter is easy to get bored with, its not that much fun to play with. ive tried it before :rolleyes:

[79CamaroDiva]

peanut butter is easy to get bored with, its not that much fun to play with. ive tried it before :rolleyes:

so your saying he might get bored with it and pass it over?

[Frosty]

Rambus=teh suck

[Brando56894]

so your saying he might get bored with it and pass it over?

possibly, then you'll get bored of it and pass it on to sum1 else....

[enRo]

I bought my Sony Vaio in June 2005 ... since then I elimanted the integrated Intel Graphix and threw in a 256MB ATI Raedon X700xp PCI-E slightly overclocked, a Kingston PC3200 512MB DDR chip, and an extra 200GB drive bringing me up to a total of 1536MB Ram and 400GB of space :-D . Its a 3.2GHz HTT Pentium 4 (my first and last Pentium), DVD-R 2x-layer / DVD+-RW, running Windows XP Media Center 2005 with TV Tuner . I dont plan on upgrading anytime soon.

[Tru2Chevy]

Jim, that mobo and cpu are both 1Ghz FSB :)

John, go learn how to use the cool toys, or get me a job over in Z with you guys and your Geek Rating will skyrocket.

Melissa, sorry, I really am starting to like this new toy. Its the first time that I have really been able to use OS X, and I like it (running 10.4.3). There are some things I'm trying to get used to (lack of second trackpad button being the most notable), but I think I'm gonna hold onto it for awhile. Now if only I could afford FCP I would be a very happy camper....

- Justin

- Justin

[79CamaroDiva]

well uhh, justin... for a small fee, i might just happen to have a copy of fcp... or no fee, but whats in it for me? free dyno day? ;)

[Tru2Chevy]

well uhh, justin... for a small fee, i might just happen to have a copy of fcp... or no fee, but whats in it for me? free dyno day? ;)

We will have to speak about this in more detail.... :)

- Justin

[Brando56894]

Jim, that mobo and cpu are both 1Ghz FSB :)

dude thats awesome, never thought id see a 1ghz FSB, then then again idk much about 64 bit processors, ive been out of the loop....

[Tru2Chevy]

dude thats awesome, never thought id see a 1ghz FSB, then then again idk much about 64 bit processors, ive been out of the loop....

The 1Ghz FSB is cool, but the best part of that CPU is the fact that it's a dual core. Basically it's like 2 CPUs in one, for way cheaper than a standard dual CPU setup. And it will automatically utilize both cores, unlike a dual cpu system which needs software written for it in order to make good use of both chips. The dual core processessors are the kings of multi-tasking.

- Justin

[its Jeanne-Marie]

geeks.

[Brando56894]

The 1Ghz FSB is cool, but the best part of that CPU is the fact that it's a dual core. Basically it's like 2 CPUs in one, for way cheaper than a standard dual CPU setup. And it will automatically utilize both cores, unlike a dual cpu system which needs software written for it in order to make good use of both chips. The dual core processessors are the kings of multi-tasking.

- Justin

yea ive read a lil about them, how much is the processor?

geeks.

dirty whore :twisted:

[BigAls87Z28]

my brain exploded sometime after Jim's post.

[Tru2Chevy]

yea ive read a lil about them, how much is the processor?

$325: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562

- Justin

[foff667]

2 emachines home computers 1 w/ 2.2ghz celeron 1 w/ 1.8ghz sempron FTW

[foff667]

matt should jump into this thread...the two laptops he has are state of the art ;)

[jims69camaro]

matt should jump into this thread...the two laptops he has are state of the art ;)

is that state of the art now, or last week? 'cause you know architecture, processor speed, max RAM, etc. are all relative... if it's more than a week old than it's not state of the art. that's what sucked so bad about my computer. i waited and waited and waited and figured i might as well pull the trigger and buy. one week later to the day they introduced the K7. moneygrabbers. back then there was no such thing as a $400 computer, even if it was loaded with six-month-old architecture.

i have a 5.25 and a 3.5 floppy in my box. tell me that ain't ancient history. legacy, i think they call it... :mrgreen:

[Brando56894]

5.25! :kneeslap: yea i ordered ASUSs top p4 board when i was building my computer buy the time i got it they had already produced like 1 or 2 more, damn thing was backordered for like a month. back in the day(95-96) my dads old computer was state of the art. get read for this:

3.5 GB 5200rpm HDD
16x cd-rom
64 or 128mb of sdram
2mb video ram! (now thats a ****load of vram! :lol: )
200mhz pentium processor

[foff667]

is that state of the art now, or last week? 'cause you know architecture, processor speed, max RAM, etc. are all relative... if it's more than a week old than it's not state of the art. that's what sucked so bad about my computer. i waited and waited and waited and figured i might as well pull the trigger and buy. one week later to the day they introduced the K7. moneygrabbers. back then there was no such thing as a $400 computer, even if it was loaded with six-month-old architecture.

i have a 5.25 and a 3.5 floppy in my box. tell me that ain't ancient history. legacy, i think they call it... :mrgreen:

i think one of matts laptops that he bought from prevost was like 70mhz...i sold him mine that was like 150mhz er something mmx chip. My daughters new emachines computer doesnt have any floppies...a bunch of usb's, cdrw/dvd player, flash chip slots.

[Savage_Messiah]

holy crap i just read page one and now i have a splitting headache

[Brando56894]

i had a 25mhz gateway :)

[Tru2Chevy]

i had a 25mhz gateway :)

My first computer was a home-built 286 @ 22Mhz with 4 mb of RAM and a 40 MB hard drive.

Then upgraded to a 486DX2 @ 45 Mhz, 16 mb or RAM and a 500 MB hard drive.

Then straight to a PI 266 with 64 mb of RAM and 6.4 GB hard drive.

- Justin

[jims69camaro]

alright, enough with the legacy stuff. i wanna hear about the new stuff! gotta get ideas, i'll probably be building a system in a month or so (this one is really getting to be a drag, i can't even play C&C Generals or Doom3).

[Tru2Chevy]

I just got the first of my new monitors. Samsung 940b 19" LCD, 8ms B-W-B response time. Looks great, and performance is even better. Now I can't wait to build the new system (because I'm beggining to feel like Jim....)

- Justin

[Brando56894]

:kneeslap: 40mb HDD!! yea i figured im about a year or less im gonna rebuild my computer and get the dual core amd 3800+, thing is to use it id pretty much have to buy all new internals (ram, mobo, possibly a better video card) since the amd wont fit my p4 socket 478 :lol: im feelin 1gb of DDR 2 :D kubuntu breezy 64 here i come! :D
im thinkin about these boards, ive always loved ASUS's Mobos, never used anything else.. AMD 64 boards (http://www.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=3&l2=15)

[Tru2Chevy]

im thinkin about these boards, ive always loved ASUS's Mobos, never used anything else.. AMD 64 boards (http://www.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=3&l2=15)

If you've never played with an AMD system before, you should really enjoy it. I used to use strictly MSI boards, but I've had some trouble with their first revision stuff so I look around a lot more now. Asus boards are usually nice, but they have their little anoyances too (like their ****** northbridge fans that they replace for free, but don't fix on new boards). I haven't deceided exactly what board to get, final decision will be made in a few months.

- Justin

[Tsar]

i got a dell :w00t:

[camaroracer1992]

damn i do pcs all day at work and this thread even gave me aheadache!!!!! my pc at work is sweet as **** 3.8 ghz dual processor, 2gb ram, 2 20 ultra sharp flat panels and dual dvd burners hehe

[Brando56894]

yea i just got a 3.2ghz p4 for christmas with an abit mobo, which my dad is pretty pissed off about the whole thing. the dude said it was brand new and my dad bought it (off of him through ebay, the dude lives in philly), when my dad got it the box was beat to hell, dusty and full of cochroach **** and 2 live ones! then he got another box which included the processor/heatsink and fan, not in a intel box like it said it was, just thrown in a packing box. this dude must of just thrown some **** together that he had laying around cuz the heatsink wont even fit the board! the board must be kinda old cuz it says its the best p4 board manufactured at that time. i doesnt even have integrated video or 1gb ethernet! :lol: so right now im just using the processor, which i overclocked to a nice 3.51 ghz :D (as opposed to 3.2 ghz) wonder how high i can get it before it starts going crazy (ex. infinite boot loops, ive done that before when i OC'd my 2.4 to 3 ghz :D easy to fix since Asus has CPR cpu parameter recall, when it screws up it brings you into the bios settings so u can reset it)

[jims69camaro]

sweet: C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
When the system hangs due to overclocking failure, there is no need to open the case to clear CMOS data. Just simply restart the system, the BIOS would show the previous setting and then users can amend the CPU setting again.

:evil: :twisted: :evil:

[Brando56894]

CPR is great! :D :D i love it...

[jims69camaro]

outside of when i bought it, i don't think the case has been back on. i have my auxillary fans blowing right on the mobo across the video board.

[Savage_Messiah]

brandon dont waste your money on this crap if you wanna follow up on that pipe dream of beating me ;)

[WayFast84]

all I know is I have a cable modem and its still slow!

[Brando56894]

brandon dont waste your money on this crap if you wanna follow up on that pipe dream of beating me ;)

believe me this is nothin bro.... :-) this is what i did before i had a nice car that was worthwile to do something to... and yea ill kick you ass sooner or later....

[jims69camaro]

regarding power supply: i was told that a 300W power supply is like the bare minimum. what would be optimum? 1000W? 1200W? 1800W? outside of the things already listed, i will probably get a soundblaster or equivelent sound board and SOA AGP video graphics board, probably some USB peripherals, probably the two drives i have now and another 120 or 200GB drive, etc.

[Tru2Chevy]

If you are on a budget, something like this would be nice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817182004

If not, grab pretty much any Antec, Enermax, or Enlight with 400+ watts and good amperage on each of the 3.3, 5, and 12 volt rails.

- Justin