****your big rig specs******

[J888www]

After 5-6 Months of choosing the components, the 1st. attempt was a disaster. The system was running too hot, so I has to order a case top cover with a 140mm fan outlet, had problems with product availability. Then thought the Corsair H50 CPU cooler wasn't as good as the reviews stated, so replaced it. Finally, I was happy after I got those aluminium case feet (silly old fool with his little details). Skimped on the monitor though, really wanted a IPS 24", but decided that my failing eye-sight would not notice that much difference.
All in all, I'm happy it, but probably not for long as I have too much time atm.

[Dezeer]

I7 920 @ 4Ghz Megahalems with 2 x GT 1450 @ 7V

P6T Deluxe V2

OCZ 1600 Gold 6GB

5850 have got MK-13 but hadn't had the time to install.

F3 1TB

Seasonic x-650

Fractal design

And on coming I have ZR24W


Computer is quite quiet, but not noiseless.

[Phaedrus2129]

Hm, wonder why I haven't posted here.


Asus P5Q Pro
Core 2 Quad Q9550 @3.4GHz
4GB OCZ DDR2 1066
Thermaltake V1 CPU heatsink
Sapphire Radeon HD4870 1GB
Corsair TX750
Antec 900
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB
Western Digital Caviar 320GB
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer

And for peripherals:
Samsung SyncMaster 205BW
Acer AL1916W
JVC RX700 headphones (modded)
Logitech G500
Cherry G80-8200LPDUS

[zwmalone]

The Web Development firm I work for supplied me with a new system (How nice)...

Now I'm rolling with a MacBook Pro
2.5GHz Core2Duo,
4GB of RAM
250GB HD
GeForce 8600GT 512MB
17" 1680x1050 IPS LCD
DVD+RW
Mac OS X 10.6.3

Sooo much better than the single core Toshiba from before...

[gr1m]

CM 690
Corsair VX550
Gigabyte 790XT-UD4P
Phenom II X3 720 @ 3.7GHz/1.55V
4GB G.Skill 1333MHz/7-8-7-20
640GB Caviar Black + 400GB Deskstar
XFX 4890 @ 990/1100/1.35V

[Morning Song]

These are my specs

[instantkamera]

- some core2duo, 4 GB, 250GB Dell POS that work provides for my job w/ dual 19" TN panels.

- "server": old amd x2 3000+ or some ****, 3 gigs of RAM (had 4 in dual chan but a stick died and it sits idle 99.99999% of the time anyway) with two 500GB-ish drives.

- macbook: c2d @ 2.4, 4GB, 160GB - gave it away to my wife.

-hp mini: atom proc, 2GB, slow ass IDE HDD - on loan as my photo machine right now from the wife I gave the macbook to.

-PVA Viewsonic. aged, time to trade up. Sitting in a box in storage.

-keyboards in sig

-logitech trackball POS (still better than a mouse atm)

-i1display2 - POFS, so was the huey pro. Don't buy x-rite products.

That is the computing monstrosity that rules most aspects of my life at present.

Working on a proper x6 build w/ new dell IPS panel, going to send most of this **** out to pasture (save the mini - slow but so awesome and cute).

[British]

These are my specs

Show Image

OK then, this is my Riggs...

[wap32]

My "server"/desktop rig at home:

Chieftec mid-tower case w/ 4x 80mm Noiseblocker fans
OEM 550W PSU (yeah, I should really buy something decent)
AMD Athlon X2 3800+ w/ Zalman 7700-CU
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
2GB Corsair XMS DDR PC4000 (2x1GB)
3TB RAID5 array w/ 3x 1.5TB Seagate HDDs
640GB RAID0 array w/ 2x 320GB WD HDDs
Radeon HD5450 512MB fanless
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
Pinnacle analogue TV card

peripherals:
20" Samsung 205BW (1680x1050)
17" Eizo L567 (1280x1024)
AKG K-601 headphones (w/o amp for now)
Razer Lachesis
Compaq MX-11800 (on it's way)

Not much of a rig, but it's fine for what I need, and doesn't make much noise.

For everything else I use my ThinkPad T61.

[Phaedrus2129]

I may start using my Antec High Current Pro 1200W engineering sample as my PSU and sell my TX750. I mean, my computer draws less than 350W, but I could use some cash and I can't sell the ES. Plus it's supposed to be 92% efficient from 100 - 800W.

Also may be getting a free sample of the P183 case.

It's nice having computer cred.

[microsoft windows]

I bought out a tag sale they had at work where they got rid of their old computers. Bought a bunch for $10 a piece and made this:

3.2Ghz Pentium 4 (Prescott)
2.38GB of RAM
80GB hard disk

They had a nice IBM CRT there too. It ran at 1600x1200 at 85Hz. But I let a friend take it.

[ch_123]

How did you get .38GB of RAM?

[microsoft windows]

I fished a couple 1GB sticks out of other computers, and also put in a 256 and a 128. It all adds up to 2.38GB.

[vyshane]

Current gen 27" iMac (Core i7).

[instantkamera]

How did you get .38GB of RAM?

clearly you have never had a slot 1 pentium II - III with 384MB of ram

[Pylon]

Current:

Some old HP Pavillion from 2002

P4 1.7GHz (Willamette)
768MB PC133 RAM
Nvidia Riva TNT2 32MB
80GB hard disk
Ubuntu Linux 10.04

[niplfsh]

Liquid cooled i7-860 @ 3.8GHz / 1.33V
Asus P7P55D-E Pro mobo
8GB G.Skill ECO DDR3-1600
Radeon 5850
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
80GB Intel X25M SSD
3 spinning disks totaling 2.64TB
Hauppauge HVR-2250 tuner card
Coolermaster HAF922M case with custom handles and smoked plexiglass window mod

[gr1m]

Liquid cooled i7-860 @ 3.8GHz / 1.33V
Asus P7P55D-E Pro mobo
8GB G.Skill ECO DDR3-1600
Radeon 5850
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
80GB Intel X25M SSD
3 spinning disks totaling 2.64TB
Hauppauge HVR-2250 tuner card
Coolermaster HAF922M case with custom handles and smoked plexiglass window mod

Surely you can push the CPU higher?

[niplfsh]

Surely you can push the CPU higher?

Yeah, I've gotten it to 4.2 mostly stable, but had to push voltage past 1.4 and disable hyperthreading to get there.  3.8 is a good everyday speed with a reasonable voltage. I do want the thing to last a couple years

[gr1m]

I always thought the amount of voltage you push through your CPU does nothing to affect the CPU's operating lifetime as long as your temps are under control. Also, people I know that use i7s always disable HT for the higher clocks. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Nice rig anyway, want to post some pictures? I'd like to see that modded 922.

[gr1m]

Maybe I should back down from my 1.55V? It's been running like this for a year. Phenom IIs can handle it though.

[niplfsh]

I've heard it both ways... that voltage degrades the components, and that you're fine as long as the heat is under control.  I'm not sure who to believe, so better safe than sorry I guess.  Anyway, I have no need for such "extreme" speeds except for bragging rights. Even 3.8 is more than enough.  I really just watercooled for the fun and experience of it.  

I'll try to get some pics up in the next day or two.  It's about time I took the thing apart and gave it a good dusting anyway.

[EverythingIBM]

Overvolting anything, even with proper cooling, can still reduce operating life (read: damage components). It isn't something you should do if you're hoping to pull 10-15 years out of your components (which is an uncommon goal, but certainly mine).

Hey! That's my goal too -- except I want 50 years.

clearly you have never had a slot 1 pentium II - III with 384MB of ram

Uhhh... there were pentium 1 computers that had 384 MB of RAM (three slots with 128 sticks).

[instantkamera]

Hey! That's my goal too -- except I want 50 years.



Uhhh... there were pentium 1 computers that had 384 MB of RAM (three slots with 128 sticks).

uuuhhhh ... really??? So I should have listed every socket/slot, cpu and 384MB-of-ram combination EVER to avoid the obvious troll? Duly noted.

[EverythingIBM]

uuuhhhh ... really??? So I should have listed every socket/slot, cpu and 384MB-of-ram combination EVER to avoid the obvious troll? Duly noted.

I never said that.

You could have simply said older generation computers that utilize 386 RAM (most commonly with three RAM slots because it's an uneven amount). Otherwise it seems like you're solely associating it to pentium 2 & 3 computers. I had an AMD computer that had 384.

[ch_123]

Does HT affect overclocking?

All I know is that some things really don't take well to being run with HT on, and consequently people disable it.

[EverythingIBM]

Does HT affect overclocking?

All I know is that some things really don't take well to being run with HT on, and consequently people disable it.

My stupid Pentium 4 likes to turn off HT after awhile (so good luck even trying to make it stay on). I noticed ZERO extra performance, it's just a marketing gag in an attempt to sell as much Pentium 4 chips in its last life cycle before intel pulled the plug on it.

I'm surprised HT is being kept alive in the newer intel chips. It does absolutely nothing.

EDIT: I think it's just best to leave it off. Whether you're overclocking or not.

[Phaedrus2129]

HT does very little for the average consumer. It only helps with what Gr1m called "megatasking"--very compute-intensive, multi-parallel tasks, like batch audio encoding, HD video rendering, distributed computing projects, heavy virtualization, etc.

HT helped a bit with late-generation Pentium 4s, as it helped fill their 20-36 stage instruction pipeline, which is nigh impossible to fill under ordinary use. But it only helped when running at least two compute-heavy tasks at once, otherwise it did nothing.

[ch_123]

The newer iteration of Hyper Threading is reputedly much better than the one used on Pentium 4s.

It depends on what applications you are using.

[EverythingIBM]

The newer iteration of Hyper Threading is reputedly much better than the one used on Pentium 4s.

It depends on what applications you are using.

I hardly think intel is going to bother changing much. It's the same bull**** in the P4s.

I've used many different applications, audio exporting, video exporting, 3D graphics exporting... runs all the same. Unless I'm supposed to run them all at once, which would be kind of stupid... then they'd all go slower unanimously, so even if it improved intensive tasks, it would end up going slower if you were forced to run multiple things for it to actually work!

[ch_123]

HT does very little for the average consumer. It only helps with what Gr1m called "megatasking"--very compute-intensive, multi-parallel tasks, like batch audio encoding, HD video rendering, distributed computing projects, heavy virtualization, etc.

HT helped a bit with late-generation Pentium 4s, as it helped fill their 20-36 stage instruction pipeline, which is nigh impossible to fill under ordinary use. But it only helped when running at least two compute-heavy tasks at once, otherwise it did nothing.

Furthermore, it depends on the different tasks using different parts of the CPU. It's really more useful for servers that consumer machines.

[niplfsh]

They seem to have improved HT in the i7 chips... I've seen tests with HT on vs. HT off showing fairly significant gains.  One thing I do a lot is encode DVDs into x264, and with HT on my computer just blows right through them.  

It can affect overclocking at high speeds, the chips are more stable with it disabled.

[ch_123]

I hardly think intel is going to bother changing much. It's the same bull**** in the P4s.

Given how different the respective CPU architectures are, I don't they could have if they wanted to.

[instantkamera]

I never said that.

You could have simply said older generation computers that utilize 386 RAM (most commonly with three RAM slots because it's an uneven amount). Otherwise it seems like you're solely associating it to pentium 2 & 3 computers. I had an AMD computer that had 384.

It should have "seemed" like a light-hearted jest that was really not about anything that matters at all. Apparently anything looks like troll-bait to a troll...

[williamjoseph]

someone be troll'n, but that is the second reason of the existance of geekhack.org

[instantkamera]

someone be troll'n, but that is the second reason of the existance of geekhack.org

first ... second is some BS about ... keyboards, I think.

[williamjoseph]

instantkamera, sweet avatar.

[instantkamera]

instantkamera, sweet avatar.

011011000110100101101011011001010111011101101001
011100110110010100101100001000000111011101101001
011011000110110001101001011000010110110101101010
011011110111001101100101011100000110100000101110

[microsoft windows]

Hey! That's my goal too -- except I want 50 years.



Uhhh... there were pentium 1 computers that had 384 MB of RAM (three slots with 128 sticks).

Do you use low-density sticks?

[EverythingIBM]

Do you use low-density sticks?

I never really paid attention to that actually.

The 128 sticks have eight modules per side (double-sided), so, that'd be 128/16 = 8. I'd say that's pretty low density... sixteen "8MB" modules per stick.

My OCZ DDR400 RAM is plated with a heatsink, so I can't see how many modules it has. My stupid intellistation ECC sticks are 8-sided, so that'd be 1024/16 equalling to 64.

[microsoft windows]

Those sound like low density sticks. I got a few old 64's but they were high density (4 16MB modules per stick) and they didn't work in my Gateway2000. I gotta get myself some low density sticks sometime.

[EverythingIBM]

Those sound like low density sticks. I got a few old 64's but they were high density (4 16MB modules per stick) and they didn't work in my Gateway2000. I gotta get myself some low density sticks sometime.

Does your gateway use 3.3V EDO sticks? If so, I've got plenty to spare.

[microsoft windows]

I don't know exactly. Never bothered to take that good of a look at them.

[EverythingIBM]

I don't know exactly. Never bothered to take that good of a look at them.

Well I read the manuals to all my computers, so I know. Most RAM sticks don't have sufficient information to tell you (just a bunch of random numbers). Interestingly enough MITSUBISHI out of all companies made the little memory modules for the 128 kingston EDO sticks.

But I take it support for the gateway 2000 has long been ceased.

[niplfsh]

Finally got around to taking this beast down for cleaning, so here's pics as promised:

[EverythingIBM]

Finally got around to taking this beast down for cleaning, so here's pics as promised:

Show Image

While nice hardware, the case looks so busy. A more minimalistic one would be better suiting:

[Phaedrus2129]

Agreed. An Antec rep gave me the choice between their new Dark Fleet cases (ugh). I asked for a P183 instead (better). I can't stand the chunky tank-tread look of the HAF series and their imitators.

[niplfsh]

Actually, I agree with you. I'm coming from a P180, and I'm a fan of the minimalistic style.  I would've bought that ATCS840 if it existed when I bought my case. That's a nice looking case. But the 922 fit my needs and was on sale for $70.

[Phaedrus2129]

What's your opinion on the P180? The P183 looks to be an evolution on that theme.

[gr1m]

I helped my friend build a rig in a P182 (I think... gunmetal gray exterior). Inside was cute with the chambers and all but it was kinda expensive for such a lackluster appearance. It looks much nicer than my CM690, but for $60, I'll never regret it. It's like a mini-HAF except it looks less gay on the exterior (interior cable management is almost as BAMF as a HAF 932 - not a 922).