September monthly poll

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I think i've had my computer for about 4 years now, i'm not sure.

Apart from some RAM upgrades, new fans, new video card, new HD and processor (all over the past 4 years), this thing has been great.

[Richenstony]

I dont wanna explain it all again...

[James_Goku]

I've had Max (I call him Max on the account its a Mac) for about a good 3 months to commemorate my 13th birthday. This in it self came all in good timing as I can finally play MMOs legally again*. Stupid COPPA. Anyway this is the third computer in the family and I have claimed it as my own lol. If only I could upgrade parts with less hassle. I was thinking of putting a new graphics card in but I can't find anyone who will touch it because its a Mac. Why does Techno-God hate me so!

Tally Ho! Jamez.

*When I started playing computer games COPPA wasn't recognized till AFTER I joined. Got me in trouble with multiple gaming accounts.

[street1 (RIP)]

I dont wanna explain it all again...

Salute!!!

[unlovedwarrior]

i call mine the spartan god, becuase i built it the day 300 came out in theater.

--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

    Version                                           EVEREST v2.20.405
    Homepage                                          http://www.lavalys.com/
    Report Type                                       Report Wizard
    Computer                                          IVAN-5DB7DF6D2D
    Generator                                         ivan
    Operating System                                  Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
    Date                                              2007-09-09
    Time                                              17:13


--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Computer:
      Operating System                                  Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
      OS Service Pack                                   Service Pack 2
      DirectX                                           4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
      Computer Name                                     IVAN
      User Name                                         ivan

    Motherboard:
      CPU Type                                          Unknown, 2000 MHz
      Motherboard Name                                  Unknown
      Motherboard Chipset                               Unknown
      System Memory                                     2048 MB
      BIOS Type                                         AMI (10/26/06)

    Display:
      Video Adapter                                     NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS  (256 MB)
      Monitor                                           Gateway EV700  [17" CRT]  (LIC13304630)

    Multimedia:
      Audio Adapter                                     Realtek HD Audio output

    Storage:
      IDE Controller                                    NVIDIA MCP61 Serial ATA Controller
      IDE Controller                                    Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
      Disk Drive                                        WDC WD3200KS-00PFB0  (298 GB, IDE)
      Disk Drive                                        WDC WD800JD-75MSA3  (74 GB, IDE)
      Optical Drive                                     Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170A
      SMART Hard Disks Status                           OK

    Partitions:
      C: (NTFS)                                         76285 MB (39234 MB free)
      D: (NTFS)                                         305234 MB (233877 MB free)
      Total Size                                        372.6 GB (266.7 GB free)

    Input:
      Keyboard                                          Easy Internet Keyboard
      Mouse                                             Logitech-compatible Mouse PS/2

    Network:
      Network Adapter                                   Compact Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with SpeedBooster 
      Network Adapter                                   NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller

    Peripherals:
      Printer                                           Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
      Printer                                           Microsoft XPS Document Writer
      USB1 Controller                                   Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller [NoDB]
      USB2 Controller                                   Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller [NoDB]
      USB Device                                        Compact Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with SpeedBooster

[Zylstra]

Ivan: (UnlovedWarrior)
Does your nVidia graphics card use any of the computers physical RAM? My 7300 Go Series nVidia card does, about 100MB's, which isnt bad, but I thought it was odd, since it already has 256MB built in

[unlovedwarrior]

not sure...

[GX44]

What's a word for small but powerful?

Not really a word for it, but your description reminds me of a Wolverine. Small animals but surprisingly strong. (not that I've had personal experience of this )

...Plus, Wolverine was always my faveourite X-Man.

[Calum]

Ivan: (UnlovedWarrior)
Does your nVidia graphics card use any of the computers physical RAM? My 7300 Go Series nVidia card does, about 100MB's, which isnt bad, but I thought it was odd, since it already has 256MB built in

The 7600GS does not use TurboCache (system memory).
Many mobile cards do now use system RAM to supplement their own VRAM, especially lower-end cards like the 7300 Go.

[Zylstra]

Ivan: (UnlovedWarrior)
Does your nVidia graphics card use any of the computers physical RAM? My 7300 Go Series nVidia card does, about 100MB's, which isnt bad, but I thought it was odd, since it already has 256MB built in

The 7600GS does not use TurboCache (system memory).
Many mobile cards do now use system RAM to supplement their own VRAM, especially lower-end cards like the 7300 Go.

Aww, mines lower-end? Dang.
Well, good enough for me. I was told not to get the ATI card

[Calum]

The 3 indicates how high in the series it is.
7100, 7200, 7300, 7400, 7600, 7700, 7800, 7900, 7950.
There is a large gap between the 7400 and 7600 in terms of performance though, the 7600/7700 are mainstream cards, the ones below that are budget/value cards, and the ones above that are performance cards.
Out of interest, what ATI card were you told not to get?

[Zylstra]

<snip>
Out of interest, what ATI card were you told not to get?

He tells me that he has had nothing but problems from their brand. They have heat and driver issues.

He has had many comparisons with different brands in the hardware world, I do not. So, I ask him, and he strongly recommended nVidia as compared to ATI.

[kaigun]

My current computer started life as a Compaq I bought in the fall of 2001 because I moved into a house with broadband and didn't want to just upgrade my old P133.

I forgot the exact original specs but had it a Pentium II CPU(maybe 1.2 GB), 128 MB ram, 40 GB HD, DVD and CD players and an LCD monitor. Unfortunately it also came with Windows ME.

What a horrible piece of s*!t that OS was. But I kept it until the summer of 2005, adding small hardware upgrades like a Belkin wireless card and SoundBlaster audio card.

Finally couldn't stand the ME crashes anymore and tried to update to XP.  I had all kinds of problems with that, eventually I had to give up and take it to my local shop for them to do the upgrade.

That worked fine for a while then it started shutting down like it had overheating or power supply problems. Took it to the shop and they found the motherboard was cracked. They offered to do a partial rebuild so I ended with this hybrid:

Antec SLK 1650 mini tower case w/350W PSU (new)
Gigabyte GA-8S661 FXMP board (new)
Intel Celeron 2.8 GB CPU (new)
128 MB RAM (original)
Quantum Fireball 40 GB HDD (original)
Compaq DVD player (original)
Compaq CD player (original)
Compaq 15" LCD monitor (original)

I have since bumped the ram up to 1 GB, put in a EVGA GeForce 7600GS video card,  replaced the Compaq CD player with a Yamaha CD/RW and added two additional cooling fans. I have Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse, Bose Companion 2 speakers and an Iomega 160 GB external HD.

My computer is truly a work in progress.

Oh, and I still have the P133...and it still works.   

[Calum]

<snip>
Out of interest, what ATI card were you told not to get?

He tells me that he has had nothing but problems from their brand. They have heat and driver issues.

He has had many comparisons with different brands in the hardware world, I do not. So, I ask him, and he strongly recommended nVidia as compared to ATI.

Fair enough.
To be honest, in most situations it comes down to whoever has the better cards out at the time you want one.  I wouldn't personally buy a card based on brand preference, only on what suited me best.  But some people do, occasionally they have a really bad experience with one item and then avoid that manufacturer afterwards.

[banjo67xxx]

I own 11 computers.

I setup the 2 Ultra-5's running Solaris 10 about 3 years ago, and just tweak the software now and again. They run my email, apache, DNS, etc
I setup the ancient SPARCstation-1 with Solaris 7 about 5 years ago, it just runs sendmail cos I haven't migrated that to one of the Ultra-5's
The old AMD-K2 167MHz I setup about 4 years ago just runs a samba service on Suse 9.3 linux, I haven't got round to turning it off yet.
Just over a year ago I setup an Ultra-1 with Solaris 9 to run backups, but my mate hasn't given me the DAT jukebox he promised me yet.
The 2 SunRay's didn't need any setup, just power them on and they get all they need via DHCP boot from the Ultra-5.
The iMac I bought a year ago doesn't need any hardware setup, I just want to upgrade to MacOS 10.4.
The Acer Aspire 5672 laptop is setup dual boot with WinXP SP2 and Suse 10.0 linux, that was about a year ago.
The wife's Gigabyte laptop is just running WinXP SP2 Chinese Simplified version. Yes Gigabyte do sell laptops in China (and probably Taiwan) although I've not seen any on the market in the UK/US. That was setup about a year ago.
The Netra-T1 I've just got I'm about to setup with Solaris 10 and Asterisk to run a VoIP business.