Your Computers

How many computers have you guys gone through?

I used to have an old Compaq Preserio, with 128MB of RAM, like 10GB hard drive, Windows ME, but I think I blew the motherboard, and one day, I decided to open the tower up, I couldn't find the ram slots, so I got a hammer and just pounded some large chip for no reason with a hammer.

That was my first computer, my second computer is the one I'm using right now, Sony VAIO PCV-RX730, 40GB, 256MB, 1.7Ghz, Intel Celeron, 4 years ago it was theeeeeeee shiznit. But now it's crap, but it get's the job done. 👍

Next computer? My parents have agreed to get me an Apple iBook, but now that I'm getting braces, look's like that's postponed. My braces are worth 5 iBooks, in money atleast.

Your turn! Post your past, present and future computers!

-1st comp was given to me about 5 years ago. Compaq. It only had 32MB ram and was so pathetic I could only put pictures on it. I bought a 40GB hard drive that ended up frying because of the crappy computer.
-2nd computer was one my girfriend had when she moved in. Dell 256 ram. Very nice computer and would do quite a bit of what we needed but not enough to back up games and movies all the time.
-3rd and current PC. Hewlett Packard 1GB Ram (512+512 ram) , 2.8 processor 80 or 120 GB hard drive and many other goodies that arent worth posting. So far this one has been way more than enough to do anything we have needed to do including play Half Life 2. 👍

First up was a PCDirect, an NZ computer company back in 1996. It was the top of the line because it had a graphics card capable of 3 dimensions! P1 133, 16mb edo RAM, 1.5gb and a 2.3 gb hdd. I smashed it to peices a few months ago with a mate.

Second was an HP computer, 850mhz Duron, 256mb ram, 30gb hdd, GeForce MX440. Was good for about a year, now it's my families computer.

My third one is my current computer: AthlonXP 2500+, A7N8X-X, 1024mb ram, 9800 Pro, 80gb + 120gb and soon to be another hdd, maybe 160 or 200 gb, DVD writer although I'm not sure of it's layering.. Plus loads of other crap I'm too tired to add. It's certainly holding it's value and performance considering it's almost 2 years old.

sUn

Your turn! Post your past, present and future computers!

Click to expand...

Future, eh? I really want one of these.... Sun Java Workstation W2100z

Kind of pricy at $3,645.00, but it's a dual Opteron!

Celerons were never theeeeeeee shiznit.

First computer: Epson QX-10
Second computer: Some old gateway from like 1997. Its a Pentium2 433mhz with 128mb ram and came with a 4gb HDD.
Third computer: HP Pavillion ze5385. High School graduation present and current computer. 2.66ghz, 1gb ram, 40gb HDD.
Fourth computer: some type of Emachines. Purchased because the laptop above had problems right before I went off to college and had to be shipped out. VT requires computers, so another one was purchased. 2.3 Athlon XP, 120gb HDD, 512mb ram.
Soon to be fifth computer: Building one around a P4 3.6ghz HT processor. 1gb dual channel low latency Corsair ram, 74gb Raptor, ASUS P4P800-E motherboard and ATi AIW 9800 pro. Currently in need of processor, ram, and video card. Will be completed by the end of the summer.

- A 286 (12MHz) with a 44 Mb hard disk(5"1/4) and 1 MB RAM.

- ...upgraded to a 486 DLC (from Cyrix, no math co-processor, like Intel's 486SX), and a whopping 2 MB of RAM. Could run MS Flight Sim, Test Drive and Stunt Race at the time, and more importantly, endlessly watch that picture of Claudia Schiffer in a white swimsuit...

-P166MMX with 32 Mb RAM EDO and a 2.1GB hard disk, 2MB video and a CAD $800 17" monitor, for work.

- upgraded to a 233MMX with 64 Mb SDRAM, added a 3.2 GB, S.B. AWE32, and an Intergraph Voodoo Rush card (3DFX + 2D, 6MB) ...for play (good times).

- Replaced with a Compaq 233MMX with 128 MB SDRAM and 6 Gb Hard disk for work.

- Compaq K6-II 350 laptop, 64 Mb RAM with 2 GB HD, again for work.

- Athlon XP 2600, HP 21" CRT monitor, DDR 512 MB, 36GB (SCSI 160 in raid 0) + 120GB, Radeon 9550 256MB, Audigy Platinum ex ...for everything.

1.)
Intel 486
20mb of RAM
No CD-Rom
Some old graphics card
700mb hard drive

2.)
Proteva AMD K6/2 Processor at 400mhz
Soundblaster 16bit Soundcard
Onboard graphics
40x CD-ROM
64MB PC100 RAM
6gb Hard drive, upgraded to a 10gb

3.)
HP Pavillion
P3 933 Mhz
512 PC 133 RAM
4x CD-R
40x CD-ROM
Radeon 9200SE PCI
Onboard AC97 sound
40GB hard drive

4.) And my new custom built...
AMD Athlon 64 3400+
1024MB of Corsair RAM
52/32/52/16/8/8/2.4 Combo drive (CD-R/CD-RW/CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/DVD+-R/DVD+-RW/Dual Layer DVD+-RW)
Gigabyte 6800GT
Asus A8V Deluxe
Sound Blaster Audigy Value soundcard
160gb SATA hard drive

I plan to do a little upgrade to my old P3 PC. (Dual 370 mobo, another 933, and a extra hard drive,etc.)

I myself have gone through 2 computers. One was an old POS that I have no clue of the specs and the one I have now (1.2ghz, 512mb ram, 120gb storage, 256mb radeon 9200). I'm also working on a computer now for kicks and giggles. It's 450mhz, 256mb ram and currently has no hard drive. On the other hand, my dad has gone through countless computers. He currently owns 9 computers. Four desktop PCs (1.2ghz, 800mhz x2 500mhz), 2 Windows laptops (266mhz, 400mhz), a pink iMac (400mhz), a blue Mac G3 (500mhz?) , and an old iBook (no clue on the specs). Of those 9, he uses 2. I want his Macs.

First was the old beige G3 (that, incidentally, my dad is using at this moment, about 2 feet to my right). It still works fine, but it's running 8.6, which is about as stable as an elephant balancing on a pencil.

Second (and currently) is this iBook G3. Works flawlessly, except Fireworks MX takes too long to start up… that's the only real complaint I have speed-wise though.

I'm not sure what I want in the future. Well, of course I want a dual-processor G5 and a 30" Cinema screen, but I doubt that's going to happen. I know the iBook will happily putter on for many more years, so I haven't really thought about future purchases.

1) Some strange old IBM something that i can't really remember, it had windows 3.1.
2) (and still have) Tiny something or other. 2.8ghz, 60gb hard drive, flat screen, 256 ram, 32mb graphics card (think it's nvidia), windows xp, cost about 1,200 pounds
3) (Current) Toshiba (satelite) Equium A60, 3.2ghz, 60gb hard drive, 512mb ram, 64mb ati graphics card, dvd multi drive rewriter, no wireless lan though - had to buy a belkin card. Cost about 1000 pounds.

1) Commodore 64
2) Intel Pentuium 166MHz
32MB RAM
Some crappy VGA card
>2GB Hard Drive
3) Intel Pentium II 400MHz
64MB RAM
3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 32MB
20GB Hard Drive
4) Intel Pentium IV 2.0 GHz
256MB RAM (later upgraded to 512MB of DDR)
ATi Radeon 7000 64MB (Later upgraded to a Radeon 9700non-pro @ 128MB)
40GB Hard Drive (an 80 GB drive was added later for a total of 120GB)

And I'm going to be getting a new computer in a few months. I'm likely going to be asking quite a few questions here, especially considering I'm probably going to build it instead of buy a whole system.

In the last 10 years we have gone through 10 computers.

1. (1985) Sinclair ZX Spectrum + (4Mhz 6502 Processor, 48KB RAM, Microdrive)
2. (1987) Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 (8MHz 6502 Processor, 128KB RAM, Microdrive)
3. (1989) Atari 520ST (8Mhz 65000 Processor, 2MB RAM, 40MB HDD)
4. (1991) Atari 520STe (8Mhz 65000 Processor, 2MB RAM, 40MB HDD)
5. (1996) Gateway P5-200 (Pentium 200, 64MB RAM, 1x 4GB, 1x 8GB HDD, CD-ROM, CD-RW, Matrox 4MB Graphics, 17" CRT)
6. (2000) Dell XPS-B1000r (Pentium III 1GHz, 512MB RAM, 1x 40GB, 1x 80GB HDD, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, nVidia 64MB Graphics, 21" CRT)
7. (2003) Compaq ProLiant 800 (Pentium Pro 200, 384MB RAM, 2x 4GB SCSI-2 HDD, CD-ROM) - built in 1997.
8. (2004) giles-guthrie.com "The Glen-Rothes" (Athlon 3800+, AV8-SE, 1GB RAM, 2x 250GB S-ATA HDD, DVD-ROM, Dual-Layer DVD-RW, ATI/Sapphire 128MB Graphics, 19" LCD)

These are just the computers that I've owned, so it excludes the two desktops and three laptops I've had for work.

How many have I gone through? More than I care to think about...

These are what I have currently tho (long list- I've started "post your comps" threads on other message boards, I don't feel like re-typing it all, so I'll just copy and paste what I posted elsewhere):

Laptop 1:
Dell Inspiron XPS
-15.4" WUXGA (1920x1200) LCD
-3.4GHz Pentium 4 "E" (Prescott)
-1GB Dual-Channel PC3200 (2x 512MB)
-256MB ATi Radeon 9800m (the 9800m is EXACTLY THE SAME THING as an X800SE that's been underclocked; same core, same number of pipelines, everything. It IS a mobile Radeon X800SE)
-7200rpm/60GB hard drive
-24/10/24 CD-RW/DVD combo (I have a DVD burner in two of my desktops; I don't need one in my laptop)
-Dell 1450 A/B/G mini pci wireless card
-Dell TrueMobile 300 internal bluetooth module
-Additional (132Whrs) battery
-Windows XP Pro

Laptop 2:
Sager NP5620 "Supra"
-15" UXGA (1600x1200) LCD
-2.4GHz Pentium 4 "A" (512k/400MHz FSB Northwood)
-512MB PC2100 (2x256MB)
-64MB ATi Radeon 7500m
-7200RPM/50GB hard drive
-8/4/8/24/8 CD-RW/DVD combo

Desktop 1:
-CoolerMaster CMStacker case
-Antec 550w EPS12V PSU
-ASUS PC-DL Deluxe motherboard
-2x 2.8GHz/512k/533MHz Xeons @ 3.2GHz (20x160)
-2GB dual channel DDR400 (4x 512MB)
-256MB Leadtek GeForce 6800GT
-Leadtek PCI TV Tuner
-Hercules GameTheater XP sound
-2x 160GB/7200RPM/8MB ATA-133 Maxtor HDDs
-LiteOn 52/32/52 CD-RW
-Sony (LiteOn OEM) 16x DVD

Desktop 2:
-Coolermaster CMStacker case
-Antec 550w TrueControl PSU
-MSI K7D-L motherboard (or it was until it bit the dust a few weeks ago... it now has a DFI LanPartyUT NF3-250Gb until I get around to RMAing the MSI)
-2x Athlon XP 2500+, modded to MPs, @ 1.87GHz (133x14) (Right now it has a Sempron 3100+ @ 2.4GHz, until I get the K7D RMAed)
-1GB DDR333/400 (512MB PC2700, 512MB PC3200)
-128MB MSI Radeon 9800 "XT" (sold as a Pro, has a R360 GPU, is detected as an XT)
-ATi PCI TV Tuner
-Turtle Beach Catalina sound
-Maxtor (Promise OEM) ATA-133 PCI card
-4x 160GB/7200RPM/8MB ATA-133 Maxtor HDDs
-LiteOn 52/32/52 CD-RW
-LiteOn 12x DVD-RW/+RW

Desktop 3:
-Antec SLK-3700AMB w/2 120mm side fans, 2 80mm blowhole fans
-Antec SL350 350w PSU w/2 Vantec Stealth fans, thermally controlled
-ABIT NF7-S v2.0
-Athlon XP 2600m @ 215x12 (2.58GHz)
-2x 512MB (1GB total) Mushkin PC3500 Level II (Winbond BH-5 chips)
-128MB ATi Radeon 9700 Pro w/Athlon XP 2500+ retail HSF
-1x 80GB/8MB/7200RPM Maxtor ATA-133 HDDs
-LiteOn 52/32/52 CD-RW
-LiteOn 16x DVD

Desktop 4:
-Antec SLK-3700BQE w/2 120mm fans
-Antec SL350 350w PS, "quiet edition" w/1 fan
-Iwill DVD266u-RN Dual PIII mobo with the Via Pro266T chipset, takes DDR RAM
-2x Intel Pentium III 1GHz/133MHz FSB Coppermine core CPUs
-1.25GB DDR (1x 512MB DDR400, 1x 512MB DDR333, 1x 256MB DDR266)
-64MB ATi Radeon 9000
-1x 80GB/7200RPM/8MB Western Digital
-1x 60GB/7200RPM/8MB Maxtor
-LiteOn 52/24/52 CD-RW
-Toshiba 16x DVD

Desktop 5:
-AMS CK1100 Server cube case
-Enermax 550w ATX PS
-DFI LanParty Pro875B motherboard; S478, i875 chipset
-2.8GHz Pentium 4 "E" Prescott core/800MHz FSB/1MB cache
-No RAM at this point (I ganked the gig of DDR400 out of this thing to upgrade the dual Xeon rig to 2GB and haven't bought more yet)
-64MB ATi Radeon 8500
-2x 60GB/8MB/7200RPM SATA Maxtor HDDs
-No optical drives right now (they're in the dual PIII system)

Desktop 6:
-Athenatech mATX desktop case
-230w Sparkle Power PS
-Gateway Engineering Sample PPGA Celeron mATX motherboard
-466MHz PPGA Celeron
-256MB PC133
-Integrated Voodoo 3 GPU w/16MB of discrete RAM
-PCI ATA-133 card
-Netgear FA311 PCI NIC
-160GB/8MB/7200RPM Maxtor HDD
-52/32/52 LiteOn CD-RW

I also HAD a 450MHz G4 until I broke that a few months back... I'll get around to fixing it (I cracked a SMD resistor array on the logic board) at some point, or just replace the board if I can't fix it.

And hopefully this summer I'll pick up one or more of the following:
-Dual 2.5GHz Apple G5
-Dual Opteron 250s W/SLI 512MB 6800GTs
-Dothan Core Pentium M & an ASUS S478 --> S479 adapter for my P4P800-E

Man, that's some serious stuff.

Why do you have so many for just you, though?

Oh, just because I can. My computers are just toys. I like screwing around with them... when I get bored with screwing around with what I have, I buy something different. Some computers I buy because I want something faster, others I buy simply because I want to. The 466 Celeron is not my oldest system, even though it's the slowest... quite the contrary; it's the most recent addition. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to own a working engineering sample mATX motherboard with onboard Voodoo graphics.

You wouldn't believe the amount of flack I've gotten for buying the P4s and the Xeon system. People just don't realize that I have reasons besides outright speed to buy a system...

I'm well aware of the limitations of the P4's ridiculously long pipeline. I just don't really care. The P4 and its Celeron and Xeon variants may not be very efficient, and an A64 will indeed outperform a P4 clocked 1.2GHz higher than the A64, but a 3.2GHz Xeon is still undeniably a fast system. Sure, a dual opteron would be faster. But that doesn't make the Xeon slow. And hyperthreading, on a dual CPU system, is something to behold. HT doesn't work very well in single cpu systems (at least not in my laptop or P4-E desktop) but on the Xeon system... And despite the P4's horrible efficiency, the 6800GT manages to score marginally (~200pts) higher in 3dmark2003 on the Xeon system than it does in my 2.6GHz Athlon XP... so it can't be too slow

So yeah... basically I just buy stuff that catches my eye. I play around with it, and when I get bored with it, I simply buy something else and relegate the old system to backup/intermittent use. I mean my P4 desktop hasn't been fully assembled and working since last August. I could put it together and get it running any time I felt like it... everything works, I've got all the parts sitting around... I just don't really have any interest in putting it back together yet. Hell, I've even got a pair of 667MHz tItanics err I mean Itaniums... I have no use for them whatsoever, but like I said in that "slowest computers" thread... for $15 each, I couldn't let the opportunity to own the worst processor in the history of mankind pass me by

skip0110

1. Alienware Area51-m laptop, 2.67 GHz P4, 40 gig HD, 512 MB RAM (FreeBSD)

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1024 RAM now

EDIT

Just added another to the collection, it's an IBM ThinkPad T20 P3 700 Mhz, 10 gig hard drive, 384 MB RAM...I will get it this Friday, and plan to install W2K or WinXP on it...possibly dual booting to Fedora Core 3.

i dont understand you people. you buy a new computer just to have something faster. kind of a waste. if you know how to shop around you can just upgrade a computer to make it faster. its cheaper if you know how to shop for deals plus you dont have to pay for things you already have. i also dont understand Alienware. way too expensive for what they are. i paid 500 for my computer and when it was stock it was still just as good as an alienware.

SS69

i also dont understand Alienware. way too expensive for what they are. i paid 500 for my computer and when it was stock it was still just as good as an alienware.

Click to expand...

Well it wasn't out of my pocket, so why not have the best if you can?

skip0110

EDIT

Just added another to the collection, it's an IBM ThinkPad T20 P3 700 Mhz, 10 gig hard drive, 384 MB RAM...I will get it this Friday, and plan to install W2K or WinXP on it...possibly dual booting to Fedora Core 3.

Click to expand...

Sweet! I didn't know FC3 was out. I'll have to try it out when I get my laptop.

Why buy a new computer instead of upgrading?
I don't always... I upgrade my systems on a fairly regular basis. And sometimes I upgrade the existing system AND buy a new one.

Like I said... computers are just toys for me... when I get bored with what I have, I buy something new... whether I need something faster or not.

Integra Type R

Sweet! I didn't know FC3 was out. I'll have to try it out when I get my laptop.

Click to expand...

Its been out since Nov/04. You may want to wait for FC4, which is scheduled to release in early June.

http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/schedule/

These are the pcs which have been in the house that I have used:
#1:
120mhz P1
8mb ram
2gb hdd

#2
400mhz P2
128mb ram
10gb hdd
dvd rom (that was a huge deal back then)
zip drive
4mb video card which was somehow expandable to 16
cost at the time - $2500USD

#3 (laptop)
333mhz AMD K6-2
4gb hard drive
no clue on the video card
12.4 inch LCD
32mb ram

#4
Athlon XP 1900+
512 mb ddr
16x dvd rom
128mb Radeon 8500LE
40gb maxtor
52x CDRW that I added a year after buying it
16x dvdrw that I added just a few months ago
400w Silverstone silent PSU that I added last summer
160gb maxtor that I added last summer then converted to external just a few weeks ago
Cost when it was built - $1250 Canadian and almost every component was top of the line. The only part that wasn't was the video card - it was only 2nd best. The ram was above average, but nothing spectacular

#4 (laptop)
2ghz Celeron
256mb ram
40gb hdd
16x24x12x48x combo drive
16mb Radeon 7500
------
Now for the new computers added for the family business over the past 3 or 4 years

#5 (bought at the same time as #3)
identical to #3 but with a few more hdd's

#6 (bought this summer)
1.4ghz Mac g4
32mb Radeon 7500
80gb hdd
256 mb ram

#7 (my bro's laptop/portable graphic machine for the office)
15.2 inch LCD
1.67ghz Mac g4
512 mb ram
32mb Radeon 7500
80gb hdd
8x Superdrive
bluetooth, gigabit, etc.

you're all pussies, my first computer was an ABACUS!!!

lol. All that means is that you're an old fart.

Ahh yes, I own two slide rules. Knew how to use them at one time too.

skip0110

Its been out since Nov/04. You may want to wait for FC4, which is scheduled to release in early June.

http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/schedule/

Click to expand...

Wow, didn't know it had been out that long. I'll wait for FC4. Thanks. 👍