What Would Be Your Dream Machine? 213
isaachulvey asks: "If you could put together your dream machine with any components you want, what would it be? Obviously price is not a factor here or we'd all be putting together 800 MHz systems with 128 MB of RAM. This is your dream machine, so be creative, go as over the top as you need, remember overkill is not a crime."
Linux compatible (Score:5, Interesting)
All I want is a machine 100% compatible with my Linux distro of choice. If I can have that, I don't care about the specs.
Re:Linux compatible (Score:4, Funny)
I'll trade you for whatever partially incompatible hardware you've got today, since you don't care about the specs.
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Anyway, my dream machine is whatever I can tinker with and learn cool stuff from, and that's usually not a PC, and changes quite frequently. I'd like to play with some serious SGI workstations sometime, that's my current obsession.
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The Answer [vmware.com]
The performance hit is minimal (like 5%, practically unnoticeable), it takes about another 128M of memory on top of any other hardware requirements, and it isn't really suitable for running games in Linux, but other than that - it's the cat's meow, a 100% solution for running Linux on any machine that will run XP. As a bonus, you can backup your entire Linux box by shutting it down and burning the VM f
Motorola 88K Harvard Architecture Data General (Score:2)
Would love to be able to run a modern OS on Harvard Architecture hardware - something like OpenBSD [openbsd.org] on a Data General AViiON with lots and lots of Motorolla 88K CPUs [badabada.org].
More recently, a big honkin hypertransport backplane with a mix of quad-core Opterons [slashdot.org] and FPGAs [slashdot.org].
Bonus points if there's an onboard analog processing unit [slashdot.org].
Soundcard would have to be the LynxTWO-C [lynxstudio.com]: six input channels of 200K samples per second at 24-bits per sample.
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but if you want the imagination station:
I want a computer with the following specs:
numa memory
1024 bit vector math units (128 of em should do)
64x64bit CISC processors (core two duo EE)
a couple dozen of those multithreading jobbies from sun
and a full memory addressable array of spartan FPGAs ready to go.
For disk I would like 1TB of DDR2 ram battery backed with redundant controller
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I want a functional quantum computer and a spaceship with warp 9.9 speed.
-nB
it's been one minute since my last post and
I'll take the sausage, spam, eggs, and spam with a side of vikings please.
My Dream Machine... (Score:2)
talking computers ftw (Score:2, Interesting)
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My first place entry (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah; my dream is for someone else to spec it (Score:3, Interesting)
It would run the OS that I would select after having tested perfectly-tuned and personally-configured versions of every OS and variant, plus all possible OS extensions, add-ons, enhancements, etc
800 mhz? (Score:5, Funny)
Gmail?! (Score:2)
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Guess what? It runs WindowsXP quite well, he can surf the web no problems and play the awesome games that were released at that era and a great number of new small games you can get from the net, including his mmorpg of choise (runescape).
I don't really understand it, but I guess he knows what he's doing.
He does have PS2 and a couple of really cool board games tho.
C= 64 (Score:5, Insightful)
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Dream laptop (Score:2)
Turn on and off instantly, no boot time
Be ultraportable
Run for 20 hours on a charge
Run on off-the-shelf batteries
Be easy to use
Keep working if I drop it
No hard drive, fast, rechargeable-battery backed all-RAM filesystem
Oh wait, that's my TRS-80 Model 100 that was designed 24 years ago.
Too bad the laptop industry hasn't quite caught up with this "obsolete" machine.
-- John.
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Anyway, my dream machine: I was thinking about a nice 64-proc Power5 or something with 64GB RAM and 20TB of disk storage. The thing could even double as a heater in the winter to "reduce" my electricity bills. And no, you probably don't want a Beowulf cluster of these
And yes, it would
Imagine a Beowulf cluster... (Score:2)
The cluster would be running low-power/performance parts so that I wouldn't have to worry about cooling and power bills too much. It would use solid-state solutions for storage, such as a bank of CF cards mapped into one huge drive. In general, it would require next to no maintenance.
The rest of the house would have microphones, high-def steerable video cameras, screens and speakers in every room, all fed to the cl
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Like the Persistence of Vision Raytracer. After I made my Beowulf cluster I spent days and days just raytracing different pictures - I have the image of that skyvase burned into the back of my skull I've seen it so many times. I would run benchmark after benchmark, experimenting with the number of engines running on each box, playing with different machine speeds and network speeds to see what kind of effect each had, comparing my fastest runs to the Top50
Hmm (Score:4, Funny)
Then perhaps a closet full of dual-processor quad-core blade servers for password cra^W^W helping out folding@home or something.
A macbook pro which doesn't suck. (Score:2)
I hear that... (Score:2)
Of course, while we are imagining things, I'd probably also go for a fully decked out Mac Pro (quad Xeon 3GHz, 16GB memory, 3TB hard drive space, 512MB VRAM, 2 30" Cinema Displays, extra superdrive, and WiFi/Bluetooth). That is
Transmutation device (Score:2)
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Forget the innards (Score:2)
I want a touch screen, with multi-point technology like on the iPhone or demonstrated here [nyu.edu].
Obviously, whatever the fastest desktop hardware configuration is at the time would be a nice touch
Re:Forget the innards (Score:4, Informative)
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Google for touchscreens and I'm sure they will pop up somewhere. They were running at around 100-200 bucks depending on how clear the touch stuff was. You should be able to turn your $400 workstation int
I guess if money were no object, I'd buy myself: (Score:2)
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Central Standard Time? (Score:2)
Re:I guess if money were no object, I'd buy myself (Score:5, Funny)
Man, spend the extra twenty bucks!
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In three years it will be just fast enough to run the newest games with all the options on.
In four years Dell's entry level machine will smoke it, and will come with a 20" LCD for under $1,000
And five years from now they'll be using that PC-Welt machine to hold open doors.
I'm actually going to build this... eventually (Score:2)
Motherboard: Tyan Thunder n3600M [tyan.com]
Raid: 3ware 9650SE-24M8 [3ware.com]
Hard Drives Seagate 750GB [google.com]
RAM water cooled [slashdot.org]
Power supply: Koolance 1200W [koolance.com]
Depends on your requirements (Score:3, Insightful)
My main machine is a Mac Mini G4, and you know, it's fast enough for just about everything I do. It's nice and quiet, and doesn't draw ludicrous amounts of power. The only drawback is its lack of room for internal harddisks. I've got two external disks connected for a total of 500 GB, and I still don't have enough space.
I'm shopping for a PVR at the moment. AFAIK, any current machine would do for this purpose; the only thing that may pose a problem is HDTV playback. But given the lack of HDTV broadcasts where I live, this wouldn't be a dealbreaker.
My work machine could do with a bit more power, but in my job (writing technical documents), the CPU rarely is the bottleneck. Disk speed is more of an issue. I just replaced the 4200 rpm disk in my laptop with a 7200 rpm disk, and the difference is quite remarkable.
My ultimate work machine would be a laptop with 4 GB RAM on the fastest bus available [1], a RAID-0 using four of the fastest drives available [1], a 15" internal screen and 2 DVI ports that can drive a 30" screen each. Then again, with that RAID it wouldn't be very portable.
1: note the lack of technicalities. I've no idea which speeds we'd be talking about. Mostly, I just don't care enough to keep up.
big apple (Score:3, Interesting)
I could use that.
Re:big apple (Score:5, Funny)
Pfffft. Lemme know when you get it up to $640k. That oughta be enough for anyone...
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My dream machine has breasts (Score:5, Funny)
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What is that penguin thing "TUX" on [the back window of] your truck?
I:
It's the mascot of a type of operating system.
Cute receptionist at work:
(Dumb Look)
I:
It's computer stuff, you interested?
Cute receptionist at work:
No.
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Being a slashdotter, you'll likely have to settle for the machine version anyway...
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Barcelona overkill (Score:2)
Barcelona (Score:2)
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This thing [superssd.com] will beat the shit out of these SANdisk-toys.
I'd take one of these, too.
easy (Score:4, Funny)
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About the only things you're missing are the USB-attached crotch kicker and keyboard with random TASER capability.
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Multi-arch (Score:2)
a man of modest needs. (Score:2, Insightful)
What I want in a "dream machine" laptop is modest, at best.
silent and fast (Score:2)
core 2 duo passive cooled
two gigs of ram
a silent psu
quad raid 0 made of a real hardware raid card and 4 sandisk extreme III 16 gb cf cards
any decent passive cooled 3d graphics card (got a radeon 9800 pro with heatpipe now)
a really good soundcard
19" tft display with a mva screen
microsoft natural 4000 keyboard and a DIN A5 size wacom digitizer
and no, i am not into graphics, i just use the digitizer instead of a mouse, because of less wrist pain (rsi sucks).
Does it need to exist? (Score:2)
If we're going to be looking at reality, I've been considering putting together a core2 quad system with 8GB of ram which is totally worth it now that Maya has a 64-bit version.
As far as things that would be neat, but that I wouldn't actually spend any money on, I think it would be neat to have dual SLI video cards (do
that's easy, because I have one at $WORK (Score:2)
Well designed... (Score:2)
Mostly, I'd be happiest with the quietest, lowest power equipment I can get. A 25W Turion CPU, 80%+ efficient Seasonic PSU, etc. Not sure about GPUs, but something low powered, but has full-featured open source 3D drivers, and TV-out. Integrated chips need not apply.
Incidentally, th
Thinkpad X60s (Score:2)
Something like the OLPC (Score:2)
KISS (Score:2)
Ultimate Machine (Score:2)
So...
It would be a laptop/notebook/whatever. It would be smallish, with maybe a 15" widescreen (1280 x 800). It would be light weight, maybe 2 pounds. It would be less than 3/4" thick. It would would have at least 16gig of very fast flash (or one of the other new nonvolatile memory chips coming RSN) for the OS and most frequently
Primarily Aesthetic Concern (Score:2)
For guts, whatever. Give me a couple gigs ram, decent graphics card, and multicore processor (at least dual).
But for aesthetics, give me the classic steampunk keyboard mod featured in this slashdot post [slashdot.org] (except based on Model M Space Saver [clickykeyboards.com]), and this 30 inch Apple cinema screen monitor [apple.com]. I'd apply a little black paint and gold leaf accents to the monitor to make it go with the keyboard.
The actual computer would have a black case, be as silent as possible, and be hidden beneath the desk.
Zalman TNN 500a Case (or simular) + all that fits (Score:2)
Curiously enough, the Mac Pro Quad Core maxed out with all that fits in (~19 000 €) comes pretty much close to what I'd consider the best possible workstation.
Imagine a maxed out Quad Cor
Hardware video encoding (Score:2)
12" Mac tablet (Score:2)
Or perhaps a Linux tablet running on Antaur, if someone could come up with some decent HWR for Linux.
My ideas.. (Score:2)
Whatever I'd use... (Score:2)
It should go without saying... (Score:5, Funny)
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Problem solved!
Ultimate Dream Machine (Score:2)
Dream Machine (Score:2)
The latency is a little lousy, but the horse power is awesome, the bandwidth is pretty good, and the storage space [amazon.com] is effectively infinite.
And then I guess I'll take a fully loaded Alienware Area-51 ALX as a front-end for it at about, what, $12,000? Sounds good to me.
Price No Object? (Score:2)
One that was always cutting edge (Score:2)
Hey, you said price was no object.
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Hey, maybe there's an idea:
Absolutely silent (Score:2)
First you build a big RAID server, with lots of storage. Put this in a closet or something, such that it runs and doesn't overheat, but you aren't near it and you don't hear any noise it makes.
Second, you build a desktop with absolutely no moving parts. Specs: AMD X2 processor that dissipates 35 Watts max; giant heatsink; motherboard with passive heatsink only on the north bridge chip; PicoPSU power supply with silent brick; no hard drive; passively cooled graphics adap
This question needs more context (Score:2)
A home PC type machine? With current off-the-shelf technology? Server? Desktop? Graphics? Games? Number crunching? How much space can it take up? Do we have ulimited power feeds? Or...?
Sort of what I already have... (Score:2)
I currently have a Core 2 Duo 6600 with 4 gigs of RAM, a couple of Raptors and a few 400-gig drives for bulk storage. The video card is a 7900 GS. To make it a "dream" machine, I think all I'd have to do would be to add some more disk drives.
Sure, I could go for a Core 2 Extreme, or even for the 8-socket, dual-core Opteron with 16 gigs from my office, or SLI video cards, etc., But the speed benefits to me would be pretty minor.
If Adobe would get with the times
What Would Be Your Dream Machine? (Score:2)
Not too fancy (Score:2)
Virtualized of course... (Score:2)
Hardware: at least 3 servers running a virtual backbone like ESX/XEN, 3 portable wireless thin clients for the output of whatever virtual machine I choose (I prefer separate desktops instead of one giant desktop), a wireless network capable of enough graphic throuput to the clients
CPU, GPU etc. should be able to run with passive cooling, being able to deliver performance but also to throttle back to very low power use (like VIA) when idle, flash disks that a
Droolworthy peripherals (Score:2)
Zenview Arena [digitaltigers.com], 6 screens, one 2560x1600 and five 1600x1200
Input: 3D motion controller 3DConnexion SpacePilot [3dconnexion.com]
I take two (Score:2)
But I'd wait with the former until Leopard and iLife 07 is released, because I can get them for free with the new hardware.
My unrealistic machine (Score:2)
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Re:The absolute ultimate dream machine. (Score:5, Funny)
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a robotic woman without any quirks real women got would be really cool.
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Displays are the key for me (Score:2)
Yes, acres and acres of LCD!
I want what I wanted 12 years ago -- my full sized desk is my display. Say, eight 24" displays, or six 30" ones -- all touch screen. Driven by six or eight computers. Bookshelfed by a couple of RAID racks of 750GB drives. CPUs and RAMS out the whazoo. Multiple operating systems as appropriate. Dash of Dolby 7.1. Pinch of Dragon Dictate. Dollop of liquid nitro.
wrist energy ??? (Score:2)
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Well, I don't know about the RAM.
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Sun cluster +
32 Sun T2000's 2TB, 1024 Threads +
64 2xTenGbit cards +
64 Dual 4Gb fiber cards +
2 Cisco 6509's +
8 8 port 10gbit switch cards +
EMC DMX 950 1.2PB +
4 32 Port fiber switches
10-12 cabinets and a big honkin' AC and you're there bud
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