Ask Slashdot: What Hardware Is In Your Primary Computer? 558
An anonymous reader writes: Here's something we haven't done in a while: list the specs of your main system (best one) so we can see what kinds of computers Slashdot geeks use. Context would be interesting, too — if you're up for it, explain how and why you set it up as you did, as well as the computer's primary purpose(s). Things you can list include (but are not limited to): CPU, motherboard, video card, memory, storage (SSD/HDD), exotic Controllers (RAID or caching), optical drives, displays, peripherals, etc. We can compare and contrast, see what specs are suitable for what purposes, and perhaps learn a trick or two.
Abusing one of my Hadoop nodes (Score:3)
AMD 8350 (best value per crunch at CPUbenchmark.net)
32G ECC RAM (because single bit errors suck, and lots of VMs are nice)
Nvidia Geforce 210 (fanless, because video card fans are the cheapest most common failure points)
(and because 2D XFCE doesn't need a Titan-X to be wicked fast)
Patriot 240G SSD (for small data sets and zippy desktop responsiveness)
Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 (runs well out of the box with Centos/RH 6.6 and Fedora 21)
2 x 23" 1080p IPS monitors (best value in screen real estate)
Everything on this system runs in RAM after the first read. I took the 4 magnetic drives out for the sake of quiet. Since there are cores to spare and 4.0 Ghz clock I have 3 desktops open with a dozen Firefox/Chrome windows each (with many tabs in each) and lots of PDFs and there is still RAM to spare. In my youth I put more money into "the fastest processor" and "the best possible video card" only to find most of my annoyances were from storage latencies and noise.
Blue smoke (Score:5, Funny)
At a fundamental level, everything in my computer seems to be filled with this magic blue smoke.
2013 Mac Pro -- All the trimmings (Score:3, Insightful)
Mac Pro
2.7GHz 12 Core CPU
1TB Storage
64GB Ram
Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
Re:2013 Mac Pro -- All the trimmings (Score:5, Funny)
And the 2013 Mac Pro is the same as the 2015 Mac Pro. You're still current!
Re: (Score:3)
I consider that a feature, not a bug.
I dont really want to be locked into a single ecosystem, I dual boot Linux and Windows, except for the box that runs ESXi but technically that also runs Windows and Linux in VMs. I haven't found a use for OSX that these two didn't cover... in fact I haven't really found a use for OSX at all.
Here's mine ... (Score:2)
CPU -- AMD FX8320E Eight core
Motherboard -- ASUS M5A99X EVO R 2.0
Video -- some cheap Gigbyte card
RAM -- 16GB
HDs -- 2x 1TB (C and D), 2x 2TB for my stuff (second 2TB is mostly for backups)
2x1080p monitors (23" and 22")
Windows 8.1 made to look like a "Classic" Windows desktop with Classic Shell
Don't need super performing video, run lots of stuff in VMs just to play with it. (currently running Ubuntu and two different versions of FreeBSD in VirtualBox)
Memory should be bloat proof for the next bunch of years,
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, this is my personal desktop in my home office, which shares a screen with my work laptop via KVM.
It's not a database server. I simply don't find myself IO bound. When I do, it's a long running task that I usually kick off and walk away from. I have more need of disk space for redundant backups of my stuff, not raw speed.
I wanted responsiveness of the machine due to having loads of memory and CPU available,
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I wanted responsiveness of the machine due to having loads of memory and CPU available, because 25 years has taught me those are the things which become limitations in a few years when you can no longer buy the right kind of RAM.
I find that RAM follows a downward arc pricing pattern... you get enough to get you by when you build your PC and leave some slots free, then in a few months the memory price hits its lea (possibly when the new memory comes out) and you fill it up. Then, as you have noted, a while later the old stuff goes more or less out of production and the price goes up again.
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It's not a database server. I simply don't find myself IO bound. When I do, it's a long running task that I usually kick off and walk away from. I have more need of disk space for redundant backups of my stuff, not raw speed.
This is why you need a proper bitch box. A box to get your bitch work done with out tying up your main desktop. My bitch box doubles as NAS and has a AMD FX-8350 shoved in it. It also has 16 GB of memory. When I have bitch work for it to do I spin up a VM and crack the whip.
This I can get long term tasks done while leaving my main workstation open for more important tasks. Like GTA5.
Clevo P650SE (Score:2)
I have a Clevo P650SE laptop (rebranded as the Eurocom M5 Pro, also available as the Sager NP8651 though the Sager variant has no TPM). 15.6" 1920x1080 IPS panel (opted for standard HD instead of 3k/4k due to problems with mixing high/low DPI displays, and I plug in an external 1920x1200 display sometimes), 2.6GHz quad-core i7, nVidia GTX 970M, 512GB SSD for OS/applications, 500GB spinning disk for media (though I'd like to unify those into a single large SSD in the future, moving parts are no fun) and I'v
Still good hardware (Score:2)
Macbook Pro (Score:5, Insightful)
Macbook Pro, 15", Mid 2012 (I buy them refurbished from Apple for best price/specs). Whatever they come with (except for the Samsung 1Tb SSD, 840 EVO with all the recent fun that it implies).
In fact, this is not only my primary, but the only computer. I find that software is more important, and having just one computer makes it easier to keep track of things, back up etc. I do have several VMWare virtual machines with several version Windows, Linux and FreeBSD, all within this one, used for their respective development purposes. I'd hate to deal with that many physical boxes, though.
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Yep, basically. The hardest of the VMs to obtain was MacOS 10.6 - newer Fusion 7 won't support any of the old hacks to get MacOS guest working. Had to buy MacOS 10.6 server (on a CD, from Apple) - but it's good now.
Re: (Score:2)
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Build, actually. I can build PPC compatible binaries on it.
IVB (Score:3)
A big box. The sort that holds the MB horizontally with the drives underneath.
A sabertooth motherboard. The sort with the plastic housing the direct the air around the chips and muffle the noise. Why doesn't everyone do that?
A 4 core top end Ivy Bridge i7, 64GB dram.
Dual 500Gig SSD mirrored. In hotplug housing.
Dual 1TB rotating mirrored, for local backup. In hotplug housing.
Some expensive Nvidia card.
Why?
#1 The CPU is the first model with my logic in it. So it's personal. Also employee discount.
#2 I wanted to play 3D games after a hiatus of a few years.
#3 Hotplug housing is awesome. You can pull em out and put em back in again.
I Got It All, Baby! (Score:5, Funny)
Things you can list include (but are not limited to):
CPU: YES
motherboard: YES
video card: YES
memory: YES
storage: YES
controllers: YES
optical drives: YES
displays: YES
peripherals: YES
Re: (Score:2)
Best answer yet.
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Came to find this, was not disappointed.
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Huh, I haven't needed to buy any special-purpose controllers in a good 10-15 years. I don't even bother buying separate GPUs any more, since IGPs have become "good enough" for anything short of 4k twitch gaming.
Mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina 15" (Score:2)
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
LED Cinema 27" (connected 92.3% of the time)
Yosemite / VMware Fusion
Linux Sysadmin/Network management, Ruby/C++ development
Less is more (Score:3, Informative)
Shuttle XS35 GT. 2GB ram and 500G hard drive. Ubuntu 14.04LTS
About $400 in this 4-5 years ago. The less I spend on computers the more money I have to enjoy the finer things in life. Like Thai food. In Thailand.
Aside from the GPU, the oldest it has ever been (Score:2)
I remember not to long ago to play the latest PC games you needed to upgrade your CPU which meant upgrading your motherboard and memory about every 18 months. I think I have been rocking the same Core i5-2500K cpu for almost four years now, and it still sits at the top tier of the Tom's Hardware gaming CPU chart.
I realize this has occurred because games have become much more GPU dependant, but it is still a big money saver for me.
aside from the HD, the same (Score:2)
AMD Phenom II X4 945, 8G RAM, Radeon HD 5450, with HP branding. It's a Pavilion Elite HPE 210F if I recall correctly. It's about 6 years old now. Only thing I have replaced is the hard drive, twice. Original drive was a WD Caviar Green, and it failed in just 9 months. Next hard drive was a WD Caviar Black, and it failed in 4 years. I've had enough of WD, and the current drive is a Toshiba. There's some funny BIOS problem connected with the hard drives. Occasionally, the computer fails to detect any
Quiet? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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I know you're asking about user-built quiet systems, but I recently got a Dell 7910 and just love how quiet it is.
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My i5 NUC is near-slient, w/ 100GB SSD and 8GB RAM for less than $500 total.
Connected to the family room TV, runs Hulu, Neftlix and Kodi (XBMC) quite nicely, also will run VLC and pull camera feeds from around the house - makes a "virtual window with night vision" in the living room wall.
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Forgot, connected to two external 2TB hard drives that store, and mirror, all the things.
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Still Running Like a Champ (Score:5, Funny)
Pentium Overdrive 83mhz, 64mb edo simm, rage video card, sound blaster 16, 20gb hdd through pci card IDE controller. Plays MP3's as long as I don't move the mouse.
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Mac Pro (Score:2)
Mac Pro (Late 2013) w/ 3.5GHz 6-core Xeon E5, 64GB RAM, 1 TB of Flash disk space.
Bought the extra RAM configuration so I could crunch OpenStreetMap data quickly. Turns out more RAM is better than more CPU horsepower, though the 3.5GHz E5 isn't really that shabby.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm using a similar MBP, but with only 16GB of RAM, which I thought was extravagant but useful for building large C++ codebases. Dual-booted with Kubuntu-14.10 but I haven't booted to OSX for about a year.
P4 3.8 GHz -- yes it's "slow" (Score:2)
Yes, my aging P4 3.8 GHz with 800MHz DDR2 memory is "slow", but when I think back on "the old days" when we only did builds over the weekends in the age of 1MHz processors, it's pretty darned snappy.
Plus when I tune code, I get to see an improvement. :D
Not a geek, just a home builder (Score:2)
AMD FX-6300
Gigabyte GA-990xa-ud3
16GB Crucial Ballistic Sport RAM
NVidia GTX 560 Ti
128GB Samsung SSD
320GB WD Blue HDD
2 x 500GB WD external HDDs
1 x 24" IPS monitor
Small and nimble (Score:2)
Just today I received my mini-ITX system with an AMD A8-7600. It is an upgrade for a 7 year old AMD Athlon 64.
I wanted something with relative low power, small form factor and silent. I don't want a noisy midi-tower in my livingroom anymore.
I use it for development work, but also for watching HD Video and browsing in my own time.
Ofcourse there is just a new generation of AMD apu's announced, where the rumors first claimed it would only be a 100Mhz increase, but the marketing speak claims many more improveme
2007 iMac (Score:2)
Old, slow, crappy, but reliable. I have two other workstations, one is a Zotac Zbox or something like that, an Atom-based "net-top" with a hard-drive, but flash-based backup, and the other workstation is a Raspberry Pi.
Too old to care (Score:2)
I use a 6-year-old Mac Mini.
It's slow.
Investing in a good PC pays off (Score:2)
I built my current rig in 2009, investing heavily in forward-compatibility for upgrades. The investment payed out more than I could ever have imagined.
In 2009, the PC was:
Intel Core i7-920 (2.97GHz)
6GB RAM (six DIMM slots, three used)
32GB SSD (for the OS)
512GB HD (files and stuff)
Current-gen video card @ ~$250 price point
Now, in 2015, all I've done is:
1. Add two larger SSDs
2. Upgrade the video card - currently a GTX770
3. Double the RAM (hell yeah six DIMMs)
The rig is perfectly capable of editing 4k video,
I got it cheap from Slartibartfast (Score:4, Interesting)
I bet you didn't even notice the failover, did you?
A sort of oldie but goodie (Score:2)
Vista-compatible Hardware Still Running (Score:2)
The last major hardware upgrade (CPU/memory/motherboard) took place in 2007 to switch over from Windows XP to Windows Vista. Since then I've ran Windows 7
Next up, Low User ID contest (Score:3)
It's been a while since we've done that, too.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
One wins, unless there's a zero.
Re: (Score:3)
Probably by writing a reply.
Re:Next up, Low User ID contest (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, no time to participate...
Re:Next up, Low User ID contest (Score:4, Insightful)
Damnit! How can it be a "contest" when the same people always win? :P
Home computer (Score:2)
i7 4770K, 16 gb ram, gtx 670, 3x ssd, 3x spinning rust platters, DVD-RW drive, 24" dell screen (very old model but excellent).
It's for games and programming.
2 of the ssds are for windows only games and the last is for arch linux where i spend most of the time.
The rust platters are hardly in use anymore as most of my stuff is on a synology box.
Oh yes, envy me... (Score:2)
Motherboard: ASUS F2A85-V PRO
Processor: AMD A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz FM2 Quad
Memory (part number): G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 4 x 8GB DDR3 1866
Display Chip: AMD A85X (Hudson D4) [Integrated graphics, not a gamer)
Display LCD: Monoprice 30" IPS CCFL Backlit LCD Panel
Hard Drive (System): SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA
Hard Drive (Storage): Hitachi HDS724040ALE640 (0S03355) 4TB
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 CPU Fan
Case: Antec-300 PC Case
Power Supply: Rosewill FORTRESS-450w 80 Plus Platinum
Just bought this Dell laptop (Score:2)
Core i7-5500U
16 GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
1TB Seagate 5400RPM hybrid HDD
DVD-RW (replaced it with a BD-RW drive)
17.3" 1920x1080 touchscreen
nVidia GeForce GT 845M graphics with 2 GB video RAM
Wiped the drive on arrival and reinstalled Windows 8.1, Office 365, etc.
The only part of it I don't like is the illuminated keyboard: lit or not, it's almost impossible to see the markings on the keys.
Because Jean Simmons never had a comupter as a kid (Score:5, Funny)
my system (Score:2)
Gigabyte motherboard w/ thunderbolt
32GB RAM
2 GTX970s
2 ~1TB SSDs
4TB HD
2560x1440 monitor
Used for gaming and music production. I thought 32GB was a lot of RAM when I first put the system together, but it runs out quick when loading up a bunch of sample libraries in the Cubase (the music program.) Definitely would have gone to 64GB if I was doing it again.
The SLI video card setup is cool when it works, but a few games don't use both cards, or there are glitches.
Thunderbolt doesn't work
one that rarely gets used... (Score:2)
I have a 2010 Macbook Pro 15" w/ 8GB RAM & Dual drives (256GB SSD + 500GB HDD).
BUT IT RARELY GETS USED....due to my newer (Mac) work machines, my iPad, iPhone, AppleTV, FireTV, Xbox360, Nintendo Wii U, and Synology NAS.
Anyone else find they use their primary machine less than a couple of hours a week?
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty simple (Score:3)
quad-core AMD FX-4170
Asrock 990FX mobo
32 GB RAM
128 GB Ocz (crap but was on shelf) SSD - Primary
1TB RAID 5 - Storage and weekly system images.
AMD R7 260 GPU
1x 23" display, 2x 22" displays
Old Cooler Master Cosmos case
Home:
AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5GHz
Asrock 990FX
16 GB RAM
256 GB Samsun 850 Evo - Primary
1TB and 750GB - Storage drives and media server. (backups on separate NAS)
AMD R9 270X GPU
1x 24" and 1x 20" displays
Cheapo gaming case
Tertiary rig - old poweredge 2950.
32 GB Ram 2x dual-core xeons
6TB storage.
Boatloads of VMS for testing
DIY (Score:2)
MSI G45 MB
Core i7-4770 CPU, non-overclocked
16GB RAM
ATI R9 270 video card
512GB Crucial SSD
750GB WD Black drive
1TB WD Black drive
LG Blu-Ray Burner
Generic mid-size Antec case
Cheapo Asus 27" LED monitor
APC UPS
Microsoft Sidewinder mouse
i-Rocks buckling-spring keyboard
Works well for games and a few virtualized development environments. Need to replace the (2) WD spinning disk drives with a single 4TB or similar. They were both the primary system drives from previous machines. Now the 1TB is for VMs and the 750GB
LG G3 (Score:2)
CPU 2.5 GHz quad-core Krait 400
3 GB RAM
32 GB SD
I have gentoo prefix installed, which lets me install gentoo software under the stock Android distribution. I also haave XServer XSDL, an Android app that is an X Server, but I haven't used this very much so far.
I use it for web browsing, watching videos and development of Android [homeip.net] and Free Pascal software. I have a Bluetooth keyboard to help with that.
I also have a MiniMac connected to the big screen TV at home that is my web server [homeip.net] and hosts MythTV. It's a
Easy way (Score:2)
Intel Xeon E3 1225 v2 (3.2GHz) on MSI Z77A-G41 (Because it was cheaper than the same i7 and better value than the latest gen at the time)
20 GB RAM
Radeon R7 270 ?
Samsung 256 GB SSD
2 & 4 TB hard disks.
A bit outdated but still runs new games well (Score:2)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6
GPU: AMD Radeon 6970
SSD: Crucial 256 GB M4
HDD: 2 TB Seagate
RAM: 16 GB Mushkin
Optical: BD-ROM / HD-DVD Combo and BD-RW
Display: 2x 1920x1200 28" LCD's
Works well for gaming and OpenGL development.
I also have an Alienware M17 laptop; works well for same reasons but not great at multitasking
CPU Intel Extreme 2 core
RAM: 16GB
SSD: 256 GB SSD
HDD: 1 TB
As well as a HTPC
CPU: AMD 1090T
GPU: AMD Radeon 5450
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 120GB
And a File Server
CPU: AMD Phenom X4
GPU: don't
Stock MacBook Air (Score:2)
Why would I need anything more?
You connect to a bunch of remote systems, you browse, you read e-mail....
need a new one (Score:2)
listing these specs makes me realize it is time to upgrade.
phenom ii 965
990fx motherboard
8GB ddr3
7870
128GB 840 pro OS
256GB 850 evo games
500GB HDD data
1964 Model MDT (Score:4, Interesting)
Proteins, water, DNA, RNA, synapse interconnects ...
All the other computers I use are controlled by this one.
Craptop... (Score:2)
HP Pavillion DV6700
Core2 Duo T5850 @ 2.16GHz
GeForce 8400 GS 256MB
4GB RAM
512GB SSD - Samsung Evo
Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24"W Monitor
Ergotron monitor arm
StandDesk adjustable desk
Microsoft Natural Wireless 7000 Keyboard & Mouse
Fast enough not to upgrade. Used it on the road doing software consulting but for most of the last 7 years it has functioned as my desktop. I keep thinking of upgrading, but haven't found a compelling reason to yet.
Sweet Setup (Score:2)
hardware (Score:2)
AMD FX(tm)-4100 Quad-Core Processor 3.6GHz
16 gigs ram
ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics on mobo
1TB HD internal
1TB USB3.0 external
1.5TB USB3.0 external
120GB Sandisk SSD
28in 1920x1200 monitor
Less specificity with age (Score:2)
When I was 25: I knew every spec, every component, research and purchased them individually, hand-assembled the hardware, and optimized for performance so I could play Half Life.
When I was 35: I had xoticpc build me a spec'd PC in the high end so I could play Skyrim.
Now: I bought a macbook off the shelf. I honestly don't even know how much RAM I have.
5 year old MacBook Air (Score:2)
Still runs fine (although recent OSX releases have been shite).
Why upgrade?
My next computer will probably be a Chromebook but I'm in no hurry... target date of 2020.
4 1/2 year old laptop (Score:2)
I prefer laptops (of the 17in "desktop replacement" monstrosity type) because I enjoy the portability and flexibility, and am happy to pay more for that convenience, both in cost and in upgradeability. However, because of that, I tend not to upgrade very often - generally not until my primary laptop has completely bitten the dust in a way where replacing it is more financially smart than trying to repair it. My primary personal computer wasn't quite top of the line 4 1/2 years ago, but wasn't too shabby, ei
Two Macs from a few years ago for specific reasons (Score:2)
Quad core i7 MacBook Pro 17" and Thunderbolt display with 16 GB of RAM, a 1TB HD and a 480 GB SSD running Mac OS 10.6.8
Why? I like the 17 inch screen and 1920 x 1200 resolution on the 17" screen and I HATE the UI of all the Mac OSes after 10.6.8.
Quad core i5 iMac 27" with 16 GB of RAM, internal 1TB HD and 16 TB external storage on Firewire 800
Why? I like the 27 inch screen and 2560 x 1440 resolution on the 27" screen and I HATE the UI of all the Mac OSes after 10.6.8.
I develop iOS applications professiona
Thinkpad X60 (Score:2)
I spend the most time on my Thinkpad X60.
CPU: Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz
RAM: 2 GB (recently upgraded after scrounging dead stuff)
Hard Disk: 160 GB
I bought it for about $200 several years back, and it still does everything I need. I had to switch from kmail/KDE to Thunderbird/LXDE after the latest Debian release (stupid akonadi), but after that switch I have no speed complaints.
My desktop has a Core 2 Duo E5200 (or so), but I don't use it that much these days.
Intel NUC5i5RYK as living room PC (Score:2)
I just deployed an Intel NUC5i5RYK with 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3L @ 1600MHz memory and a 500 GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2 running CentOS 7 as my new living room PC. The on-board Intel HD Graphics 6000 adapter is supported by Xorg's latest driver and the on-board WiFi chip is recognized. I initially tried installed FreeBSD 11.0-CURRENT, but the WiFi chip wasn't supported.
Normal usage consists of web browsing with Chrome. Spotify and Netflix's web players both work 100%. I use VLC for watching save
Free Dell Inspiron 530 desktop from '08 with Core (Score:2)
I've upgraded it with scavenged parts to 6 GB RAM (could use more but DDR2 is expensive), a 1 GB Radeon 6450, Crucial 128 GB SSD boot disk and a WD 1 TB data drive. It works great and is surprisingly peppy (I don't game on it, obviously). Originally it only supported 4 GB of RAM, but Dell put out a BIOS update a few years ago that bumped it to 8 GB. And there is a hacked BIOS out there that re-enables the AHCI that Dell removed so the SSD pretty much maxes out the 3 Gbps SATA port. Very impressed after a
3 or 4 years old now, but still does the trick (Score:2)
Thinkpad T420 (Score:2)
Replaced the HDD with a 120GB SSD and the DVD with a 240GB SSD - both drives are encrypted
Two external monitors (don't use the built-in display except when traveling)
I don't need any more power than that because all the heavy lifting is done on database servers over a VPN. And (thankfully) not doing any more Java development so no heavyweight IDE :^)
main computer setup (Score:2)
i7-930
20 gigs ram
770 gtx (upgraded recently from a 4850)
1tb 850 pro
12tb raid 0
2 6tb drives, 1 2tb drive
2 27" ips monitors
2 24" ips monitors
Meet Bertha (Score:2)
work setup (Score:2)
Dell Latitude E7440
Intel Core i7-4600U
16GB RAM
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1
Docking Station
Dual 24" Dell Ultrasharp Monitors
LiteOn 256GB SSD
Hauppage WinTV HVR-950
Great for IT work and running VM Workstation.
I'll post my home rig later.
Response #34591525 (Score:2)
Hand-assembled desktop:
Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D
PSU: Corsair Professional Series Gold 1200W
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V
CPU: Core i7 3770K
RAM: 32 GiB DDR3-1600 (Komputerbay)
Storage: 3 x 4 TiB HGST 7200rpm 3.5" + 1 x Seagate Barracuda 4 TiB 7200rpm consumer HDDs (in hardware RAID10)
RAID controller: Adaptec 6405E
GPU1: Sapphire Radeon HD7970 (reference design with impeller)
GPU2 (in CrossFireX): XFX Radeon R9 280X (with three large 'standard' fans and clocked at GHz Edition speeds)
Soundcard: Creative SoundBlaster Z
Acces
Now-Antique AMD (Score:3)
I have older systems, but this is my best one... it just keeps doing everything I need it to.
Gigabyte GA-MA700-UD3P v1.0
Phenom II X6 1045T
Cooler Master Hyper TX2 cooler
Cooler Master 460W PS
Zotac GF750Ti
4xG.Skill 2GB (2x f3Â-10666-cl8dÂ-4gbhk)
ThermalTake Shark case
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB (heh heh) and Intel VO0160EC HPL (160GB HP-branded, eBay-sourced Intel SSD)
Viewsonic VP2655wb 25.5" IPS, Gateway FPD2275W 20" LCD, Dell E228WFPc 20" LCD
HL-DT-ST GH22NS50 DVD-blah blah blah
Kenwood KA-305 with Yamaha Monitors and Sennheiser HD420s
Microtek MRS-2400A48U scanner
Dell media keyboard with 2-port USB1.1 hub
Logitech Trackman Wheel USB T-BB18
The total cost of this system was below $1000, including displays, because I sourced so many parts used, including two out of three of the displays. Maybe I'm in $1100 including my HPLJ2300DN.
This system started out with a hand-me-down 160GB HDD, a Sony/Optiarc DVD which has since died as they all do, a flea market X-Blade case and a Phenom II X3 720, as well as only half the memory, and a Gigabyte 240GT, later an Asus 450 GTS OC.It seems likely I will upgrade again, but the next upgrade is MB+CPU+RAM and I haven't felt the need to go that road. Skyrim is the most demanding game I play, and it runs OK with almost everything turned on at 1920x1200. I have replaced microswitches in the trackball twice. The pot on my Kenwood amplifier could use a cleaning or replacement. The Sennheisers were $5 at a yard sale and I had to refoam 'em, that was around $20 and some scissor work. I have a fancier (active, high-wattage, high-efficiency) PSU to install, but it has no SATA power so I need to solder some in so I don't have a bunch of stupid Y cables.
My very first PC was an IBM PC-1 and my first Linux box was a 386DX25 with 8MB of DIP-socketed DRAM. I'm constantly amazed at what you can dig out of the trash: I've got a C2D with 2GB at my left that I did precisely that with. There's genuinely nothing wrong with it, and it even had an HDD in it.
One laptop (Score:2)
2012 MacBook Pro with an i7 and 8gb ram. Only computer I have. I simply have no interest in babysitting a bunch of garbage.
My main PC (Score:2)
My main PC is as follows:
Phenom II 6 core (2.4 GHz)
16GB RAM (DDR3, 1333MHz if I remember correctly)
2x 128 SSD disks (Raid 1)
1x 2TB disk for TV Recording
1x 16x Blu-Ray drive
1x 48x DVD drive
1 Radeon 74xx video card (2 GB DDR5 ram, 720 threads)
2x 24in 16:9 monitors
IBM Model M keyboard
Microsoft version 1.0 laser mouse (from 2000)
Windows 7 Ultimate
I have a low powered (6 watt CPU) linux box running on the network as my file storage through Samba, mail server, web server. This is more than enough power for me an
DIY (Score:2)
My current computer was built in Dec 2012, with some updates since (i.e. video card). I'm usually on a 3 year refresh rate. I'm thinking that I'll be building my next one when Skylake comes out.
I use mine for photo editing, video editing, gaming, GNS3 (Network simulation), etc. It was built primarily for gaming with the thought that anything else thrown at it would work just fine. The weak point in my system are the displays, its past time for new monitors. For gaming I use my 52" Samsung Plasma but I
Desktop (Score:2)
24GB DDR3
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB x2
AMD6950
Intel i210-T1 NIC - because I refuse to use the intergrated RealTek
Work Setup (Score:2)
Is there such thing as "too much" power? Somehow with 48gb of RAM and a server processor this thing still crawls like it's Windows 2000.
Current specs (Score:3)
I upgrade my system piecemeal over time as bits get too slow and/or fail. It's currently:
Case: Corsair Obsidian 550D
Mainboard: ASUS Sabertooth R2.0
CPU: AMD FX 8350
Memory: Crucial 16GiB ECC
GPU: AMD Radeon 6850 w/ 1GiB VRAM
Disks: 256GB Crucial M550 SSD (Windows 8.1), 120 GB Intel SSD (FreeBSD 10.1), 256GiB Seagate HDD (data)
(Important data is on a FreeBSD NAS w/ ZFS RAID)
Monitor: HP LP2475w
Keyboard: Kinesis Freestyle2
Primary use is software development and secondary is gaming. People criticise the AMD 8350, but with 8 cores it's a beast for parallel building; shared FPU isn't a big deal at all.
Planned upgrades:
New monitor; I'd like a 16:10 (or greater aspect ratio) at least 4K resolution with at least 10 bit depth (I do scientific imaging work). Might have to settle for the 5K Dell or similar if the ghastly 16:9 is all that's available.
New GPU: I'm waiting on the forthcoming AMD releases, probably wait until the new year for a reasonable deal; might have to wait on the monitor as well if I need a new one to drive a much bigger display.
people content with old machines... (Score:5, Interesting)
Notice the interesting trend of people on Slashdot being generally happy/content with machines that are up to 5-6 yrs old?
That's intriguing from a group of technology happy people who mostly earn good money.
I suspect it's the combination of family obligations (time and money), good work machines, and portable devices...that have reduced our desire and allocation of money for frequently updating our machines. And of course the fact that CPU performance has largely been flat lined over the past several years while SSD upgrades have dramatically improved the performance of our older machines.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, that and the fact that many of us build ludicrously over-specced machines whenever we actually upgrade. "Well, I'll be watching a lot of Youtube videos, so 32GB of RAM, 16 cores, 16TB of spinning storage, and 2TB of SSD should just about cover it. Oh, and toss in a couple of GPUs because I've deluded myself into thinking I'll write a protein folding simulator some weekend."
Sometimes it takes a while for your technology to become obsolete when you've installed ASCI Red in your garage.
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly.
I am running a
i7-960 on an Asus board
12GB RAM
SSD primary (Evo840)
RAID1 7200 SATA secondaries (WD w 64MB cache)
GFX660s in SLI
It handled games just fine until Witcher 3. In that game the CPU lag is noticeable to the point where it impacts game play.
I doubt that I will upgrade it any time soon with a baby and new house on the way.
If I need real computing power, I am working on something that I am getting paid for and they are providing the hardware. I am too lame to be doing anything cool in my spare
Re:Ah hah (Score:4, Funny)
That's why I like filling databases with garbage. The joke's on the people who actually pay money for such corrupt data. Oh well, caveat emptor.
Anyway my specs might be:
Intel Core i7-4470K, Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI, 64GB RAM, 3TB storage on SSD's and a couple high end graphics cards, or maybe I just copy pasted most of this stuff from some gamer website.
Ahh, to include the data or not to include?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Wildly incorrect samples are known as outliers [wikipedia.org], and statisticians should know well how to recognize and ignore them.
If you want to just announce your frustration (and possibly get it noticed), that method will work fine. If you want to actually corrupt the data, you need to be more subtle.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh don't be that way!
Let them have their occasional penis measuring contest.
Re: (Score:2)
In that case, 2 foot. I have to throw it over my shoulder just to walk around....right...
Re: (Score:2)
Probably more of a slow news day (or is it a week, or a month - not sure)
Re:Can't get simpler than this (Score:5, Funny)
I have the upgraded version: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock
Re: (Score:3)
To me, a more interesting question would be how do you economically back up a 20TB NAS (or, generally, any large storage array). I have a 24 GB raidz2 that I simply depend on hardware robustness and small, selective backups rather than a full backup.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly.
I fall mostly into the first category:
Re: (Score:3)
Same here. I bought a 2012 Macbook Pro Retina and other than its video card showing its age, it is still holding up just fine. I thought I'd want to replace it after 2 years but that's not even on my radar.
Somewhere in the last five years I've lost track of the spec wars, I'm just not waiting for my computer anymore. I am, however, enjoying having a primary machine that is easy to move or travel with. On several occasions I've finished up some free-lance work on the couch with my wife while watching T