What's Under the Hood? (What kind of Computer do you have?)

[aTOMiC]

I'm always curious about what make and model machine people are using. I've read that some of you aren't happy with what you have or you don't have a computer at all, you are forced to use the machine at work or you use a computer at a library or school.

Here's what I'm dealing with.

Home:
Pentium III 600 mhz
384 mb ram.
60 gig hard driive.
56k connection.
ATI rage 128 vid.
19" monitor
Windows XP

Work:
Pentium IV 1.8 ghz
512 mb ram.
60 gig hard drive.
DSL connection.
Nvidia GeForce4
19" monitor.
Windows XP

Wahoo.

[I'm Murrin]

I have:

P4 2.53GHz
512 Mb RAM
~80 Gb HD
56k modem
Windows XP
I dunno about video or sound card...

[CovenantJr]

I couldn't tell you. It's plastic, cream coloured and it doesn't work very well

[Loredoctor]

AMD 1.7 XP
512 DDR-Ram
40 gig HD
GE Force FX 5200
15" LCD Monitor
CD-RW

[Landwaster]

Stand-up sort. Sortah grey coloured.

[Damelon]

iMac
1Ghz PowerPC G4
512 MB ram
80 gig hard drive
17" monitor

[aTOMiC]

Cool machines so far (except for the ones that are only described by the color of the box.)

[Landwaster]

Honestly, I don't know how to tell!

[matrixman]

edit

[aTOMiC]

Well, well, looks like I've stumbled into the PC Hot Rod corner of the Forum. I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more?

Here's my current setup:

• AMD XP 1800
  ATX Tower Case w/ 300 watt QuietPC Power Supply
  ECS K7S5A Motherboard
  256 MB DDR266 SDRAM
  Geforce 3 Ti 500 64 MB Videocard
  Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Soundcard
  Seagate 40 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
  Lite On 48x24x48 CD-RW
  17" TTX CRT Monitor
  Altec Lansing 5.1 Speakers
  Standard PS/2 Windows Keyboard
  Microsoft USB Optical Wheelmouse
  Shaw Cable High Speed Internet
  Windows XP Professional

I know every component in boring detail because I custom build my own rigs. I take a certain pride in it, and it's quite a satisfying feeling to have configured a computer to your own liking. However, I haven't upgraded for a while, so my PC is biding its time as a nice, budget-to-midrange level system, which suits me fine. As long as I have broadband internet, I'm a happy camper.

I suspect this whole business is some kind of guy thing. The female Watch membership is quite likely now collectively rolling its eyes.

Well, MM. It seems we have something in common and from the list of components you are using we probably shop in similar parts warehouse. I'm currently stuck with an older machine because I gave my daughter my most recently assembled pc. I'm beginning to acquire the parts of my new machine. I have a new tower selected and I'm looking over the options for my mb. I love assembling computers. Just about every friend, relative and co worker I know has a pc that I've stuck my fingers in at one time or another.

[Vain]

OS Name Microsoft Windows
Version 4.90.3000 Build 3000
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1700MHz GenuineIntel ~1715 Mhz
BIOS Version Award Medallion BIOS v6.0
Total Physical Memory 511.50 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB

[aTOMiC]

OS Name Microsoft Windows
Version 4.90.3000 Build 3000
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1700MHz GenuineIntel ~1715 Mhz
BIOS Version Award Medallion BIOS v6.0
Total Physical Memory 511.50 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB

You seem to be doing well Vain. Whatever other components you have, running with that processor must be pretty satisfying. I realize the newer cpus run at around 3.3 ghz but anything above 1 is still very effective.

[I'm Murrin]

Oh, and my laptop, which I got for my bday this year:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1.79GHz (according to 'System')
224Mb RAM
34Gb HD
Windows XP
A bad graphics card (good enough graphics, but incompatible with every game I own).

[aTOMiC]

A bad graphics card (good enough graphics, but incompatible with every game I own).

Aarrrrgghhhh! I hate that. Sorry to hear it. Gaming is a top priority for me and my computers.

[hierachy]

17" mon
80 gig Hard drive
512 MB RAM
2GHz processer
nvidia Gforce FX 5200 graphics card (But I can't get the dam thing to work )

[aTOMiC]

17" mon
80 gig Hard drive
512 MB RAM
2GHz processer
nvidia Gforce FX 5200 graphics card (But I can't get the dam thing to work )

What do you mean can't? Are you using a different card? Is the card installed but the drivers don't seem to work?

[matrixman]

edit

[aTOMiC]

I'd like to help Hierarchy, too, but unless we know exactly how his hardware is configured, it'll be difficult to pin down the cause of his problem. When he says he can't make it work, does he mean specifically that he can't get it to work with 3D games but it works fine in 2D mode? Or is the card not working at all, and he is stuck in standard VGA mode right now?

I was wondering the same thing. My first thought was the more obvious one that the machine won't boot with that card installed. We could use more info.

[hierachy]

17" mon
80 gig Hard drive
512 MB RAM
2GHz processer
nvidia Gforce FX 5200 graphics card (But I can't get the dam thing to work )

What do you mean can't? Are you using a different card? Is the card installed but the drivers don't seem to work?

My computer doesn't seem to know it's there and it just comes up with a blank screen

[aTOMiC]

Are you using an on board or a vid that is intergrated into the motherboard?