So I built 5 new computers for around the house

[DainBramaged]

Intel Pentium D 3.2 GHz with a 250GB hard drive and GForce 8400GS 256mb video card, 2GB DDR2 memory.

Intel Pentium 775 3.0 as above but with an 80 GB hard drive.

AMD 64X2 4800 with a 200 GB hard drive, 8400GS video card, 2 GB DDR2 memory.

AMD 64 1650LE with 250 GB hard drive, ATI X1300 video card (256mb), 2 GB ddr2 memory (this one is for my daughter). Fast little system.

AMD 64 Athlon socket 754 3200 with a 165 GB hard drive, MSI GForce 7100 128 mb video card, 1 gb ddr ram. They all have DVD burners (so cheap now) and use the same AOpen low profile cases (except the 754 AMD, it is using a recycled HP mini Tower case).

The Pentium D is the fastest (per Performance test). I like the AMD systems, and am thinking of upgrading the 4800 X2 to either a 5600 (2.8 GHz) or a 5000 Black (2.6 but no restrictions on overclocking). The AMD's use ECS motherboards, the Intel's use Biostars.

I replaced 4 older Dell 4600C and home built systems. Sold two on Ebay to recover some of the costs. Been a lot of fun.

[hobbit709]

1. Trying to keep up with me, eh?

My main system runs an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ overclocked to 3.0GHz with 4Gb RAM, 256 Mb Geforce 8400GS, 2 DVD-RW 20X burners, 2 500Gb Hard drives-counting everything I'm up to drive letter "T"
The one I use for converting Vinyl and cassettes has an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ running at 2.3 GHz with 2 Gb RAM, NVidia onboard 7050 video(256Mb shared). 20X DVD-RW, 320Gb drive
The one for video processing is the same except onboard video is NVidia 6100.
My playing with/learning different OS's box is the same as the video box but I have 4 SATA 80Gb drives-each with a different OS on them. Have Windows XP 64, Vista Ultimate, Ubuntu 8.04 and SUSE 10.3 on them.
My Micro-fly case has an Athlon 64 X2 BE-2350 with 3Gb RAM, onboard Nvidia 7050 video, 200 Gb SATA drive, 20X DVD-RW and a M-Audio Delta 1010LT audio card-I use it for doing live audio recordings for various bands.
My wife's I just upgraded to a Athlon 64 3800+ from an old Athlon XP1700+ system. Has 512Mb RAM, 60Gb drive, Combo DVD-CD-RW drive. Upgrade ending up costing me $25-Newegg had a combo deal for MB, CPU and RAM for $80 with $20 mail-in rebate, then I sold the old board on craigslist for $35.
Then my laptop is a Compaq C501 with a 1.73GHz Celeron M, 768Mb RAM, 60Gb drive.
Just finished building an HTPC with an Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.9GHz, 2GB RAM, Geforce 8400GS video card, 320GB drive, 20X DVD-RW, Hauppauge dual tuner card for both analog and digital/HD TV.

On 5 of my systems I'm doing Folding@home on the DU Team.

[DainBramaged]

2. I have 3 in storage, 2 old socket 478 Intel and a Athlon Socket A

The more I think about it the more I am leaning towards that 5000 Black CPU to upgrade on the gaming system. Space was a consideration for me which is why I used the Aopen desktop half-height cases. But I also saw last night that "the overstock king" on Ebay has a special on a XFX FATAL1TY GF 8500GT 512MB DDR2 video card for $89.99 with free shipping. I have some 250GB and 160GB hard drives left, an ASRock motherboard and a couple of socket 775 CPU's to choose from, so I may just grab that and get an ATX case to build a crazy system.

OH I forgot about the laptop. Compaq. C751NR. P1.60 Duo core, 120GB hard drive, 2 GB memory, and yes I am a Windoze monkey.

[hobbit709]

3. You might want to look up the prices on newegg.com

for video and other stuff. I do about 85% of my online shopping there. Their prices are very competitive and I haven't had any problems with anything I've bought there-even some open box stuff.

[DainBramaged]

4. I am an Ebay junkie, but I have bought from Newegg, Geeks, and AxionTech

quite a bit over the years. I have regular suppliers on Ebay because of work, so I usually choose them because of PayPal (always good to pay up front instead of on a credit card). The 8400GS video cards cost $45 with free shipping from Buy (which I think is Best Buy's outlet), so I'm happy with that.

[hobbit709]

5. newegg does PayPal

I get a lot of stuff on Ebay too. I even sell some older stuff I don't need or have use for. I got $10 ea plus shipping on two old K6-400MHz boards that I pulled out a couple old cases I got for nothing-used the cases which had 450w power supplies with the 12v connector and put in a couple of Athlon 64 setups.

[DainBramaged]

6. I saw that, and The Geeks do now too!

I still find things much cheaper on Ebay. an example:

Geeks: plain box no name NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT 512MB PCI-Express: $57.99 + shipping
Newegg: XFX PVT86JYAHG GeForce 8500 GT 512MB: $67.99
BUY on Ebay: XFX GeForce 8500GT 512MB 128-bit DDR2 500MHz PCI-E: $68.99 free shipping.

And the BUY video card is a 500MHz card, not the 450 MHz on Newegg AND is complete in an XFX box.

But that XFX FATAL1TY GF 8500GT is still the prize ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170223376524&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=007 )

[Deja Q]

7. Blimey, what's your electric bill?

:wow:

I remember, a few years ago, building a PC just to be a phone answering/communication center. My bill skyrocketed...

[DainBramaged]

8. I only run (usually) two at a time. It's about $75 a month now

that heating season is over. And all of my monitors are lcds too. That made a difference when I dumped my last glass tube.

I knocked the crap out of AMD here a few weeks back, but they are cheap and fun to build. And they work good too.

Next step, into the Linux jungle.:rofl:

[sam sarrha]

9. i just built my first new computer .. updated my old one for the wife, and networked her old one the

workshop..

i love my new computer.. no one thought i could do it with one hand. hey at Harbor Freight /they have a .com/ i got a set of 2 10 inch Hemostats for~ $7. heavy duty, they lock, and help plug in those little fan sockets way down deep under the cables. especially helpful if you only have one hand

ANTEC 900 Case. ASUS Rampage Formula X48. Intel Zeon 3110. VISTA 64bit Home Premium. Silent Knight2 CPU cooler. 8 GB OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066. 2x WD CAVIAR SE-16 500GB HD RAID1. VisionTec Radeon HD 3870 X2. Samsung 22" Wide Screen. Cosair 750 watt PSU. OPTI UPS Battery Back Up. MX Revolution mouse/IceMat pad..

i lost my left hand and the MX mouse has some really nice features ..except for the price, i got 25% off at Amazon.com and free shipping

and i enthusiastically endorse the Cyber Snipa SONAR 5.1 Pro Surround Headset, great for gaming.. fantastic for music
has a USB multi media connector/ got it 25% 0ff at ANTOnline.com, no more piss'n off the wife..

must be something going around.. lots of people i meet are upgrading or building

[RoyGBiv]

10. Congrats!

Building is fun. It's a sense of accomplishment. And, when it's done, it tends to be what you want, not what some salesperson told you that you wanted.

I like building boxes, so much that I've volunteered a lot of time putting them together for friends, acquaintances, and even a few charitable or political groups. Some people pay me, which is nice also of course and would be a requirement if it were *expected* of me, but on the whole I just like doing it.

[sam sarrha]

11. i used to build Flight/Life Critical Avionics control circuit boards to ML-std-2000a standard for

the F22 Raptor and the Delta3 Rocket, this is the first "Assembly" i have done, other than reproductions of Antique Crystal Radio Sets.

i got all the cables bundled and tied neatly.. i would really like to add a light tube in the top of the box. but that means going into the cables again.. i have to use the big hemostats to twist the tie downs.

i would really like to make some more..

my wife wants me to build one of these for her.. maybe after i catch up with the doctor bills

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-vf1000bws-lanbox-case-black.html

http://customerpics.xoxide.com/viewimages.php?sku=11376&id=2031

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-lanbox-lite-window.html

[RoyGBiv]

12. Very cool ...

BTW, you know there's a rule here.

Pics. We need pics like the kitteh lovers need pics.

Techno-porn. Must have it. :P

[sam sarrha]

13. i have never been able to post one here.. is there a place that explains it..?

[RoyGBiv]

14. It's in the Help section ...

...somewhere, I think. Also just noticed a brief version is in the HTML lookup table.

It's fairly simple.

The image needs to be hosted somewhere. I use Photobucket for no good reason other than that's the first image hosting place I tried. Once your image is uploaded to one of these places, they offer you a "direct link" that you can use. In Photobucket, you'll get two links directly below the image, one for IM/E-mail, the other the "direct link."

Copy that link and insert it into a message.

It'll look like this:

http://www.hostingsite.foo/path.to.image/imagefoo.foo

Can't put a real link in there 'cause you wouldn't see the text.

I believe the link has to have a file name that ends in .jpg, .gif, or .png. Tiffs and .bmp may work too ... can't remember.

Here's a sample result:

[LiberalFighter]

15. How much for that monitor or whatever it is?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

16. That's Compiz.

Comes with just about every major Linux desktop distro, these days.