Tech junkies, post your rig specs here.

[exp(x)]

Shaikoten said:

I'm actually more interested in how freaking loud Huy's computer is.

With those huge fans, it shouldn't be too bad. I am really glad that I exclusively used 120mm fans when I built my new computer. It is so much quieter than my old desktop.

I couldn't go Crossfire if I wanted though, micro-atx board.

I think I actually have the option to use Crossfire with my micro-atx board because of my APU. I haven't looked into it, though.

[Doom Marine]

DoomHero85 said:

Hey Doom Marine, how much did all that cost you? I'm looking to do a "balls to wall" upgrade sometime soon. You can PM me the answer if you want.

It was around $2500 when I built it across a time period from 2009-2010.

As for your upgrade, start a new thread in Blogs on it, post a budget and what you want to run on it, and I'll give some input.

[Shaikoten]

As it turns out, a 480w power supply isn't QUITE sufficient to run an HD6950. Mine shit the bed playing World of Tanks of all games, even when it was running what I thought were more demanding games without a problem, and for longer times. Upped it to 600w, emergency local store fix that cost way too much. We'll see if it persists, but now I'm not using Janky molex to 6-pin connectors and I have extra SATA plugs if I want to put in an SSD.

[HavoX]

DoomUK said:

Yo dawg we heard you like fans so we put fans on your memory underneath other fans.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're a necessity for cooling RAM that can get hot from heavy overclocking.

[DoomUK]

HavoX said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're a necessity for cooling RAM that can get hot from heavy overclocking.

Yeah I know they serve a purpose. But I can't help but poke fun at people's elaborate cooling systems when they're probably gaining a 1% performance increase from overclocking in the first place. The extra noise they must make is a negative, too.

But basically I'm just jealous because I can't afford a rig as nice as his.

[HavoX]

DoomUK said:

Yeah I know they serve a purpose. But I can't help but poke fun at people's elaborate cooling systems when they're probably gaining a 1% performance increase from overclocking in the first place. The extra noise they must make is a negative, too.

That's one problem with memory coolers. I have read reviews from Newegg about the Corsair CMXAF1 who complained about the fans used in it.

DoomUK said:

But basically I'm just jealous because I can't afford a rig as nice as his.

Well, it's not very easy to build a rig while you're on a strict budget.

[hex11]

3 step plan for the poor dudes:

1. hook up a 4000 cfm house attic fan to your case
2. overclock your 4 MHz XT to 66,666 MHz
3. problem? ;/)

[Doom Marine]

DoomUK said:

Yeah I know they serve a purpose. But I can't help but poke fun at people's elaborate cooling systems when they're probably gaining a 1% performance increase from overclocking in the first place. The extra noise they must make is a negative, too.

But basically I'm just jealous because I can't afford a rig as nice as his.

Taking a processor from 2.6 GHz to 3.8 GHz, is an almost 50% increase in clock speed. There is a big difference.

My long explanation of why it's cost-effective to overclock HERE.

[Maes]

hex11 said:

2. overclock your 4 MHz XT to 66,666 MHz
3. problem? ;/)

The IEEE would like a word with you.

[Relic]

And the minimum system requirements for Doom is 80386 class CPU and 4 MB RAM...

[Planky]

heh, I remember getting Total Annihilation running on a 386 (or 486, can't remember). It worked fine, but it ran like it was in slow motion . Remember thinking it didnt look like low frame-rate. Completely unplayable, but a fun test none the less.

[Maes]

Planky said:

It worked fine, but it ran like it was in slow motion . Remember thinking it didnt look like low frame-rate.

Some games (like Doom) can skip rendering a frame to the screen if necessary, while the actual game engine gets preferential use of the CPU's time and strives to always keep close to the target rhythm, with no skipping.

If there's barely enough processing power to run the engine at 35 fps, the game will still run in real time (if you switch to the automap) but you will get very sparse screen updates. By giving a bit more CPU power you will slowly "upgrade" from a sparse slideshow to a low-fps situation, to a jerky 10-15 fps, to a somewhat playable 15-20, to a smooth 20 and above, while keeping real-time sync. It all depends on whether you have enough "CPU horsepower" to at least run the engine at the target 35 fps and enough to spare for decent video output (this ratio is generally 50:50, and rendering complexity is often correlated to map complexity)

Other games throttle down their target frame rate e.g. from 70 fps to 35 to 17.5 fps or some other fixed amount, or start skipping every other frame, every two other frames etc. if they detect they can't keep up, and throttle up as soon as possible.

Of course, at a certain point you may simply not have enough CPU horsepower to run even the game engine at the target speed (e.g. imagine running NUTS.WAD on a 386, even without any video output). In that case, unless the skipping can affect the game engine itself (it can, in some poorly coded games), you will see actual slowdown and slow motion.

Some games (like most classic 2D arcade games) are not designed to skip frames at all: the engine and video output are always synced and in a CPU-heavy situation both will slow down. This is easy to see in e.g. Bubble Bobble, in the Raiden shooters, in many Danmaku games and even in the Metal Slug games on the Neo-Geo. In those games, losing frames would mean not seeing an object move (e.g. a bullet) so it makes sense to draw everything.

[Planky]

Jesus christ Maes, if I wrote something longer than a paragraph, would you write a novel in response?

Not that I didnt find that interesting, heh

[Quasar]

My newest, principle machine ("QuasNet" has two routers, one wireless range extender/wirless adapter, Ethernet-over-powerline capability, 3 additional PC's, and a laptop, besides this one):

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad E8200 (2.33 GHz x 4)
  
• Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P
  
• Memory: Kingston 4 GB [2 x 2GB] DDR2
  
• Graphics Card: HIS Sapphire Radeon 4850 512 MB
  
• Monitor 1: Gateway HD2200-series 22" HDMI/DVI/VGA flat panel LCD, 1680x1050 native resolution
  
• Monitor 2: HP S2031 20" DVI/VGA flat panel LCD, 1600x900 native resolution
  
• System HDD: 600 GB Western Digital Caviar
  
• Optical Drive: TSSTcorp SH-S223Q DVD+/-RW with LightScribe
  
• Other Storage: 8-in-1 USB card reader; WD MyBook external 500 GB HD
  
• Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 500W
  
• Case: Antec Sonata Proto Quiet Mid Tower Computer Case, 0.8mm Cold Rolled Steel, w/ 120mm TwoCool 2-Speed Fan
  
• UPS: APC Back-UPS ES 550
  
• Mouse: Logitech Click!
  
• Keyboard: eMachines KB-9908 (my XP box was relieved of this KB)
  
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
  
• Printer: HP Officejet 5610 All-in-One Scan/Fax/Print/Copy
  

[Ladna]

CPU: C2D 8500 (3.16 GHz x2)
MB: Gigabyte E7AUM-DS2H
RAM: 4GB DDR2
GFX: ATI 6770 1GB
Monitor: Acer P244Wbii 24" 2ms (GTG) 1080p LCD
Mouse/KB: junk
HD: OCZ 60GB Vertex2
RAID: 4x750GB 7200RPM HDDs in RAID0+1
Power Supply: SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W 80 PLUS GOLD Modular
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Case: Chieftec BRAVO

[Shaviro]

I'm still on my 5 year old machine which is getting a little slow for game development, even if it's just Doom 3: Phobos :P
The only thing I've changed is the graphics processor as my old 8800GTX blew up. Oh and I bought an additional monitor. The system was bought through my old work and practially got it for free, so it's one of those DELL XPS 700/710 things.

I had to make a fresh install a little over a year ago and all I had handy at the time was a really old first generation 36 GB WD Raptor :P

CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.667 GHz
GPU: Radeon HD 5870
Memory: 4GB something something [2x2GB]
System disk: 36 GB Raptor
Secondary work disk: 200 GB something
Primary storage disk: 1TB something
Monitors: 2x24"
OS: Windows 7 Premium(?) 64-bit

I've been looking for parts for a new one and have considered going a little nuts.

CPU: Core i7-2700k
GPU: Geforce GTX 580
Memory: 16GB [4x4?]
System Disk: Revodrive 3 x2 240GB
Random large secondary work+storage drives

But I don't know. The old one still works....sorta :P

[HavoX]

Shaviro said:

GPU: Geforce GTX 580

You might want to consider waiting for NVIDIA's next big thing (unless you're on a budget :P), it's just around the corner. ;)

[Shaviro]

Well yeah whenever I get around to assembling a new computer, these things will be outdated :P

[HavoX]

Yeah, that was the same thing when my brother helped put together my PC in mid-2008.

When I picked the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 to go with the parts I got for X-Mas in 2007, it was already outdated by the time my PC was built due to Wolfdale.

I'm considering upgrading to Ivy Bridge for X-Mas when Windows 8 comes out, but I'm not sure how my brother would feel about that...

[Evolution]

Planky said:

The most awesome case in the world, the Fractal Design-Define-R3

HHRRRRRNNNNGH! Very nice. I do need a good case.
Here we go, my first custom build, bought everything around November 2010:

Asus P7P55D-E LX (usb3, oh wow like cool, totally! yea.)
Corsair TX 650w
Intel i5-760
CM Hyper 212+
G.skill ripjaws 2x2GB 1600c7
Palit Sonic Platinum GTX460 1GB
3 hdds, 500GB/1TB/1TB.
Razer Salmosa mouse, Razer "Goliathus" (LOL k) mousepad. Both were cheap; both are alright but man, I hate cords. Oh, this average cheap Logitech MK300 too. it's alright i guess. Kinda miss my standard Dell kb from '04 (still using the 2.1 speakers though!). Oh and a monitor with max res 1280x768. Boasts horrible contrast.

[Bucket]

Planky said:

Jesus christ Maes, if I wrote something longer than a paragraph, would you write a novel in response?

Not that I didnt find that interesting, heh

*hardware thread pops up*
MAES: "Better put on a pot of coffee, it's my time to SHINE!"

[John Smith]

i5 2400 stock cooler and stock speeds/GTX 560 Ti clocked to be nearly as good as a 480/8GB of regular old RAM that just has better timings. This is what does the gaming.

All this lives in a mITX case though which is easily my favorite part of my box.

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T520 that's got an i7-2760QM,8GB RAM,80GB SSD + 500GB HDD, and 1080p display. It's my more favored computer.

I also have a ProBook and a Lenovo X61, both for fucking around with.

[caco_killer]

My computer motherboard died, time for a new computer!

Specs:

AMD FX 6100 Hexacore @ 3.3 GHZ
8GB DDR3 SDRAM
500 GB Harddrive (plus 1TB harddrive from previous computer)
NVIDIA GTX 460 (also from the old computer)
Corsair GS700 PSU (see above)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Case
3 120mm Fans (one is on the PSU)

Pics:

[HavoX]

Well, last night, I had a slight misadventure with my monitor. I kept getting those annoying "display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" errors in the Event Log after my monitor continuously kept going blank for a couple seconds.

I was pretty sure it was a driver problem, so this morning I ran Driver Sweeper and performed a clean install of the latest Forceware drivers (good thing I downloaded it last night!). The process wasn't really difficult (I had some experience with installing/uninstalling ATI/AMD drivers in the past using a similar product), but I had to go into Safe Mode and uninstall/remove every entry related to NVIDIA before installing the latest drivers.

Everything seems to be working now, and I feel proud about accomplishing something myself. I would have asked my brother about what I should do, but this was actually a piece of cake! Heh.


...BTW, have you tried CleanMem and IObit Advanced SystemCare? They're supposed to be real good!

[HavoX]

Bump. :P

Shaviro said:

Well yeah whenever I get around to assembling a new computer, these things will be outdated :P

Newegg doesn't have them (the GTX 680) listed as I made this post, but read and drool.

EDIT: Well, now they do, BUT THEY'RE SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES. If you're able to, you can preorder one where you live.

EDIT2: Um... hold the phone, overclockers. Judging from the TechPowerUp! review, it seems like that manually overclocking the GTX 680 will be very complicated.

[Doom Marine]

Bump for 2012 Upgrade.







Main PC
CPU: Core i7 3770k @ 4.2-GHz
CPU Heatsink: Noctua NH-D14
MOBO: Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe
GPU: 2x Zotac GTX 680 4GB in SLI
RAM: 32GB G-Skill Ares 1600 RAM
SSD: 1x Crucial M4 128GB, 2x Samsung 830 128GB (non-RAID)
HDD: 1x WD Velociraptor 300GB, 2x WD Velociraptor 1-TB RAID0, 2x WD 640GB Black RAID1
PSU: Corsair AX1200 PSU
CASE: Cooler Master HAF-X
MONITOR Asus VG278H 120hz Monitor, HP 2159m Side Panel

Guest PC
CPU: Core i7 920 @ 3.5-GHz
CPU Heatsink: Thermalright True Spirit 120
MOBO: Asus P6T v2 Deluxe
GPU: AMD Radeon 5850
RAM: 12GB Corsair Dominator 1600 RAM
SSD: 1x Crucial C300 128GB
HDD: 1x WD Velociraptor 300GB
PSU: Antec Quattro 850W PSU
CASE: Antec 900-2
MONITOR Asus VG236H 120hz Monitor, Acer 22" Side Panel

Okay Mike Reiner, it's your turn!

[Bucket]

So... do you own a small video/CGI production studio? That's the only reason I can imagine needing all those HDDs for.

[Doom Marine]

I've taken an interest in 1080p footage editing, and is currently working with extremely high-resolution HDR photo editing.

[Evolution]

Jeez, Marine. That's really fricken nice. Pretty much what I want to upgrade to but yeah, not for a while. :(

[ClumsyDoomer]

Cpu: Intel Pentium 4 [541 Prescott] @ 3.21 ghz (underclocked to 2.8 ghz due to overheating)
Motherboard: Gigabyte with vaaaaaary long model name...
Ram: 1 GB DDR2 @220 mhz (forgot how many exactly)
Gpu: NVidia GeForce 8600GT 256mb
Monitor: Samsung 1280x960 (4:3)
OS: Windows XP SP3
HDD: 300gb
Power supply: Some cheap Power Man
Case: Don't know, but it's 100% iron...

Artifact from 2005. Old videocard (GeForce 6600) fired, so my parents bought 8600. Crap anyway. Wanna get new PC in birthday ^^
PrBoom Plus viddump performance is worst. 640x480, crf 25 - 6.1 fps (demo was my TNT map01 UV Max TAS in 0:37)