What are your computer's specs ?

[Andy]

Any forum that geeks frequent is incomplete unless they have one of these threads. And Quantnet is no different so I thought it would be fun to see what kind of computers our members are using. Post your computer specs, pictures of your desktops, laptops, etc. If you have setup a trading system, it would be nice to see them ;)

I'll go first.

1) Desktop : I built this 2 years ago from scratch. All the parts are from newegg.com. This is a 2.8 Ghz, 1GB ram, XP Pro SP2. 4 HDs on them with about 800GB of data. The monitor is a Dell widescreen 20" LCD. I need to get another screen to setup dual monitor for spreadsheet work.
2) Laptop : my primary computer. This is my third Thinkpad after T23, T42. The current model is T60 2623D6U with 1.5GB ram, 1400x1050 res, DVD burner. XP SP2 on the main HD (100GB) and Ubuntu on the second HD (70GB)

What's yours ?

[woody]

Ah, Andy. I think we all know what I use :)

My main computer is my black MacBook with the standard specs. I do have Windows installed with Parallels, but never use it. If I want to use Windows for something, I Remote Desktop to my work computer. I use gcc for compiling my code. (All the developer tools came with the computer). I prefer UNIX to DOS.

I also have a desktop Mac G4 from 2003 still running strong. I use it mainly for photo/video stuff.

BTW, I have no virus protection, never had a virus on any of these machines.

I also recently set up a wireless N network with a network printer. I also have an Airport XPress so I can wirelessly stream music from either computer to my living room stereo system. And, when I get Leopard (OSX 10.5) I will be able to have Time Machine automatically and instantaneously backup my work on a network drive hooked up to my Apple wireless N hub (Time Machine is basically automatic version control). I also have a cable modem.

[Andy]

A screenshot of my desk. On the left is a Dell 22" LCD , on the right is a Dell 20" LCD, both widescreen. And my trusty T60 Thinkpad of course.
To complete the setup is a pair of Logitech cordless mouse and keyboard.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/2923/picture702largenn7.jpg

[Yuriy]

I wonder why do you need 2 monitors :)

I have a 15.4" Dell Notebook that is doing great so far, the only upgrade I have made 1Gb RAM => 2Gb RA.

[alain]

I wonder why do you need 2 monitors :)

I have a 15.4" Dell Notebook that is doing great so far, the only upgrade I have made 1Gb RAM => 2Gb RA.

If you have never worked with 2+ monitors, you don't know what you are missing. I only have 1 monitor at home and I'm always struggling... at work I have 4 monitors and it is the best thing.

[Yuriy]

At work, you might need lots of "monitor space", but at home? :) in that case you need a big room as well.

[Wallstyouth]

I recently built a desktop from scratch:

1. LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827106072)
2. LIAN LI PC-201B Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811112109)
3. Seagate Barracuda ES ST3500630NS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148151)
4. BenQ FP241W Black 24" 6ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16824014124)
5. EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130072)
6. ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A3T - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827135143)
7. PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Black) EPS12V 750W Power Supply - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817703009)
8. Logitech MX Revolution Black 7 Buttons 2 x Wheels USB RF Wireless Laser Mouse - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16826104015)
9. G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231122)
10. ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131196)
11. Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115017)

And for a laptop I'm using a 15" MacbookPro

[dcifrths]

i don't know exactly all my computer's specs so here goes:

- pretty sure it is 2ghz
- 2gigabites of ram
- 2 local hard drives, 250gigabites and 75 gigabites
- 2 dell 24" lcd monitors

my laptop is just s generic dell whatever it is that broke and they gave me a new one...nothing to write home about. my computer above though was built from scratch.

i'm a former pro poker player though so i needed a great computer. cost about $2.5k to build and well worth it.

Barron

[Andy]

Wallstyouth,

That's a sick gig you built. You absolutely overkilled with that Video card and memory ;)
check out my gig which I built specially for my Blu-ray viewing back in August. I since then got half a dozen more of Samsung 500GB HD to store my movies. This hooks up to a Philips 42" LCD 1080P for perfect viewing.

I haven't even OC'ed my gig and it handles everything I throw at it with absolute ease.


EVGA 256-P2-N765-AR GeForce 8600GTS Superclocked 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130086)
ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131045)
SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152052)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6750 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115029)
SILVERSTONE GD01B-MXR Black Aluminum front panel, 0.8 mm SECC body ATX Media Center / HTPC Desktop Computer Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811163076)
CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139001)
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231065)

[VladimirBunicu]

Check out my gig which I built specially for my Blu-ray viewing back in August. I since then got half a dozen more of Samsung 500GB HD to store my movies.

Andy, I know that the "law of cost for the marginal gigabyte" tells you to stick with 500GB harddrives, but before you run out of hard drive slots on your machine I would recommend switching to these 1-TB babies:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148274)

Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148278)

Fast and furious... and costly too :(
By the way, how much disk space does one Blue-ray movie eat up?

[Andy]

Vladimir,
I stopped buying those 500GB once I realized it's futile exercise to stock up on it. There is no way I can store all my movies on HD. And I just don't have time to catch up on all of my blu-ray movies I have.

I will save to buy when an affordable Blu-ray burner comes out.

Blu-ray comes in 2 sizes, single layer is 25GB max and double layer is 50GB max. Movies like Pirates of the Carribeans are 45GB+

The pictures and sounds are just mind blowing. Try it !

[Yuriy]

I was not aware that 768MB videocards exist :) I'm comfortable with my old 256MB.
I can't recall all of my PC specs since I'm not home.
I have something like 3.2GHz Intel Pentium (4 or D), 1Gb of RAM, 256MB videocard, 250+80Gb HD.

[Andy]

If you have never worked with 2+ monitors, you don't know what you are missing. I only have 1 monitor at home and I'm always struggling... at work I have 4 monitors and it is the best thing.
We mostly have 4 or 3 monitors setup at work. I've seen 6-8 monitor setups as well where they stack it in 2 rows vertically. Looks just like a traffic monitoring center

At work, you might need lots of "monitor space", but at home? :) in that case you need a big room as well.
If you only work with one monitor, then you get used to it. If you ever worked with 2 or more monitors, you will see that productivity increases a lot.

There is many research articles on this but the one from NYT is pretty good
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/technology/20basics.html

[alain]

I was not aware that 768MB videocards exist :) I'm comfortable with my old 256MB.
I can't recall all of my PC specs since I'm not home.
I have something like 3.2GHz Intel Pentium (4 or D), 1Gb of RAM, 256MB videocard, 250+80Gb HD.

If you play games, those extra MBs in the videocard are golden ;)

[Yuriy]

If you play games, those extra MBs in the videocard are golden ;)

I think playing games "professionally" on a PC is not a good thing, if someone wants to play games with cool graphics they should buy PS2/3 or XBOX :).

I sometimes (like once a week) play my FIFA games, recently switched to NBA, and my videocard is OK for those games.

[alain]

I think playing games "professionally" on a PC is not a good thing, if someone wants to play games with cool graphics they should buy PS2/3 or XBOX :).

I sometimes (like once a week) play my FIFA games, recently switched to NBA, and my videocard is OK for those games.

I haven't touched my XBOX in years :cry:

[Yuriy]

I haven't touched my XBOX in years :cry:

Now is a good time to play it :) before the next semester starts.

[Andy]

I recently built a desktop from scratch:
I'd love to see pics of that gig. Or benchmarks ;)

[Yuriy]

I'd love to see pics of that gig. Or benchmarks ;)

I wonder how much it cost :)

[Andy]

I wonder how much it cost :)
over 2K. Just click on all the newegg links and add up the prices.
The most expensive item on it is the video card. He better uses it as a gaming gig.

[Wallstyouth]

I'd love to see pics of that gig. Or benchmarks ;)

I will post it today when I get home. I can provide the 3DMark benchmarks I believe I have 06 or maybe 07 installed. I'm running 64bit vista by the way so its not as speedy as XP but still pretty impressive.

[Wallstyouth]

over 2K. Just click on all the newegg links and add up the prices.
The most expensive item on it is the video card. He better uses it as a gaming gig.

Newegg.com Shopping Cart (http://www.rodrickbrown.com/newrig.html) - Better overview :)

The Monitor kicks - 24" Widescreen + HDMI :)

[Yuriy]

over 2K. Just click on all the newegg links and add up the prices.
The most expensive item on it is the video card. He better uses it as a gaming gig.

Videocard alone costs more than PlayStation :)

[Yuriy]

Andy, what benchmark software do you use? I want to see how my 1-year old Dell notebook compares to others.

[Andy]

3DMarks is what people use to benchmark. There are plenty other as well.
Forget about benchmark your Dell. Do a search on that model and read the reviews.
Nobody benchmarks a one year old stock computer, much less a Dell.

[Yuriy]

3DMarks is what people use to benchmark. There are plenty other as well.
Forget about benchmark your Dell. Do a search on that model and read the reviews.
Nobody benchmarks a one year old stock computer, much less a Dell.

I searched for 3DMark and found a program called 3DMark03, it is used for graphics benchmarking for gamers :) Well, anyway, it crashes when benchmarking my Dell :) Some planes are flying and the program closes at the end asking to send the data to Microsoft :D At least, my Dell allows me to play NBA LIVE 07 and do my homework.

[Andy]

I just bought some parts to upgrade my second computer to make it Blu-ray ready. I plan to move it to the living room to hookup to my soon-to-purchase 1080P Sanyo PLV-Z2000 projector
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://e4wwwtest.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128059)
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail (http://e4wwwtest.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231098)
EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail (http://e4wwwtest.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130085)

[Hien]

White MacBook 2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
80GB
OSX 10.5
And a bunch of cool stuff on it ;)

[Andy]

If you have never worked with 2+ monitors, you don't know what you are missing. I only have 1 monitor at home and I'm always struggling... at work I have 4 monitors and it is the best thing.
It's hard to go from this back to 1 monitor

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/1193/img00027xx1.jpg

[ramnik]

My laptop has the following:
Dell Inspiron 1.66Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
2X512 MB DDR2 SDRAM
60GB 5400 rpm SATA harddisk
2 MB L2
Ubuntu 7.10(Gutsy Gibbon)

My lab desktop is rather outdated, and seldom used:
2.8 Ghz Single Core
2X256 MB RAM
140GB harddisk
Windows XP

(Aside: For people who use VIM as their primary text editor might consider using Vimperator (http://vimperator.mozdev.org/)
, its an awesome add-on for firefox allowing you to browse the web using the keyboard)

[alain]

My computer is my notebook as well. I don't carry pads to class anymore.

IBM Thinkpad X61 Tablet
Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB memory
1 GB Turbo Memory on the docking station
120 GB HD
etc, etc...

I like it a lot!!! :)

[ramnik]

1 GB Turbo Memory on the docking station

"Turbo memory", that term was new till 10 minutes back. Now, after reading for a while I guess have started liking the concept. For all those like me who did not know anything about "turbo memory", a nice article would be http://www.macworld.com/article/47488/2005/10/robson.html. (http://www.macworld.com/article/47488/2005/10/robson.html)
Alain please confirm whether the performance boost is as mentioned here.

[foquant]

core 2 extreme
4 gb ram (middle of the road latency)
500 gb hd 7500 with 250 gb back up
nvidia geforce 6800 video cards
dual 24" widescreen monitors
suitcase size backup power/internet manager
sits on an 8' long desk

...my home away from home, that's inside my home

[Andy]

...my home away from home, that's inside my home
I really know what you mean. Really ;)

Anyone has multiple OS on their main desktop ?

[ramnik]

Anyone has multiple OS on their main desktop ?

I did use a dual boot: switching between Ubuntu and Windows.
Not any longer since I can simply remote desktop into the lab computer, and as it is, I spent 90% of my time on Ubuntu.