[bysmitty]

I'm a complete tech-head and am curious as to what type of rigs everyone is running. Post your computer specs.

...bysmitty

[Huz]

There was one of these quite recently... I'm assuming most people's gaming PC will be the one they use most often.

Strangely nobody seemed willing to follow the lead of Scott and I there.

[Junkface]

AMD Athlon 2000+ XP
Leadtek GeForce 6600GT 128mb AGP
512mb DDR Ram
Soundblaster Audigy Digital Entertainment
That's about all that matters, isn't it?

[bysmitty]

Sorry, I missed the other thread as I very rarely frequent the chitchat section. A mod can merge threads if they want.

For simplicity's sake, I'm just going to post my FiringSquad sig for my gaming rig.

Only difference is I swapped out the Antec power supply for a Seasonic S12 600w.
All of that is in a Coolermaster Stacker 830.

pic1
pic2
pic3

...bysmitty

[Sage]

Arrr! That be a manly computer!
Where are the drives?

[bysmitty]

Drives?

Hard drive? I keep my media on a file server so I only use the 250gig for OS and games. Optical drive? It has a 16x plextor Dual layer burner in it. I should have save the $60 and just got one of the $40 Lite-Ons that newegg has on sale though.

...bysmitty

[bysmitty]

Originally Posted by Junkface

AMD Athlon 2000+ XP
Leadtek GeForce 6600GT 128mb AGP
512mb DDR Ram
Soundblaster Audigy Digital Entertainment
That's about all that matters, isn't it?

How does that setup do with playing newer games? Any thoughts as to upgrades yet? It's actually pretty similar to my last gaming computer which was a 2100xp, 1gig memory, vanilla 6800 AGP, and Audigy.

...bysmitty

[Jeysie]

Let's see...

AMD K-6-2 350MHz MMX
ATI Rage LT Pro AGP 2X 4MB
128MB RAM
ES1869 Plug and Play Audiodrive (WDM)
7.46GB Hard Drive
CD-ROM
CD-RW

Yeah, it's an old clunker.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Huz]

Originally Posted by Jeysie

ES1869 Plug and Play Audiodrive (WDM)

Hee, I had one of those until it broke. Good to hear they're still out there somewhere and working fine!

[MoriartyL]

Intel Pentium III 930 Mhz
256MB RAM
NVidia GeForce 4 MX 440 (64 MB)
Creative Sound Blaster Live! Value
Hard drive: 74 GB

[Catbert]

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
512MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9000 128MB
Hard Drive 80GB

I should get a good sound card and new speakers though

[Panthera]

AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Abit NF7 series Motherboard with integrated soundcard
512 MB Ram
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb
two hardrives; first 120 gb (partitioned) and second 250 gb

Wondering about upgrading, especially my Ram, and my videocard needs a boost too..

[Catbert]

If you're gonna upgrade, might as well take a new processor as well, right?

[bysmitty]

Originally Posted by Panthera

AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Abit NF7 series Motherboard with integrated soundcard
512 MB Ram
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb
two hardrives; first 120 gb (partitioned) and second 250 gb

Wondering about upgrading, especially my Ram, and my videocard needs a boost too..

It all depends on how much money you want to sink into upgrades but ya', memory should be first followed by a new video card. If you don't plan on overclocking your computer then just get another stick of 512. Something like corsair value select is a fine choice. Make sure you get the same speed memory as your current memory. Google and download 'cpuz' if you don't know. For a vid card, you can pick up an AGP x1600, x850, or a vanilla 6800 for around $150 but i hate having people upgrade to a dead standard like AGP. The only way around it though it to pick up a new motherboard with PCIe and CPU so it's up to you on how much you want to spend how long you want it to last you. You can get a socket 939 althon 64 3200+ for about $150 and a Biostar TForce 6100 M-ATX for $70 to get you well up to date. Then all you would need would be x1600 or a 7600gt for about $200 to be all set.

...bysmitty

[simpson_yellow]

Damn, smitty. That's one sweet machine.

As for mine:

Athlon64 3200+ s939
Asus v9999 6800 (just the vanilla version, and AGP to boot )
1GB 3200 Corsair TwinX
120GB WD SATA HDD
Philips 17" flat CRT (still don't like LCDs)

Plays everything I want it to. Don't think I'll be upgrading for about another year or so.

[bysmitty]

That is a pretty nice rig you got yourself there s_y. That has to be frusterating having a socket 939 motherboard w/ AGP. Ack. At least it should be an easy upgrade to a PCIe mobo since you are still on an up to date socket type. Have you ever done any overclocking on your computer? Those 3200+s can reach 2.4ghz or 2.6ghz pretty easily and that twinX can reach DDR2 speeds.

...bysmitty

[simpson_yellow]

Yeah, it's a bit frustrating. At the time I bought it, PCIe was only just hitting the market and I couldn't find a motherboard with both s939 and PCIe. At the time, the PCIe video cards on the market were less than impressive, so I figured it wouldn't be too much of a problem going with AGP. *sigh*

The upgrade to a PCIe mobo would be pretty cheap. It's the upgrade to a good PCIe video card that currently makes my Visa card recoil in terror.

No, I haven't done any overclocking yet (not altogether confident, as I've never done it before), but I'll think about it some more once I start struggling to run newer games.

How often do you upgrade? Do you generally do it incrementally or as a complete overhaul?

[bysmitty]

Well, the Biostar mobo I linked earlier in the thread is an awesome, cheap motherboard with all the bells and whistles (minus the 2nd PCIe slot). It can be had for about $70. Even a lower end PCIe video card like a x1600xt or 7600gt will be quite a bit of an improvement over your vanilla 6800 and can be had for around $150-$175 usually. Something like this or this will smoke a 6800 agp will keep you gaming on that computer comfortably for another year or two until you have enough to pony up for a faster card. Plus you can put that 6800 and old mobo on ebay and get around $100 back.

That CPU can usually hit fx55 speeds fairly easily with a bit of overclocking. You can talk to my man Lenin in this thread over at FiringSquad. Just post your specs in detail and he'll tell you what bios settings to change to get a blistering overclock. If you plan on swapping out your mobo soon, you should hold off posting until after. Also, some aftermarket cooling for the CPU will help get better results. A nice aftermarket heatsink and fan will usually run $30-$40.

As for upgrading myself, I'm a tinkerer so I've always got a few of my rigs open swapping in and out parts. I'll upgrade until the core components become too out of date, like having an old CPU socket style, then build a new one from scratch. That is why it is nice that you have a socket 939 CPU as that 3200 is still a fast processor and even when it does get too sluggish, you can just pop a 3800 x2 in there for another year or two of life. You only need a nice motherboard to be on a good upgrade path.

...bysmitty

[simpson_yellow]

Cool. Thanks for the advice. I haven't looked at prices for ages, and I can't believe how cheap those video cards are!

I just looked them up on some Australian sites and they're going for about AUD$200. Considering I originally paid nearly AUD$500 for mine, this is looking like an extremely attractive option for the near future.

As for the o/c'ing, I think I'll hold off on it for a bit though. Thanks heaps for the link though. It'll be nice to have some help if/when I finally get around to it.

[stepurhan]

My computer has 20/20 vision. It doesn't need specs.