how geek are you?
03-16-2010, 01:31 AM
#25
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If you wait around for the best deal you will never get anything built in the computer world. I've had a friend who has been waiting for "prices to drop" for like 6 years now. As soon as you buy anything it is soon outdated and goes on sale for less than you bought it, or if you did buy it on sale, you're already outdated.
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03-16-2010, 10:09 AM
#28
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Might post pl0x of desk later, but not nearly the geek I used to be. Only have 3 PCs at my desk, none are newer than 5 years old.
Traded off some of my ubercomputer geekness for other forms of geek; I enjoy talking to people in other countries using a two-way radio, and absolutely LOVE contests. Sitting on my desk at any time I have no less than 5 radios.
Have a Yaesu FT-847 "all band all mode" with 60 meters, two Yaesu FT-1802M's (one for FM Voice, one for APRS) one Motorola GTX900 8 channel 900mhz voice, one Motorola GM300 8 channel UHF voice, and a Motorola Spectra VHF sitting next to my couch for FM Voice when I'm feeling lazy.
Antennas I have up include one home brew 88' inverted-vee dipole (tunes 160 - 6m!!), one 'plumbers delight' copper j-pole (2m), M² 12 element 2m beam, Shitty Radioshack discone wideband receive which happens to transmit nicely on 144, 440, and 900mhz along with my newest addition as of yesterday, M² 2m Sideband Loop. Had the loop up for less than an hour when I ran across someone on 144.160mhz in Omaha that I talked to on 5 watts.. Soon to build a UHF and 6M 'plumbers delight' j-pole also. I hate trying to sweat copper..
In my protege I have a Yaesu FT-8900 dual band FM for voice (144/440mhz), a Yaesu FT-1802M for APRS using an Argent OpenTracker+ I built from a kit, a microsoft GPS receiver I hacked interfacing with the opentracker with a TTL/RS232 converter I had to build. Soon to install a removable Yaesu FT-817ND when I pick it up at Dayton so I can work some mobile HF. Another item on the list is another MTX900 mobile. Working on building a 3ghz dual-core P4 PC running on flash memory with a 1tb hdd and 15" ELOTouch systems touchscreen monitor.
My mazdaspeed6 has a very small antenna which is almost unnoticed running a small handheld 144mhz radio, Yaesu VX-170.
The miata even has a radio!! Motorola Spectra VHF 50 watt with remote mounted DTMF display. Removed the factory through the body antenna since I don't have an AM/FM radio anymore and installed a 3/4" Through the body NMO mount for an external. Soon going to pickup a Maxrad Phantom antenna that is a little more sleek... The 52" whip off the back of the car makes it look like a little R/C car.. lmao.
Radios I carry around with me include (but not always) a Motorola GP68 UHF, Motorola GP68 VHF, sometimes my Yaesu VX-170 from the Speed6, but mostly just carry a Yaesu VX-7R (the magnesium cased one) almost everywhere I go. Packed away in the emergency pack is old Trusty, my RadioShack HTX-202 VHF and a spare battery. You could probably kill someone with that radio and it'd still work like new!
Jesus. Did I just tell you all that?
Oh, and I'm working on learning Morse code and picking up my Extra Class ticket.
Traded off some of my ubercomputer geekness for other forms of geek; I enjoy talking to people in other countries using a two-way radio, and absolutely LOVE contests. Sitting on my desk at any time I have no less than 5 radios.
Have a Yaesu FT-847 "all band all mode" with 60 meters, two Yaesu FT-1802M's (one for FM Voice, one for APRS) one Motorola GTX900 8 channel 900mhz voice, one Motorola GM300 8 channel UHF voice, and a Motorola Spectra VHF sitting next to my couch for FM Voice when I'm feeling lazy.
Antennas I have up include one home brew 88' inverted-vee dipole (tunes 160 - 6m!!), one 'plumbers delight' copper j-pole (2m), M² 12 element 2m beam, Shitty Radioshack discone wideband receive which happens to transmit nicely on 144, 440, and 900mhz along with my newest addition as of yesterday, M² 2m Sideband Loop. Had the loop up for less than an hour when I ran across someone on 144.160mhz in Omaha that I talked to on 5 watts.. Soon to build a UHF and 6M 'plumbers delight' j-pole also. I hate trying to sweat copper..
In my protege I have a Yaesu FT-8900 dual band FM for voice (144/440mhz), a Yaesu FT-1802M for APRS using an Argent OpenTracker+ I built from a kit, a microsoft GPS receiver I hacked interfacing with the opentracker with a TTL/RS232 converter I had to build. Soon to install a removable Yaesu FT-817ND when I pick it up at Dayton so I can work some mobile HF. Another item on the list is another MTX900 mobile. Working on building a 3ghz dual-core P4 PC running on flash memory with a 1tb hdd and 15" ELOTouch systems touchscreen monitor.
My mazdaspeed6 has a very small antenna which is almost unnoticed running a small handheld 144mhz radio, Yaesu VX-170.
The miata even has a radio!! Motorola Spectra VHF 50 watt with remote mounted DTMF display. Removed the factory through the body antenna since I don't have an AM/FM radio anymore and installed a 3/4" Through the body NMO mount for an external. Soon going to pickup a Maxrad Phantom antenna that is a little more sleek... The 52" whip off the back of the car makes it look like a little R/C car.. lmao.
Radios I carry around with me include (but not always) a Motorola GP68 UHF, Motorola GP68 VHF, sometimes my Yaesu VX-170 from the Speed6, but mostly just carry a Yaesu VX-7R (the magnesium cased one) almost everywhere I go. Packed away in the emergency pack is old Trusty, my RadioShack HTX-202 VHF and a spare battery. You could probably kill someone with that radio and it'd still work like new!
Jesus. Did I just tell you all that?
Oh, and I'm working on learning Morse code and picking up my Extra Class ticket.
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03-16-2010, 12:07 PM
#30
Boost Pope
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Trouble here is that at our house, we have very distributed geekiness.
The primary fileserver is a tiny little micro-ATX machine with 2TB that lives on a bookshelf next to the small TV (the 55" one) just below the Xbox360 that's used as a media playout device, since that TV doesn't have VGA in, only component. The print server and a crappy little inkjet are also on that shelf, along with the modem and the wireless router.
In the living room, there's another machine that's a combo server / playout device, connected to the big TV.
In Abe's bedroom, there's a typical PC connected to a 30" monitor. He runs some weird OS named after a Finnish hacker.
I've got another fairly typical PC in my bedroom (though it's a quad-core w/ 8 GB RAM and an SSD), and it's got internet sharing set up so that my Vonage box can connect to the router (which is wireless) though it.
In the garage, there's a semi-dedicated laptop hooked up to the stereo so we can stream music to it. And of course, when my car is parked there then there's another node on the network as well.
It's a lot of computing power now that I think about it. Just not very impressive to look at.
The primary fileserver is a tiny little micro-ATX machine with 2TB that lives on a bookshelf next to the small TV (the 55" one) just below the Xbox360 that's used as a media playout device, since that TV doesn't have VGA in, only component. The print server and a crappy little inkjet are also on that shelf, along with the modem and the wireless router.
In the living room, there's another machine that's a combo server / playout device, connected to the big TV.
In Abe's bedroom, there's a typical PC connected to a 30" monitor. He runs some weird OS named after a Finnish hacker.
I've got another fairly typical PC in my bedroom (though it's a quad-core w/ 8 GB RAM and an SSD), and it's got internet sharing set up so that my Vonage box can connect to the router (which is wireless) though it.
In the garage, there's a semi-dedicated laptop hooked up to the stereo so we can stream music to it. And of course, when my car is parked there then there's another node on the network as well.
It's a lot of computing power now that I think about it. Just not very impressive to look at.
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03-16-2010, 12:45 PM
#31
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My geek is funding limited currently. Once I can afford, I can assure you my geek will be strong like my pimp hand. My geek might even be a 3rd pimp hand it will be so strong.
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03-16-2010, 01:24 PM
#32
My current rig I just put together something with used parts from hardforum.com. 4GB DDR2, HD4870, OEM WD 80GB velociraptor (only $80 on ebay HOLLA), 2x 1TB HDDs in raid 1, and a E3200 that I am looking to replace with a used C2Q in the coming weeks. Its modest and I put it all together for like $500. Yet I can still play all modern games including MW2 and BC2 at 1920x1200 with 2xAA on my dell 2408wfp that I scored for free from my old job because the power button broke off and it was a kiosk display.
I used to build $3-4k gaming rigs. At one time, 7900GTX was top of the line, I had a massively pimped out rig that I watercooled etc... Had 2 fresh Dell 3007WFPs that had just come out, etc, etc.... Not that long ago really, I had just recently joined this forum then I think (has it really been almost 4 years?!?!)
Now, even though I'm only 23, I'm so over it. I'm tired of wasting money on **** and 3 months later regretting it. That applies to everything. Now I'm just concerned with advancing my career and paying off my epic student loans. Once I start hitting 6figs in a few years I'll get a bunch of 30" monitors!
I used to build $3-4k gaming rigs. At one time, 7900GTX was top of the line, I had a massively pimped out rig that I watercooled etc... Had 2 fresh Dell 3007WFPs that had just come out, etc, etc.... Not that long ago really, I had just recently joined this forum then I think (has it really been almost 4 years?!?!)
Now, even though I'm only 23, I'm so over it. I'm tired of wasting money on **** and 3 months later regretting it. That applies to everything. Now I'm just concerned with advancing my career and paying off my epic student loans. Once I start hitting 6figs in a few years I'll get a bunch of 30" monitors!
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03-16-2010, 01:37 PM
#33
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My current rig I just put together something with used parts from hardforum.com. 4GB DDR2, HD4870, OEM WD 80GB velociraptor (only $80 on ebay HOLLA), 2x 1TB HDDs in raid 1, and a E3200 that I am looking to replace with a used C2Q in the coming weeks. Its modest and I put it all together for like $500. Yet I can still play all modern games including MW2 and BC2 at 1920x1200 with 2xAA on my dell 2408wfp that I scored for free from my old job because the power button broke off and it was a kiosk display.
I used to build $3-4k gaming rigs. At one time, 7900GTX was top of the line, I had a massively pimped out rig that I watercooled etc... Had 2 fresh Dell 3007WFPs that had just come out, etc, etc.... Not that long ago really, I had just recently joined this forum then I think (has it really been almost 4 years?!?!)
Now, even though I'm only 23, I'm so over it. I'm tired of wasting money on **** and 3 months later regretting it. That applies to everything. Now I'm just concerned with advancing my career and paying off my epic student loans. Once I start hitting 6figs in a few years I'll get a bunch of 30" monitors!
I used to build $3-4k gaming rigs. At one time, 7900GTX was top of the line, I had a massively pimped out rig that I watercooled etc... Had 2 fresh Dell 3007WFPs that had just come out, etc, etc.... Not that long ago really, I had just recently joined this forum then I think (has it really been almost 4 years?!?!)
Now, even though I'm only 23, I'm so over it. I'm tired of wasting money on **** and 3 months later regretting it. That applies to everything. Now I'm just concerned with advancing my career and paying off my epic student loans. Once I start hitting 6figs in a few years I'll get a bunch of 30" monitors!
-AMD Phenom II X4 940, which was outdated by a few days by the 955, so it was cheaper by about $40 (OC to 3.6)
-ASUS motherboard, 8GB DDR2 800 (slight OC via FSB and faster timing)
-Sapphire 4870 Toxic 1GB (OC)
-PC Power&Cooling 860W (which will be still be futureproof for another 3 or 4 years even though it's already a 3 or 4 year old design).
-640GB, 500GB, 1TB HHD's
-Samsung DVD Burner/Combo
-Decent CoolerMaster case with plenty of high volume fans to help with overclocking
Now I'm ready for a new build with a bigger case, better processor, a set of 5870's and a new mobo that supports DDR3.
at Boris ^
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03-16-2010, 01:59 PM
#35
I've been on a bit of a budget built since October, here's the specs on the new rig:
Q6600 2.4 quad running at 3.4GHz on air w/ a Scythe Ninja
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P mobo
4 x 1GB Patriot DDR2-800 <-- 2 x 2GB OCZ DDR2-1066 Platinum in the mail
NVIDIA 9600GT <-- second card and SLI bridge in the mail
Seagate Barracuda 750GB x 2, currently RAID0 <-- going to matrix RAID 0/1 one of these days
23" Acer
Win7 64bit
Still looking at watercooling parts, just no progress on that front. I want 4GHz.
Everything has been bought used except for the drives and the new RAM. Probably about $500 in including the monitor.
It's been a long, slow process.... but its getting there....
Now only I played some games to take advantage of it all....
--Alex
Q6600 2.4 quad running at 3.4GHz on air w/ a Scythe Ninja
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P mobo
4 x 1GB Patriot DDR2-800 <-- 2 x 2GB OCZ DDR2-1066 Platinum in the mail
NVIDIA 9600GT <-- second card and SLI bridge in the mail
Seagate Barracuda 750GB x 2, currently RAID0 <-- going to matrix RAID 0/1 one of these days
23" Acer
Win7 64bit
Still looking at watercooling parts, just no progress on that front. I want 4GHz.
Everything has been bought used except for the drives and the new RAM. Probably about $500 in including the monitor.
It's been a long, slow process.... but its getting there....
Now only I played some games to take advantage of it all....
--Alex
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03-16-2010, 08:49 PM
#36
Threadjack: So, let's say I own a 2-yr old base model Dell Vostro business computer... literally the cheapest model they sold that year. It does nothing but surf the internet... and I want to run dual 22" monitors. Can I buy any dual-DVI graphics card from Geeks or TigerDirect and plug it in... something like this: PNY Verto GeForce 9600GSO 768MB DDR3 PCI Express (PCIe) Dual DVI Video Card w/TV-Out & HDCP Support PNY VCG96GSO7XPB GeForce 9600GSO
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03-16-2010, 09:05 PM
#37
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Threadjack: So, let's say I own a 2-yr old base model Dell Vostro business computer... literally the cheapest model they sold that year. It does nothing but surf the internet... and I want to run dual 22" monitors. Can I buy any dual-DVI graphics card from Geeks or TigerDirect and plug it in... something like this: PNY Verto GeForce 9600GSO 768MB DDR3 PCI Express (PCIe) Dual DVI Video Card w/TV-Out & HDCP Support PNY VCG96GSO7XPB GeForce 9600GSO
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03-16-2010, 09:12 PM
#38
I would check that it has the slot. Open the case and post a pic. I would bet some of the Dell type brands don't support PCIe.
I had an IBM tower that physically had an AGP slot, but the rest of the hardware wasn't there to run it.
--Alex
I had an IBM tower that physically had an AGP slot, but the rest of the hardware wasn't there to run it.
--Alex
Last edited by AlexO35; 03-20-2010 at 04:52 PM.
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03-16-2010, 09:52 PM
#39
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I don't see why it wouldn't "support" PCIe or what being Dell would have to do with it. It has been a standard for more than half a decade. But yeah, do check first. It's amazing what some computers don't come with these days (like a damn cd burner standard).
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