Whats your spec?

[mossj]

Hi all, my machine at work has 'finally' given up the ghost (It was well below the average spec, but as ever was overlooked) and it looks like I should be able to coax a new machine out of the Head.

 

I was wondering what you guys use spec wise, and if you have made any *special* additions (dual monitors, 2 NICS, dual/tri boot, things like that)? Also how much was spent on the machine when it was bought? Did you custom build it? Would you custom build or buy a generic box?

 

Thanks,

Edited April 21, 2009 by mossj

[tmcd35]

I currently use my personal Mac Book Pro. My min. spec at the moment - which is more than good enough for my desktop - is Dual core and 2Gb RAM. As for 'special edition', dual monitors is a must. Because I run a lot of VM's (If I were replacing my lappy with a desktop) 4Gb and a 2nd NIC would be on the spec list. Also a DVD/RW drive is a must on a tech machine.

 

We buy Lenovo here. I'd find the cheapest/closest model to my min. spec and then buy generic componets (ram, nic, etc) to upgrade to desired spec. When the time comes to replace my current machine, I'm thinking NetBSD or OpenSuSE on the desktop with Windows XP and/or 7 running in a VirtualBox VM.

[DAckroyd]

the more powerful machine I use is a Core2Extreame laptop with 4 GB ram and 8 series graphics card 17" running windows 7

 

my other machine is a 15" laptop with a second screen attached but that's not a great spec

 

I would suggest looking at the new Xeon workstations (always a good point to work down from) or aim for a couple of computers. dual/tripple screen is very useful epsially if you need to RDP into lots of servers and want pages up for reference - also a while back misco had a 28" monitor (hannsG iifc) for just under £200 so 3 of them would be good. it all depends on what you are doing though - if you run Virtual PC then you'll need lots more RAM and better CPU - If you run it as a thin client then you can get away with something of the spec of an eeePC

[kmount]

Previously I was using a core2duo (intel vt model), 4GB of RAM, 2x 20" TFTs and that was about it.

 

EDIT: Oh, running XP Pro on the host and VMs for most other stuff.

[HMCTech]

Acer Veriton M464 Q9300 Quad Core 2.50Ghz 8GB RAM, Three 22" screens from LG.

 

The screens were a bargain at £89 each. The PC around £450 (The extra RAM was lying around)

[ChrisH]

You need at least 2 monitors it makes a big difference. Especially when following a guide a or looking up the syntax to something. It is also good to have something on the other screen to keep an eye on while you work on the other.

[gibbo_ap]

ours our e6600 @ 2.4GHz with 2GB of RAM ot really big hdds (40GB) we each have 19" screens i have a NVIDIA 8400GS. Running XP CC3

 

by the time these are upfor upgrade (another year i think) we will prob be getting quad cores 4GB +, i would love to work on Win 7 here (tba faff with it with CC3 tho) but by that time we should have "upgraded" to CC4 so Win 7 will work with that (i'm told)

 

i do need a new keyboard tho, my 'n' and 'm' keys have gone funny lol

[Jamo]

I have a 2.5Ghz celeron with 256 RAM, just managed to coax an extra 1GB RAM here lol not toooooo bad with the new RAM. Oh and a 15 inch screen. If you get permission for a calculator for a new machine you will be beating me!

[featured_spectre]

As per my xfire profile...

 

Manufacturer: Carl Taylor

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-965 Extreme 3.2GHz 8MB Cache

Memory: 12288MB RAM

Hard Drive: 2000GB SATA 3Gb/s 10K RPM Velociraptor

Video Card: Dual 1,792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295

Monitor: 24" Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

Speakers/Headphones: Sennheiser RS140 Stereo Wireless Headphones

Keyboard: Logitech® diNovo Edge™

Mouse: Logitech® G9 Laser Gaming Mouse

Mouse Surface:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional 64 bit (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3

Motherboard: Intel® X-58 Chipset Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready

Computer Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

 

 

Total cost was £2300

[mb2k01]

You need at least 2 monitors it makes a big difference. Especially when following a guide a or looking up the syntax to something. It is also good to have something on the other screen to keep an eye on while you work on the other.

 

DEFINATELY agree!

I used to laugh and think "why do I really need 2 monitors", but can't imagine working without them now. SO much better - makes things far easier.

Now ver affordable too with the range of graphics cards on the market with dual monitor support

[DAckroyd]

As per my xfire profile...

 

Manufacturer: Carl Taylor

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-965 Extreme 3.2GHz 8MB Cache

Memory: 12288MB RAM

....

Operating System: Windows XP Professional 64 bit (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3

Motherboard: Intel® X-58 Chipset Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready

Computer Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

 

Total cost was £2300

 

Is this your work machine?!?!

 

how do you find XP64 for driver support?

[featured_spectre]

Thats my home machine. driver support is pretty good, provided you have the correct details for the ones that you need....

 

I found that NVidia was poor at 64 bit support, so I spoke with them alot and gave them some very honest feedback which they took onboard (not sure if it was directly from me) and they have vastly improved!

Edited April 21, 2009 by featured_spectre

[tmcd35]

You need at least 2 monitors it makes a big difference. Especially when following a guide a or looking up the syntax to something. It is also good to have something on the other screen to keep an eye on while you work on the other.

 

You need at least 2 monitors - if only so you have one for Edugeek

[Hightower]

My work machine is not the best, but also not the worst after reading some of your posts.

 

E2180 @ 2GHz

1GB RAM

80GB HDD

 

Found a video card with dual monitor support so whacked that in. Have my normal 19" and found a 17" lying about. I actually use the 17" more than the 19", unless I'm coding!

 

Strange.

[Jamo]

Ah my home PC is

 

Q6600

4GB RAM

W7, Vista HP x64, Win XP, Ubuntu 8.04 errr "Quad boot" :s

2 RaptorXs in RAID0

1.5TB extra space on various HDD

TV Card

ATI 4870 512MB

 

Majority of it was bought 2 yrs ago, I paid 330 quid for the Q6600 at the time it was half the price a month later!! Typical!

 

Still it pwns my pc here I could drive home and back (I live 50 mins away) I'd be able to work faster on my home PC!!

[Arcath]

I have a couple of machines, my office PC is a HP dc2250 with a 22" monitor although im still sorting it out after its seagate HDD decided to fail on me.

 

The machine i tend to use more is my netbook, an MSI Wind that i put an extra GB of ram into (making 2GB). I also had to replace is wireless card after it turned out that it had shipped with a dif wireless card to i was expecting and that the new one wouldnt work with fedora.

 

My Home PC is a home made one with:

 

4GB Corsair XMNS RAM

AMD Athlon X2 6000 Black Edition

ATI HD 4850 1GB Grahpics Card

500GB WD HDD (with another 2TB in my server)

Win XP x86 (I know it limits me to 3.2GB of RAM)

Edited April 21, 2009 by Arcath

[mossj]

Eventually settled on this, as I got a "put a order form on my desk" email

 

box (£413)

Core 2 Quad 2.33ghz

4gb ram

640gb HDD

card reader, DVDRW

 

additional *cheap* NIC (£4)

additional *cheap* 512mb graphics card DX10 compatible. For dual monitor support(£24)

 

Dual monitors (19" & 17") that I had around.

 

 

What do you think?

 

Oh and £11 next day

Edited April 21, 2009 by mossj

[matt40k]

HP Compaq SFF

C2D 6300 1.8GHz

2GB

NVIDIA 7100GS

2x HP 17" TFT

XP pro

 

Does the job. If it doesn't I grab a laptop, failing that I grab another one and so on.

[gibbo_ap]

You need at least 2 monitors - if only so you have one for Edugeek

 

sounds lil familiar currently excel and edugeek lol

[gibbo_ap]

i dont see the point in large HDDs for work stations, we have NAS boxes for large stuff, mine does get filled up a lil when downloading high res pics from cameras but 200gb would suffice if i was to upgrade and i only say that much as for the price these days why not.

 

id spend the money saved upgrading the CPU or RAM lol

[tmcd35]

Seems to be a problem these days. Can't buy desktops with small enough HDD's. 120Gb seems to be the standard for entry level. Problem is we barely use more than 20Gb on a fully loaded image.

 

Im still very tempted to kill our network and set up a massive DFS folder across the unused space of all the PC's.

 

Could provide some interesting comedy moments when Admin complain that they can't access a document they had open 2min ago because computer 12 in room 3 has been switched off

[AngryITGuy]

HP dc7800 - Core2Quad @ 2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, GeForce 8600GT running on dual 22" Samsung Monitors, 2 Gigabit NICs and a fancy Logitech MX 5500 Revolution keyboard and mouse.

[originofsymmetry]

Samsung Q210 Laptop

 

Intel Core2Duo P8400(2.26Ghz)

3GB DDR2 (666Mhz) RAM

320GB Fujitsu (5,400RPM) HD

nVidia GeForce 9200MGS

12" Widescreen Display (1280x800)

 

I've found it a great middle ground between speed and portability.

[lbradley]

Custom Case:

 

X2 5800 Athlon

2 GB DDR 2

660GB Storage

19" TFT

9500GT Crappy Gfx Card

Crappest Samsung DVD Drive Ever!!!

[HodgeHi]

Just a 20" intel Core 2 duo iMac with 2GB RAM and a 128MB ATI GC and a 250GB HDD.