mossj Posted April 20, 2009 Posted April 20, 2009 (edited) 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 (edited) 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 (edited) 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Author Posted April 21, 2009 (edited) 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 You need at least 2 monitors - if only so you have one for Edugeek sounds lil familiar currently excel and edugeek lol
gibbo_ap Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 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 Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 Custom Case: X2 5800 Athlon 2 GB DDR 2 660GB Storage 19" TFT 9500GT Crappy Gfx Card Crappest Samsung DVD Drive Ever!!!
HodgeHi Posted April 21, 2009 Posted April 21, 2009 Just a 20" intel Core 2 duo iMac with 2GB RAM and a 128MB ATI GC and a 250GB HDD.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now