Gaming Rigs... or just Rigs

[loc978]

I'm proud of my rig for withstanding the test of time... I haven't upgraded anything but storage space since 2007, and I still haven't encountered a game she can't play (albeit not always cranked up to eleven).

Spoiler: My case

I know some people hate this case, but I'm a fan of white noise (pun intended) and it helps cool the house in the summertime.

Spoiler: also, specs

Case: Antec 900
Proc: Ath64X2 4600+
RAM: 2GB Crucial 800MHz
HDD: 500GB WD
HDD: 74GB WD Raptor
Vid: BFGTech 7950GT 512MB
M/B: MSI K9N Neo-F
PS: Tagan TG420
PhysX: BFGTech128

Further upgrades since initial build:
HDD: 1TB WD
HDD: 1.5TB WD

...still, she's due for replacement as my main gaming rig. She's still good for a file server, though.

 

[aquailiz]

Was going to start a thread asking what laptop i should buy, but wasnt sure if they were frowned upon. Anyway, maybe you could help me, i want a laptop that does most things...

E.G;

Microsoft office.

Watch Movies.

Play games (I never played Online games because i'm using a Desktop from 1999. So, if i got a new laptop, it would be able to run Online games, right?

General internt useage, (Facebook, Youtube, MSN, Forums)

Soo i figured, The Samsung SF310 Would be a decent choice. Not way expensive, and looks pretty good. Or a sony E series laptop... Opinions?

I would look into Asus right now, they definitely give you the most bang for your buck. Basically the priciest components on a laptop are screen size, video, and processor. If you can or want to cut back on any you can get a decent machine for 400-500 that can run most games up to 2007-2008 at max or near max settings.

A friend of mine has a 14-inch laptop with a 1gb nVidia gtx 310M and an intel i5 processor at 1.3 Ghz that he bought last year at around 700$, his model is the UL80Vt. If you're not planning on running anything crazy like Crysis 2, you could easily go by with 512 MB of video, and expect to pay somewhere in the vicinity of 500-600$ with a great processor.

 

[Wolfram23]

Evolution of my PC:

Spoiler: Phase 1

Spoiler: Phase 2

Spoiler: Phase3

 

[octafish]

I just pulled the trigger on an i5 2500k (I don't think I'll notice the cache difference between the i7 2600k, and four cores is enough for me). I also grabbed the ASUS P8P67 Pro to check out the new GUI BIOS thingy, 8Gb (2x4Gb) of CL9 Ripjaws, and an OSZ 120Gb SSD. I don't know when I'll get a chance to install it all but I am looking forward to it.

My current rig is an Abit p35 board with a QX9650 (I bought it second hand for a reasonable price), unfortunately the p35 is limited to PCI-E 1.1 and the CPU won't clock past 3.6ghz no matter how many volts I give it. So Sandy Bridge.

The only thing I have really modified is to move the side fan of my p193 to the outside of the case. That way I can fit a decent sized cooler.

I'm looking on eBay for a cheap ASUS or Gigabyte p45 board to drop my Extreme chip in and make a Hackintosh/Linux box with my older components (500Gb WD Black, HD 4890, etc.).

 

[Plurralbles]

I have not had the luxury of getting a custom PC. All I have is a core 2 duo dell 15, but what I do have is accessories: Siberia V2 headset, Xai mouse, and 6gv2 keyboard. I also constantly have it hdmi'ed into my 22" sanyo LCD to game better.


Maybe this novemeber I'll have $850 to get a PC with a decent MOBO and GPU.

 

[Vonnis]

I wouldn't say "proud", but I'm quite happy with my rig. Only thing it needs is one or two extra fans to alter the airflow a bit.
Specs:
Antec 600 case (I think I'm the only person on the internet who actually likes this thing)
ASUS P6T deluxe v2 mobo
Corsair 750TX psu
i7 920 with scythe mugen 2 cooler
12 gb corsair DDR3 @ 1333 mhz, CL9 (because empty dimm slots are wasted dimm slots)
1x Samsung HD103SJ (1 tb)
1x GTX 480
1 extra fan in the side panel to help cool the above
M-audio audiophile 2496 (to be replaced with a usb audio interface as this card is old and dying; needed because I use this pc to record music)
Razer Imperator mouse
Microsoft Sidewinder keyboard
Plus some shit nobody cares about.

 

[infohippie]

Added in 64GB of SS memory that terrifically boost the startup speed from 1:40 to 39 secs!! Also makes all of the programs running off of it pretty much instant on, like photoshop and illustrator, their boot up time is about a second now.

I hope you've told Windows to put it's swap file on the mechanical HDD, and done the same for Photoshop's scratch file. To maximise the lifespan of your new SSD you want to minimise writes to it.

Woah didn't know about that... that's some news there actually. Could you elaborate a little please? I have Windows pretty much figured out on the maintenance side, but not really on the performance side.

Sure, all the bits on an SSD can only be flipped a certain number of times. Usually, it's at least 100,000 times, or often a million. (Same goes for thumb drives, your phone's storage, anything that uses flash memory) They use wear-leveling software built into the drive electronics to preferentially spread writes over the least-used sectors each time, but do enough writes and it eventually catches up with you and you start getting read errors. Therefore, minimising writes will extend the life of the drive.
Swap files and similar will, of course, write a lot all the time, so you ought to put them on a mechanical drive, which can be written to a lot more. You should also not defrag your SSD, for the same reason.

 

[Hashime]

An SSD is my next upgrade. I have already maxed out my board's RAM capacity and case's cooling capacity. My final upgrade will be a second 5770 as they are now half the price of what I paid for it when I built the computer. (5xxx line was just released at the time)