I rolled my desktop myself:
Abit NF7
Athlon XP 2600+
512 MB
60GB Seagate HD (master)
120GB Western Digital (slave/tempermental bitch)
Lite-ON CD burner
Lite-ON DVD-ROM
My lappy is the $378 Wal-Mart Black Friday special with an extra stick of RAM.
An ancient Compaq Presario 2266, just as it came from the box in 1997. But I’m not sure of any of the specs. It’s old, slow, and fussy, but It still works, and gets me here.
(1) 3 GHz “gaming machine” built out of parts
(2) 1.5 GHz “internet and everything except games” machine, also built out of parts
(3) 800 Mhz used to be my internet and everyting else machine, started its life as a 286 and has been upgraded many times over the years. Was supposed to be replaced by #2 but I haven’t quite gotten rid of it yet.
(4) 800 MHz old gaming machine made out of parts, sitting here gathering dust while I’m supposed to be eventually setting it up for geek child #3 to play with
(5) 600 MHz Gateway running Win98, runs some development tools that won’t run on XP
(6) 400 MHz built out of parts, sitting in an open metal frame, not really a case, not in any condition that I’d trust to give it to anyone else, don’t really have much use for it at the moment
(7) 300 MHz compaq, functions as “internet gateway” (all computers in the house connect to it, and it connects to the internet)
(8) 300 MHz used to be an old gateway P50 but only the case and floppy drive are original gateway, fully configured and ready to take #7’s place if #7 gets whacked by a virus or breaks
(9) 1.5 GHz Toshiba laptop, dual boots linux and XP
(10) 150 MHz Micron laptop (still used occasionally for work)
(11) 600 MHz Compaq, Mrs Geek’s computer
(12) 400 MHz Micron, Geek Child #1’s computer
(13) 400 MHz Micron, Geek Child #2’s computer
(14) 800 MHz built from parts, runs a home music recording studio of sorts
(15) 300 MHz built from parts, runs linux and win98 to run an old scanner
Several other systems in pieces and parts.
Not PCs, but I also have 2 PDP-11’s and severa vaxes.
Note - this is what’s left AFTER I freecycled and donated about 3/4ths of what I had.
Off to IMHO.
So far I’m the only moron here that wasted 350 dollars on an eMachine that seems just about ready for the dumpster after 11 months.
For exactly that kind of money, you could get a barebones system that’s even faster than mine, and just transfer your existing drives and whatnot into it. If you don’t need Pentium 4, you can get a blazing fast AMD processor for much less than an Intel. Give it some thought… it’s worth it.
iMac DV+, 768MB RAM, 20GB + 250BG hard drives, six years and still going strong.
I wish it’d develop a defect so I could have an excuse to buy a new computer… 
I spent a lot more on an eMachines. 1GB memory, Athlon something (2800?), 200GB HDD. Runs OK, and it was cheaper than building my own system (which was what I’ve done in the past).
Also have a Dell Inspiron 9300. Nice system, nice screen, but it turns out I’m too lazy to carry an 8-lb laptop to/from work every day, even on a car. I only take it home when I really need to do work at home.
I just got a laptop for school next year, and I think she will be quite a beaut. I was running a Presario from the late '90s that was right at 233 MHz, and the 19"CPU was dying and it startled to rattle and run louder than a blender, so I upgraded.
I got a Dell E1505. Using a coupon found online, I nearly maxed it out - it isn’t top of the line, but it isn’t too shabby for a grand. 1.83GHz Intel Duel Core (no AMD, sadly), 1gig ram, 256MB graphics (ATI X1400), 100 gig HD, widescreen, 85Whr battery, etc etc. With a larger HD, I should be able to edit movies, which is what I’m hoping for.
AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 512 meg RAM, 40 gig HD, CD-ROM burner 3.5" floppy
My homebrew AMD system has been just as (cursedly!) reliable. It’s a Shuttle mainboard built on the VIA KT-266A chipset, running a mobile Athlon XP 2400+ ('cause it’s cooler and I can run it quieter). nVidia GeForce 6600GT, 1GB of RAM, about 250GB of hard drive space, a Hauppauge PVR-250 TV Tuner/recorder, and a CD and DVD burner drive (1 each).
I’m glad I didn’t jump on Socket 939 too early; I’m looking at building a Socket M2 system once the designs have stabilized, but my current machine is too damn stable and runs all the games I play (including WoW) with more-than-acceptable performance.
How kind of you to ask! I just ordered and received (on May 4!) a brandy new Dell:
Dell Dimension E510 Series Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x1GB)
Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard
Monitor - I already had a 19" flat-screen (MAG Innovision?) that seems just fine.
Video Card 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Floppy Drive 3.5 in Floppy Drive
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition
Mouse Dell® 2-button USB mouse
Network Card Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
Sound Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD Audio
Speakers - I already had some no-name set with a sub-woofer - seems adequate.
Office Software (not included in Windows XP) No Productivity Suite - Corel WordPerfect® word processor only (I can borrow MS-Office 2003 from work)
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) PC-cillin Internet Security: AntiVirus, Firewall, Spyware removal 36-months
Hardware Warranty 2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr HW Warranty Support
Enhanced Software for CD or DVD Burner Combo: Sonic DigitalMedia and MyDVD Plus (DVD+RW only)
Miscellaneous Award Winning Service and Support
Operating System Re-Installation CD Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition re-installation CD
TV Tuners and Remote Controls Dual TV Tuner + Remote Control - watch one channel while recording another
Dell Digital Entertainment Starter Entertainment Pack -Basic digital Music, Photo, and Casual Gaming
I *loves * it! 
I thought I’d start doing some RPG gaming at home, so I asked my friends here at the SDMB what I should try: Oy!'s gaming thread
For anyone who followed that, you might be interested to know that I ended up getting two Baldur’s Gates, two Dungeon Sieges, and NeverWinter nights. I tried Baldur’s Gate I first, but had trouble manipulating my character properly, so I switched over to NeverWinter. I’ve been much more successful here, and am working on Chapter 1, enjoying it a great deal. Thank you VERY much for your help.
Hey asterion that sounds like my set up! I have all this except the hard drives. I think I’m going to buy a 250 gig, however, I’m not sure what to do about my RAID set up. Some people have posted to a thread I started earlier, but my friend (who will actually configure the RAID) hasn’t been helpful in determining what type of drives I should use. Googling gives me stuff beyond my expertise. Any ideas, anyone? Oh, and I have a GeForce 7800 OC graphics card, and 2 GB RAM.
This thread fascinates me. Not because I could care less what hardware everyone is using (it would never have occurred to me to even wonder), but because there are so many of you who are in a position to give answers that look like the one above. I had vaguely assumed that, in these days of widely accessible internet, parents (and grandparents) with email addresses, and the given assumption that the first reference source for anything is Google, internet forums would no longer be populated exclusively by people who knew or cared quite so much about the equipment they were using.
Out of interest, is there a single other user of SDMB who (like me) simply went into PC World (or whatever variation they have in your location) and went “I’d like a computer please”. “What spec?”. “Dunno. I need to be able to get the internet and send emails. Oh, and I’ll need Word, a printer and something to stop the viruses getting in”. “OK. Here’s the package we usually give to clueless folk like you. Would you like some overpriced, pointless insurance with more loopholes than a shoe factory to go with that?”. “Um, yes please, that sounds nice. Anyone help me get this stuff to the car…?”?
Well, if I hadn’t had the invoice handy to cut and paste, I would have had to look at the system specs themselves to tell you anything more than “Uh, it’s a really nice Dell.” And I’ve been a computer programmer for almost 30 years! Unfortunately, still not in the least technical. I would have done what you did (at Best Buy) except that I work with some IT people who know what they’re talking about and asked them. (IT being the people who maintain the computers and networks and *are * technical, as opposed to programmers, most of whom are technical but I’m not.)
Well, we bought our first computer from Sony. It was a VAIO minitower, 233 MHz, PI, 4 gig HD, 32 MB RAM, Win95. With the monitor and printer, and a 2x HP CD writer, it came to around $1500. As I learned more about computers, and wanted to upgrade the RAM to the max, it would have cost $700 at the time! My current box has a 512 MB stick of DDRAM that wasn’t $50. Needless to say, we will never be dropping any amount of cash on a “package” system again.
3 GHz Wintel Toshiba laptop, 512 MB
3.x GHz AMD Acer laptop, 512 MB
HP Desktop, honestly don’t remember the specs
home built AMD 2.1 GHz desktop for the kids. 256 MB
ViewSonic V36 pocketPC
Work - Dell Latitude 1.86 GHz 512 MB and 30 or so HP/Compaq/Sun servers.
That’s all right now, could change at any moment, tho.
Mine:
AMD Turion 64 bit laptop, 1.6 Ghz, 400/800 Mhz bus, 768 MB RAM, of which 128 is mapped to video–ATI Radeon Mobile. Onboard WiFi, 40 GB HDD, DVD R/CD RW combo, touch pad, 3 way card reader and buttloads of USB. Running XP Home right now, but have WinBloze 64 waiting for the rest of the boxes to get outta the house so SyS Admin Man has time to strap on the new OS.
The one for the house:
2.4 Ghz Celeron D 533 Mhz bus, 256 MB RAM (needs more, shopping for at least another half a gig) 64 MB GeForce 2, an ATI Rage 128 16 MB capture card along with the onboard Intel Extreme 64 MB graphics–runs dual displays in an uneasy manner–just ordered a GeForce 128 MB 8x AGP today (for thirty bucks, no shipping fee, yay!) DVD RW, DVD R/CD RW combo, 4 HDDs – 20 GB system drive, along with two 80 GB drives (his 'n hers!) and a 300 GB communal capture/download drive as well which is running on a Ultra 100 PCI IDE card. This is the monster than handles all the daily media needs for the house and is a crashbox for other systems that are in transit to functioning. It’s strapped up to a fairly extensive speaker system with subwoofer…
New toy:
Compaq Quad Xeon Proliant 6000 P43 400 Mhz x 4 server box with 8 GB RAM onboard (will go to 32 gig total with both RAM cards full :eek: ) 6 x 18 GB SCSI RAID array–still looking into the parameters of this bad boy! Picked it up for a couple hundred bucks and thinking of using it for a web server… Thing sounds like a jet engine when it turns on!
And the transitioning boxes - the 667 Mhz P3 (Neighbor of the Beast) going to the grandkid, the Toshiba 7020CT Portege getting a new HDD and OS going to one kid, usually one or more friend’s boxes getting upgrades or having kinks worked out laying around along with boxes of spare parts…
The whole shebang is running a wireless LAN that’s firewalled, MAC filtered and WEP’d to a fare-thee-well, and we just talked Comcast into upping us from 4mbps to 6 for the same price–next week we’re trying for 8… la la la… !
Not that we like geek stuff or anything… :smack:
Specs on the current desktop:
Xion steel case with window and green LEDs
500W power supply
ABit NForce NF7-S motherboard with onboard Dolby 5.1 surround sound and 10/100
Athlon XP 2200+ 1.8 GHz CPU
512 MB PC2700 DDR, matched pair dual channeled
Asylum NVIDIA GeForce 5200 MX video card
120GB WD Caviar HD
60GB WD Caviar HD (For Linux installation)
30 GB Maxtor HD
Pioneer DVD+/-RW DL 16x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW, 48x CD-R
Sony CDRW 52x/24x/52x
Samsung SyncMaster 17" Flat CRT
Microsoft Natural Keyboard
IBM 3-button wheel mouse
Altec Lansing speakers
I’ve got 4 USB in the back, 2 in the front, a USB hub, and IRDa, an extra 120mm case fan and an Iceberq chip cooler on my northbridge. I’m also using a Belkin KVM so that I can hook up the computers I’m trying to fix for people with minimal usage of desk space and effort.
Next upgrades will be faster CPU, more RAM (hopefully matched 1 GB sticks) and a better video card. I had to build this thing on the cheap when my old one died.
A bit of an elderly machine now, P4 1.2GHz, not much RAM, 256mB (?) 40 odd GB harddrive, built in sound, not sure about the graphics, separate DVD and CD RW drives. It still seems to outpace my Dad’s slightly higher spec by quite a bit but Civ IV is out of the question :rolleyes:
Of course, that’s forgetting my old 486 DX4100, 16mB Ram, 1x 1.25Gb HD 1x 580mB (named Grand Slam and Tall Boy in a moment of boredom), Soundblaster 16bit soundcard, Trident 32bit graphics card and there’s a 56k modem in there somewhere too. Useful for nothing else than playing Civ, Lemmings and Sim City 2000