Desktop Gear



Omega

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.2GHz / 512KB cache)
1024MB RAM (PC3200)
Abit NF8 motherboard (nVidia nForce3-250Gb chipset)
73GB 10Krpm SCSI hard drive
146GB 10Krpm SCSI hard drive
32x SCSI CD-ROM drive
nVidia GeForce 6600 GT AGP video card
Adaptec 29160 PCI SCSI card
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZX sound card
Intel Pro/100B PCI ethernet
Antec SLK3000-B ATX case
Antec TruePower 2.0 550W power supply
OS: SuSE Linux 10.2 / Windows XP Pro
This machine is my PeeCee desktop. It is really nice for video and gaming. Unfortunately it decided to die on me for the last time a couple months ago. After all attempts at fixing the 1.2GHz Athlon ended in utter failure, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to something newer. Thus I replaced the core components with more modern stuff, and kept some of the other parts. Now it should be really fast for even newer games, and keep me ticking for some time to come.
Recently, as I've given up on Sun workstations (and would rather not use my PowerBook as a desktop), I've begun using this machine as my main UNIX desktop. As it seems, SuSE has produced a Linux distro that I actually like. Hopefully it'll work out for me.

(Mark I: 486DX2 66MHz, Mark II: Pentium 100MHz,
Mark III: Pentium II 266MHz, Mark IV: Athlon 1.2GHz)


Z'ha'dum

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz, 4MB cache)
2048MB RAM (PC2 6400)
Asus P5N32-E SLI motherboard (nForce 680i)
Seagate 320GB 7200rpm hard drive
18X dual-layer DVD+/-RW drive
nVidia GeForce 8800GTS video card
Antec P160W ATX case
Antec TruePower Trio 550W power supply
OS: MS Windows Vista Ultimate
This is my latest and greatest PC desktop. I built it because I was tired of having a single desktop, forcing me to dual-boot or use VMs whenever I wanted to switch between operating systems. Since I have a slowly growing need and desire for having Windows easily available, either for games or development projects (embedded simulators tend to be Windows-only), I decided to build this box.


Sun Ray 1

Sun Ray 1 Ultra-Thin Client
100MHz microSPARC IIep
8MB RAM
ATI 128 Ultra graphics
Audio in/out
Composite video-in
Four USB ports
Smart Card slot
These thin clients work so well, that they have completely eliminated my desire to put normal desktop computers all around my place. (The downside being that my pile of inactive machines is growing.) My favorite feature has to be the "hot desking," where I can basically take my running desktop session with me from one unit to another.
(These days I've switched over to the SunRay 150, keeping these in reserve)


Graviton

Apple PowerBook G4 15"
Motorola PowerPC 7447a (G4) 1.5GHz
1024MB RAM
80GB IDE hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (64MB DDR) graphics
ComboDrive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
On-board 10/100/1000 ethernet
On-board 802.11g wireless ethernet
On-board Bluetooth
On-board USB 2.0, FW 400/800
Display: 1280x854 TFT LCD
OS: MacOS 10.4
Prior to this, I had a 12" PowerBook G4, which was my first Apple. I was quite pleased with it over all. However on June 23rd 2005, while returning from picking up lunch, I was rear-ended while waiting in a left-turn lane. That laptop was in the trunk, and did not survive. The motherboard and screen were cracked, among other physical damage to the machine. Using insurance money, I went ahead and bought this to replace it. Since I originally wanted a 15" AlBook when I got the 12" (right after the 12" and 17" AlBooks came out, and months before the 15" AlBook was to arrive), I decided to go for it this time. Hopefully I'll be happy with this machine as well.


Phlogiston

Intel 486DX 33MHz
16MB RAM
2GB hard drive (SCSI)
CD-ROM drive (SCSI)
Soundblaster 16
Number Nine 9GXE VLB graphics card
Adaptex AHA-2842A VLB SCSI card
OS: MS-DOS 6.21 / Windows 3.11
We all like playing old DOS games. However, they don't usually run very well on modern PC hardware. That's why I threw this puppy together. It plays Space Quest like a dream :)


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