• From: A not too distant future
  • Registered: 2013-03-03
  • Posts: 478

Topic: What's your computer setup?

This thread is as easy as it says. Pretty much, I'd like to see fellow users' computer setups. Mine will probably be dwarfed in comparison, but hey, what can you do? Anyway, I'd like to see specifications and brand names, and a photo would also be pretty nice. I'll start off. Sorry if the image is humongous, but too bad. my computer setup
My desk is an old one from the fifties, but that's besides the point. Starting from the top left, there's a Brother laser printer, the HL-2240D. It doesn't have Linux support, but that should just be a matter of time. Beneath the printer is a Dell Optiplex GX270. It has a Pentium 4 running at 2.8 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, and a 40 GB hard drive. I use this computer as a headless webserver. It runs Debian 7 Wheezy nicely, and it runs a Tiny Tiny RSS instance. Every 30 minutes, it checks the feeds that I'm subscribed to for updates. Next to the Dell are Bill and Ted, the two monitors. I received Bill at the same time as the Dell. It's a CRT with built-in speakers (I'm no audiophile, but they sound pretty decent), running at 1280x1024. Ted is an NEC MultiSync, also running at 1280x1024, that I got a year after. I have a PS/2 keyboard and a cordless mouse. On the floor is my personal computer, which was built from scratch in 2008. I only have 4 GB of RAM in it, as the board only has 2 slots and I can't find 4 GB modules to get 8 GB of RAM. Beyond that, the costs get ridiculous. It runs Windows 8, because it has better dual-monitor support, and of course I have a local account, have deleted all of the apps, disabled the charms bar, have boot to desktop turned on, and have Classic Shell installed. On top of the computer is a Fry's Electronics router that's pretty much a rebranded D-Link DIR-615 E1. Because of this, I can run the DIR-615 build of OpenWRT 12.09. I have bigger dreams for this router, but right now I just use it to connect my computer to the Internet. Everything's connected by an old Belkin SurgeMaster II to the wall. So this is my setup. Now I want to know what my fellow chumbros and chumbabes have in their rigs.

  • From: Somewhere on or near Earth
  • Registered: 2009-12-16
  • Posts: 774

Re: What's your computer setup?

Can't give you much in the way of model numbers but my desktop machine is an older Acer (junk, I know) dual core AMD powered box. My main box died a couple of years ago and I pressed this Acer into duty as a temporary situation and I just didn't get around to replacing it with something better. The Acer was originally my WMC DVR. It was good enough for that purpose. The monitor is a 21" Sony LCD. The printer is a HP P1005. I only remember the model number for that because the linux printer driver had a problem and I had to recently manually re-install it.  The computer dual boots Linux Mint 15 and Windows 7. It spends 95% of its time in Linux. Windows is only for InDesign and Photoshop. The Epson scanner only works in Windows for some reason. I have a Toshiba laptop (Core 2 duo) and an HP laptop that my stepsisters kid tried to destroy so he could get a new one. The trackpad doesn't work on it anymore so I use a wireless mouse with it. I have a Samsung NC10 from back in the days of netbooks. It has 2 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD so it runs linux (as do all the laptops) pretty well as long as I don't do anything too CPU intensive. Looking at my list it seems kind of long but it is all old stuff. I should really prune some of the stuff I rarely use and update the rest. I work long hours on a computer for a living and when I get home I have little interest messing around with the home tech.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

BoloMKXXVIII's Website

  • From: Oceanside, CA
  • Registered: 2008-04-17
  • Posts: 650

Re: What's your computer setup?

I have some refurbished i5 gateway PC at home with a pretty nice 21" widescreen monitor.  I buy junk refurb PCs for a couple reasons.

First, I'm very cheap.  Refurbished is usually cheaper.

Second, since refurbs are usually slightly older (not usually the latest machine out there), I don't "game" or anything, so I don't need latest in graphics power, etc.

Third, by the time they're cheap and refurbished any proprietary driver crap is usually supported in linux.  I've had things in the past where special firmware was needed for ethernet support, or to run decent graphics modes in linux, but buying a slightly older machine usually ensures the OSS community has at least gotten things working.  (Damn you m$ for your market share and manufacturers for only writing winblows drivers).

Lastly, I used to get them from geeks.com because they were about a block away and I could use pick-up and had no order minimums to meet to qualify for free shipping.  Now they're defunct (I gave them plenty of business) so I'm not sure where my next PC will come from.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Materdaddy's Website

  • From: Dallas, Tx
  • Registered: 2011-01-08
  • Posts: 1,262

Re: What's your computer setup?

What I use most these days is a thinkpad T61p off ebay. my desktop (home built) developed problems, and I haven't gotten around to fixing it (I think it's wanting a new power supply).

I've also got several other thinkpads from ebay. I just bought a T500 for 200$ from ebay, as a gift for a friend, who's got an ancient toshiba that doesn't have enough cpu or memory to do anything useful these days.

I like the older thinkpad T series because they're easy to work on, you can find parts for them easily on ebay, and for a couple hundred bucks, you can get what was a top end several thousand dollar machine just a few years ago, and they're as good, or better than 'reasonably priced' new laptops. (better keyboards, higher resolution screens).

check 'em out, if you're in the market for something...

besides, how many notebooks can you do this to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q9ugshAO58  *grins*

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.
  • sweh
  • sweh
  • Blue Buddy
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2011-03-19
  • Posts: 194

Re: What's your computer setup?

My computer collection consists of 30yr old machines - http://sweh.spuddy.org/Beeb/growing.html

  • From: Dallas, Tx
  • Registered: 2011-01-08
  • Posts: 1,262

Re: What's your computer setup?

sweh wrote:

My computer collection consists of 30yr old machines - http://sweh.spuddy.org/Beeb/growing.html

you need somma this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU7vXMezW_I

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.