I have finally entered the 21st Century

capnq · #1 September 19th, 2007, 09:01 AM

Ever since I bought my first home computer (used), I've tended to stay well behind the tech curve. Only one of the PCs I've owned was bought new.

On Sunday, I took possession of my seventh PC, bought used from a friend. It's at least a tech generation ahead of my fifth and sixth PCs. I've never been much into hardware, but I know enough to feel impressed with a few of the specs. The new-to-me machine has:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ running at 1.99GHz
1G RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 with AGP8X
Dell MM90 19" monitor
Soundblaster Audigy L5
Two HDs totaling 31.7G capacity

Windows XP Pro SP2

I know this isn't anywhere near cutting edge, but it's such a leap over my previous best machine that I'd be embarrassed to admit what those specs were. This beast is going to allow me to finally check out several games that my old machine couldn't run, including three of Shrapnel's titles.

Combat Wombat · #2 September 19th, 2007, 11:00 AM

Most of that is fine but please trust me on this get a new video card if it was anything but the MX440 it would be fine but those are the worst video cards on gods green earth. Go spend another $50 or $60 and get something else.

Ballbarian · #3 September 19th, 2007, 11:19 PM

Congratulations capnq!
Me and my 1.3Ghz AMD Athlon will look on in envy.

capnq · #4 September 20th, 2007, 07:15 AM

Hmm, I'll think about the video card. I think the most graphically demanding game I'm looking at is probably SEV, so I don't really need the video power that something like a FPS would call for. I've got a long shopping list of things I need more urgently than computer hardware, so I only expect to be downloading demos in the short term.

I made a mistake in my description. It doesn't have two HDs, just two partitions on the HD. This is the first system I've had with a big enough HD to warrant more than 1 partition.

Atrocities · #5 September 21st, 2007, 02:28 AM

I am still using my Acer P75 with its 100mhz cpu, 16 megs of ram, 2meg Mytrox Mystic video card, and 800meg hard drive. Its the best damn machine money could buy. I especially love windows 95, the best OS ever made for a pc. This is my work horse PC and if a game won't run on it, then I don't play it.

Combat Wombat · #6 September 22nd, 2007, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Atrocities said:
I am still using my Acer P75 with its 100mhz cpu, 16 megs of ram, 2meg Mytrox Mystic video card, and 800meg hard drive. Its the best damn machine money could buy. I especially love windows 95, the best OS ever made for a pc. This is my work horse PC and if a game won't run on it, then I don't play it.

That was all sarcastic right? The only OS worse than 95 was ME and you couldn't even fit SE4 on that hard drive.

capnq · #7 September 22nd, 2007, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Combat Wombat said: you couldn't even fit SE4 on that hard drive.

Now you're being sarcastic. My SEIV folder is only 566M currently.

Combat Wombat · #8 September 23rd, 2007, 01:48 AM

Quote:

capnq said:

Quote:

Combat Wombat said: you couldn't even fit SE4 on that hard drive.

Now you're being sarcastic. My SEIV folder is only 566M currently.

I am sitting at 1.28GB for my install and also keep in mind hes got have room for the OS and stuff too.

capnq · #9 September 23rd, 2007, 03:41 AM

Quote:

Combat Wombat said: I am sitting at 1.28GB for my install and also keep in mind hes got have room for the OS and stuff too.

A minimum install of Win98 is less than 250M; I assume Win95 would be similar in size. An 800M HD would have enough room if you used compression and limited how many mods and shipsets you installed. Granted you couldn't do much else with it, but it's still possible.

Gandalf Parker · #10 September 23rd, 2007, 11:33 AM

What happened to the old machine?
You can load Linux to it for free. Since linux needs so much less machine than Windows does, you will get a box at least as powerful as your new one (altho limited to other purposes).

Make a server out of it and you can replace all of your ISP needs for you, family, and friends. No more limits on webspace, email size, ftping. And host domains. And you can host games. And be useful as a beta tester. And you can provide hosting for peoples mods/maps.

Or if you are a programmer then you can play with the power side of it. Especially for really large text applications, databases, spreadsheets, etc.

Or you can automate your house. Lights, temperature, security, all of the things you have seen on any SciFi tv show. You can even give it voice control and give it a name or have it work as if its magical spells. If you want to consider that then visit www.SmartHome.com (WARNING: hand the credit cards to someone else to hold before going there the first time if you have low self-control)