I've got a desktop PC and not afraid to admit it thread
Discussion
SBDJ said:
Depending on the workload I wouldn’t consider the real life difference from a decent SATA3 SSD to NVMe to be hugely noticeable personally.
How anyone could recommend a spinner over SSD is beyond me. I even bought a 4Tb SSD to stick in the laptop for secondary storage!
+1.How anyone could recommend a spinner over SSD is beyond me. I even bought a 4Tb SSD to stick in the laptop for secondary storage!
The 7200rpm hard drives are about 20% faster than the 5400rpm drives but still not up to SSD standards with modern motherboards.
Think we're seeing the slow extinction of hard drives as SSD/NVMe capacities increase. There's nothing like that 'ker-klunk-wheee' sound as a couple of antique Seagate Barracudas cough into life, though.
The one place for 7200 rpm spinners is in a NAS where throughput is limited by the ethernet port. Even that is being eroded as prices for 1/2/4 TB SSDs fall. But not quite far enough yet.
Church of Noise said:
The only desktop I have left is built into a HTPC case (Antec Fusion Remote Max).
I am quite convinced it'll be the oldest running setup of this thread, as it's based on a desktop I built in 2006 using an Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, running an Intel Core2Duo E6600 on a Zalman 9500 cooler.
The only thing that has changed a number of times over the years (besides the HDD that was switched for an SSD) is the graphics card, current one is an Nvidia Geforce 730 GT to enable the playback of 4K stuff.
It runs Win 10 Home and is perfect for general HTPC stuff and browsing.
This is exactly the case my media box is in. I am quite convinced it'll be the oldest running setup of this thread, as it's based on a desktop I built in 2006 using an Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, running an Intel Core2Duo E6600 on a Zalman 9500 cooler.
The only thing that has changed a number of times over the years (besides the HDD that was switched for an SSD) is the graphics card, current one is an Nvidia Geforce 730 GT to enable the playback of 4K stuff.
It runs Win 10 Home and is perfect for general HTPC stuff and browsing.
ajprice said:
Alienware Area 51 bought from Dell outlet as a me to me birthday present a couple of years ago. Starting to think of upgrades, probably a HD first as it's getting full of Steam games I haven't played yet 
i7 5930K 3.5GHz
16GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM (4x4GB)
128GB SSD
2TB HDD
SLI GTX 960 2GB
850W PSU
Mine's just an updated version of yours (so looks exactly the same)i7 5930K 3.5GHz
16GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM (4x4GB)
128GB SSD
2TB HDD
SLI GTX 960 2GB
850W PSU
i7 7820X 4.3GHz
16 GB DDR4
256 GB NMVe
500 GB SSD
2x2TB 7200 HDDs
GTX 1080 Ti
1500W PSU
Also added a Soundblaster Z as the on board sound was disappointing.
Mine was from Dell outlet where I couldn't build a PC for the same price (just over £2k - when at the time a 1080 TI had scant change from £1k).
Might be the wrong thread but i'm going to ask anyway... my last PC I built was in 2008, since then it's had a new case (going from an Antec Fusion Media PC case to a standard tower). A replacement motherboard/processor to replace the one my son broke by switching it on/off multiple times, oh and an SSD. The 2nd desk is a 1TB drive I put in when I first built the machine.
It's an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6000+ 3100 Mhz with 4GB Ram / 120GB Kingston SSD / 1TB samsung
I'd like to create something in a nice small case that runs quietly, a few disks in there (most stuff is now backed up to the cloud) - it's primary uses would be web browsing / a little Office based activity / storage of photos (no editing) and running a few games my son (Minecraft / Fortnight etc).
Or can I get away with just putting some more memory in the current box? Multiple web browsers tends to make it grind to a halt...
It's an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6000+ 3100 Mhz with 4GB Ram / 120GB Kingston SSD / 1TB samsung
I'd like to create something in a nice small case that runs quietly, a few disks in there (most stuff is now backed up to the cloud) - it's primary uses would be web browsing / a little Office based activity / storage of photos (no editing) and running a few games my son (Minecraft / Fortnight etc).
Or can I get away with just putting some more memory in the current box? Multiple web browsers tends to make it grind to a halt...
curlyks2 said:
Not by much... Asus P5Q Deluxe with a QX9650 here (2007 launch, so one year after the E6600).
My middle child (9 year old son) has almost the same: P5E Deluxe with QX9650 (overclocked), 8GB of DDR2 and 680 GTX. It has run everything he's thrown at it, but some of the very latest games are making it suffer.pmanson said:
Might be the wrong thread but i'm going to ask anyway... my last PC I built was in 2008, since then it's had a new case (going from an Antec Fusion Media PC case to a standard tower). A replacement motherboard/processor to replace the one my son broke by switching it on/off multiple times, oh and an SSD. The 2nd desk is a 1TB drive I put in when I first built the machine.
It's an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6000+ 3100 Mhz with 4GB Ram / 120GB Kingston SSD / 1TB samsung
I'd like to create something in a nice small case that runs quietly, a few disks in there (most stuff is now backed up to the cloud) - it's primary uses would be web browsing / a little Office based activity / storage of photos (no editing) and running a few games my son (Minecraft / Fortnight etc).
Or can I get away with just putting some more memory in the current box? Multiple web browsers tends to make it grind to a halt...
I think it's the CPU. My laptop only has 4GB and that runs quite happily with multiple Firefox tabs open, including tabs with youtube on. Clearing some stuff from your SSD might help if it's nearly full.It's an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6000+ 3100 Mhz with 4GB Ram / 120GB Kingston SSD / 1TB samsung
I'd like to create something in a nice small case that runs quietly, a few disks in there (most stuff is now backed up to the cloud) - it's primary uses would be web browsing / a little Office based activity / storage of photos (no editing) and running a few games my son (Minecraft / Fortnight etc).
Or can I get away with just putting some more memory in the current box? Multiple web browsers tends to make it grind to a halt...
If your son is into PC gaming though, as he gets older, that nice small case that runs quietly is going to need upgrading again when he wants to add a big hot power hungry graphics card or two.
AlexC1981 said:
pmanson said:
Might be the wrong thread but i'm going to ask anyway... my last PC I built was in 2008, since then it's had a new case (going from an Antec Fusion Media PC case to a standard tower). A replacement motherboard/processor to replace the one my son broke by switching it on/off multiple times, oh and an SSD. The 2nd desk is a 1TB drive I put in when I first built the machine.
It's an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6000+ 3100 Mhz with 4GB Ram / 120GB Kingston SSD / 1TB samsung
I'd like to create something in a nice small case that runs quietly, a few disks in there (most stuff is now backed up to the cloud) - it's primary uses would be web browsing / a little Office based activity / storage of photos (no editing) and running a few games my son (Minecraft / Fortnight etc).
Or can I get away with just putting some more memory in the current box? Multiple web browsers tends to make it grind to a halt...
I think it's the CPU. My laptop only has 4GB and that runs quite happily with multiple Firefox tabs open, including tabs with youtube on. Clearing some stuff from your SSD might help if it's nearly full.It's an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6000+ 3100 Mhz with 4GB Ram / 120GB Kingston SSD / 1TB samsung
I'd like to create something in a nice small case that runs quietly, a few disks in there (most stuff is now backed up to the cloud) - it's primary uses would be web browsing / a little Office based activity / storage of photos (no editing) and running a few games my son (Minecraft / Fortnight etc).
Or can I get away with just putting some more memory in the current box? Multiple web browsers tends to make it grind to a halt...
If your son is into PC gaming though, as he gets older, that nice small case that runs quietly is going to need upgrading again when he wants to add a big hot power hungry graphics card or two.
I've got a Fujitsu desktop with a Core2duo CPU running Win7, which probably makes it the lowest-spec on here. I was considering adding an SSD but it's a small-ish tower and doesn't have a spare power plug for another hard drive, and while I can get a two-way adapter, I suspect that might also mean it maybe hasn't got the power to run the second drive.
Mine's a 486 DX2-66, bought in about 1993.
It's a bit of triggers broom though, I think one of the power cables may be original. It's a long time since its last upgrade. Currently it has a AMD Phenom X4, a graphics card of the same era that can't run the latest DirectX version, an SSD and I think 3 or 4 hard drives in a case that only just fits under my desk. My i5 laptop with intel 620 graphics handles most stuff just as well as the desktop at the moment.
Thinking of starting again from scratch and mid spec gaming machine that can run a VR headet (Ryzen 5 2600 and 6GB GTX1060) seems to be about £1k prebuilt, which seems expensive. Not worked out the cost to build instead yet.
It's a bit of triggers broom though, I think one of the power cables may be original. It's a long time since its last upgrade. Currently it has a AMD Phenom X4, a graphics card of the same era that can't run the latest DirectX version, an SSD and I think 3 or 4 hard drives in a case that only just fits under my desk. My i5 laptop with intel 620 graphics handles most stuff just as well as the desktop at the moment.
Thinking of starting again from scratch and mid spec gaming machine that can run a VR headet (Ryzen 5 2600 and 6GB GTX1060) seems to be about £1k prebuilt, which seems expensive. Not worked out the cost to build instead yet.
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Monday 3rd September 13:06
Zod said:
curlyks2 said:
Not by much... Asus P5Q Deluxe with a QX9650 here (2007 launch, so one year after the E6600).
My middle child (9 year old son) has almost the same: P5E Deluxe with QX9650 (overclocked), 8GB of DDR2 and 680 GTX. It has run everything he's thrown at it, but some of the very latest games are making it suffer.No photos to hand but I'm still running the desktop I built in 2006, though it's now got an SSD boot drive and Windows 10
Hooked up to 2 nice 23" screens on my desk it's still a good piece of kit even though most of it's more than a decade old now.
That said, I just bought a new coolermaster case to start building myself the Mk2 model, though I'm well out of the component game nowadays so much research needed into what to buy!
Hooked up to 2 nice 23" screens on my desk it's still a good piece of kit even though most of it's more than a decade old now.
That said, I just bought a new coolermaster case to start building myself the Mk2 model, though I'm well out of the component game nowadays so much research needed into what to buy!
droopsnoot said:
I've got a Fujitsu desktop with a Core2duo CPU running Win7, which probably makes it the lowest-spec on here. I was considering adding an SSD but it's a small-ish tower and doesn't have a spare power plug for another hard drive, and while I can get a two-way adapter, I suspect that might also mean it maybe hasn't got the power to run the second drive.
- Do it, it makes all the difference
- An SSD isn't particularly power hungry, should be no issue for a PSU that was designed to power several mechanical disks/cd stations
- Buy a decent one, at least 250GB. Transfer it to your next computer when you're done with this one.
- Seriously, just do it
droopsnoot said:
I keep looking at the prices, I was just hoping that they'd drop a bit more. But I know I need to do something, soon.
You can get a refurbished i3 or i5 office pc already fitted with a 128GB SSD for less than £150. You could then add your existing hard drive to it for storage. I don't know what core 2 duo you have, but even an older i3 like an i3 2120 should be a lot more capable. The main risk with refurbished stuff is you don't know the quality of the SSD they have fitted, though I would assume it is a new one since businesses tend to have the hard drives destroyed before they move on their old computers.
Not a desktop and not on the desk, but this is my 'daily driver'...
It is an HP Proliant 1U rack server running a pair of quad core xeons (16 threads in total) with a decent chunk of ram and an AMD gpu bodged in using a PCIE riser cable.
Works really well for daily stuff and is great for CPU intensive stuff like 3d modelling renders and photogrametry. It also plays games well enough (GPU limited).
Best bit is that it only cost £42 on Ebay with a 120gb SSD included and I already had the GPU.
I built a sound proof server enclosure using plywood and foam (its a noisy beast) and it lives under my desk.
It is an HP Proliant 1U rack server running a pair of quad core xeons (16 threads in total) with a decent chunk of ram and an AMD gpu bodged in using a PCIE riser cable.
Works really well for daily stuff and is great for CPU intensive stuff like 3d modelling renders and photogrametry. It also plays games well enough (GPU limited).
Best bit is that it only cost £42 on Ebay with a 120gb SSD included and I already had the GPU.
I built a sound proof server enclosure using plywood and foam (its a noisy beast) and it lives under my desk.
Dead_Donkey said:
Not a desktop and not on the desk, but this is my 'daily driver'...
It is an HP Proliant 1U rack server
Unusual choice, looks like a DL360G7 ?It is an HP Proliant 1U rack server
As you say you can pick them up for peanuts - we scrap them.
Any yeah it a noisy bugger. The 1U form factor means the smaller fans have to work harder.
Its a DL360 G6 currently running a pair of E5620s IIRC with a mild HP stock overclock pushing them to 2.6ghz (ish). Waiting for X5670s (6 core 12 thread CPUs @ 3+ ghz) to come down in price a bit - currently a matched pair go for £100. Once they get down to £50 - £60 I will buy a pair and double the ram to 32gb.
It was so cheap and has a gen2 PCIe 16x slot so couldn't resist as a super budget workstation type build.
It is noisy, however I have put it in a 'soundproofed' box with labyrinth intake and exhaust tracks and modded the little jet engine fans using an arduino to slow them right down (and trick the BIOS into not having a hissy fit). Then fitted some big, quiet 100mm fans to shift air around instead over the CPUs, ram and MOBO. Took a bit of effort, but I like a challenge and you get so much performance for so little money.
I did get mine a bit cheaper than normal as the ILO was non functioning (but who cares about that!).
It was so cheap and has a gen2 PCIe 16x slot so couldn't resist as a super budget workstation type build.
It is noisy, however I have put it in a 'soundproofed' box with labyrinth intake and exhaust tracks and modded the little jet engine fans using an arduino to slow them right down (and trick the BIOS into not having a hissy fit). Then fitted some big, quiet 100mm fans to shift air around instead over the CPUs, ram and MOBO. Took a bit of effort, but I like a challenge and you get so much performance for so little money.
I did get mine a bit cheaper than normal as the ILO was non functioning (but who cares about that!).
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