Off Topic:
They’re not in SLI – they’re just plugged in. In fact, SLI is counterproductive since on older cards SLI/Crossfire disables all but ONE video output; nVidia recently changed (GTX 2xx and higher) it so you can run TWO of the four ports when in SLI (primary card) – but really you connect up that SLI bridge and turn on SLI, you completely disable the outputs on the second card, and potentially lose one port on the primary; which is why my old rig only ran three displays. I had 2x GTX 260 in SLI, but only had two working ports. To get the extra displays I had to put a 9500GT in next to them.
Under XP you can even mix-and-match video card makers with different drivers – back eight years ago my A64 4000+ had a Ge7600GT as the primary card and a radeon 9250 driving the extra displays. (All crt’s – power bill SUCKED) – Vista/newer they have to all be the same manufacturer and driver generation set; so on Vista and Win7 the best bet is all nVidia Ge6xxx and newer (since the core drivers still support Ge6’s) while on AMD/ATI, it’s a craps shoot on anything older than a x1600. ATI are real whiney little **** about supporting old hardware on new OS compared to other manufacturers… and it’s only gotten WORSE since AMD took over.
More a gSkill ripjaws kind of guy.
Nauseatingly large music and movie collection (since I’ve converted all my dvd’s to h.264 and archived them to cardboard boxes in the garage), massive library of 3d source files since I still do some freelance game model design in 3ds max and milkshape, midi, samples and soundfont library for Sonar and Reaper that puts most production studios to shame (used to do MIDI arrangement for professional musicians through three different companies – the really good MID’s of RHCP’s “Aeroplane” and Tom Jones “Sex Bomb” – that’s my work), source code for software I’ve written and still maintain dating back thirty years, backups of certain customers databases that I do remotely (that way they have on and off-site – mostly for accounting software I wrote in the early 90’s that’s still in use – ranging from ASA 400 to Borland Paradox for DOS)…
… and two of those are in RAID config since that’s where those backups are… and one of those drives is open to the LAN for mass storage for lesser devices like my roommate/ex fiance (it’s complicated) laptop, my laptop, my netbook, my recently acquired Ice Cream Sandwich Droid tablet ($90 deal extreme special), the garage machine, my MSI Wind u123 media center PC, etc, etc… (canceled cable, just watch Hulu and Netflix now – cheaper since I’m already paying for 22mbps Internet)
That’s the same as what’s in my laptop, my netbook and the media center.
Nah, but I have a nice stack of dead ones from “repairing” people’s systems – blasted things make the old 2 to 8 gig maxtors or the 40 to 80 gig IBM deathstars look reliable.
I’d agree with that if AMD was at all competitive since Core 1 dropped… though I’ve never batted an eye at $300, since that’s what a P90 or a 486/50 sold for. Hell, I can remember paying $200 for a RCA 1802.
If you know when and where to look. Keeping an ear to the ground and paying attention to the papers can help. Few years ago they tore down the old KFC to build a new one (moving Taco hell in with it) – contacted the contractor and offered to help remove any surplus electronics for free; that’s where my 21" viewsonic came from; the boss’ office. They were going to pay money to have it and office computer hauled away as scrap. The bank closing was just dumb luck, was out fighting diabetes and depakote induced weight gain when I happened by stack upon stack of old computer stuff behind a bank with a “Free” sign on one of the stacks. All the hard drives were AWOL (bank, DUH!) but it was a treasure trove of RAM and old cards. I was tempted to snag more displays, but the rest were all 14" CRT’s… Got one of the white Playstation 1’s out of it though…
Local dump has a electronics dropoff that’s good pickings – they charge for people to drop off stuff, but they don’t charge if you want to haul it away. Had a small six node cluster in the garage I used to power on when doing heavy multi-frame pov-ray stuff built from a bunch of 600mhz Compaqs I grabbed on one trip. (though that was four years ago, still have machines, really don’t use them since I got the i7 870)
Dumpster diving for tech – great fun for all.
As a musician who still goes out busking on nice days, and has been in a number of different bands it’s kind-of a must have. I’m often ‘welcome’ in any band, more so now that I have the EWI as I can ‘pretend’ to be whatever instrument is missing… or bring a midi accompaniment to fill in what I can’t do on the EWI.
… and when I say Midi I don’t mean the cheap FM/adlib synth garbage most people (especially web designers) associate the term with.
Rubber dome is NOT a keyboard. Give me buckling springs or give me death… and don’t give me those stupid/pointless windows/menu keys
SECOND? Let’s see…
Primary Laptop: Compaq 8710p – received “broken”, just needed power jack replaced. Upgraded it from a 1.8ghz T7100 to a 2.5ghz T9300.
Hackintosh: Atom 1.6 stuffed into an Apple IIE platinum case – so it’s still an apple branded computer just ‘upgraded’; so it’s a legal hackintosh.
Netbook: MSI Wind U123
Media Center PC – Acer Revo
Primary Retrocomputer – Tandy 1000 SX
Secondary Retrocomputer – TRS-80 coco 1 upgraded to 64k RAM with Coco 2 keyboard.
“toys” – two Tandy 1000 EX, two tandy 1000 HX, TRS-80 Model 4P (currently down for repair/upgrade to 128k RAM and amber picture tube), TRS-80 Model 100, Commodore Plus/4 (aka Commodore minus 60 – recent addition to collection), Apple IIE Platinum, Sega master system… and I’ve got a VIC=20 on the way.
… and somehow I still have time to run bicycle repairs out of the garage, perform the occasional bris since I’m a trained mohel (even funnier since I’ve gone agnostic and spent time training with Jesuits – the latter got me off the streets after doing the homeless alcoholic vet on medical discharge routine), PC repairs on recommendations, continue to write new DOS games (second public release should be soon), go out busking on warm weekends, be even MORE of a pain on aviation and rocketry forums than I am here, and still service some clients web development and maintenance needs; all while on doctors orders not to work the past six years.
Just in case we’ve not dragged this far enough OT… wait, it’s YOUR thread, so no harm no foul? Probably still have some mamzer get their panties in a twist. Giving that there off topic bbcode a real workout here.