Who has the coolest looking computer???

A few pics:

My HTPC. Antec Overture II case. AMD Athlon 3800+ AM2 64 CPU, 1GB DDR2 PC800 RAM, 80GB boot, 160GB edit, 250GB archive hard drives. It uses a Asus M2NPV-VM MB. It's hooked into a gigabit LAN and outputs through a video projector and a 15" LCD monitor. It has a MyHD HDTV OTA card. Video is on-board. The drive on the top of the unit is a 80GB external SATA-E drive for moving data to other computers. It has a Sony DVD ROM and a Benq 1640 burner. The small blue readout is the fan speed/temp. Below the PC is a Pionerr 633H-S DVR and a Sony DVD player. Partly visible at the bottom is the Sony selector switch for the video projector and a 3 input component video switch. I also have 2 Sony 400 disc DVD changers tied into the component switch.


My video server. It doesn't look like much but has a 500W PS and (5) 320GB harddrives, along with a 80GB boot. Win XP Pro only installed. No internet access. It's tied to the the rest of the computers with a gigabit LAN switch. Remote switch on/off from a laptop and the HTPC over the LAN. It's using a 2600+ Athlon CPU, 1GB DDR 400 memory, but I'm about to upgrade it to a 3200+ Sempron 64 CPU. And for those of you with sharp eyes, yes that DVD burner has been spray painted black to match the case. I would only rarely use a burner on that machine and that one was a surplus after a failed attempt to make a all black computer from a beige one.

My encoder computer. Currently has a AMD 3200+ Athlon 64 running XP 64 OS, 1GB DDR 400 RAM, 5 hard drives, all 80GB. I have a ADVC-100 from a VHS deck for VHS>DVD conversions. Always a work in progress. I have the ATI X300 PCI-E card out, ready to test a Nvidia 6200 video card.


Monitor and keyboards. Also pictured is my cable modem, router, gigabit switch. The second KB is for a Mac G4 1.3GB CPU, used for graphics. The three mice are usually not on the pad at the same time. I use a monitor switch to select between the two PCs, encoder and server. The Macs monitor is missing at the moment.

I also have a HP laptop not pictured that I use for net surfing from the front room. Everything is tied together with a 100MB/s LAN and a 1000MB LAN system with a gigabit switch.

Whatever it looks like, it's just a hobby.

Here ya go...

Let me try this again...

imgp0706.jpg

Thanks, SLICK RICK. I like your set up for being well organized and compact. I ususally work with only one computer at a time and I'm not that organized.

For any of you that want to post photos, you might check jimmalenko's excellant guide to reduce some false starts: https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=271697

A few hints: Don't try to preview or you will lose the picture. Just submit. If you have more than one photo, you will have to edit, then add, then submit, then edit, etc. for the next one. You can't do them all at once.

And please observe the 300K max file size per image. That's why my post above was edited 12 times. I forgot to check them before posting. Our bandwidth is high enough without massive photos. I use Photoshop, but you can use other programs to reduce the size and number of colors and still have a nice photo display.

More pics, please.

Can't beat the industrial design of the KayPro.

haha. and here are my TRS-80 Color Computers (CoCo 2 & 3). Yes, I still have both, complete with cassette recorder, disk drives, etc. Even years worth of Rainbow magazine.

SLICK RICK, I have a MyHD MDP-120 HDTV card: http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/mdp120.asp My problem is not much HDTV content locally. And I live in a apartment that has no access toward the transmitter. I have a 'fly catcher' screen antenna mounted on one of my floor lamps, about 3 foot square to get a decent signal. My building has stucco on the outside with chicken wire for a base. A most excellent RF filter.

Great heatsink, but I hope the days of overheating CPUs will end. I'm happy with my AMD CPU, 30-42C max, even when encoding. It makes for a much quieter PC. I believe the newer Intels are running much cooler also. My only heat comes from the Northbridge/Southbridge chips and some from the hard drives. The video cards seems to be the big source of excess heat lately.

And edDV, I wish I had one of those Kaypros. I still kick myself when I had an offer to buy a used one for less than $100, working and complete with software and manuals. Nice for nostalgias sake. Might be worth quite a bit in a few more years.

I almost bought an Altair 8K(?) when they first came out, but $1200 for a computer that you had to program with toggle switches was a bit too much at the time. I do have an old Apple with a B&W 5" monitor, KB and mouse in a one piece unit that is stashed in my closet. I have the manuals, and some disks but the hard drive controller is stuffed. I managed to boot it from a floppy, so the rest works. It will be fun to play with when I get some spare time. [/b]

Originally Posted by redwudz

And [/b]edDV[b], I wish I had one of those Kaypros. I still kick myself when I had an offer to buy a used one for less than $100, working and complete with software and manuals. Nice for nostalgias sake. Might be worth quite a bit in a few more years.

I have a working KayPro2 in my basement computer museum. It has the original CPM Microsoft Word, Wordstar and Visicalc. One of the floppy drives has become a problem.

I still have a Amiga 1000 and 2000 that I spent my hard earned money for years ago. They were a nice computer, but they were crippled by having to use a composite video interface to a TV monitor. I did sell my first computer, a VIC20 and later a Commodore 64. They were both a lot of fun writing programs in basic and using a 5K cassette drive for games. I finally threw out the cassette drive last year. Funny thing about the Amiga, my ophthalmologist still uses one for his office and billing. One of the later models, but still extremely outdated.

And I fixed my messsed up bold insert. Thanks for preserving my mistake in a quote.

Oh, what the heck. Here you go.

http://www.rosiehardman.com/piimages8/rosie-morse-key.jpg

http://desertpastor.typepad.com/paradoxology/MorseCode1-thumb.jpg

Originally Posted by redwudz

I think you might have a tiny bit of a negative air flow problem in your case there.

Try switching one of your back fans to some type of ultra quiet low RPM fan and I bet it would help a lot.

I have the same case in blue...

Faustus said

I think you might have a tiny bit of a negative air flow problem in your case there.

If you mean the PCI slot fan, that's just for my passively 'non-cooled' video card that's the hottest thing in the case. I couldn't find a small fan, and that one's kind of overkill, but it's a low speed fan.
I never understood why the heatsink is on the bottom of the video card where all the heat is trapped.

The two rear fans are temperature controlled and run fairly slow. There are also 2 low speed fans in front of the hard drives. It's a lot quieter than it looks and runs very cool.

There is also one DVD drive missing from the top of the case, along with the video card.

I have two of those cases, both steel. Great shielding, but fully loaded about 40Lbs.

here is my stuff, i tower plus a laptop side by side--any opinions??? on the left are my scanner along with an HD Comcast Box that inputs to the desktop as a PVR---works great with Beyond TV!!!

my other RIG in the bedroom....

Originally Posted by redwudz

Faustus said

I think you might have a tiny bit of a negative air flow problem in your case there.

If you mean the PCI slot fan, that's just for my passively 'non-cooled' video card that's the hottest thing in the case. I couldn't find a small fan, and that one's kind of overkill, but it's a low speed fan.
I never understood why the heatsink is on the bottom of the video card where all the heat is trapped.

The two rear fans are temperature controlled and run fairly slow. There are also 2 low speed fans in front of the hard drives. It's a lot quieter than it looks and runs very cool.

There is also one DVD drive missing from the top of the case, along with the video card.

I have two of those cases, both steel. Great shielding, but fully loaded about 40Lbs.

Opps. I meant to reply with a different picture.

I didn't mean the PCI slot, I mean looking at the front of the case it appers you have been pulling some air in through the cracks on your optical drive. Usually thats a sign that you are blowing more air out of the case then is being pulled in.

Originally Posted by SLICK RICK

I just took a updated pic of my computer, believe it or not it is pretty much the same computer from page 3 that I built 3 years ago. The only thing different is the speakers, mouse/keyboard, and monitors.

Very nice.

Here's mine(it's the maids week off):

I like Dell's MutiMedia dest top computer. I believe it it is light blue and silver

Faustus, I just put the video server computer together a week ago from a case that was setting around. That's probably where most of the dust came from. I didn't clean it up before using it. That optical drive was beige and I spray painted it black, and you are probably seeing the beige edges showing. I know, kind of funky, but I needed a DVD drive and it was handy. BTW, spay painting them doesn't work too well and I wouldn't recommend it.

I had to crop my pictures so they didn't show all the junk beside the computers. Housecleaning is not a favorite pastime of mine.


Any more photos, anyone? Some nice setups there.

Here's some pics of my computers.....yuh I know my wire management needs some help.

First one is a pic of my AMD Socket 462 2400 XP-M computer. I use it mostly to test used dvd-rom and new dvd burners. It has 2 hard drives, 3 dvd burners and 1 dvd-rom. Tornado 92mm cpu fan and Swiftech heatsink.






Next one is INTEL Socket 478 P4 2.4ghz and 3.00ghz.



This one is the P4 2.4ghz....wire management hell.... 2 hard drives, 3 dvd burners & 1 dvd-rom.



This one is the P4 3.00ghz pc with 2 SATA hard drives, 1 PATA hard drive & 2 dvd burners & 1 dvdrom, Zalman hsf and 120mm Panaflo case fans.





Last one is a Small Form Factor AMD Socket 939 3200+ pc with 2 dvd burners and 1 sata hard drive and 1 pata hard drive.






The Small Form Factor AMD 939 pc, INTEL P4 2.4ghz & 3.00ghz computers are hooked up to a Linksys 4 port KVM switch with a Viewsonic 19inch LCD monitor.



Picture of my video stuff next to my computer desk.

Not the best picture but here it is:

Never enough hard drive capacity 1.5 TB and need more.

I upgraded my video server with a gigabit LAN connection and a AMD 754 3000+ CPU and MB. Six hard drives, 500W PS, about 1.6TB storage.

just wait til i load up my comp... you guys just gotta wait for me to clean my desk first