Hello, Keith from Alberta Canada

[TechnTeach]

Hello everyone!

Don't feel like you have to read the whole post, It'll be a bit long!

I'm form Central Alberta, Canada and have been working on computers for about 11 years (since I was 12). I have collected a large collection of desktops, laptops and parts and do lots of selling and trading.

I love to talk to people with similar passions (I also love working on my truck, my hobby trains, and I'm getting into pro audio and have just started DJing.) I'm a certified Elementary School Teacher and currently work as a Support Analyst for a local School Division in Technology Services.

I'm a very light gamer, but mostly use my computers for video/picture/music editing, media servers, web browsing and productivity. My list of systems is below if you still feel like reading! None of them are spectacular but I have either built/refurbished/upgraded every single one to my specific needs. Have any questions, just ask

1.) Basement Media/Web Desktop

Lenovo M85 SFF Case
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 Quad-Core @2.5Ghz
8GB DDR3 PC3-8500 1066Mhz RAM (4x 2GB)
750GB WD Green SATA 2.0 HDD
8x USB 2.0 Ports
ATI Radeon 4350HD 512MB GDDR3 PCI-e Video Card
22" HP w2207 Widescreen LCD and hooked up to a Optoma H27 Home Theatre Projector to run Kodi and Downloaded Digital Media, 102" Screen


2.) Spare Desktop

Lenovo M90 SFF Case
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Quad-Core @2.5Ghz
4GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz RAM (2x2GB)
500GB Hitachi SATA 2.0 HDD
6x USB 2.0 Ports

3.) Shop/Lounge Media Desktop

Lenovo M90 SFF Case
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Quad-Core @3.0Ghz
8GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz RAM (4x2GB)
640GB WD Caviar Blue SATA 2.0 HDD
6x USB 2.0 Ports
Dual 20" HP 16:9 Monitors (1x 2009m, 1x 2010i)

4.) Guest House/Outdoor A/V Computer

Lenovo M90 SFF Case
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Quad-Core @3.0Ghz
8GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz RAM (4x2GB)
750GB WD Green SATA 2.0 HDD
6x USB 2.0 Ports
ATI Radeon 4650HD 1GB GDDR3 PCI-e Video Card
ViewSonic 27" 720p Monitor/TV, HP 2007w Widescreen LCD (Separate Room Control, and Mirrored through VGA to an Epson PowerLite 410W XVGA Outdoor Projector and 180" Outdoor Screen

5.) All-in-One Media/DJ/Loaner Desktop

Lenovo M90z All-in-One Desktop
Intel Core i5 650 Dual-Core @3.2Ghz
8GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz RAM (2x4GB SO-DIMM)
750GB WD Green SATA 2.0 HDD
6x USB 2.0 Ports
23" 1080p Internal Monitor, DP Output (VGA Input for use as Stand-alone monitor)

6.) Living Room Home Theatre PC

HP m8100n Media Center Tower (Fully Gutted)
AMD FX-6300 Six-Core @3.5Ghz
12GB DDR3 PC3-12800 1600Mhz PNY XLR8 RAM (1x 8GB, 1x 4GB)
1.5TB Seagate Barracuda SATA 3.0 HDD
6x USB 2.0 Ports, 5x USB 3.0 Ports
ATI Radeon 5450HD 1GB GDDR3 PCI-e Video Card
Enermax 420W PSU
Hooked up to 42" LG Plasma

7.) Gaming/Productivity Desktop

Antec Sonata Black ATX Case
AMD FX-8100 Octa-Core @3.0Ghz (2.8GHz Stock)
16GB DDR3 PC3-12800 1600Mzh Kingston Hyper X Genesis RAM (4x4GB)
64GB Kingstong SSDNow SATA 3.0 SSD Boot Drive
1.5TB Seagate Barracuda SATA 3.0 HDD
7x USB 2.0 Ports, 4x USB 3.0 Ports
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 OC Edition PCI-e Video Card
Corsair CX500 500W PSU
3-Monitor AMD "EyeFinity" Setup, 2x HP Pavilion 23cw 23" IPS LED Monitors on the outside, 1x LG Flatron w2453v 24" LCD in the center.

Also two Lenovo Laptops (One G-Series, one ThinkPad, both running 3rd Gen. Core i5's and 8GB DDR3 RAM as well as numerous extra monitors, towers, and parts.

 

[~mr mixx~]

Hello Keith, Welcome to Computer forums....enjoy your stay.

And wow, you own a lot of computers. I don't own any desktops but I do own 3 laptops.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Welcome aboard

I own 6 computers myself, but not as fancy as those. A C2D E6550, C2D E6600, C2D E7500, i5 750, i5 3570K and an i7 2xxx quad core laptop. If anything, it's just the video cards that can be considered good; NVIDIA GTX 680 4GB OC, NVIDIA GTX 480 and AMD Radeon HD3870 X2 are in the equation.

 

[TechnTeach]

Welcome aboard

I own 6 computers myself, but not as fancy as those. A C2D E6550, C2D E6600, C2D E7500, i5 750, i5 3570K and an i7 2xxx quad core laptop. If anything, it's just the video cards that can be considered good; NVIDIA GTX 680 4GB OC, NVIDIA GTX 480 and AMD Radeon HD3870 X2 are in the equation.

Thanks for the reply! I used to have a C2D E6700 and just upgraded my one PC from an E7500 to the Q8300 C2Q....both of those E-series were beasts! I wish i had some of those Video Cards to be honest....best part about almost all of my systems is that they were all serious budget PC's....most of the bones were given to me and I made some cheap processor and memory upgrades. I have less than $100 CAD into each system, with the exception of my two AMD FX systems, one I built for $350 and the other I built for just a bit over $600.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Agreed. The C2D's were overclocking champs too.

Those two GTX video cards are old now. Latest generation is specially optimized that low-end cards perform similar or better than those two then high-end cards. As for the Radeon, it's a DirectX10.1 performer so it is becoming obsolete now. I'm using it for older, or 2D games as I'm more of a classic gamer.

For the budget PC's on that list, I'm using a 7300GTS, Radeon HD 6450.

Many parts of those system were leftovers of my brother's computers tho. I don't hold or the credits for them. Two of the computers are given to family members after restoration. Here are some of the specs:

The Mini Hummer:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4GHz
Motherboard: GA-G31M-ES2C
RAM: 2GB Kingston KVR667D2N5/1G x2 DDR2 667MHz
Storage: 80GB (OS) + 320GB (Data) HDD's
PSU: Gigabyte GE-R460-V1 460W
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6450 Silent
Case: A generic well made mini tower case with no fans (the computer is silent)
Optical Drive: Creative DVD-ROM (not working)

The Super Power (pretty much):
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @2.93GHz
Motherboard: GA-G41M-Combo
RAM: 4GB Kington KVR1333D3N9/2G x2 DDR3 1333MHz
HDD: 500MB
PSU: Super Flower SF-480K03
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2
Optical Drive: LG Super Multi
Case: Generic mid-size case with two fans

The Predator:
Motherboard: MSI P55-GD80
CPU: Intel Core i5 750
Video card: GTX 480 (you won't believe how well this plays new games)
PSU: Gigabyte GZ-EMS65A-C1 650W
RAM: 8GB (4+4) Kingston Hyperx DDR3 T1 1600Mhz
Optical Drive: LG Super Multi DVD Multi Recorder RW DVD+R DL
Storage: 2x500GB WD HDD's
Case: Aero Cool XPredator X1

The Predator is my backup computer. I wouldn't have upgraded from it to my new one if the motherboard hadn't burned due to wrong overclocking. That was like two years ago, until I finally decided to build it with the remaining unused-in-my-new-computer parts with some other leftover parts when I finally found a supporting motherboard. Lucky me this mobo is awesome. It can play new games very well. Even Doom plays like a champ on med-high settings at good frame rates.

My main rig is on my signature. The RAM is upgraded to 16GB and the old ones are the ones on the Predator now.

 

[TechnTeach]

Agreed. The C2D's were overclocking champs too.

Those two GTX video cards are old now. Latest generation is specially optimized that low-end cards perform similar or better than those two then high-end cards. As for the Radeon, it's a DirectX10.1 performer so it is becoming obsolete now. I'm using it for older, or 2D games as I'm more of a classic gamer.

For the budget PC's on that list, I'm using a 7300GTS, Radeon HD 6450.

Many parts of those system were leftovers of my brother's computers tho. I don't hold or the credits for them. Two of the computers are given to family members after restoration. Here are some of the specs:

The Mini Hummer:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4GHz
Motherboard: GA-G31M-ES2C
RAM: 2GB Kingston KVR667D2N5/1G x2 DDR2 667MHz
Storage: 80GB (OS) + 320GB (Data) HDD's
PSU: Gigabyte GE-R460-V1 460W
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6450 Silent
Case: A generic well made mini tower case with no fans (the computer is silent)
Optical Drive: Creative DVD-ROM (not working)

The Super Power (pretty much):
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @2.93GHz
Motherboard: GA-G41M-Combo
RAM: 4GB Kington KVR1333D3N9/2G x2 DDR3 1333MHz
HDD: 500MB
PSU: Super Flower SF-480K03
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2
Optical Drive: LG Super Multi
Case: Generic mid-size case with two fans

The Predator:
Motherboard: MSI P55-GD80
CPU: Intel Core i5 750
Video card: GTX 480 (you won't believe how well this plays new games)
PSU: Gigabyte GZ-EMS65A-C1 650W
RAM: 8GB (4+4) Kingston Hyperx DDR3 T1 1600Mhz
Optical Drive: LG Super Multi DVD Multi Recorder RW DVD+R DL
Storage: 2x500GB WD HDD's
Case: Aero Cool XPredator X1

The Predator is my backup computer. I wouldn't have upgraded from it to my new one if the motherboard hadn't burned due to wrong overclocking. That was like two years ago, until I finally decided to build it with the remaining unused-in-my-new-computer parts with some other leftover parts when I finally found a supporting motherboard. Lucky me this mobo is awesome. It can play new games very well. Even Doom plays like a champ on med-high settings at good frame rates.

My main rig is on my signature. The RAM is upgraded to 16GB and the old ones are the ones on the Predator now.

Those are some great rigs as well! I'm an EXTREMELY light gamer. Most of my gaming is emulators, older simulators and older racing games. I kind of built my Antec system on a whim without any real plan. I had joined a few Facebook computer groups and got caught up in the gaming end of it. My Radeon R7 holds up decently well with newer games for a sub-$100 GPU. I can play GTA V on med-high settings at 5760x1080 and it looks pretty decent to me...I'm not getting much over 30 FPS but honestly I don't see enough of a difference to care...it's the only newer game I really play simply because I love to mod it.

I think I have an upgrading obsession though, none of my machines can stay the same for more than 6 months. I just did an entire refresh of all my media systems this spring. They were all mid-ATX towers with AMD Athlon 64x2 or 1st Gen C2D systems, most of those have since been sold and I've changed them all out for SFF mATX systems and the Phenom II X4 or C2Q processors I'm currently running now. At one point this spring I had 27 desktops that were fully functioning until I realized that's insane and I started upgrading the ones I use and selling the rest...I have two more SFF ones I didn't list as they are non-functioning spares (working towers, just lacking RAM and Hard Drives. Both LGA 775 and DDR3.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Those are some great rigs as well! I'm an EXTREMELY light gamer. Most of my gaming is emulators, older simulators and older racing games. I kind of built my Antec system on a whim without any real plan. I had joined a few Facebook computer groups and got caught up in the gaming end of it. My Radeon R7 holds up decently well with newer games for a sub-$100 GPU. I can play GTA V on med-high settings at 5760x1080 and it looks pretty decent to me...I'm not getting much over 30 FPS but honestly I don't see enough of a difference to care...it's the only newer game I really play simply because I love to mod it.

I think I have an upgrading obsession though, none of my machines can stay the same for more than 6 months. I just did an entire refresh of all my media systems this spring. They were all mid-ATX towers with AMD Athlon 64x2 or 1st Gen C2D systems, most of those have since been sold and I've changed them all out for SFF mATX systems and the Phenom II X4 or C2Q processors I'm currently running now. At one point this spring I had 27 desktops that were fully functioning until I realized that's insane and I started upgrading the ones I use and selling the rest...I have two more SFF ones I didn't list as they are non-functioning spares (working towers, just lacking RAM and Hard Drives. Both LGA 775 and DDR3.

Same here. I don't even play GTA5 unless I wanna evaluate system performance. Same with Doom, after the disappointment it gave me. Highest quality game I play is Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition. High spec parts are exclusively for a couple of games along side DS2 DE, including Trackmania United Forever, Torchlight 1&2 and classic Doom with 3D rendering mods like Brutal Doom. I don't think I can even name others. Oh, the GTX 680 is for Surround (like Eyefinity) gaming too. I got it specially for Torchlight and Y's Oath of Felghana (classic style game that uses 3D rendering).

Emulation is an indivisible part of my gaming life, accordingly are classic style games like Volgarr the Viking, Lost Castle and "Guns, Gore and Cannoli".

I do have spare parts here and there, but they can't build a whole computer. Some of them are so outdated, like a 486DX CPU, Cyrix MX PR233, EDO RAM, PCI(non E) video card, AGP video card, etc. I don't think I'd ever collect 27 computers tho

 

[TechnTeach]

Same here. I don't even play GTA5 unless I wanna evaluate system performance. Same with Doom, after the disappointment it gave me. Highest quality game I play is Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition. High spec parts are exclusively for a couple of games along side DS2 DE, including Trackmania United Forever, Torchlight 1&2 and classic Doom with 3D rendering mods like Brutal Doom. I don't think I can even name others. Oh, the GTX 680 is for Surround (like Eyefinity) gaming too. I got it specially for Torchlight and Y's Oath of Felghana (classic style game that uses 3D rendering).

Emulation is an indivisible part of my gaming life, accordingly are classic style games like Volgarr the Viking, Lost Castle and "Guns, Gore and Cannoli".

I do have spare parts here and there, but they can't build a whole computer. Some of them are so outdated, like a 486DX CPU, Cyrix MX PR233, EDO RAM, PCI(non E) video card, AGP video card, etc. I don't think I'd ever collect 27 computers tho

Yeah I use Eyefinity for GTA V and that's about it....I'm a pretty busy guy so I don't usually get the luxury of having much time to game anyways! I run a small computer repair business on the side of my main career so many of my machines and parts are acquired through customers who either cannot afford a fix or have simply upgarded to a newer system. This is the second big clean-out I've had to do, I just don't have the space or time!

I used to think it was great to have tons of extra stuff but now I'm realizing its just clutter. I keep spare parts (a bunch of Hard Drives, DDR2/DDR3 RAM, Processors, Cables, Heatsinks etc.) but I've also gotten rid of some older stuff! I used to have an old 386SX and a few Pentium's hanging around but got rid of all that stuff.