Post your system.......

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

Most of the parts are either purchased used or carryovers from my original desktop back in 1998 or so such as the sound card

That's actually a very good sound card. I have the same or similar one as well with the Yamaha YMF-724 chipset. These cards are amazing. And if you use the output to drive headphones, you can literally burn them out if you are not careful (and especially if they are crappy ones).

For those that gawk at the monitor... I'm still waiting for a 19" monitor that gets better resolution than my CRT which is 2560x1920@56hz.

I can understand using a CRT monitor (as I still do)... but at 56 Hz? That will drive me insane. Also, that resolution on this small of a monitor is a no-no for me, regardless if it's LCD or CRT or whatever. I like my resolutions low and my refresh rates high.

The mouse there are none nowadays with the two-buttons in place of the wheel which I like so.. been using that so long the bottom is worn smooth. Had to replace the leftbutton actuator once, the cord twice, and the middle buttons membrane once over time.

Old mice are quality.
I myself am a big fan of the Logitech M-S34 (only a 2-button mouse) and the M-S69. Both are rock-solid comfortable designs.

The keyboard... I hope one day to find a mechanical keyboard using that layout whereas there is no gap between the home-pad and the arrowkeys. I used to have one with ALPS switches till that got stolen from me.

Probably will need to look at some of the new mechanical keyboards they sell nowadays. Most old mechanical keyboards don't even have a Windows key. I have a Model M. What a classic. Even my non-tech-savy friends like it .

[chozo4]

Re: Post your system.......

That's actually a very good sound card. I have the same or similar one as well with the Yamaha YMF-724 chipset. These cards are amazing. And if you use the output to drive headphones, you can literally burn them out if you are not careful (and especially if they are crappy ones).

Yeah, I'm actually in a market for one of the labway XWave-6000 series cards with the YMF-754 chipset on board but are tough to find. I missed out on a bulk auction of them a while back and still kicking myself as a result. Though the YMF724 itself puts out a fair amount of volume even in line-out mode to drive headphones no problem. It truely is a workhorse, sounds great overall, and it would be a shame when I can no longer use it as time passes. I know over time driver support will be null for this card down the line and the main reason I kept it was for the Hardware XG-Synthesis and driving my passive speakers.

The onboard amplifier used on most YMF724's are Class AB TEA2025B 16pin OPAmps by ST. It's the same with a lot of the older ISA Soundblasters as the opamp puts out up to 2.4watt RMS per output to a 4ohm load at a 9v. Close to 5watt in bridged mono output (so use two for stereo for instance). As a result I'd built a compact amp based off the same exact chip to mount internally and will be heatsinked while running off 12v for the extra output power as I estimate roughly 3.5~4.0watt/channel stereo @12v into a 2ohm load basing on how the voltage scales. Had to also build an LM358N based opamp (salvaged from an old PSU fan speed controller) for a microphone amp as I'll also be losing out on the 20db microphone boost this card offers.

I can understand using a CRT monitor (as I still do)... but at 56 Hz? That will drive me insane. Also, that resolution on this small of a monitor is a no-no for me, regardless if it's LCD or CRT or whatever. I like my resolutions low and my refresh rates high.

It doesn't bother me any and I don't notice any flicker. It's when it gets down to under 50hz that I notice anything amiss. I normally run 2560x1920 for gaming and 2304x1728@61hz for general use. I find that the only way to accept resolutions beyond a CRT's reported maximum is to bypass pin #9 on the VGA connector to disable DDC checking. This shadow-mask monitor normally only reports 2048x1536@85hz otherwise and won't let you increase the resolution without putting the desktop into scroll/panning mode.

What I find very unusual though is how graphics cards specifications still show the maximum resolutions supportable by Nvidia and AMD are 2048x1536 over VGA and 2560x1600 over DVI. Yet despite that they handle 2560x1920 flawlessly without any loss of quality over VGA OR DVI (using a DVI -> VGA adapter) even from back in the days of 128mb cards. However, back then ATI was notorious of blocking the user from setting resolutions beyond their 'maximum' through the drivers and forcing panning while nvidia did it without question in Windows98.

Probably will need to look at some of the new mechanical keyboards they sell nowadays. Most old mechanical keyboards don't even have a Windows key. I have a Model M. What a classic. Even my non-tech-savy friends like it .

The model M's are built well enough you can use it as a quick weapon in case of an intruder and still works after a good beatdown. I have checked into the newer models and even contacted WASD and Ducky keyboards far as asking if they could do a similar layout with no luck. I used to drive everyone batty with my older alps-based keyboard with the clicking as I tend to be a loud/heavy typer. Now I'm simply stuck with a rubber-dome membrane keyboard for now which drives me nuts.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Post your system.......

what's funny is that from 1GB RAM it sees just 1MB!(1024K)

Barely enough for Windows 3.1, if at all, LOL.

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

The onboard amplifier used on most YMF724's are Class AB TEA2025B 16pin OPAmps by ST.

Yeah, that's what mine has I believe. I think I have its output set as a regular amp output rather than line-out. One time, I had all of the volume levers turned all the way up (forgot why, but I did), except for master, which was ONLY halfway. I then plugged in my headphones without thinking and nearly had a heart attack . The sheer volume was so loud that I couldn't even think at all - first reaction was throw the headphones off of my head and immediatelly after hit the power switch on the back of the PC . Never even thought these cheap Sony MDR-023's can go that loud. Glad it didn't blow them. I have abused them quite a bit over the years, but nothing like that time.

It doesn't bother me any and I don't notice any flicker. It's when it gets down to under 50hz that I notice anything amiss. I normally run 2560x1920 for gaming and 2304x1728@61hz for general use.

But if your rig can run the games at FPS rates faster than 50 Hz, then you are loosing out on detail during fast-moving scenese. It's the same way with movies too. HD looks great when the picture is still, but as soon as there is some action, it gets all blurry due to that crappy 24 FPS standard that movies still use nowadays. I'll gladly take a movie shot in "SD" at 50/60 frames per second than one shot in HD only at 24.

Also, when scrolling on screen, I sometimes loose where I am on the page if the refresh rate is 60 Hz or lower (especially on a crappy LCD). With 85 Hz, scrolling text appears very smooth and I can easily track it with my eyes.

Also, keep in mind that CRTs have "built-in" anti-aliasing due to their inability to render square pixels, especially at very high resolutions.

I find that the only way to accept resolutions beyond a CRT's reported maximum is to bypass pin #9 on the VGA connector to disable DDC checking.

Neat! Very good to know.

Now I'm simply stuck with a rubber-dome membrane keyboard for now which drives me nuts.

Try some of the older Dell "QuietKey" ones - RT7D5JTW to be exact. Absolute best rubber-dome keyboard, IMO. Also pretty heavy, though nowhere near as much as the model M. Good thing is they are probably very easy to find. Just about any IT office should have at least a few still laying around.

[chozo4]

Re: Post your system.......

But if your rig can run the games at FPS rates faster than 50 Hz, then you are loosing out on detail during fast-moving scenese. It's the same way with movies too. HD looks great when the picture is still, but as soon as there is some action, it gets all blurry due to that crappy 24 FPS standard that movies still use nowadays. I'll gladly take a movie shot in "SD" at 50/60 frames per second than one shot in HD only at 24.

Also, when scrolling on screen, I sometimes loose where I am on the page if the refresh rate is 60 Hz or lower (especially on a crappy LCD). With 85 Hz, scrolling text appears very smooth and I can easily track it with my eyes.

Typically 60hz is the normal framerate for the majority of monitors and TV's even today so a few frames under won't have any real difference. The blur is normally attributed to LCD monitors in actuality which produces the ghosting/blur between frames due to their slower turnoff speed for the pixels. Such a case is very noticeable in video recordings between the flicker of CRT's versus the still image of an LCD even if the LCD was using a 15hz refresh for example. It's why the industry is pushing more and more upon the 120-180+hz LCD tv's/monitors to help alleviate that effect.

Most consoles even use 30frames as the standard including PAL formatted movies and games but just interlaced instead. Aside from that I've never noticed any difference between 30 or 60fps in general. Even a refresh between 60-85 I don't notice a difference even as far as scrolling but that's normally attributed to your GPU in 2D mode (underclocked mode basically) more than anything for general browsing.

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

Typically 60hz is the normal framerate for the majority of monitors and TV's even today so a few frames under won't have any real difference.

That's one reason why I still don't use LCD monitors (besides poorer colors, which is the #1 reason).

The blur is normally attributed to LCD monitors in actuality which produces the ghosting/blur between frames due to their slower turnoff speed for the pixels.

Even watching a movie in a theatre bothers me a lot whever there is a panning or fast-action scene. 24 FPS is a joke. Huge loss of detail on moving scenese, regardless if you are watching on a CRT, LCD, or in theatre.

But I guess it does differ between people. Some people are more sensitive to flicker and jerky motions like me, while many aren't.

It's why the industry is pushing more and more upon the 120-180+hz LCD tv's/monitors to help alleviate that effect.

They are also pushing towards 4k screens, which is a big gimmick, IMO. No point in a 4k display when it still looks like shit on a moving scene.

Most consoles even use 30frames as the standard including PAL formatted movies and games but just interlaced instead. Aside from that I've never noticed any difference between 30 or 60fps in general. Even a refresh between 60-85 I don't notice a difference even as far as scrolling

That can vary between different people. I notice flicker up to about 72 Hz when looking directly in the screen, and up to about 78 Hz with my peripheral.
In games, when the FPS falls below 65, I usually notice it in fast moving images. Not so much at all when there isn't a lot of movement on the screen.
That said, I'm not all that picky. Most of my games run nowhere near those framerates - if I get 20-40 FPS in Portal, I consider that good. But in very old games that run butter-smooth, it's very nice.

[mariushm]

Re: Post your system.......

The ghosting on LCD displays nowadays is so small, it's not worth talking about it...
An IPS panel is cheap nowadays and has very good color reproduction.

Some panels are only 6bit so to simulate 8pin they're doing FRC or PWM and turn pixels on and off or adjust brightness several times a second to create more colors (like dithering works for pictures). You don't have to choose a monitor with subpar panel.

The move to go with higher framerate has little to do with ghosting, it's about improving playback quality when watching movies.
When your lcd panel is locked at 60 Hz and you're watching a 24fps movie, the video player has to render 24 frames in 60 time "slots", 60 frames available...
As 60 can not be divided by 24, the video player has to resort to rendering every odd film frame twice and every even frame 3 times, so you get 2:3:2:3:2:3:2:3 ... 24 film frames = 12 odd frames x 2 slots + 12 even slots x 3 slots = 24+36 = 60 slots filled.
This obviously produces a back and forth and small desyncs with the sound and it can be ugly for some movies.

If you go with 120 fps or 144 fps, they're both divisible by 24 (1 video frame for each 5 monitor frames, 6 frames in case of 144 fps).
120 fps has the added benefit of working with 29.97 or 30fps or 60fps movies as well.

Of course, neither is great for PAL with its 25fps or 50fps, but 120fps is not worse than 60fps in that regard...it's actually a bit better. With 120fps on monitor and 25fps on film, you have 20 film frames each using 5 monitor updates and 5 film frames using only 4 updates - much less noticeable.

Anyway, nVidia is working on their G-sync which would allow dynamic framerates on monitors, and AMD works on OpenSync solution so in a year or so this isn't going to be a problem anymore: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/17...a-rebuts-fight

10 years ago when my eyesight was still 20:20 I had no problem noticing less than 85 Hz on CRT monitors - I couldn't work with less than 75 Hz back then. Seriously, you're killing your eyes with anything less than 75Hz.

Now after having surgery on one eye, that eye is worse than the other but my brain makes up for it so i have no problems reading small text and stuff on my two 24" 1920x1200/1080 monitors but I'm even more sensitive to flicker.

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

The move to go with higher framerate has little to do with ghosting, it's about improving playback quality when watching movies.

Actually not necessarily.
Regardless if you are watching a movie over cable, air broadcast, or on a DVD, it has already been converted to standard PAL or NTSC framerate before getting to your TV.

However, many new TV's do have software that tries to "interpolate" between frames and add its own frames to make the motion smoother and more fluid. On very low framerate and over-compressed video (such as from a direct webcam broadcast - we had this in a university classroom), it can improve the image quality quite a bit.

Seriously, you're killing your eyes with anything less than 75Hz.

+1
I should note that on some older monitors with longer phosphor persistance, the flicker may not be as noticeable. In fact, I can hardly notice the flicker on one of my oldest Sony Trinitrons, even at 60 Hz. Nonetheless, after a few hours of use, my eyes get bloody-red. Bump it up to 72 Hz on that monitor, and it's much much better.

My Hitachi SuperScan 814 offers something like 120 or 160 Hz at 1024x768. Tried it a few times and I find it quite insane - I can scroll through a page very quickly and still track all of the text and images perfectly.

[TheSchnitzelkiller]

Re: Post your system.......

Recently upgraded my system. Built it based on the X79 platform. Well coming from a i5 3570k it's really not that big of a upgrade. But lately i'm working a lot with virtualizing, and therefore need lots of ram and hyperthreading.





Specs:

Intel core i7 4820k @4.4 ghz
Gigabyte x79-ud3
Corsair h60 watercooling thingy
16gb Kingston HyperX blu @1600 mhz
Evga geforce gtx 670 ftw
Ocz agility 3 60gb
3x WD black 1 tb
Awefully squealing Zalman zm850-Hp (will replace this with a evga 850g2, is it safe to use nail polish on inductors to stop them from vibrating?)
Noctua + Nidec servo fans

Let me know what you guys think about the build :

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

is it safe to use nail polish on inductors to stop them from vibrating?

For the most part, YES. I say *for the most part*, because I'm not sure what they put in nail polish. Of course, the chances of them putting in something corrosive are very low, so it should be okay.

Let me know what you guys think about the build :

Looks solid. Nothing to complain about. Personally, I would go with a server-class PSU if you find one that's built to ATX spec as those are built a little better. With a single video card, I would be surprised if it tops 300W power usage, if even that much.

[TheSchnitzelkiller]

Re: Post your system.......

For the most part, YES. I say *for the most part*, because I'm not sure what they put in nail polish. Of course, the chances of them putting in something corrosive are very low, so it should be okay.

Okay, soon i will go ahead and put a fine coat of clear nail polish on the inductors. Damn these Zalman/Enhance units do make quite a bit of coil noise. Oh well i think i move this one to my server.

Looks solid. Nothing to complain about. Personally, I would go with a server-class PSU if you find one that's built to ATX spec as those are built a little better. With a single video card, I would be surprised if it tops 300W power usage, if even that much.

Thanks. You mean the Zippy emacs and Delta psu's? i actually was looking at those some time ago and did see some good deals passing by. Only thing i would do is replace the stock jet engine fan with a quiet noctua one .I know it's overkill to have a 850w psu for one gpu, i actually wanted to do a sli setup, but never came around it.

[newtothis]

Re: Post your system.......

AMD FX8320 Piledriver SKT AM3+
Zalman CNPS9900-MAX Cooler
Asrock 970 Extreme3 Mobo
8GB Kingston Predator Beast DDR3 1600mhz RAM
AMD HD 6970 Graphics Card
500GB Sata III Seagate Barracuda HDD
Powercool X-Viper Modular 750W Power Supply
NZXT Lexa S case

Once repaired Goodmans LD3265D2 32" LCD screen

Upgraded GPU tp XFX HD7990 and PSSU to Corsair HX750m.

[Philly Cheese Steak]

Re: Post your system.......

My rig is in my sig, also have

Asus Maximus V Gene
Intel 3770K
Gskill Ripjaw X 2133
2 X7970CF
Gonna build it in a case n sell it, I got the board off flee Bay. Three pins were bent, or so it looked. I got the board and it appeared that someone had got thermal paste on the pins, also 2 were touching and one was gone. I straightened them out and popped in my 3770K boom fired right up.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Post your system.......

Most of the amperage is made up on the 3.3 and 5v rails.

Sounds like a PSU designed for a socket 462 AMD, LOL.

[Milky Way]

Re: Post your system.......

Ok, boredom and curiosity got the better of me..... Whats in your box?...
... ...
...

Debian Linux Wheezy x86 O.S., Motherboard Asus NCT-D with 2x3.8 Intel Xeon CPU, 8Gb Samsung ram, Nvidia Quadro NVS 512Mb ram, 2xUSB 3.0 NEC, 4xHD PATA/SATA WD 8Tb total... hate planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence

[nevereven]

My new engineering rig

New Rig is 99% done. Just working the bugs out

Generated by pcpartpicker.com
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive 3x in RAID5
Storage: Random 180 GB drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise (64-bit)
Monitor: LG IPS235P-BN 60Hz 23.0" Monitor
Monitor: Old Dell 2405FPW 1920x1200
Mouse: Logitech Performance Wireless Laser Mouse
Other: Generic DVD-RW (Scavanged)
Other: Tt eSports Poseidon Brown
Other: ERGOTRON LX WALL MONITOR MOUNT 45-180-195
Other: ERGOTRON LX WALL MONITOR MOUNT 45-180-195



I've also got some gear in my home workshop:

• Rigol DS2702A
• Fluke 289
• Saleae logic analyzer
• Aoyue 2703A Soldering/rework station.
• Korad KA3005P power supply
  

[reaper57]

Re: Post your system.......

I have a lot of PCs, both desktop and laptop, but my main one is:
MB: GA-870A-USB3
CPU: AMD FX 4100 3.6GHz
RAM: Kingston hyperX blu 8GB 1600MHz
Video Card: Gigabyte Nvidia Geforce GTX 550Ti
PSU: CoolerMaster SilentPro 700 (700w)
I'm planning on upgrading, but damn new stuff are expensive. :P

[xplayerx]

Re: Post your system.......

Mine

Intel Xeon Intel Xeon e5 2697 12x Core
500GB SSD
Bequit PSU

[Dan81]

Re: Post your system.......

My Pentium 4 went through some changes:

ASRock P4VM800 - P4M800 chipset,and it's using trodas' modded MSI PM8M3-V BIOS (it's alive!)

Realtek 8139D PCI NIC/VIA VT6103 onboard - using RTL8139D since the MSI board uses RTL8100 and my board has VT6103.

2.5GB RAM

Windows Vista Home Premium

80GB WDC Caviar SE HDD - removed the old 8GB HDD and repaced it with a 4GB pendrive. (hey,at least it doesn't need cables!)

Pentium 4 1.8A "Northwood" CPU - Socket 478

TSSTCorp SH-S182D (clearly a Samsung drive) DVD Burner

"Human" case - no idea who built it,all I know is the front looks like a Nokia 8850 phone

MSI/nVidia Geforce FX5200 128MB video card AGP8X = Aero!

DeluX 400W PSU - still works,replaced the fan

And this is all of it

[eccerr0r]

Re: Post your system.......

Last time I used a low refresh monitor was occasionally 800x600 at 56Hz due to video card/monitor issues. The persistence of the phosphors at that time was long enough that I didn't really notice anything. I also used 1024x768 at 87 interlaced, again on a long persistence phosphor monitor, I didn't notice much (though the shadow mask was somewhat aged on some monitors (IBM 8514 / IBM 8515) they sometimes showed up with blurry pixels.

Now that I have fairly short persistence monitors, 60 Hz does seem to flicker somewhat (HP P1130). Then again I don't really use CRTs anymore and for some reason I don't see any difference on refresh rates on even 'cheap' LCDs.