Teletran VII By Kryojenix

Kryojenix has added a system to »ASEville\'s »System Area.



This system has been modified at the time shown below

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That's a nice setup.

Hey thanks!

But do you mean the whole couch setup or the system specs?!
You'll notice I'm overclocked by minus 10MHz - I just thought I'd enter it as it's reported to me by System Properties. I've never really overclocked to this point. I think I'll overclock my next system - I want to preserve this one as the Last and Greatest (?) of the Socket A's. (Did I just say socket Ase? - or is it pronounced "aye ess ee"?)

I'm actually starting to champ at the bit for a whole new system based on Athlon64, but my Reasonable Upgrades Schedule has March 2008 for the next one. (Which wouldn't be so long if I hadn't often upgraded ahead of schedule). Needless to say, if you hand over a PCI-Express graphics card to me in this competition, then I'll be inclined to move on sooner!!! Realistically I'll probably go for it mid next year after WinVista has been out for a few months. (Hoping its licensing isn't *too* ridiculous!)

My strategy in system building for myself was originally to get the cheapest of everything on a platform I could upgrade later. Because we'd had our previous family computer for 4 years, the cheapest setup was still going to be a good upgrade. I couldn't help but write about it in a journal at: »http://www.aseville.com/journals.php?userid=4391

But my dreams/plans for the future are as follows:

Case: I bought the Thermaltake Xaser V to keep. But it's very fan-based, and I'm sick of sleeping through fans. So will I keep using the case without the fans? It still looks good, but I feel prat-ish for having a fan-laden case and arranging watercooling for it or something. (I think I'd get a Reserator 2 style fanless watercooling if I did it)

System:
[Mainboard] Asus M2-Crosshair (always fall for flashing lights and it's a good mainboard, if not the best)
[CPU] socket AM2 Athlon64 X2 processor, 65nm if available, low wattage if available (quad-core overkill for now, just going for something significantly better than 2.2GHz Socket A AthlonXP - maybe even single core, not Sempron though, that'd be a downgrade ... to be upgraded again later, hopefully, but I aim to overclock this
[RAM] minimum 800MHz DDR2 - with some overclock stability
[Graphics] either the AiW X1900 I win from here or an AiW DirectX 10 part when available ... or a AiW X1900 I buy!! Or maybe an X1950, but then I'd just wait for DX10 (which also implies Vista)
[Hard drive] I think 2x320GB Seagate SATA2 16MB cache in RAID 0 sounds good
[Optical drive] keep DVD burners (having paid $700 for one!) until fast, reliable Blu-Ray drive available for well *under* $100
[Keyboard] That Optimus keyboard with OLED's on every key!!! If it's not too stratospheric in price ... but I've heard they've cancelled the OLED's in every key ... so I'll wait and see
[Mouse] They haven't made the perfect mouse for me yet. I'm not an insane gamer mousehead. But I want thumb and 4 finger action - the pinkie's there, so it may as well be doing something. I also prefer ambidextrous mice even though I'm right handed - mainly because they usually have buttons on both sides - so one for the pinkie. I do like the look of the Logitech VX Revolution, though. Damnit, more buttons, more functionality, more click-wheels wanted!! Otherwise I'll keep what I got
[Sound] Asus Crosshair has 7.1 onboard, but eventually I might get a Creative SoundBlaster Elite-Pro

Outputs:
[Actual Sound] replacing the 48W RMS Yamaha TSS-10B 5.1 with ... Creative Gigaworks S750 700W 7.1 speakers with mid range and tweeter, possibly with the extra Creative DDTS1100 decoder box - I know Logitech may have fuller sound from single driver speakers (and they include their decoder), but why oh why won't they do a 7.1 setup - if they did, I'd be surprised not to switch to that instead
[Monitor] well, no, not the Dell 30" - no, I want to keep my 24" Dell and get the stupendous 55" LG M5500C LCD TV which can accept PC input and display at 1920x1080 !!!! ... gimme a second to finish drooling. Hopefully by the time I get this, it'll cost less than half of what it does now! I'm worried about the low contrast ratio, though - only 550:1. I should get out and see it in a showroom first, I guess, and by the time I buy there'll be more models to compare.

Extras:
Ho hum - I just keep this wishlist in the back (front?) of my mind. Logitech Force3D force feedback joystick, Saitek X52 non-forcefeedback hands-on-throttle-and-stick, Logitech G25 force feedback steering wheel

From this end of the dreaming, it just seems like this next system could well keep me happy for a lifetime. But it doesn't work like that, does it?

Wow. THAT'S impressive.

I first saw that and thought "he built his system into a couch?"
About your computer dreams...

Ah...one can dream.
Realistically, I can afford none of that, so your dreams may be better than mine.

That says $17,000 there...

Yeah. No.

The asesessid link is your session ID. For security of your account, just make sure to strip it off any link if it has it on it.

Couch PC ... hmmm, that's a *really* good idea - imagine using the dead space inside a fat couch to space out components and build in cooling channels for them. Warm couch in winter. But it'd be an absolute pain to take to a LAN party or just to the repair man if we needed to! Actually when I think about it, this New Zealand guy invented a motorised couch you can drive down the street.

Regarding my dream system ... who says I'm getting it any time soon?! I could afford it, but I don't think it'd be the right thing to do - should get a luvverly mortgage first.

For example, the 55" LG TV is ~AU$15,000 at most shops here (I've seen it online only), and AU$7500-8500 at another shop, which is *really, really* tempting ... but like I said, in another three years, it'll probably be $4000-5000 and there'll be more competitor TV's so better contrast ratios or other stats may be available etc.

A second example is the Gigaworks S750 7.1 speaker setup. I keep it in mind, but honestly, I'm happy with what I've got for the indefinite term. I just like keeping these plans in the back of my head. Gives you something to strive for. But it's important to balance that against giving in to temptation as soon as the bank balance can manage. It'd be so easy to get into a work, buy toys, work, buy toys addiction cycle. But there's got to be more to life.

Hmm, I better stop before I get preachy!

Said By Aron Schatz

That says $17,000 there...

Yeah. No.

$17,000 for 3TB of hard drive space, 16 gigs of RAM and 2 30" HTDV screens. Which is total overkill, I know, and enough computing power to probably run the stock market. The Ram alone adds $6,000. The 4 hard drives add $2,400. The monitors add $4,000. Which takes $12,000 off of the price. I could make it lower by not adding wireless stuff as well.
For example:

What is that Firefox *theme*? It's a nice one!!

Heck, I think that Mac would cost significantly more than my dream PC including all the TV's and speakers and stuf! Keep your dreams alive, and keep refining them.

I actually have a "NextComputer.doc" list on my computer - it's component by component and there are 3 columns: Beginner, Midrange and Elite (or as I have renamed them - n00b, Midrange and l33+) - I edit the list often and for each component, I highlight whichever one I'm favouring and it often changes many times before I get something. (Then that row gets greyed out ... for a while!)

[Edit - Firefox calls them themes, not skins. "Skin" does sound a little icky to me, except maybe on a 3d game model]

Glowy Blue. It doesn't work in Firefox 2.0.

Dern!
It seems the author is in the process of [moving house, after which he will be] updating this, so I'll look out for it. Thanks for showing it to me!

I really like the couch setup. The PC is okay, not great... but the couch is good.

Thanks! The couch setup is good.

I considered whether I wanted to get a computer desk - and I've put a great deal of thought into my ideal computer desk. Manufacturers haven't exactly made it but I found a desk that was close, which could be boosted by accessory furniture. But where I am is a job I'll probably leave after several months, so I thought I'd save money and increase portability for now by minimising my overall furniture load.

The couch itself is a nasty, el-cheapo couch which I also sleep on (converts to bed).

The ergonomics of having the computer at couch level isn't perfect. You have to sit up straight - and I use two cushions behind me. Keyboard on my lap and mousing on the couch is no good because it's too far back - shoulder strain. Since that photo was taken, I've got a "kids table" which is 10cm higher than the couch and positioned in front of course ... it was too far in front - I need it to be hovering over the edge of the couch, so I took off one of the four legs so it can overhang the couch. I'll take some photos one day. And since then I've found an "overhang" table that's designed to use in front of a chair - height and tilt adjustable and all. I may buy that soon - it's cheap too!

The computer itself - yeah, out of date, but alright. I'm trying to put off upgrading as long as I can - between July 2007 to March 2008 ... unless I win this fanblastic graphics card!