My computers work on the "Hand-Me-Down" principal. I generally put all my best upgrades into Moonshine. Then the left overs work their way down the PC ladder. I've been doing this method for awhile now. I find that it works very well.
Shared Hardware via Belkin KVM
As you can see in the picture above, I keep all four computers hooked up to the same keyboard, video and mouse using a Belkin DVI KVM. This allows me to switch back and forth from Linux and Windows with no rebooting. Best of all, I can easily pause my game on Moonshine to catch an instant message or email on Garfield. The KVM also shares USB and Audio.
- 27.5" Hanns-G HG-281DPB 3ms Widescreen LCD HDMI Monitor
- Logitech Wireless Wave Keyboard
- Logitech Wireless Optical Mouse
- Logitch Z-640 70 watt 5.1 surround speakers
- Roland MT-32 Sound Module
- Roland Sound Canvas (SC-55) Sound Module
Moonshine - Game Monster
ver 4.2
Computer numero uno is my gaming box. This is where I hang when I fell like dishing out some punishment on the net via Team Fortess 2, or just playing a calm quiet game of World of Warcraft.
Ver 6.0 - [2011/08/22] mobo: Core 2, video: GeForce 560 GTX
Ver 5.0 - [2010/08/22] mobo: MSI AMD 64 4200+, video: GeForce 250 GTS
Ver 4.1 - [2009/09/01] hdd: 250 GB, os: Windows XP sp3
Ver 4.0 - [2009/03/12] video: GeForce 7800GTX
Ver 3.0 - [2005/09/29] mobo: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz, video: GeForce 6800
Ver 2.0 - [2003] mobo - p4/2.4 GHz.
Ver 1.5 - [2001] cpu - p3/800 MHz.
Ver 1.0 - [1999] mobo - p3/450 MHz.
- MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 SLI ATX motherboard in Custom Built System
- AMD 64 4200+ CPU (X2 Dual Core Manchester) [1 Ghz FSB, 512 Kb cache/core]
- 2.0 Gb of Corsair DDR 400 RAM (Dual Channel Matched Pair)
- XFX nVidia GeForce 250 GTS [512 Mb GDDR3, 128 shaders, 738 core / 1836 shader clock] (PCIe 16x)
- 1.0 TB Western Digital (SATAII) HDD
- Pioneer 16x DVD (slot)
- Sony Dual Layer DVD Burner
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI
- Dual Gb NICs on mobo
- OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (beta)
Garfield - Swiss Army Knife
ver 5.0
Updated: 2011/09/28
This is my "everything else" computer. I do my code, my web browsing, my email, my tinkering all here. This baby is built like a Tank. It's up 24x7x365 and does not complain because it runs Linux. I use Gnome as my prefered desktop. Don't mess with this fat kitty.
Ver 4.0 - [2010/06/03] mobo: Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz, RAM: 2.0GB, -SBLive!
Ver 3.0 - [2008/11/12] mobo: p4/3.2 GHz, video: GeForce 6800, RAM: 1.0GB
Ver 2.0 - [2005/09/29] mobo: p4/2.4 GHz, video: GeForce 5500
Ver 1.0 - [2001] mobo - p3/800 MHz.
- MSI mATX motherboard (nForce 610i) in Custom Built System
- Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 [2.83GHz, 1066 Mhz FSB, 6 Mb L1 cache]
- 4.0 GB of DDR2 800 RAM
- BFG nVidia GeForce 9800 GT [512 meg] (PCIe 16x)
- 1.0 TB Western Digital IDE (SATAII) HDD
- Sony DVD Dual Layer Burner
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! PCI
- nVidia MCP73 Ethernet NIC
- OS: Ubuntu Linux (latest ver)
Sonic - How may I serve you?
ver 4.0
Updated: 2010/06/10
Sonic is my server workhorse. I keep it running 24x7. It runs Debian GNU/Linux configured for web, email, and file serving. Karen has a Mac Mini upstairs. Occasionally we need to share a file, this is where Sonic comes in. It hosts this website and my games database, dracowulf.com.
Ver 3.1 - [2009/10/17] mobo: Dual Pentium III 800, hdd: 120GB IDE, ram: 384MB, video: nvidia 6600GT
Ver 3.0 - [2007/08/18] os: Debian `Sarge` Linux
Ver 2.0 - [2006/06/12] mobo: Pentium III 450
Ver 1.0 - [2001] mobo: Pentium Pro 200.
- ASUS AT3N7A-I ATX motherboard in Custom Built System
- Intel Atom 330 1.6 GHz CPU (dual core)
- 2 gigbytes of DDR2 800 RAM
- nVidia 9400M (onboard PCIe)
- 1 terabyte Western Digital SATA HDD
- SATA DVD-ROM
- nVidia HD Audio
- Gigabit NIC (WAN)
- Intel e100 PCI 10/100 NIC (LAN)
- OS: Debian `Etch` Linux
Clank - "This thing still works?!"
ver: 000 destruct 0
Updated: 2011/10/22
Old school games be my thang! Emulators are great and all, but nothing beats playing Under a Killing Moon or Wing Commander: Prophecy on this baby. Windows 98se is installed, with options to boot to MS-DOS. This system is a reincarnation of Moonshine Zero. Instead of using an old (and prone to failure) mechanical hard disk drive, Clank uses a Compact Flash to IDE adaptor. The shelf life for CF cards is much higher as long as re-writes are limited.
Ver 0.03 - [2008/08/22] mobo: Abit 800Mhz P3
Ver 0.02 - [2006/06/13] mobo: Micronics Pentium 200 MMX
Ver 0.01 - [2005/02/15] mobo: Gateway 2000 Pentium 120
- Abit ATX motherboard in Custom Built System
- Intel 800 MHz Pentium III CPU
- 512 megabytes of PC 100 DIMMS
- nVidia GeForce 2 MX
- Dual 3dfx Voodoo 2 PCI in SLI mode
- 32 gigabyte IDE HDD (CF Card)
- Creative Labs Encore 6X DVD
- 31/2 Floppy
- 51/4 Floppy
- Creative Labs Dxr3 mpeg2 decoder PCI
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE 64 Gold ISA
- Dlink PCI 10/100 NIC
- OS: Windows 98 se
Splortch - Mac Attack.
ver 5.0
Yes, my notebook is a Mac. Surprised? Well you shouldn't be. Underneath all that Mac OS X GUI goodness is a Unix based operating system. It gives me all the command line power I enjoy in Linux with all the eye candy and easy to use.. uhh.. usefulness of Mac OS. What is not to like?
Ver 4.0 - [2009/11/10] system: MacBook Pro 15"
Ver 3.0 - [2008/10/20] system: MacBook 13" (2.0 Ghz, 1Gb RAM, Intel GMA 900)
Ver 2.0 - [2005] system: Toshiba Satellite (1.6 GHz P4)
Ver 1.0 - [2001] system: Toshiba Tecra (800MHz P3)
- MacBook Air 13"
- Intel 1.7 GHz Core i5 CPU (Dual Core)
- 4.0 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM
- Intel HD 3000 Integrated Video (384 MB)
- 250 GB SATA Solid State hard drive
- Onboard Sound chip
- 802.11n Wireless NIC
- Bluetooth
- Integrated Camera
- OS: OS X 10.7
Puter Archive
Here are the specs of puters from long, long time ago. Maintained for historical accuracy.
- 198X - Apple IIc
- 1991 - Laser Turbo XT a.k.a. Metal Shade
- 1992 - Gateway 2000 496sx/25 a.k.a. Tag Along
- 1994 - AcerPower P60 a.k.a. Interloper
- 1997 - Pionex Elite P200 a.k.a. Moonshine "Zero"