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 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.
- 22" Samsung 225BW Widescreen LCD Monitor (5ms GTG)
- Logitech Wireless Keyboard
- Logitech Wireless Optical Mouse
- Logitch Z-640 70 watt 5.1 surround speakers
Moonshine - Game Monster
ver 4.0
Computer numero uno is my gaming box. This is where I hang when I fell like dishing out some punishment on the net via Battlefield 2, or just playing a calm quiet game of World of Warcraft.
Version 3.0 - p4/3.2 GHz. [upgraded 2005/09/29]
Version 2.0 - p4/2.4 GHz.
Version 1.5 - p3/800 MHz.
Version 1.0 - 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)
- MSI nVidia GeForce 7800GTX [256 Mb GDDR3] (PCIe 16x)
- 250 GB Western Digital SATAII (16 Mb cache) HDD
- Pioneer 16x DVD (slot)
- NEC DVD Burner
- 31/2 Floppy
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
- Roland MT-32 Sound Module external MIDI via USB
- NewQ Gold DSP LED Equalizer.
- Dual Gb NICs on mobo
- OS: Windows XP SP2
Garfield - Swiss Army Knife
ver 3.0
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. With my last generation video card, it still plays a mean game of Quake III Area. Don't mess with this fat kitty.
Version 2.0 - p4/2.4 GHz. [upgraded 2005/09/29]
Version 1.0 - p3/800 MHz.
- MSI ATX motherboard in Custom Built System
- Intel 3.2 GHz CPU (Prescott) [800 Mhz FSB, 1 Mb L1 cache]
- 1.0 Gb of DDR 400 RAM
- eVGA nVidia GeForce 6800 [128 meg] (AGP 8x)
- 80 GB Western Digital IDE (DMA100) HDD
- Pioneer 8x DVD (slot)
- NEC DVD Dual Layer Burner
- 31/2 Floppy and 7 in 1 Flash Card Reader
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live!
- 3com PCI 10/100 NIC
- Intel USB WebCam
- OS: Ubuntu Dapper Drake Linux
Sonic - How may I serve you?
ver 3.0
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.
Version 2.0 - Pentium III 450. [upgraded 2006/06/12]
Version 1.0 - Pentium Pro 200.
- Tyan ATX motherboard in Custom Built System
- Dual Intel 750 MHz P3 CPUs (SMP)
- 384 megabytes of PC 100 RAM
- Matrox Millenium G200 AGP
- 120 gigabye Western Digital IDE HDD
- Pioneer 8x DVD (slot)
- 31/2 Floppy
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live!
- Dual Intel e100 PCI 10/100 NICs
- OS: Debian `Sarge` Linux
Clank - "This thing still works?!"
ver: 000 destruct 0
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.
Version 0.02 - Micronics Pentium 200 MMX. [upgraded 2006/06/13]
Version 0.01 - Gateway 2000 Pentium 120. [upgraded 2005/02/15]
- Abit ATX motherboard in Custom Built System
- Intel 800 MHz Pentium III CPU
- 256 megabytes of PC 100 DIMMS
- nVidia GeForce 2 MX
- Dual 3dfx Voodoo 2 PCI in SLI mode
- 30 gigabyte Seagate IDE HDD
- Creative Labs Encore 6X DVD
- 31/2 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 3.0
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? My one complaint is the 3D video is underpowered. But I can at least play World of Warcraft on the road at minimum detail.
Version 2.0 - Toshiba Satellite 1.6 GHz P4
Version 1.0 - Toshiba Tecra 800MHz P3.
- MacBook
- Intel 2.0 GHz Core Duo CPU
- 1 Gigabyte RAM
- Intel GMA 900 Integrated Video
- 80 gigabyte of SATA hard drive
- DVD-RW / CD-RW
- Onboard Sound chip
- 802.11g Wireless NIC
- Bluetooth
- Integrated Camera
- OS: OS X 10.4
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"