What kind of Hardware YOU got ?

[PatE]

Hello.

I would like to know what kind of Hardware you got for your PC ( or NC :D ).

I got:
AMD XP 2500+ Barton @ 3200+ :D
1 GB RAM with Dualchannel
Radeon 9700 Pro
JLMS 16x DVD-ROM with RPC-1 :D
TEAC DVD-R , but now it is reflashed to the Pioneer A05 DVD-r :D
Leadtek WinFast K7NCR18D-ProIILeadtek WinFast K7NCR18D-ProII (http://www.leadtek.nl/nts/de/products/mb/content.php?subject=WinFast%20K7NCR18D-ProII)
Logitech MX 700
15" TFT with 16ms response
1x 40 GB an 1x 80 GB

Hauppauge WinTV NOVA-t for DVB-t :D (http://www.hauppauge.de/prod_nova-t-pci.htm) here in Berlin/Germany

[Angelus]

here's mine, built from scratch just around Christmas time:

Intel P4 2.6c Ghz with Hyper-Threading (overclocked to 3.12 Ghz)
Asus P4P800 Deluxe Motherboard
512 PC2700 Kingston HyperX memory
2x120 GB Western Digital 7,200 RPM Serial-ATA in Raid-0
80 GB external usb 2.0 WD hard drive
PNY nVidia GeForce FX5700 ULTRA
Lite-On 411s DVD burner (burns at 8x with firmware hack)
On-Board sound :mad:
Cheapo $5 monitor from my dad's work (they had a giveaway of old stuff)
cheapo speakers from my P2 333 Mhz pc
Logitech mouse and keyboard
Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Deluxe

[Solo]

AMD Athlon64 3400+ @ 2.4 Ghz (220FSB)
Gigabyte K8N Pro nForce3 motherboard
Mushkin Level 2 Black DDR433 2 x 256 MB @ 2-2-2-11 1:1
Powercolor Radeon 9800 Pro
2 x 120 Gig Western Digital 7200 RPM HHD's
LG 40x12x40 CDWriter
LG 16x DVDROM
Viewsonic 19" Monitor
Microsoft Optical mouse.
Cooled by Prometeia Mach2 (Between -31 to -41'C)

Second PC:
Intel Pentium 4 2.6C @ 3.6 Ghz
Abit AI7 865 motherboard
Gainward Geforce4 MX440
40 Gig HHD
LG 17" Studioworks (Black)
Watercooled by Koolance
still working on rest of setup :D

[Soulhunter]

Read my sign... :D


Bye

[communist]

XP2000+
384 SD-RAM
Radeon 7500
Samsung 40 GB / 7200
Oh and and a BT8x8 based card... but thats something I wouldn have to mention anyway ;)
Nothing fancy :o

[virux]

a VERY OLD,
athlon xp 1600+
512Mb ram
80Gb Hard Disk (40Gb + 40Gb)
GeForce 4 Ti4600
52x24x52x LG cd burner
pioneer dvd rom drive

and a fairly old Compaq 1505us laptop with (upgraded)768Mb ram

[jeremymacmull]

Alienware Area 51 PC ,
3.2ghz P4C 800mhz FSB,
1X Western Digital 10,000 rpm Raptor 74 gb SATA,
1X 80 Gb IBM Deskstar 120GXP 7200rpm 2 mb cache,
1X 80 Gb Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 7200 rpm SATA 8mb Cache
(The two 80 gb drives are software stripe raided with XP dynamic disks)

1X 5400 Maxtor 30gb Drive ,
1 Gb XMS corsair pc 3200 ram (2X512),
ATI Radeon 9600XT,
8X +/-R Plextor DVD Writer PX-708A,
LiteON 52X32X52 CDwriter,
19" Iiyama Vision Master 1451 monitor,
Creative Audigy 2 ZS,
Nebula DigiTv USB 2.0 version For DVB-T,
Leadtek WinFast XP/2000 Expert Tv Card
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX
(MX 700 mouse Cordless optical and cordless keyboard)

[nFury8]

@Solo
How many banks did you rob to have a setup like that? :D Really, you have a nuclear arsenal there. Wish I got myself an A64. Cheers.

My current setup
AthlonXP 2800+
Abit NF7 v2.0
1 Gb TwinMOS
Radeon 9800
2-40Gb WesternDigital HD
1-100Gb 8Mb WD HD
Samsung Syncmaster 700NF
Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 Spkrs
(2 hands, 1 on the mouse, 1 on the keyboard)

[Solo]

Originally posted by nFury8
@Solo
How many banks did you rob to have a setup like that

You can tell I'm a little bit obsessed ? :p

[JaTeMaTec]

Hmm & uh - I'm a mid-poor AMD user, but after a crash i sold my car for $250 and now have a bit more to put into my nearest hobby: PC's and everything that is inside and outside it!

Got:
- AMD XP 3200+ Barton 32bit (tweaked and cooled well) 512 L2 @ 400 mHz FSB
- 1.5 GB RAM Dualchannel DDR Kingston buffered @ 400 mHx FSB
- Creative (NVidia) GeForce Ti 4600 with AGP8X 256MB DDR
- LG GMA-4040B DVD-RAM/+-RW/CD Combo 8x(DVD-Burn)/16x(Read)/24x(CD-Burn)/40x(CD-Read)
- Sony CD-R/RW Burber 40/12/48x
- Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum 2 Pro with all delicacies.
- National Semiconductor Corp. DP83820 Gigabit Network-Adapter
- 5 HD's tot 680GB space (+Maxtor PCI 4 port extra IDE Controller)
- HaupPauge WinTV 8x8 new brand TV-Card
- External storage XP (whole PC 2600+) with 1GB Lan interface (400GB HD) :)
- Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo C972 19" Monitor (basic - non-tft)
- External Easytel ADSL-Box 1024 / 512 kbps..
- MS Internet Wireles Desktop (with Intellipoint mouse)
- 600Wats Power Supply and 3 fans and heavy high case to get all together! :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (+floppy drives 3.5" & 5 1/4") ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- And whats best: all mady by DIY, so easy to maintain with not much warranties left (except monitor & RAMs & HD's).

JaTeMaTec

[nFury8]

You can tell I'm a little bit obsessed ?:p
Solo, have you tried encoding wmv9 using wme9 on your rig? I know everybody hates wmv9, I just want to have a rough idea of how long it takes for a wmv9 encode on an A64 3400+ :). (Maybe a typical 2hr movie?) Thx.

[Solo]

:devil: Sorry to mods for off topic here. nFury8 I will give it a bash as soon as I can. It's just my system is in a few pieces right now. Doing a little "modification" to it. Including some watercooling cooling on the graphics card, VCore mod ect ... :p

[techz]

Processor : Intel P4 2.4 GHz [533Mhz]
Motherboard : Gigabyte-8IEXP [Intel845E]
RAM : TwinMOS 512MB [PC2100/DDR 266]
Case : AOPEN H600A ATX Case 400 watts w/dual fan
Graphics Card: Gainward GeForce4 Ti4600 Ultra 750 XP 128MB
Monitor : Viewsonic VX500 15" LCD w/DVI
Sound Card : Creative SB Audigy DE
CD-ROM : Samsung 52x CD-ROM Drive
CD-RW/DVD : LiteOn Combo 48161H [48x24x48x + 16x DVD]
HDD : WD Caviar 1200BB 120GB 7200rpm
SPEAKERS : Genius 4.1 Speakers
MOUSE : Genius Wireless NetScroll+ Traveller Optical Mouse
KEYBOARD : Genius Comfy KB
UPS : APC BACK 500VA UPS

[nFury8]

Doing a little "modification" to it. Including some watercooling cooling on the graphics card, VCore mod ect ...
And he said he's just a 'little obssessed'. :) Thanx bro, appreciate the effort. I apologize to the thread starter and mods if this seem hijacking the thread, I couldn't resist asking Solo with a rig like that.

[JaTeMaTec]

Sorry Mods (a bit off-topic) here too :

Maybe now when we all do have different HW combinations with speeds (Cpu, Ram, Disp, Hdd) we could start a new thread for each ripping a 2 hours dvd movie to VCD-format with same program and params/quality to see the 'Real Winner' in speed @ real environment. Maybe that would be closer to this forums basic idea(s)...

JaTeMaTec

[DnGermany]

Nothing special. P4 2.53GHZ, (2)HD total 200GB, 1GB DDR ram, HP 300i dvd writer, ATI 9000 raedon graphic card, on board sound, and 19" monitor.

[nFury8]

Maybe now when we all do have different HW combinations with speeds (Cpu, Ram, Disp, Hdd) we could start a new thread for each ripping a 2 hours dvd movie to VCD-format with same program and params/quality to see the 'Real Winner' in speed @ real environment. Maybe that would be closer to this forums basic idea(s)...
Hmm, sounds like a plan to me. Not a bad idea, but why limit it to just vcd? Might as well include mpeg4 and its variants, and it shouldn't be some kind of contest to find out the 'Real Winner', as it is more of a database for reference to those who need to gauge certain hardwares' performance under specific encoding parameters.

regards

[Solo]

Originally posted by JaTeMaTec
Sorry Mods (a bit off-topic) here too :

Maybe now when we all do have different HW combinations with speeds (Cpu, Ram, Disp, Hdd) we could start a new thread for each ripping a 2 hours dvd movie to VCD-format with same program and params/quality to see the 'Real Winner' in speed @ real environment. Maybe that would be closer to this forums basic idea(s)...

JaTeMaTec

Yes I like that idea as well. If we all used same settings it would be most interesting. Both DivX and Xvid. My first question I ever asked on these forums was how long it took for a 3 Ghz P4 to encode a movie, but I was basically slammed because "there were too many variables" so maybe this time we can get such a thread going. :rolleyes:

[jeremymacmull]

On slightly off topic conversation too

ive just encoded Star trek DS9 series 3 in both XVID and divx with auto gknot

and using the same file size ie 175 mb per ep and 128mp3 i get 25-29 on XVID FPS and i get 45-50 FPS on divx cant tell u more about the settings as autogk did them all for me

JEREMY

my config is in my sig

[Solo]

@jeremymacmull

That is not unusual. P4's love DivX encoding. AMD's love XviD encoding. I've proved it myself already with my own tests.

Sorry PatE
Back to topic.

[JaTeMaTec]

I do use AMD wit 3ivx Plus (The latest commercial $19 one) and it has not much been discussed at these threads - always DivX or XviD and their Intel vs. AMD speeds and qualitys... :)

I'm wondering whether i bought a 'wooden knife', but still when compared to DivX i can bet it's now better and faster (and good for realtime encoding with my WinTV taking just 30 % of CPU with Lame Audio @ 224kbps audio compression on) with ABR 250 than DivX 5.1.1 at 1200kbps with my AMD....

Tell me 'bout it...?
The only thing i can see is it's extremely good quality at low bitrates and 0% of dropped frames with multitasking at XP while encoding TV-programs....

P.S I use WinVDR Pro, because unlike Virdub it has a possibility to set the audio delay (plus or minus msecs) suitable at real-time recording - not to reprocess the whole AVI with loosing quality...(and off-topic we go again...)

JaTeMaTec

[nFury8]

Before anybody starts a new thread about encoding speed on different hardware configs, maybe its a good idea to agree upon some common encoding parameters on a few popular movies. For a start, maybe Saving Pvt Ryan and The Matrix using Doom9's encoding parameters in the codec shootout? Dunno. :confused:

[communist]

Originally posted by JaTeMaTec
I'm wondering whether i bought a 'wooden knife', but still when compared to DivX i can bet it's now better and faster (and good for realtime encoding with my WinTV taking just 30 % of CPU with Lame Audio @ 224kbps audio compression on) with ABR 250 than DivX 5.1.1 at 1200kbps with my AMD....

Tell me 'bout it...?
Okies... tell me @ what resolution?

[JaTeMaTec]

Originally posted by communist
Okies... tell me @ what resolution?

Okies - Mostly tested with 384x288 @ 25 fps (ABR 250) gotten about 10 megs of video-part / min (Mostly like getting the files to PAL VCD-format fast afterwards if needed ...). With DivX CBR 1200 gotten about the same size - a bit hard to compare ABR & VBR...? But the less resources taken (3ivx) is good for AMD multitasking XP-users...

About a new thread for encoding tests: Good idea, hard to implement as exact. F.e. encoding a PAL (25 fps) and NTSC (29,97+ fps) with their unequal dimensions already makes a few differencies.
Dunno should we have a PAL and a NTSC test differently and do we all have some material, that would be common for all (e.g. Matrix II :) )

JaTeMaTec

[communist]

30%... hmm thats what XviD takes @Quant 2 at that res with I-frames only and wav audio using VirtualDub.
XP2000+
384 MB SDRAM

[JaTeMaTec]

Originally posted by communist
30%... hmm thats what XviD takes @Quant 2 at that res with I-frames only and wav audio using VirtualDub.
XP2000+
384 MB SDRAM

I tested 3ivx (250 ABR) with PCM audio at VirtualDub (Mostly with I frames + few B-frames) with Athlon 3200+ and somehow it took about the same (30 %) of resources (20 megs+ / min), BUT it dropped some frames there (5 frames @ 10 mins). I used 'SreamShifter v1.00 Beta', that i found at 3ivx pages and it really is good for making automaticly audio & video synced (can be seen at VT Adjust at Audio stats [-10 ms to -90 ms] ). XviD took there 35-40 % and dropped frames too.?

At WinVDR Pro with same environment the resources taken was arount 20-25 percent with no dropped frames...and audio + video was at good sync (interlaced) - no more 'early fifties'-phenomen where the lips first moved and then came the voice :) ! With XviD about 30 % of resources...

JaTeMaTec

[Fantasma]

Just to please the original poster:

Home made computer:

1. Athlon XP 2600+
2. 256 Megabytes ram 333 MHZ
3. Video Card NVidia GeForce2 MX 64 Megabytes of Ram
4. On Board sound card C-Media 8738MX 6 Channels.
5. Motherboard KT 4 Ultra from MSI (Bios Flashed to support CPU)
6. TV Card Avermedia
7. DVD-Rom Acer
8. CD Burner Acer 24X10X40
9. 17 " Monitor AOC
10.External Modem Diamond 56K
11.Windows XP Professional

Extras:

1. Satellite Receiver Hughes HIRD-D11
2. UPS Centralion ( Life saver )

I hope this satisfies your curiosity.

[kadajawi]

Athlon XP1700@2600
Abit NF7-S Rev. 1.2
Thermalright SK-7 + Thermaltake SmartFan 2
2x256 MB Infineon PC2700 RAM
GeForce 2 MX
Elsa Victory Erazor
Samsung Samtron 75E
Philips 15C
Lifetec LT9415 (supermarket BT878)
80 gig IBM 120GXP
13.6 gig Seagate Barracuda ATA
13 gig Maxtor DiamondMax (I guess... its a 91303D6)
Samsung SM348 48xwriter/16xdvd
using on board sound
56k modem for emergencys
Elsa MicroLink ADSL Fun USB modem... sucker doesn't work under linux... :angry:
Logitech Internet Keyboard
MS-Tech SM15 optical mice
generic Big Tower with a few (ugly but useful) mods
noname UPS
WinXP pro + Gentoo with 2.6.3 rc1 kernel... but pretty useless since I still have to get the modem running... there are rumors that in a far far away galaxy someone has made it work... problem is that Elsa and its follow up devolo decided not to make a linux driver... eventhough the underlying hardware (its pretty much a rip off from the reference design) does have linux support, and some similar modems have too.
well, I guess thats it

second system is a never running Celeron 366@458 with 4?? RAM, ET6000 vid card, SB Live 5.1, 4xTEAC CD writer and 4 GB Quantum Bigfoot CY. And a Realtek RTL8139. WinXP.

[Pum]

Originally posted by PatE
Hello.

I would like to know what kind of Hardware you got for your PC ( or NC :D )

Main system:
Intel P4C Northwood 2.8GHz/800FSB @ 3.5GHz/1000FSB
Zalman Quiet AlCu HSF
2 x 512MB OCZ PC4200 DDR533 at 250MHz
ATI Radeon 9800SE AIW
Asus P4C800-Deluxe mobo
Maxtor 120GB SATA150
Samsung 160GB PATA133
Sony DWU14A DVD Burner
Antec Sonata case, 120mm fans front and rear
PCMark2002 CPU 8623, Memory 10579, HDD 1300

Spare/Backup/mule/girlfiend use:
AMD Barton XP2500+/166FSB @ XP3200+/200FSB
Themaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser HSF (a little loud, but good)
2 x 256MB Noname PC3200 DDR400 at 200MHz
ATI Radeon 9200SE
Pinnacle DV500
Asus A7N8X-X mobo
2 x Maxtor 30GB PATA33
5 year old case with 200W PSU, 120mm front fan, 80mm rear fan

Running WinXP on both - very happy with it.
Premiere Pro on Intel, Premiere 6.5 on AMD.
Canopus ProCoder flies on the Intel - haven't tried on the AMD.
Just got the P4C chip, and haven't had time to explore its limits yet. 3.5GHz is plenty, but it may have more in it. It is stepping level SL6Z5, M0 core.
The Intel box was a serious attempt at a top AV system. The AMD was a cheap upgrade to my old P3-600MHz system - new CPU, HSF, Mobo, memory and video card just over 200 quid the lot!

[kadajawi]

wow, even your spare system looks quite good. But 200W PSU? :eek: Somehow hard to believe. My kind of similar system runs with a 420W PSU (Levicom).

[Pum]

Originally posted by kadajawi
wow, even your spare system looks quite good. But 200W PSU? :eek: Somehow hard to believe. My kind of similar system runs with a 420W PSU (Levicom).

Yeah, I got a little carried away with the rebuild of the spare - originally I planned to get cheapest available: XP1800+ and a KT400 chipset mobo, but the XP2500+ Barton and the Nforce2 mobo were only a few quid more, and lots quicker, so what the heck :D

Yes, I expected to need a bigger PSU, and my old PSU was making bad noises too, but I cleaned it and it has been working fine 24x7 for 2 weeks now - it sits there running WinMX, etc all the time. It might be 250W - whatever was standard 5 years ago. My research on building the Intel indicated that >400W was a good idea when overclocking alot, but the Antec Sonata case came with a 380W PSU, and that is running fine for over 3 months now (not 24x7). If I get probs with either PSU then I'll move the 380W to the spare and get a new PSU for the Antec.

Of course, all this supa dupa hardware doesn't help me find the time to sit down and edit my videos :(

Pum.

[easybeat]

This is my first PC (home-built in Nov 03) so I'll learn from my mistakes:-

Athlon XP2400+
Asrock K7VM2 Motherboard
GeForce2 MX400 64mb graphics
2 x PC2700 256mb DDR Ram
Maxtor 120Gb Hard-drive
Sony DDU1621 16x DVD Rom
Micro Star CD-R/RW
Sony DWU-014A DVD+/-R Writer
17" Dell Monitor (Legitimately liberated from work for only £20!)

Work's well for me at the moment so I guess I had some beginner's luck.

[Sirber]

Bellow :D

[Solo]

Originally posted by nFury8
Solo, have you tried encoding wmv9 using wme9 on your rig? I know everybody hates wmv9, I just want to have a rough idea of how long it takes for a wmv9 encode on an A64 3400+ :). (Maybe a typical 2hr movie?) Thx.

OK - my rig is running again - long story.

Let me know which wmv9 util I must use and the settings. All my movies I have are PAL. I have a few full ones on my HHD including Terminator3 / Bad Boys 2 / Bruce Allmighty / Tomb Raider 1 + 2 ect. Then I will post the results in a new thread :D

[nFury8]

Originally posted by Solo
OK - my rig is running again - long story.

Let me know which wmv9 util I must use and the settings. All my movies I have are PAL. I have a few full ones on my HHD including Terminator3 / Bad Boys 2 / Bruce Allmighty / Tomb Raider 1 + 2 ect. Then I will post the results in a new thread :D
Damn.What took you so long? :D Please use Windows Media Encoder 9 with the following settings: (Anamorphic encode using avisynth input, just crop black bars without resize)

1. Compression: Destination >> File Archive, then Edit
2. General: Mode >> Bit rate VBR (not peak), Codec >> Windows Media 9
3. Target bitrate >> I typically use 2500Kbps and above
4. Video format >> Custom , Allow non-square pixel output
5. Video size >> Same as video input, Decoder Complexity >> Complex
6. Keyframe interval (default) 3 sec
7. Video Cropping: Method >> No cropping , Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAL 16:11, NTSC 40:33)

Let's see what you got, man. Let that baby rip. :) Thanks.

[Solo]

Damn.What took you so long?

Long story short. I thought I'd damaged my CPU (performance dropped by 75%). Thought it might be moisture or something. Turned out to be a corrupt BIOS. Happens when you try forcing the wrong BIOS onto your mobo trying to gain multiplier adjustments where there are non :p

Will try that that encode before Sunday.

Later.

[theReal]

My system (a little outdated, but still quite ok)

Athlon XP1900+ Palomino (need to change that one soon!)
Thermaltake Aquarius Watercooling
EPOX 8K5A2+ VIA KT333
512MB Corsair XMS DDR333 (2.0-2-2-5, 1T Command Rate)
ATI Radeon 7500 retail
2x120GB IBM Deskstar 7200rpm
1x60GB WD 5400rpm (the other one of these just broke...)
Pioneer DVR A06 4x DVD-/+R, -/+RW
Philips Acoustic Edge Sound Card
Leadman Powmax 400W PSU


I just ordered an XP 2600+ Barton only to realize that my KT333 chipset won't really recognize Barton XPs. Epox says it does - most forum users say it doesn't...
Now I got to change it for a Thoroughbred XP - at least I want to run the system at 166FSB (right now I'm at 136FSB because of the Palomino CPU...)

[Joe Fenton]

Last Oct, I swapped my KT400 mobo and Athlon XP 1600+ with a K8T800 mobo and a single Opteron 240. Although the clock rate is the same (1.4 GHz), the Opteron has a newer core and much more cache, so I get scores on 32-bit software identical to Athlon XPs clocked at 2 GHz.

When AMD drops the price on Opterons in May, I plan to put a second 240 in the machine, then replace the mobo in my other machine with another AMD64 mobo and probably a single Opteron 146 or 148, depending on how much the price drops.

I'll probably pick up a better video card as well. My current card is an old GeForce FX5600. I'm hoping the nv40s are out by then.

[Sirber]

Originally posted by Joe Fenton
My current card is an old GeForce FX5600. I'm hoping the nv40s are out by then. I'm still with a GF4 TI4200-8x :D, but newer games are laggy :(

[kadajawi]

Originally posted by Joe Fenton
I'll probably pick up a better video card as well. My current card is an old GeForce FX5600. I'm hoping the nv40s are out by then.
Hahaha... I'm still using a Geforce 2 MX and a Elsa Victory Erazor (NVidia Riva 128... I think its like NV2 or so) with some woopin 4 MB and even slow 2D performance (which is caused by the crappy MS drivers).

[Joe Fenton]

It's not the GeForce FX5600 I plan to replace... I'll just move that to my other computer which currently has (wait for it!)

A Permedia 2 PCI video card. :D

[TotalChaos]

MSI mobo 875P, Gb LAN
P4 3.0Ghz@3.25Ghz
1GB PC3500 (434Mhz)
Dual 10,000RPM Raptor RAID 0
Geforce4 Ti4400
Sound blaster Audigy Platinum (not version 2 that came out one week after I bought this one DOH)
550watt antec PSU
22" Trinitron CRT