Just curious. I just upgraded my system (I'm a computer tech so I do that every few months and sell my old stuf to people that want an upgrade). My current system is...

Athlon64 (90nm core, socket939) 3000+ which will be overclocked quite a bit soon
Abit AV8 motherboard
(with Zalman pure copper cooling)
512 Amp-X ddr500 ram (PC4000) in dual channel
Nvidia 5700 256mb vid card
LD dvdrw +/-
160gb sata seagate 8mb cache
Leadtek TvTuner 2000
Custom case, bubble tubes, window, led fans...

Only game installed right now is Age of Mythology... but should get something new for christmas.

So what do you gamers run ?

edit: updated the system more specifically.
and again cause i forgot about my tvtuner.

My shitty, budget gaming system... cause I can't afford to upgrade it.

P4 1.8Ghz
ASUS P4P800 SE
256MB DDR PC2700
nVidia geforce FX 5200 Ultra 128MB
blah, blah, its all crap.

I'd like to up the CPU to a 3.2Ghz Northwood, grab a dual channel 1024MB PC3200 kit and possibly a 6800 GT.

Well, you can probably overclock the vid card into some better performance, and if you just had better ram, you'd see a decent boost there too (and make it overclock pretty well). The ram makes such a difference in game performance...

Celery 800mHz
256x2 PC133 RAM (Kingston I think, not very old)
2xMaxtor HDD's (a 20 and 15)
VIA MoBo
a 52x CD-ROM that doesnt work worth shit so I dont use it.
300watt PSU

Here's the kicker

8mb ATI RAGE 3DPro from 1994

Im upgrading to either an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128 or a Radeon 9700 128, both of which I can pick up for about $80

Well this is only temporary,

INTEL Pentium 4 at 2.8 GHZ (overclocked to 3.2 while playing games)
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 128MB
ABIT IC7-G motherboard Max II advance
160 GB Western Digital HDD
512 MB of Kingston ram
Lite-on DVD+/-RW Burner
Afreey DVD-Rom
4x 80mm fans
1x 120mm fan
1x motherboard fan

Currently running at 56 degrees Fahrenheit while playing Unreal Tournament 2004 on the other monitor.

I'm saving up some money and upgrading sometime next year, but this is easily fits my needs.

P4 2.4 Ghz (running at 3.12 Ghz)
ASUS P4P800 mobo
OCZ 512m dual channel pc3500 ram
ATI Radeon 9600XT
480W PS
Lite-on DVD burner
and a Western Digital 40GB hd

I noticed no one put down monitors...mines a Viewsonic P95f+B.

"Wolfsden"

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ barton
1gb Corsair PC2700 dual channel
Gigabyte GA 7N400 Pro 2 Motherboard
ati Radeon 9800 pro 128mb
ati tv wonder
160gb Maxtor 7200rpm
40gb IBM 7200rpm in an enermax removable bay
Lite-On 8xDVD+-RW
Antec hydraulic case
Allied 500w psu
Compaq 56k/v90 data fax modem
Realtek 10/100 NIC
Realtek 10/100/1000 Integrated
Creative 4.1 FPS 2000 Digital
Microsoft Optical Intellimouse 3.0

watercooling junk
Eheim 158 GPH water pump
Swiftech al/cu waterblock
Swiftech aluminum radiator with two 120mm fans

Notice the jug of icey water i've hooked it up to. This was my solution to my friends un airconditioned garage in Clovis, Cali. until the condensation dripped off the waterblock onto the gfx card. It didn't like that to much, but it didn't kill it thankfully.

click to view

Stripped down, cleaned, and waiting for a new mb and cpu

click to view

same

click to view

radiator and bleeder valves

click to view

door up

click to view

-pawolf

Posted by bey0nd_r3pair I noticed no one put down monitors...mines a Viewsonic P95f+B.

yeah, actually I did:

Currently running at 56 degrees Fahrenheit while playing Unreal Tournament 2004 on the other monitor.

both 17 inch sony flat-panels. I was going to go for the 19 inch ones but I was about $50 bucks short.

Main:
Athlon XP 2100+ 1.8GHz
Epox 8K3A+ mobo
256Mb pc2700 Corsair XMS
512Mb pc3200 forgot the brand but it's like 2-2-2.5-2 ns

Video:
Geforce 4 ti4200 agp 8x soon to be upgraded
Voodoo 2 PCI
AverTV TV Tuner

Audio:
Soundblaster Audigy X-Gamer
Klipsch 2.1 + 2 yamaha speakers

Monitors:
Samsung 900nf (true flatscreen 19")
Gateway VX700 (17" I got for free)

Peripherals:
Logitech Mouseman Dual optical mouse
Logitech Elite keyboard

Drives:
NEC 2500a DVD burner
Lite-On DVD-ROM reader

Case:
Cooler Master aluminum tower
Five 8mm fans
PCI fan
Thermaltake Volcano 7+ cpu heatsink/fan

Oh yeah and a 60 and 80 Gb Western Digital 'Special Edition' 7200rpm w/8Mb cache

Motherboard:
ASUS P4P800 SE MOTHERBOARD

Processor:
INTEL PENTIUM 4 3.2E GHZ S478 1MB CACHE

RAM:
x2 DDR400 MEMORY 512MB PC3200 (Dual Channel)

Video:
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB DDR RETAIL
ATI TV WONDER PRO

Hard Drives
x2 SAMSUNG 80G 7200RPM HARD DRIVE

Disk Drives:
LG 52X CD ROM IDE OEM BLACK
PLEXTOR PX-712A 12X DVD±RW

Case:
RAIDMAX COBRA 822 GAMING CASE

COOLING:
COOLERMASTER VORTEX DREAM COPPER HEATSINK
x2 VANTEC NEXUS FAN CONTROLLER
x3 ANTEC 80MM RED LED FAN
x3 VANTEC STEALTH 80MM CASE FAN SF8025L

POWER:
NSPIRE PENTIUM IV 450W ATX POWER SUPPLY


i spent around $450 today on an extra hd, the 2 fan controlers, the PSU, dvd-rw and 2 extra red LED fans. IT was running EXTREMLY HOT, 46* c when nothing was being done, then i played NFS2 for 10 minutes and the processor temp was 68*c and the ambient temp in the case was 47*c and my room was 21*c. IF this dosnt solve it im going to get a bigger case and get some better ventalation cappibilities. I think i have too much in this mid sized tower, every bay is full besids 1 floppy drive and 2 HDD bays, all pci slots are full ( usb, fire wire, ethernet card ect). I dont think i want water cooling. Do i? is it safe to have that water running thought your machine?


Right now im playing NFS2, Counter Strike and sometimes UT2k3

I noticed quite a few people have a lot of fans in their systems, so I'm wondering how much people care about noise levels. Personally I really don't care as long as Im getting good performance, so my fans are all running full tilt.
I know people however that buy stealth fans and jerry-rig those so they're only at 1000-2000 rpms.

What are your thoughts? (Im not trying to take over the thread with this, just add it to your system specs if you haven't posted them yet)

Just got back from a buddys place, he has a 3gHz P4 w/ HT and has overclocked it to the max, he put a giant 2 1/2' industrial fan on the one side, runs so cool.

I've got 2 case fans (1 with a tubing towards the cpu) s fan power supply, and a Zalman cooler which cools great and is also a quiet fan. It's the heatsink that makes it so good, bloody thing is pure copper and at least double the weight of a p4 or amd stock cooler. I'll get some pics of it and my setup later and post them here. I don't have that much noise from this at all really.

noise? lol i hear nothing when im blasting my games, or im using my cordless headphones which block out all outside sound anyway. and when the computer is in sleep mode, i can just turn the fans down low with my fan controlers. you can do that with some mobos too, like mine cam with ai booster, lets u set the voltages, temp, fan speed, over clock... ect ect with the software.

Posted by Jesus Jones Just got back from a buddys place, he has a 3gHz P4 w/ HT and has overclocked it to the max, he put a giant 2 1/2' industrial fan on the one side, runs so cool.

Ghetto, grab a pic next time you are there!

Posted by Kirby noise? lol i hear nothing when im blasting my games, or im using my cordless headphones which block out all outside sound anyway. and when the computer is in sleep mode, i can just turn the fans down low with my fan controlers. you can do that with some mobos too, like mine cam with ai booster, lets u set the voltages, temp, fan speed, over clock... ect ect with the software.

Same here, noise is no worry for me. If you do worry about noise, just put your computer in a cupboard and sound-proof it.

Posted by Kirby I dont think i want water cooling. Do i? is it safe to have that water running thought your machine?

It's as safe as you make it. I built my watercooling setup about 2 years ago and it's seen 3 different motherboards, 3 cpus, 3 gfx cards, a 6 state road trip to california in the back of my escort, and way to many lan parties to count. I've not had one leak. The only water related problems I've had were my own fault when i tried to run icewater through the system in 95F california heat. Condensation dripping on the 9800 pro made it go totally wacky.

Just by good quality stuff and you'll be fine. I bought my hoses and connecters from the pet store since it's cheaper than ordering from websites that sell watercooling.

-pawolf

The other thing about watercooling is that de-ionized water is a very poor conductor, so you don't need to worry as much about it frying anything in the case. Tap water (ionized, and FULL of impurities) will do nasty things if it leaks :0)

Anyway, my computer:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (90nm, socket 939)
Asus A8V delux
1GB dual channel ddr400 ram, kingston
ati radeon x800pro
some generic tv tuner card
maxtor 80gb sata hdd
lg dual layer dvd-rw

17" NEC Accusync
21" Sony Trinitron

...and now I'm broke :0)

~ Dagr

Pentium 3 450MHz
128MB ram
120GB seagate Drive
S3 Savage IX
Nvidia TNT
SAA7130 TV capture/tuner
AV 700 Monitor (So dark make your monitors about 10% light and thats as bright this will go, so I cant play anygames except if I hook a xbox up to it.
Im so broke I cant upgrade it o get a new one, so im stuck with it.

AMD Sempron 2800+ OC'd to 2.8GHz
Asus A7v-400MX Mobo
512MB DDR RAM
80GB Maxtor (primary)
17GB Maxtor (secondary)
SoundBlaster Audigy LS
LG DVD-R/RW (also CD-R/RW)
Radeon X800XL 256MB
17" NEC MultiSync FE700+