Fired up my old OC rig...

[A418t81]

I had forgotten how zippy this machine is. Athlon XP 1800, 1.5ghz OC'd mildly to 2.2ghz. I got lucky and got basically the best stepping ever available for this chip. Basically in '03 this machine had the performance greater than that of an Athlon XP3200+ and the processor was about $70 shipped :D

Anyway, I just dropped in an old ATA 80gb I had laying around, and fired it up with a new copy of XP pro thanks to the guys on usenet, and this thing hauls ass. It zips around noticeably quicker than some of my newer boxes. Obviously some of this is due to a fresh install, but still, I'm impressed. I'm going to get a big SATA drive and an HDMI video card and integrate this into my AV system. Any cool stuff out there for windows based machines?

[2Fast4Radar]

I'm wanting to build a new machine using slightly "not up to date" parts. Try to make a bargain media station, because the laptop is shitty at the house.

[A418t81]

This thing is kickass man, lol. I built it for around $400 back in '03. I'm sure if you could find the parts you could built it now for $50. I'm loving it. I'm having a lot of fun on it. Super quick, and only 512 megs of ram, though it's high end corsair and moves right along. I might throw another 512 in it, I'm sure that stuff is DIRT cheap now. For basic computer uses, which is all I do, this thing is more pleasurable and faster than my vista machines.

[2Fast4Radar]

I want to throw my HP laptop through the window daily. It's so damn fast after a fresh install, UNTIL you wake up IE. :D

I need to look into purchasing some components. I'm thinking about running dual 24" lcd's and buying a kickass surround unit for my new house. ;)

It's going to have a really cool "study".

[ActiveAero]

Try stripping down windows as much as possible for even more fun. There is a ton of background services you can turn off, turn off windows effects, disable the indexing service, etc.

I run my little netbook 90% at 1ghz on it's little single core processor and it embarrasses most desktops I use (yes even before I added the solid state drive) thanks stripping down windows to only the basics I need.

[viperbite]

damn i thought my computer was old

thats the processor in my moms old computer thats sitting on the floor of my room.

socket a is so ancient now.

im on socket 939 and feel ancient... blah

[A418t81]

damn i thought my computer was old

thats the processor in my moms old computer thats sitting on the floor of my room.

socket a is so ancient now.

im on socket 939 and feel ancient... blah

Yes I know, notice I said I built this computer in '03. I dusted it off out of my closet the other day. Sorry part is it runs windows better than a lot of newer machines.

[viperbite]

haha awesome.

well mine is still going strong i suppose. a forced upgrade will ensue when we start using solidworks 09 at school.

[ChukiDori]

I bought my computer new at the base exchange back in 03.

AMD Athlon +2400 (2.00ghz), Integrated geforce 4 graphics card of some discription (Irrelevant as the first change I made was a Geforce 4 ti 4200 AGP card, 128mb) Only 80gb HDD :/

and only 768mb of ram

I want to build a "new" machine since Stargate Worlds is coming out soon (dork) and itd be nice to play GTR-2 at a reasonable frame rate but Im told I will be just fine with a ram and video card upgrade ?*shrug*

I never thought I could use 80gb ever...Now I seem to be reaching capacity every other day and have to delete random crap. But thats because I cant watch movies and shows on TV like normal people..BECAUSE FUCKING DIRECT TV DOESNT HAVE LOCAL CHANNELS I have to download all my shit

[linuxman51]

so go buy a harddrive, they're retardedly cheap

[Drew]

I've built about 5 machines in the last 3 months using these components and they FLY on stock clock speeds. IMO the absolute fastest components for the $$. Toss in a 9800 GTX video card for a smokin quick gaming rig.

Upgrade to a velociraptor hdd for even faster performance. Stick the OS on that drive and data storage on another drive.

AMD 7750 Kuma CPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300)

DDR2 800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231170) (though the corsair XMS2 ddr800 would be better for OC'ing)

ECS Mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135075)

Antec PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006)

Samsung DVD drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151171)

WD SATA 350 gig (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074)

And then whatever case and video card...

[Obike]

Sheesh, nerds.

[GFXGUY06]

I would like to speed up my system but everytime I've messed with services and what not the PC goes crazy, is there like a legit list of stuff that can for sure be turned off? btw its Vista 32Bit...could just be its usual behavior, lol

[Grider]

I would like to speed up my system but everytime I've messed with services and what not the PC goes crazy, is there like a legit list of stuff that can for sure be turned off? btw its Vista 32Bit...could just be its usual behavior, lol

Best thing is to install XP..... /some what joking

http://www.blackviper.com/
I have not used his Vista guide, but I did use his XP guide a long time ago. Nothing wrong with it, just lazy and didn't implement them after a F&R.

[A418t81]

Well I am building a HTPC right now. Just saw this thread Drew, I ended up going with the 7750BE. Hope I get a decent stepping that'll do 3.0 on stock voltage. Gotta love the unlocked multiplier. Anyway, should all be here in a couple of days. I think I am going to stick vista on it. 32 bit is Ok for up to 4gb of ram right?

[Drew]

3.4~ish gigs will get recognized. make sure it's vista ultimate or home premium edition as they both feature windows media center.

[A418t81]

Hmm, should I step up to 64 bit? Yeah, I knew I needed home prem or ultimate. I have prem on my laptop, the media center is interesting.

[Drew]

64 bit is useless unless you plan on doing a jillion things at once. it takes a LOT (or memory intense applications) to eat away that much ram.

64 bit only brings driver headaches.

[A418t81]

This processor is one bad little beast! OC'd to 3.1 on a measly .025V over stock (1.350) and this thing SCREAMS for the money. Who knew a $57 proc could buzz along so well. Running the same install of XP that the prev computer was, just yanked out the old guts (A64 3800+) and threw this in. Very, VERY easy to tell the performance advantage. This thing shreds HD video transcoding compared to the 3800+, and casual desktop navigation/Firefox startup are very noticably improved. Install shields load about as fast as I can click next.

[AadosX]

Welcome to today's world of processors.

And btw 64 bit isn't a driver headache like it used to be. Still unnecessary though unless you're doing some intense stuff.

[A418t81]

I have a dual core laptop. My desktop was only two years old.

[AadosX]

And that's an eternity in the computer world. A processor that was $1000 two years ago is worth about $100 now. Graphics cards?.. even more of a difference.