I'm not a big fan of monitor stands in general. I don't really need any space on my desk for anything other then my computer. I don't even remember the last time I used a book at my computer, everything's available online now.


It can be had for as little as $12.50 online. It's heck of a good value.

Recently upgraded my PC, so here's some pics.

My desk did not change, just the PC Case (Inside too!)



Here a look at the inside.



And yes i took the time to paint parts of inside the case (Red) and cleaning up the wires while waiting for my new Mobo to arrive.

So here's a recap on what has changed:

Enclosure: went from a Antec Sonata 2 to a Antec Titan 650 ( The TruePowerTrio 650 is great and the case is so roomy. No messy wires in the way. Long video cards are welcome).
Motherboard: went from a MSI K8T Neo2-F to a MSI K9A Platinum (I got no issues with MSI. But i did have a hard hard time to find this board).
CPU: went from a AMD X2-4200 (939) to a FX-62 (AM2) (My very first FX processor, price was low and more power to boot).
CPU Cooler: went from a Zalman CNPS9500 Led to a Zalman CNPS 9700 Led (I could not use the older one because of the new socket. It keeps my FX cool).
Memory: went from Corsair XMS DDR-400 (2X512MB) to OCZ DDR2-800 (2X1024MB) Crossfire Edition (A bit more expensive but super stable).
Video Card: went from a ATI All-in-wonder X800XT to a pair of ATI X1950Pro 256MB Crossfire setup (OMG, what a diffrence, Games are meant to be played this way... MAX everything).
Tv Tuner card: The All-in wonder was replaced to a ATI TV Wonder 650 (I'm watching tv and typing right now.)

What did not change are my 2 Raptors(74), my 2 dvds(Plextor and LG) and my SB Audigy 2 ZS.

And before anyone here treats me has an "ATI FANBOY". Your right in a way. But let tell you one thing...

IT WORKS! My system is rock solid stable. After adjusting the Bios with a fresh XP install, it booted with no issues whatsoever. Best Build ever.
I'm not here to set world records in various benchmarks. I like the idea of having one manufacturer (AMD) that did the CPU, chipset and video cards.
I do not like to have too many mixed components. Less problems with compatibility.

So... I don't have any more pictures of the insides of my cases yet, since I'm still waiting for the last part to arrive... the gem of my file server. Once that's done, the hardware will be moved around a bit more and then I'll take pictures.

In the meantime, I can show everyone my desk area, where I do my work from my workstations and file server(s).


The Dell machine (second from left) isn't mine - it belongs to a friend, so I'm storing it while she's away in the Yukon.



Not much else to say. I've got a D-Link switch under the table, since I've got more than 4 wired devices on my network (3 computers, xbox, test systems, laptop), but hopefully that'll be replaced by a Gigabit switch sometime soon.

@Zxian-That tells you how much time someone spends inside the guts of a comp when they keep a flashlight at the ready.

Yea... I actually just put it there for the time being. I had used it that day to check my brakes on my car... haha!

this is my beauty



No Name 7 year old case
Enermax Liberty 500w PSU
DFI LanParty UT Ultra-D
2x512mb Kingston hyperX DDR400
AMD64 x2 4200 w/thermaltake Polo
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT
NEC DVD Burner 8x(? so old i dont remember the specs)
this is the most recent change: swapped in a WD5000AAKS for my WD800JB (80GB IDE) and DM+9 (80GB SATA 1.5) i must say the change is amazing
Logitech Elite keyboard
Logitech G7 Cordless mouse
Klipsch 2.1 speaker system
Dell 21" widescreen LCD Monitor

@ fan pointing into case
and @ g7 mouse and klipsch 2.1
(unfortunately i settled for 2nd best: logitech z2300 2.1 speakers. but i love 'em.)
one of these days i'll get around to taking pics of my system.
but it probably won't be until i get moved in at the university.

oh, and @ kingston ram. i use corsair, which i would say is one of the best as well.

I have the exact same cooling system - no vents in my case and my CPU fan is noisy anyway

DUDE is your computer sitting on top of a Radiator???? OMG nice system though, I have the same video card, how do you like it? I love mine, it takes anything i throw at it I just need a CPU upgrade and ram and motherboard HEHE!

lol, i noticed that rad too. now get an insane pump and some water blocks and lets get some extreme cooling going!

Upgraded to an 8800GTS gfx card, goign to get anther one and SLI it at christmas

install pics: http://www.maleko.co.uk/files/comp_pics/88gts/gallery/

Your 3Dmark06 made an impressive leap. Would adding another card improve your performace a whole lot?

I certainly hope so!
I'd GUESS maybe a 2000 increase??

I don't think I've posted any of my new systems here, so here's an update!

Here's my main desktop:
Intel Q6600 @ 3.0GHz - 1.2Vcore
ASUS P5B Deluxe
2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2-800
EVGA Geforce 8600GT OC 256MB
2x WD3200AAKS (RAID0)
Corsair HX520
ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme w/ Scythe S-Flec E fan
ThermalRigth HR-03
Antec 900 Case
2x Yate Loon D12SL-12



And... on the desk:
2x Acer AL2016W
Altec Lansing APT3 Speakers (5 years old, and still going strong!)
Logitech MX3200 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Steelpad QCK mousepad




Hope you all enjoy!

nice desk setup there
how is that mousepad? is it worth getting? i've been debating whether or not to get a real mousepad. i'm using one that i picked up for free at some sort of a convention a while back..

btw, are you missing a remote

I just got the mousepad today, and I needed it because my mouse kept on falling off my old mousepad when I moved from one end of the screens to the other.

It's not one of those "super-glide" mousepads, but I don't particularly like those anyways. It's got a good level of feel, without making the mouse feel heavy.

Yea... yea... that remote has been there for ages. I honestly don't remember what device it's for... *checks* Ah... that's why I haven't needed it. It's for my VCR. I haven't touched that thing in ages.

That's a really nice setup, how are those speakers? They look very good.

A lot of apple forums have their "show you desk" -threads. I always like browsing through those to see how others have set up their home office/entertainment rooms. Perhaps a thread exclusively for desk setups would be nice?

zxian,

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...hnologies%20Inc.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku...TECH%20COMPUTER

The speakers are really nice. Sadly, Altec Lansing stopped making them, and replaced them with a similar looking model. Apparently the new version has slightly lower quality tweeters, which is a shame. The day that these speakers kick the bucket, I'll probably pick up a nice pair from Logitech.

That cable is actually pretty out of the way. It sits nearly flush with the side panel, and then routes over the rear fan.

no!! not logitech!!

Why?

good question. although logitechs are worth what you pay for them, i'd imagine a true audiophile would go for klipsch or something.

exactly what i went for

Apollo ATX Mid Tower
Intel® Core™2 Quad @ 2.40GHz
2 x 320g
1 x 200g
3g DDR2-SDRAM PC2-5300
WinTV-HVR-1600
NVIDIA GeForce 7350 LE
EarthWatts 500 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply
HW191A

i still need a short optical drive [no slim drives are cheap enough] and some RAM, but this ones almost done.



there are TONS of pictures of the work i've done so far on that thing. front panel power LED and Power Switch work and are confirmed, Reset Switch is wired but not confirmed working.

if anyone knows of a standard optical drive less than 6" long, that would be amazing. 6" is just about the max i can squeeze into this. i also have to cut a new or the existing backplate to fit. after that, this things' ready to rumble.

i plan on running XP or Linux on it.

if you want to see more pics, i'll be glad to post them.

@ LUZR4LIFE,

Why do you have the USB bracket in between your TV and VGA card?
it would do better underneath all the cards, for example on the lowest position in the back, this would give your VGA card a better airflow...

@ bonestonne,

6 3/4" Are the shortest drives I have come along, why would it not fit?

i already told you, but for everyone else, the PSU fan header and ATX cable conflict with it. the PSU fan header i can technically do without or move, which i just dont want to do. motherboard surgery like that is rough. RAM is cleared by a 6 3/4" drive though, that isn't the problem at all.

annoy at the size of the CPU cooler, thats about the limit. the front panel is wired up and working well, i added the lead for the speaker, but its not necessary and my board doesn't have speaker headers either.

glad there's just more metalwork left for this. i'd die if there was much more. 66 solder connections is enough!

My rig:

CPU : Intel QX9650
Case : CoolerMaster Stacker 832
Memory : Crucial Ballistix DDR2 8500 @ 4 gigs
Hard drives : 2 x 150 gig Raptors
Motherboard : Asus Striker Extreme
Video cards : 2 x EVGA Nvidia 8800 GTX Ultras
Sound card : Creative Labs X-Fi Elite Pro
Keyboard : Saitek Eclipse
Mouse : Logitech MX Revolution
LCD Panel : HP 30 inch
Optical Drives : 20 x DVD burner from Samsung x 2
Speakers : Logitech Z5500 Digital 5.1 setup
Webcam : Creative Live Optia AF

Some basic pics here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/suryade/MyRig

Well, I've never put my specs up, but here goes. Don't laugh too hard, it's not the best machine ever. I didn't order it, but hey, I didn't have to pay for it either. I'll upload a pic at some point, but not right now.

Hardware:

• Dell Inspiron E1505/6000
  • Intel Core Duo T2050 @ 1.60 GHz
  • Toshiba MK8034GSX 80 Gb IDE ATA hard drive
  • Sony DVD+-RW optical drive
  • Intel 945 Graphics Media Accelerator integrated graphics
    • VGA out, S-video out and internal DVI
    • Built-in LCD 15.4 inch widescreen display @ 1280x800 px
  • Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
  • Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
  • 4 USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire port
  • PCI express slot
  • Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard
  • Microsoft Optical USB wheel mouse
  • Synaptics touchpad
  • Integrated audio

Software (a small sampling):

• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2
• Microsoft Office 2003 Professional SP3
• Microsoft Office 2007 Enteprise
• Adobe CS3 Design Premium
• Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.9
• Opera 9.24
• MS Internet Explorer 6.0
• Microsoft Digital Image Standard 2006
• PDFcreator
• The Gimp
• Google Earth
• Microsoft Intellitype Pro 6.1
• 7-Zip file manager
• Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

^overall shot. you can't see the sound card from there, but its an Audiophile 24/96 by M-Audio.


^updated RAM pic. 3gb dual channel. 2x512, 2x1024mb sticks.

Case is now a Cooler Master Elite 330 instead of the Apevia X-Dreamer.

only further update not in the pics is my 160gb WD drive for music, just replaced my Hitachi, and there's a noticeable difference in noise as vibration.

here's mine:



I would post more case pics (eg front and and front without cover) but they're the same as http://www.msfn.org/board/Post-Pictures-Sp...742#entry461742

you wouldn't believe the mess behind my monitor and case

and btw, believe me, weirdly enough, adding an extra 120mm fan behind the ultra 120 extreme doees help by 2 C (which is weird since the exhaust fan is right behind it).. (and it's actually easy to attach another fan to the ultra 120 extreme, just get 4 fan screws and 4 elastic bands. then work it out yourself )

if anyone can't see it or is wondering what's under the accelero s1 cooler, it's a 120mm fan and a pci exhaust fan doesn't help at all when idle but gives me a good 5 C drop under load. as for the stick of wood, the fan is surprisingly heavy for a simple 120mm fan, the card was dropping about 2cm with it attached!

specs: see sig
xion II black, green led gaming case
silverstone fm121 (intake)
cheap ebuyer.com extra value fans - decent for under £2 for 4 pack (exhaust)(gpu cooler fan)
1xCD-RW drive (don't really know why i still have it)
1xDVD-/+RW drive
arctic cooling MX-2 thermal goo (for cpu, it's easier to spread than most reviews will make you think)

You could use tie-wraps there to attack the cooler to the VGA card.

@puntomx, actually that is a good idea (using tie-wraps to attach the fan to the cooler). it'd make the fan much more securely attached to the cooler than the elastic band. but using a rubber band works well enough for me at the moment, but i might use tie-wraps on the next upgrade that i'll do, even though it (hopefully) won't be for a very long time. but thanks for the idea

and btw, does anyone have any tips for getting the fan at the front of the case, to move any air into the mobo area? the only way to cool the mobo is from the 70mm fan at the side, but most of that air gets sucked by the fan mounted on the cpu cooler, leaving my ram with relatively no new air the air from the fan at the front is mainly giving air to the fan under the gpu cooler since the X1950 pro is long and leaves about 4x15cm space for the air to go up.
thanks for any suggestions.

From the looks of the picture, the white plastic at the front of your case should be a holder for an 80mm case fan.

Looks already like a fan to me, but a white one...


clidx, why don´t you make this a new topic, project better cooling ...

@puntomx, lol, i think i'll pass on that

and btw jcarle, that is a front 120mm fan

I can't compete with most of you guys but I decided to show my stuff here.

My workhorse, I bought this laptop for school. It's actually the fastest computer I have ever owned myself .


C2D T5300, 2.5Gb Ram (Soon 4), 120GB HD

This is my desktop, I'ts pretty old and I'm sure you guys aren't that eager to see the insides of this 5 year old computer so forgive me for not taking off the side panel. If the Toshiba laptop had better graphics I wouldn't use this PC as often but I like the 19" and the 7300GT when I'm playing WoW. Despitethe relativly low specs compared to my laptop it get's about the same amount of FPS in WoW (and yes, the laptop also get's used for stuff besides gaming ). The PC is hooked up to a 250GB Philips external HD, the speakers are the X230 from Logitech.

An old HP 771.nl with several upgrades (RAM, VGA, HD). Athlon XP 2000+, 1Gb Ram, 60 + 160 GB HD, GeForce 7300GT AGP 256 MB

Below, my mouse and keyboard. A Razer Krait and a Logitech Ultraflat. The Razer is a great mouse for gaming and I picked this keyboard beause it's has that "laptop" feeling to it wich I really like.


And finally the VX Nano I use with my laptop. Great little mouse and the small connector is aesthetically more pleasing than most of it's counterparts.

^ nice mouse! (the vx nano) and nice monitor (on the HP rig)

eh, i still like my g5 ^_^

mx518>g5

Here's a pic of my computer. I cropped out all the mess and everything, since all the crap on my desk would be distracting from the real point.


(Clicky-clicky for full size)

and here's what my screen looks like:

(Clicky-clicky for full size)

Idontwantspam, Are you using a Third Party OS? The screen said Windows XP MCE(Media Center Edition) and looked like Vista. What is that?

Well, I am using Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. I have hacked winbrand.dll to get the modified logo in the winver.exe dialog, and I am using truetransparency for the vista borders. I have a hacked uxtheme.dll, which allows for use of the vista theme from the vista transformation pack. Glass2K is used for the taskbar and start menu transparencies.

I also have winflip 3d running, but you can't see it in that screenshot:


winflip

Oh, that clears things up a bit. thanks.

I currently don't have anything but a laptop and an old server at home, nothing to bother with (I deal with this stuff at work enough to not want to come home to a PC ), but I just got myself an 8 core HP xw8400 with 16GB of RAM, 4x 500GB drives in a RAID10, and a Nvidia QuadroFX 1500 for a VM/home workstation rig.

I'll have it next week, and I can't help but say I'm really geeked about it .

Tell me about it!!

@cluberti- The link is dead. I found this one Here.



If this isn't a qualifier about the system, then nothing is: "I'm really geeked about it"

DL

Heres my setup

My Main Machine

amd 64 x2 5000 black edition (unlocked multiplier)
Gigabyte m57 sli
4 gig Corsair Xms2 8oomhz
BFG 8800 GTS 320mb
Twin dvdrw's 16 x
80 gig sata OS
200 gig sata Backup
500 gig WD Sata TV and downloads
Hyper 580w Modular
2 x Dell 2007 FPS
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Logitech G15 Keyboard (not pictured)
Razer Diamondback mouse
(Case is now a Coolermaster Elite)


Server

amd 64 x2 4400
4 gig corsair xms2 DDr 675 mh
ATI 1600 pro oc
Asus M2v mobo
Coolermaster 450w psu
Soundblaster live 5.1
40 gig sata hd os
146 gig scsi uw 360 backup
250 gig sata downloads
Samsung 19" 941bw

It's not dead, just has extra " on the end; without.

B00: what do you think of the Cooler Master Elite? i've got my rig in it, and i have no complaints, scythe ninja just barely squeezed in with my board, love it.

my G3 project is further and further. got RAM, and fixed the motherboard. no pictures just yet though. will update pictures once i get a tablet [assuming they didn't sell out]. i have a little bit more surgery to do on my G3 project though, and this is what i'm scared of...i need to get the ATX input off the board. completely off...and i'm going to soldier power cables that will flatten out so the case can close, and i'll throw in a CD-RW for the time being. 40 more solder points to go...total finished will be 106.

soldering iron master yet?