Current Systems

At Home

In October 2003, I finally got around to doing a major upgrade to my main home computer system. It was long overdue. The upgrade is actually more of a complete new system with some components transferred from the previous main system. And of course I'm constantly updating it — as you do.

Main Tower System

Currently, I'm using a full-tower ATX case with the following configuration:

• MSI 865PE Neo2-FIS2R ATX motherboard
  with Intel 865PE chipset, 800 MHz FSB,
  1 AGP 8X expansion slot, 5 PCI expansion slots,
  Integrated VGA 3D graphics (not used),
  5.1 channel audio (not used),
  3 x UltraDMA/100/66/33 IDE ports,
  2 x Serial ATA ports with Promise RAID,
  8 x USB 2.0 ports,
  IEEE 1394 up to 400 MHz FireWire ports,
  10 / 100 / 1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN,
  one parallel and serial port,
  PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse ports
• Intel Pentium 4 2.60c GHz CPU with Hyper-Threading and 800-MHz System Bus support, plus 512 Kb advanced transfer cache
• 1 Gb Dual Channel DDR400 184-pin SDRAM
  (2 x 512 Mb sticks)
• Full tower case with
  6 external 5.25" drive bays,
  2 external 3.5" drive bays and
  6 internal 3.5" drive bays
• Topower 520 watt ATX power supply unit with triple fans and thermal fans control switch
• 1.44 Mb 3.5" floppy drive
• 3 x 120 Gb Western Digital WD1200JB, 8 Mb cache, 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drives used live
• 1 x 250 Gb Seagate, 8 Mb cache, 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in RH-42 Mobile Rack used live
• 1 x 120 Gb Western Digital WD1200JB 8 Mb cache, 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in RH-42 Mobile Rack used to backup the system drive
• 2 x 60 Gb IBM Deskstar IC35L060AVER07-0 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in RH-42 Mobile Rack used as a data backup
• 1 x 250 Gb Seagate, 8 Mb cache, 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in 3.5" External USB2/Firewire drive enclosure used live
• 1 x 120 Gb Western Digital WD1200JB 8 Mb cache, 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in New Motion 3.5" External USB2/Firewire drive enclosure used live
• 1 x 250 Gb Seagate, 8 Mb cache, 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in External USB2/Firewire drive enclosure used live
• Kouwell Ultra DMA100 to IDE PCI controller card to support up to 4 Ultra ATA/100 drives
• MSI FX5600-VTDR128 AGP 8x graphics adapter, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 with 128 Mb DDR, Video-In, TV-Out and DVI-I
• Sony Multiscan 400PS 19" colour monitor
• Philips Brilliance 202P4 22" colour monitor
• Pioneer DVR-A08XLA DVD/CD Writer, 4x DVD+R Double Layer, 16x DVD+-R, 4x DVD+-RW, 32x CD-R, 24x CD-RW
• LiteOn DVD-RW SHW-160P6S DVD/CD Writer
• LiteOn LTR-52327S CD Rewritable Drive
  52x CD-R, 32x CD-RW, 52x CD-ROM with Smart-Burn and Mt Rainier support
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum PCI sound card with internal drive and remote control
• Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro USB
• Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical USB with IntelliEye
• Microsoft SideWinder Freestyle Pro USB
• Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel USB
• Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro joystick
• Adaptec AHA-1510 ISA SCSI adapter
• Iomega Jaz 2 Gb internal SCSI removable drive
• 2 x Syquest 270 Mb external SCSI removable drives
• Sony CRX-140S 8X/4X/32X external SCSI CD-R/RW drive
• Umax PowerLook II, 1200 x 600 dpi, SCSI scanner
• Logitech QuickCam Express USB Internet video camera
• Banksia Wave SP56 serial external fax modem
• D-Link DU-H3SP USB Bay 3-port USB hub with serial and parallel ports
• Canon S820D colour inkjet printer
• Smart Silicon Systems SIM Manager smart card reader/writer
• Lead Data Tri-Slot 5-in-1 USB Card Reader/Writer plus 2-port USB hub to handle CompactFlash, IBM Microdrive, SmartMedia, Secure Digital and MultiMedia cards
• Lexar FireWire CompactFlash Card Reader/Writer RW019-001
• Griffin PowerMate USB audio control and input device
• Altec Lansing 2.1 speaker system

Yes, you really can hook up that much stuff to a computer! But the tangle of cables at the back is something to behold.

There's also a Roland A-30 MIDI keyboard for playing music. Plus a Philips colour TV and Sony VCR for staying in touch with the outside world as I work.

There is also a Canon PowerShot S40, 4 megapixel digital camera. Purchased just in time to take photos of my trip to Microsoft Fusion 2002 in Los Angeles in July. Was handy to photograph the results of a break-in to my office the day after I returned!

Notebook

Al Dell notebook is used as my main portable computer with the following configuration:

• Dell Inspirion 9300 Notebook
  with Intel Pentium M Processor at 760
  1 Gb RAM, 100 Gb Hard Drive
  17" Wide Screen UXGA Display
  256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 6800 video card
  9-cell Primary Battery plus 9-cell Additional Battery
  Dell Nylon Deluxe Carrying Case
  8x DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability
  External USB Floppy Drive
  256MB USB Memory Key
  Multimedia Cable Kit
  Dell Wireless 2915 Dual Band Mini PCI Wireless Card (802.11a/b/g, 54Mbps)
  Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Module
• Maxtor One Touch II 250 Gb External USB2/Firewire drive drive enclosure
• Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks USB
• Targus USB 2.0 High Speed 4-Port Hub
• Ritmo Combo All in One Card Reader/Writer with 3 post USB 2.0 hub model CL-R411
• Lexar High-Speed Professional Series 32-bit CardBus Reader for CompactFlash card RW021-001.
• Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer for Bluetooth

Mobile Phone / PDA

An i-mate PDA2K Pocket PC serves as my mobile phone and PDA.

Second Desktop System

A mini-tower ATX case with the following configuration:

• MSI K8N Diamond ATX motherboard
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ CPU
• 2 Gb Corsair PC3200 RAM
• Honli ATX-L8004 B35 Black/Silver mini tower case with
  550 watt power supply unit
• 1.44 Mb Panasonic 3.5" floppy drive
• 1 x 300 Gb Seagate ST3300622AS, 16 Mb cache, 7200 rpm SATA II drive
• Leadtek Winfast PX7600GT TDH GeForce 256 Mb graphics adapter
• Acer AL2032W LCD 20" TFT Widescreen colour monitor
• Pioneer DVR-111DSV 16x DVD Super Multi Burner
• Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro (USB and PS/2 )
• Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical (USB / PS/2)
• Moble Action MA-660 IrDA Infared Adapter USB
• Altec Lansing VS2221 3-piece speaker system (VS2221)

Second Tower System

Another full-tower ATX case with the following configuration:

• Asus CUSL2 ATX motherboard
  with Intel 815E chipset, 133 MHz FSB,
  1 AGP 4X expansion slot,6 PCI expansion slots,
  2 CNR expansion slots,
  Integrated VGA 3D graphics (not used),
  Ultra DMA/100/66/33 IDE ports, 7 USB ports,
  one parallel and two serial ports,
  PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse ports
• Intel Pentium 1000 MHz CPU
• 512 Mb SDRAM
• ASUS iPanel
• Full tower case with
  6 external 5.25" drive bays,
  2 external 3.5" drive bays and
  6 internal 3.5" drive bays
• Topower 300 watt ATX power supply unit with triple fans and thermal fans control switch
• 1.44 Mb 3.5" floppy drive
• 2 x 120 Gb Western Digital WD1200JB, 8 Mb cache, 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in RH-42 Mobile Racks
• 1 x 30 Gb IBM DTLA-3070 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in RH-42 Mobile Rack (used to switch to playing with other operating systems)
• 1 x 60 Gb IBM Deskstar IC35L060AVER07-0 7200 rpm IDE ATA-100 drive in RH-42 Mobile Rack (used to backup image the system drive)
• Asus AGP-V7700 Deluxe GeForce2 GTS 32 Mb AGP 4x graphics adapter with Asus 3D glasses, plus S-VHS and Composite video input and output ports
• Dell UltraScan P780 17" Trinitron colour monitor
• Intel EtherExpress PRO/100 LAN adapter
• LiteOn LTR-48126S CD Rewritable Drive
  48x CD-R, 12x CD-RW, 48x CD-ROM
• Adaptec Duo Connect IEEE1394/FireWire and
  USB 2.0 PCI adapter card
• Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI controller card to support up to 4 Ultra ATA/100 drives
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Platinum Live PCI sound card with internal drive and remote control
• Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro (PS/2 and USB)
• Microsoft IntelliMouse (PS/2)
• CH Products Virtual Pilot Pro
• CH Products Pro Pedals 
• Targus PA055 4-port USB Hub
• Moble Action MA-620 IrDA Infared Adapter USB
• Altec Lansing AVS200 2-piece speaker system

Other

The main operating system for all systems is Windows XP Professional.

There are also a few other systems about the place which are in a network workgroup using a Belkin F1PI241EGau ADSL 2+ Modem, 802.11g Wireless LAN, 2-port VoIP, 4-port Fast Ethernet Switch. This unit also enables all systems to share the ADSL connection to the Internet.