# I got a super sweet monitor setup for free



## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

I work at a computer tech shop in vermont and i repaired a monitor we were gonna throw out, and added it to my existing 22" lcd that I got as a birthday present.  Im sitting here drooling over the amazingness right now, so I thought I would share.

Heres a pic, though I havent adjusted the screen brightness/contrast yet, I still think its beautiful.


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## AshleyAshes (Jul 11, 2009)

You uh, might wanna do extended desktop instead of stretched desktop there.

It's nice but mine's bigger. Girth matters too. 




http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh100/AshleyAshes2/DSC_0045.jpg


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

That is neat.

Although I prefer one monitor over two connected ones. It just looks a bit...off...


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

Heh. Nice setup.

Although I really, really, really hate video cards that do that "stretched desktop" thing.

I've got a GeForce 7600 that, for some reason, only does stretched. There's no option for extended. (It's one reason of many why I don't buy nVidia products anymore.)

I love dual monitors, though. Once screen is your center of attention, the other is for secondary tasks that don't require your constant attention. (IM, for instance.)


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

AshleyAshes said:


> You uh, might wanna do extended desktop instead of stretched desktop there.
> 
> It's nice but mine's bigger. Girth matters too.



I have the same laptop as you :3

Also, what is the big deal with connecting two desktop moniters together, I don't get it.


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

yeah unfortuately my 9800 gt only does the stretched thing, im trying to figure it out but this is still WAY better than one ^.^


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> I have the same laptop as you :3
> 
> Also, what is the big deal with connecting two desktop moniters together, I don't get it.



its a geek thing basically.  I watch tv on one while i use the other for stuff n' stuff.


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## Aden (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> Also, what is the big deal with connecting two desktop moniters together, I don't get it.



It's good for productivity. If I had two monitors while doing my 3D stuff, drawing, editing audio, and the like, I'd be in heaven.


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

<3 my dual 22's!! (old pic, old house, etc)

I'm seriously debating swapping em for two 24's, just for the 1920x1200, and to retire my 19's at work.


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## ToeClaws (Jul 11, 2009)

Never liked dual monitors like that because of the border in the middle.  I'd like someone to create a monitor with 2.35:1 ratio - now THAT would be widescreen.  So what was wrong with the monitor they were gonna toss?

Ashley... what's with the ancient looking crusty case?  And that's a similar design to what CAThulu has, 'cept her monitors are black.


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

Taj said:


> yeah unfortuately my 9800 gt only does the stretched thing, im trying to figure it out but this is still WAY better than one ^.^


They're still doing that? Haha. Good luck with that. If you find a way, let me know.

Srly. Hate nVidia so much.



Aden said:


> It's good for productivity. If I had two monitors while doing my 3D stuff, drawing, editing audio, and the like, I'd be in heaven.


Yeah. I've got two monitors at work, too. I can do a build on one monitor and a simulation on the other.

(Though unless I set the priority of the simulation process to "BelowNormal," my computer becomes unusable. )


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## Internet Police Chief (Jul 11, 2009)

net-cat said:


> They're still doing that? Haha. Good luck with that. If you find a way, let me know.
> 
> Srly. Hate nVidia so much.



Huh? I have a nVidia 7600 that's like three years old that can have extended monitors. I'm running it right now.


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> Never liked dual monitors like that because of the border in the middle.  I'd like someone to create a monitor with 2.35:1 ratio - now THAT would be widescreen.  So what was wrong with the monitor they were gonna toss?
> 
> Ashley... what's with the ancient looking crusty case?  And that's a similar design to what CAThulu has, 'cept her monitors are black.



i had to replace a capacitor on the inverter, its amazing how simple the inverter circuits really are, it was completely blown out, but it didnt damage anything else!


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

Baron Von Yiffington said:


> Huh? I have a nVidia 7600 that's like three years old that can have extended monitors. I'm running it right now.


Operative word being "of some sort." It has some funny letters after it.

$ lspci | grep nVidia
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GT] (rev a1)

That.

Funny thing is, under the Linux drivers, it works fine. So I know the hardware is capable. But, for whatever reason, under any version of the Windows drivers I've tried, the ability to do extended desktop as opposed to stretched is just completely absent.


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## AshleyAshes (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> Also, what is the big deal with connecting two desktop moniters together, I don't get it.


Less alt tabbing, which is good for creative purposes. In the case of my photo, Adobe Premiere is on one monitor and Adobe After Effects is on the other monitor. On the laptop there's also Adobe Audition and the laptop will take keyboard and mouse commants from the desktop via Synergy.



ToeClaws said:


> Ashley... what's with the ancient looking crusty case? And that's a similar design to what CAThulu has, 'cept her monitors are black.


I happen to like my old school case. It's beige and it's square, that's the way it's meant to be. And it's not crusty, it's just so old the front plastic has yellowed.

I wish I could get a suitable with an LED megahurtz display on the front and a turbo button. Those were the days, when you could change the CPU clock speed with a button on the face of the machine.


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

I'm just thinking... it's easy enough to hook a button into a USB HID device of some sort. Then you could just write a driver that kicks Intel SpeedStep (or AMD's equivalent) into low power mode. You could even make the LED display with your actual MHz, rather than just having it hardwired in like most of those displays were.

*goes off to plot*


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

Aden said:


> It's good for productivity. If I had two monitors while doing my 3D stuff, drawing, editing audio, and the like, I'd be in heaven.



But what about gaming, I mean, you would be switchin' your head between screens just to see the other half of it.

Unless if you were running it in windowed mode, but I hate windowed mode, windowed mode sucks.


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## Shino (Jul 11, 2009)

Taj said:


> I work at a computer tech shop in vermont...


I've got a dual mon-- wait, Vermont? Seriously? Where? Computer Barn? Pine St. Computing? Geek Squad? Details, man, details....

Ok, now that that's out of my system: I'm currently running a 15" and a 20.1" LCD off of my GeForce 7600 AGP card. Little out of date and underpowered, but it does what I want it to do.
They've tweaked the extended monitor controls in Windows 7, but you still don't have the kind of control that the XP nVidia panel gave you. Still, it's a nice thing to have, especially when I'm trying to multitask. Have to disable it for gaming, though, or my mouse gets stuck off-screen...


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> But what about gaming, I mean, you would be switchin' your head between screens just to see the other half of it.
> 
> Unless if you were running it in windowed mode, but I hate windowed mode, windowed mode sucks.



On my setup, each monitor is seperate. It fullscreens on the primary (left) monitor, and the other monitor is left with whatever I have open (walkthroughs, temperature monitor, etc)

Pic proof: http://pictures.xyrotr1.com/ztfdesky_ingame.jpg (old lol)


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

I've found dual monitors to be utterly horrible for gaming. Most games, if they don't fuck the whole setup over, lock in your mouse pointer and you have to alt-tab to get out, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Forcing games into windowed mode did help, though.

(This was especially laughable when I had my brief FF11 stint back in the day. "FOCUS LOST, APPLICATION TERMINATED." Or whatever the message was.)


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> On my setup, each monitor is seperate. It fullscreens on the primary (left) monitor, and the other monitor is left with whatever I have open (walkthroughs, temperature monitor, etc)
> 
> Pic proof: http://pictures.xyrotr1.com/ztfdesky_ingame.jpg (old lol)



Wow, that is sick.

But this leads to another question. like, when your moving your mouse, is it moving on both screens, or is there some kind of system where you switch the cursor between the two screens?

Like, for example in your pic, when you are looking for walkthroughs on portal (Love that game) when you are moving your mouse on that monitor, are you moving out of control in-game on the other one?

Or is there some kind of monitor swapping system as described before.


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> Wow, that is sick.
> 
> But this leads to another question. like, when your moving your mouse, is it moving on both screens, or is there some kind of system where you switch the cursor between the two screens?
> 
> ...



Generally Alt+Tabbing is the name of the game, since you dont want your mouse moving around and you deselect the window when you shoot (so it locks your cursor to fullscreen). It works WONDERS in Win7, since there is NO Alt+Tab lag.

Once you have dual monitors, you don't go back.


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> It works WONDERS in Win7, since there is NO Alt+Tab lag.



How do you know this?

Do you have Windows 7?


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> How do you know this?
> 
> Do you have Windows 7?



Neg, but my best friend does, and his system is nearly identical to mine. GTA4 does not even kick you out of LAN games while Alt+Tabbing, which is new.


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## Arcadium (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> Also, what is the big deal with connecting two desktop moniters together, I don't get it.



Easy. If your a Laptop User, it gives you a LOT more screen real-estate. I run the Zune Software to listen to music on one end, and do work on the main Laptop screen.

If your on a Desktop, it gives you a lot of options. Big, 33 inch monitors cost more then 2, 22' monitors. Stretching them simulates a bigger screen, or you can do a dual setup, and run programs Simultaneously. It rocks if your making things like Music, Video's, editing Photo's, etc. If your into Digital art, for example, one screen can hold your tools and/or References, and one can be a giant Canvas.



ZentratheFox said:


> <3 my dual 22's!! (old pic, old house, etc)
> 
> I'm seriously debating swapping em for two 24's, just for the 1920x1200, and to retire my 19's at work.



You have the most insane set-up, sir. Do want. Once my dad gets his Dog-house, I'm taking the Gate-way and doing something like that, with Dual 22's hopefully, and my Laptop hooked up to an external 16'.


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> Neg, but my best friend does, and his system is nearly identical to mine. GTA4 does not even kick you out of LAN games while Alt+Tabbing, which is new.



Wow, I heard very good things about Windows 7, but this just tops the cake.

I was afraid of participating in the beta considering that there are a lot of "risky bugs" but it seems like it is worth it now because of the alt-tabbing thing, that is just badass.


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> Wow, I heard very good things about Windows 7, but this just tops the cake.
> 
> I was afraid of participating in the beta considering that there are a lot of "risky bugs" but it seems like it is worth it now because of the alt-tabbing thing, that is just badass.



I have yet to test it, but my theory is that it does not bring the video cards out of 3D mode when alt tabbed, thereby removing any lag issues with the cards coming back up to speed. I will be testing once the actual OS goes on sale. 10 free copies of Win7 Ultimate FTW!


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## ToeClaws (Jul 11, 2009)

Taj said:


> i had to replace a capacitor on the inverter, its amazing how simple the inverter circuits really are, it was completely blown out, but it didnt damage anything else!



Nice!  Yeah, capacitors bulge or blow a lot in regulators and inverters - replaced a few in motherboards and PSUs before myself.  That or sometimes the little built in fuses.  But yeah, in either case, it's amazing how people just throw it out when it's a part less than a $1 that breaks it.



AshleyAshes said:


> I happen to like my old school case. It's beige and it's square, that's the way it's meant to be. And it's not crusty, it's just so old the front plastic has yellowed.



Heh - I junked my old cases long ago.  My first PC case was designed for AT power, so it went the way of the dodo years ago.  My first ATX case I used for many years, but eventually junked it too because it go to where I didn't like it's cooling and drive mounts.  The one I have no is okay, but it'll probably go bye-bye when I upgrade again too to get one with even better airflow design, particularly where I can install better filters on it to scrub the air before it goes in.



AshleyAshes said:


> I wish I could get a suitable with an LED megahurtz display on the front and a turbo button. Those were the days, when you could change the CPU clock speed with a button on the face of the machine.



Heh - used to be a cool feature back in the era when it was necessary - with 286s and 386s.  They were so much faster than the 8086 and 8088's before them that the turbo button was necessary to slow down some of the ancient apps so they didn't run too quickly.  By the era of the 486, there was no point to have them anymore, yet they lingered around, right up to the end of the Socket7 boxes.  Totally useless.


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> I have yet to test it, but my theory is that it does not bring the video cards out of 3D mode when alt tabbed, thereby removing any lag issues with the cards coming back up to speed. I will be testing once the actual OS goes on sale. 10 free copies of Win7 Ultimate FTW!



Cool, btw, when is Win7 gonna be released anyways, I heard around August 1st, but I need you to confirm it for me (Guessing that you know : / ).


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> Heh - used to be a cool feature back in the era when it was necessary - with 286s and 386s.  They were so much faster than the 8086 and 8088's before them that the turbo button was necessary to slow down some of the ancient apps so they didn't run too quickly.  By the era of the 486, there was no point to have them anymore, yet they lingered around, right up to the end of the Socket7 boxes.  Totally useless.


I remember my 90 MHz Pentium had one. It didn't actually connect to anything inside the case. There was a place for the LED, but it was just a VDD-GND jumper.

I think it was the transition from AT to ATX that finally saw the end of the Turbo Button. (Though I think a few ATX cases still had them.)


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> Cool, btw, when is Win7 gonna be released anyways, I heard around August 1st, but I need you to confirm it for me (Guessing that you know : / ).



October 22, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was pushed back even more.


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

I was considering modding a turbo button myself, then i realized how much work would have to go into it and gave up.  I used to mod stuff all the time, I installed an external antenna connector on my laptop so I could wardrive, but the place I put it ultimately lead to my motherboard cracking.  After that, if it aint broke, i dont fix it.


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## ToeClaws (Jul 11, 2009)

net-cat said:


> I remember my 90 MHz Pentium had one. It didn't actually connect to anything inside the case. There was a place for the LED, but it was just a VDD-GND jumper.
> 
> I think it was the transition from AT to ATX that finally saw the end of the Turbo Button. (Though I think a few ATX cases still had them.)



Aye - though for many years even ATX motherboard supported a turbo via the connectors.  But often, obsolete things live on that should have died ages before - look at the floopy disk. 

The first system I had that had a turbo button was my 286 12Mhz - with the turbo off, it was 8Mhz.  I think the last system that had it was a K6-200 on a TX class socket 7 motherboard.  Not sure I ever bothered checking what it clocked down to.


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

Shino said:


> I've got a dual mon-- wait, Vermont? Seriously? Where? Computer Barn? Pine St. Computing? Geek Squad? Details, man, details....



Pine computers ^.^


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> October 22, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was pushed back even more.



I went to the windows 7 website, apparently you need Windows Vista to upgrade : /

But that doesn't matter because the new laptop I am getting has vista anyway.


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> I went to the windows 7 website, apparently you need Windows Vista to upgrade : /
> 
> But that doesn't matter because the new laptop I am getting has vista anyway.



Dunno... I'm Vista Ult 64 on everything here at home. PS: I'm on that very (same spec) laptop right now. It runs Vista great!


ToeClaws said:


> Aye - though for many years even ATX motherboard supported a turbo via the connectors.  But often, obsolete things live on that should have died ages before - look at the floopy disk.
> 
> The first system I had that had a turbo button was my 286 12Mhz - with the turbo off, it was 8Mhz.  I think the last system that had it was a K6-200 on a TX class socket 7 motherboard.  Not sure I ever bothered checking what it clocked down to.



Why turn it off, again? Power savings?


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> Aye - though for many years even ATX motherboard supported a turbo via the connectors.  But often, obsolete things live on that should have died ages before - look at the floopy disk.
> 
> The first system I had that had a turbo button was my 286 12Mhz - with the turbo off, it was 8Mhz.  I think the last system that had it was a K6-200 on a TX class socket 7 motherboard.  Not sure I ever bothered checking what it clocked down to.


I've only ever actually owned two systems that had a functional turbo switch.

My family's first computer, which was a 386SX. It was 8/16 MHz, I believe. I really don't remember.

The other was a Tandy 1000 TX I got from my grandfather. It didn't have a physical turbo switch. Just "MODE FAST" and "MODE SLOW" at the DOS prompt.



ZentratheFox said:


> Why turn it off, again? Power savings?


Actually, it was because back in the day, a lot of application writers wrote programs assuming your computer ran at a specific speed. They could get away with this because there weren't all that many different, compatible processors available. As processors became more varied, that practice eventually fell by the wayside.


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## Darkwing (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> PS: I'm on that very (same spec) laptop right now. It runs Vista great!



That is great to hear, I am still watching it on Ebay, it is currently at 202 dollars with 13 bids and 2 days left.

PS: In other words, I might get this for a freaking steal!


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> Dunno... I'm Vista Ult 64 on everything here at home. PS: I'm on that very (same spec) laptop right now. It runs Vista great!
> 
> 
> Why turn it off, again? Power savings?



some programs required a lower clock speed to run correctly, if i remember correctly


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

Taj said:


> some programs required a lower clock speed to run correctly, if i remember correctly



Wow... that's crazy.

However, I remember a "physics" game called The Incredible Machine that I used to run on my old Pentium 75Mhz machine (it had a turbo light, but no way to turn it off). I tried to install it on the next machine, a P3 500Mhz rig, and the game ran WAY too fast to be usable. I had some awesome games back then...


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> Wow... that's crazy.
> 
> However, I remember a "physics" game called The Incredible Machine that I used to run on my old Pentium 75Mhz machine (it had a turbo light, but no way to turn it off). I tried to install it on the next machine, a P3 500Mhz rig, and the game ran WAY too fast to be usable. I had some awesome games back then...



those were the days...

Way back when programmers made games for specific hardware platforms because they were so ubiquitous.


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

... I loved "The Incredible Machine"

I had "The Incredible Machine 3" on CD. I discovered you could actually put the disc in a CD player and play the game music. (You had to skip the first track, though.)


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 11, 2009)

net-cat said:


> ... I loved "The Incredible Machine"
> 
> I had "The Incredible Machine 3" on CD. I discovered you could actually put the disc in a CD player and play the game music. (You had to skip the first track, though.)



YES! I REMEMBER THAT!

There was one other game too, it had the initials M M, but I can't remember, for the life of me, what it was called. Ahh, good times.


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## Taj (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> YES! I REMEMBER THAT!
> 
> There was one other game too, it had the initials M M, but I can't remember, for the life of me, what it was called. Ahh, good times.



I used to play the original tomb raider (i think that was the name) waaaaaay back, it was almost like mario but it was a green dude with a red hat...thats about all i remember from it at the moment but if i pressed the turbo button, everything would move WAY too fast and I would get killed almost instantly


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## ToeClaws (Jul 11, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> Why turn it off, again? Power savings?



As Net-Cat mentioned, it was more about software speed.  Unlike today, when the first PCs came out, processor power didn't increase for quite a while - especially for the consumer, who could not easily afford a PC.  Developers that wrote things that were display-time based didn't bother putting in any timers to vary it, they just went with the speed of the system.  Most of the time that didn't matter, but there were some programs where when things moved too fast, they became impossible to use.  The Turbo button was thus a sort of cheap stop-gap between bad code, and better code.

Power-wise, the old system's CPUs used so little power, it was irrelevant.  



net-cat said:


> I've only ever actually owned two systems that had a functional turbo switch.
> 
> My family's first computer, which was a 386SX. It was 8/16 MHz, I believe. I really don't remember.
> 
> The other was a Tandy 1000 TX I got from my grandfather. It didn't have a physical turbo switch. Just "MODE FAST" and "MODE SLOW" at the DOS prompt.



*chuckles* Wow, classic.  The 286 was supposed to be a family system, but I seemed to be the only one brave enough to ever really use it.  The first PC I bought myself was a 486DX2-66 with 4M of RAM and a 212M drive (sadly, that tower cost like $1500+ in the day). >_<   That case had a turbo, and saw tons of upgrades over the years: 486DX4-100, 486DX4-120, Pentium 100, Pentium 133, K6-200.  Retired the case after moving the K6-200 to an ATX class board and case.  Bye bye turbo. :/

Still got an old 486 in the back though that has a turbo button.  Don't have the heart to toss it.


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## net-cat (Jul 11, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> *chuckles* Wow, classic.  The 286 was supposed to be a family system, but I seemed to be the only one brave enough to ever really use it.  The first PC I bought myself was a 486DX2-66 with 4M of RAM and a 212M drive (sadly, that tower cost like $1500+ in the day). >_<   That case had a turbo, and saw tons of upgrades over the years: 486DX4-100, 486DX4-120, Pentium 100, Pentium 133, K6-200.  Retired the case after moving the K6-200 to an ATX class board and case.  Bye bye turbo. :/
> 
> Still got an old 486 in the back though that has a turbo button.  Don't have the heart to toss it.


I've got a few Intel 8085s around here someplace. (Just the chip, though. Not a full system. DIP-40 FTW.)

A few years back, I forced myself to throw away everything that had less than a 1 GHz processor.


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## ToeClaws (Jul 12, 2009)

net-cat said:


> I've got a few Intel 8085s around here someplace. (Just the chip, though. Not a full system. DIP-40 FTW.)



Cool. ^_^  I need to find some of those, along with 8088s, 8086s, and an 80286 for my CPU museum at work.  Haven't come across any though.



net-cat said:


> A few years back, I forced myself to throw away everything that had less than a 1 GHz processor.



*laughs* Yeah, I did the same a few years back.  I used to keep a sort of computer museum until one day I just realized a whole room as consumed with old crap.  I had XTs, C/PM boxes, a NaBU box, a TRS-80, and so many PC parts.  At the time, anything under 550MHz went bye bye.

I kept that one 486 for a couple reasons - one was to run old games (before DOSBox came along), the other was beacuse it was such a cool little oddball.  It uses a 5x86 CPU (clock quadrupled 33MHz) which is the very last of the 486s that AMD put out.  It ran at 133MHz, and was designed to beat the Pentium 75.  What's cool, is that it's very overclockable.  I have it running at a 40MHz bus, so 160Mhz.  The motherboard has both PCI and VLB slots and can take EDO RAM.  It also has the cool (but short-lived) GUI BIOS that AMI used to have.  For it's era, it was a monster of a machine.


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## Taj (Jul 12, 2009)

actually, im having a problem with an old 5150 (original ibm pc) from way back, and you guys might be able to help.  It keeps coming up with a parity check 2 error, does anyone know what thats caused by? I believe its the expansion memory card but i could be completely wrong.  Any ideas?


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## Sassy (Jul 12, 2009)

Two monitors is _so_ passe. Three ftw - tho I did have six at one stage. remind me to post a picture of my three setup, when i get home~

also SoftTH = three monitor gaming GLORY. Fallout 3 @ 5040x1050 is true â™¥


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## ZentratheFox (Jul 12, 2009)

Sassy said:


> Two monitors is _so_ passe. Three ftw - tho I did have six at one stage. remind me to post a picture of my three setup, when i get home~
> 
> also SoftTH = three monitor gaming GLORY. Fallout 3 @ 5040x1050 is true â™¥



I was going to get a third, but then Acer killed my monitor series... 

Plus, <3 Crossfire.


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## ToeClaws (Jul 12, 2009)

Taj said:


> actually, im having a problem with an old 5150 (original ibm pc) from way back, and you guys might be able to help.  It keeps coming up with a parity check 2 error, does anyone know what thats caused by? I believe its the expansion memory card but i could be completely wrong.  Any ideas?



Agreed - it's probably one of the RAM chips.  Does it let you continue at all after that?  You might be able to pop a few of them out (I believe they were all individually in sockets) and test batch by batch to see where the bad one is.  Though... if I remember right, on those older boards you had to use DIP switches to set the size of the RAM bank if you do that.


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## Sassy (Jul 12, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> I was going to get a third, but then Acer killed my monitor series...
> 
> Plus, <3 Crossfire.


Don't use SLI or Crossfire here, just an 8800GT, a 7800GT and a 6200PCI. Tho the PCI card is out at the moment and I'm only using out of the outputs on the 7800GT :X Had a space management issue with the six monitors. But I'm getting a dedicated computer room next week, so maybe the glory shall return!


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## Taj (Jul 12, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> Agreed - it's probably one of the RAM chips.  Does it let you continue at all after that?  You might be able to pop a few of them out (I believe they were all individually in sockets) and test batch by batch to see where the bad one is.  Though... if I remember right, on those older boards you had to use DIP switches to set the size of the RAM bank if you do that.



i dont have the system in front of me but i can tell you it doesnt let me continue afterwords


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## ToeClaws (Jul 12, 2009)

Taj said:


> i dont have the system in front of me but i can tell you it doesnt let me continue afterwords



Then's it's a pretty serious one.  If you can remove the chips, you'll have to try taking it down to it's minimum allowable memory config (was either 128K or 256K... I don't remember), and test it in batches in the smallest increments possible.  If you get it down to a chip, at least you'll have the culprit, but I don't know how easy it will be to find a replacement.


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## Carenath (Jul 12, 2009)

Love how this thread went from dual-monitors, to CPU speed, to classic systems.

My own setups are pretty basic, mostly because of my lack of space..
Left: http://www.lair.dragonseye.net/pub/desk.jpg
My 24" Monitor & 3U APC SmartUPS on my desk, Server (the big black case) & crappy Dell desktop due for replacement sitting on a coffee table.

Right: http://www.lair.dragonseye.net/pub/tv.jpg
32" TV sitting on another old desk, DVD Player & Assorted oldies; HD Satellite, Surround Amp & PS3 sitting on my chest of drawers.

I dont have the space the way things are at the moment, to fit a second monitor in there, though even the Dell has two outputs, both DVI.. I was thinking of getting a 23U cabinet, moving the UPS into that, converting my server into a 1U/2U unit to mount, and using the server case to rebuild my PC..

As for current system specs...
Server: AMD Athlon64 3000, 512 MB DDR, 1.5TB RAID, 2x GigE NICs
Desktop: Pentium 4 2.4GHz, 1GB DDR, 80GB HDD, GigE.

I do have an old Amiga A500 floating around... and a Slot1 Pentium3...

Any suggestions on how to rearrange the stuff I have, to facilitate a dual-screen setup would be much appreciated.

@Zenthra: I love your avatar and your setup.


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## CaptainCool (Jul 12, 2009)

my parents didnt use their screen anymore, so i was able to use it as well^^







usually i use the second screen for the dual screen desktop but i use it for my 360 as well. im using a VGA cable for that, HD graphics for 15 bucks :B

oh and yes, its 1970 here in germany right now.

edit: oh im sorry, should i resize it? i did already, it was at way bigger than that... is there a maximum image size for the forums?
edit 2: ok, found it. its resized to the resolution in the board rules, i hope thats ok.


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## Runefox (Jul 12, 2009)

Wish my desk had room for extra monitors, but right now my LG Flatron L206WU 20.6" fits just perfectly. I'd need to get a new desk if I had anything bigger or wanted to add a second (or third) monitor.

My old boss' computer ran I think at one point five monitors, one of which was hooked up to a KVM between it and the web server, and the other of which ran a software KVM at all times to the security system DVR. One gargantuan CRT, and the rest were 19" LCD's. System wasn't very powerful, but in terms of productivity, it was great. I certainly miss having a second monitor now; Hell, our main Point of Sale system had two monitors...

I suppose I COULD snatch my KDS 22" from the living room, but right now that's running the PS3 and 360, and its contrast ratio and colours aren't all that great. It also has a strange slightly green hue in the upper left corner, which I can't really wrap my head around as to why.

But anyway, while we're cam-whoring, my entire setup is actually my room. The beige box is my router. <3


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## AshleyAshes (Jul 12, 2009)

This is why I have a REAL DESK.  None of that sissy Ikea crap that you losers have.

I have 6 feet x 3 feet of WOOD.  No, WOOD, not reconstituted particle board.  It's made of WOOD.  It's like 30 years old and belonged to Transport Canada, then NavCanada, it was going to sold at a government surplus auction but my Dad got them to give it to him to take home and he gave it to me.

It not only has realestate but if you see on the photo in the first page, it has two extended leafs.  That's what my lapto is resting on, there's one on the other side as well.

BWA HA HA HA HA.


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## Taj (Jul 12, 2009)

AshleyAshes said:


> This is why I have a REAL DESK.  None of that sissy Ikea crap that you losers have.
> 
> I have 6 feet x 3 feet of WOOD.  No, WOOD, not reconstituted particle board.  It's made of WOOD.  It's like 30 years old and belonged to Transport Canada, then NavCanada, it was going to sold at a government surplus auction but my Dad got them to give it to him to take home and he gave it to me.
> 
> ...



I actually laughed out loud at the wood comment there 

my "desk" is four storage bins stacked two high next to each other at the foot of my bed if you can see from the pic in the first post...I really need a good desk


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## ToeClaws (Jul 12, 2009)

AshleyAshes said:


> BWA HA HA HA HA.



Yes Ashley... *pats your head*


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## Lukar (Jul 12, 2009)

Darkwing said:


> That is neat.
> 
> Although I prefer one monitor over two connected ones. It just looks a bit...off...



^


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## hitokage (Jul 12, 2009)

Taj said:


> actually, im having a problem with an old 5150 (original ibm pc) from way back, and you guys might be able to help.  It keeps coming up with a parity check 2 error, does anyone know what thats caused by? I believe its the expansion memory card but i could be completely wrong.  Any ideas?


This could be caused by chip creep, or it could be that one of the memory chips has failed as others have stated.


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## net-cat (Jul 12, 2009)

AshleyAshes said:


> This is why I have a REAL DESK.  None of that sissy Ikea crap that you losers have.
> 
> I have 6 feet x 3 feet of WOOD.  No, WOOD, not reconstituted particle board.  It's made of WOOD.  It's like 30 years old and belonged to Transport Canada, then NavCanada, it was going to sold at a government surplus auction but my Dad got them to give it to him to take home and he gave it to me.
> 
> ...


Ah, real furnisher. How I love it.

Most of my furnisher is older than I am.

When I moved out of my parent's house, my parents just gave me a bunch of their old furnisher and bought themselves new stuff.


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## Runefox (Jul 13, 2009)

Unfortunately, good WOOD! desks new are quite 'spensive. @_@ Not that a WOOD! desk would fit in there. The Ikea-alike desk I have here now (which I think I actually got second-hand) barely, and rather snugly, fits between my bed and that second table holding all my network gear. Though I suppose with a real WOOD! desk I could take that out of there and find another home for it... >_>

But then again, where am I going to find a WOOD! desk?


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## Aden (Jul 13, 2009)

Runefox said:


> But then again, where am I going to find a WOOD! desk?



I found my wonderful real wood desk at a yard sale for $8.


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## Taj (Jul 13, 2009)

hitokage said:


> This could be caused by chip creep, or it could be that one of the memory chips has failed as others have stated.



After much removal and replacing of memory chips on both the expansion board and the main board, i have concluded it was caused by chip creep, some of the chips were almost out of the dip slot, apparantly an attic is not a good place to store a 5150


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## hitokage (Jul 14, 2009)

An attic or any other area that has extreme temperature variations isn't good for any electronics.


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## Shino (Jul 14, 2009)

Aden said:


> I found my wonderful real wood desk at a yard sale for $8.


Got mine for $10 at a "donate and resell" type store.


hitokage said:


> An attic or any other area that has extreme temperature variations isn't good for any electronics.


Agreed. Between the ineviatble dust and heat (not to mention the risk of having something stacked on top of it, and that it's impossible to find _anything_ in an attic), the attic is not a good place for anything you plan on actually _using_ again. Unless you're trying to put something away for the Antiques Roadshow in 50 years...


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