My desktop workhorse is an Alienware Aurora R4 with the six core i7 3930K and dual 6950's, DTR is a Dell XPS M1730, photo laptop is a Dell Studio XPS 1645 with the 1080p RGB backlit screen, portable laptop is a Vaio Z5 with the 1600x900 screen and dual 128GB SSDs in RAID 0, test laptop is a Dell XPS M133,0 my ultralight is an aging but still capable Vaio Tx1HP/W and my servers are an HP N36L Microserver and Dell Studio Hybrid.

John

3 Acer Aspire laptops in our house , all bought as refurbised items from PC World all working fine after over 2 years. Also the same brand being used by the London Olympics.

Main PC ,homebrew 2.7 AMD /Foxconn a47mk MB, with 2gb memory . Runs win7/xppro/w2k. Laptop is ancient IBM 600 ( kept out of sympathy) .OH-if anyone's interested, still got an old Compaq 33 kicking around. 33Mhz CPU, 16K memory and a 500Mb HD. It's a brick ( and as solid as) .Bought years ago for programming telecomms systems, where even this was FASTER than phone systems/ voicemail transfer speeds . Not a great machine, till you look at it's physical strength .

Main desktop AMD. Bulldozer (6-core) Asus Sabretooth tuf , ATI 6500 PCI -express graphics, 500GB seagate SATA HD, 8 GB Corsair DDR3 memory, Sony DVD-CD writer (SATA) Windows 7 (64).

Media Server AMD Athlon II (64) (4-core) + Asus M488TD-M, on-board ATI 4350 graphics, 300 GB Maxtor SATA HD, 4GB Corsair DDR2 memory, HP lightscribe DVD -CD writer (IDE), Windows 7 (64).

Laptop Packard Bell Easynote H5, Intel Pentium, SIS graphics, 1GB memory, 30 GB HD, Windows 7 (32).

Blackberry Playbook. 32GB with OS 2.

Nintendo Wii.

Nick.

I have a black and white telly connected to a typewriter with a piece of string.

It's powered by coal.

latest upgrade

upgraded from this

Runs faster than than Windows 7 though

Now I believe it runs faster than Vista, but...............

Mine is custom built.

i7 2600, 16GB RAM, 2 x SSD's, GeForce GTX 680, Dell 30" Monitor.. etc.

A dell 2400 desktop in the loft,

and a Latitude 610 lappy,

don't ask me what spec but hit the on button and they both light up and play the Windows tune.

My Laptop is a Toshiba Satellite Pro L770-14C

It has a nice wide 17" display, Windows 7 64 bit OS, 8 Gb RAM and bluray player.

It's an ugly laptop, but light and well made. Very nice keyboard and touch pad.

The built in speakers are terrible, the sound card is OK, sounds great through headphones or HDTV using HDMI

My desktop is a mongrel I built myself, clocked quad core etc. It's quite fast and I'm very happy with it. It has been very reliable and has a few good years left in it.

It has enough cooling fans to levitate.

Custom built water cooled and near silent if more than a little retro by today's standards

DFI Lanparty LT X38-T2R Motherboard with EK North Bridge and South Bridge blocks

[email protected] with a D-Tek Fusion (2) block

8GB Kingston Hyper X DDR2

ATI 4870 with EK Cu. block

128GB Crucial M4 (boot)

1TB Samsung (local scratch/storage)

Silverstone TJ07B

Pump is a D5 vario set to run virtually silent (low flow) in a dual bay prototype pump/res enclosure from Primochill.

PA120.3 that allows it to run passive for films or I can flip 3 ultra quiet fans on at 5v if gaming.

22" Samsung 2232BW

X-Fi Elite Pro (when it wants to play with windows 7)

Creative Labs Inspire 6.1

Win 7 Ultimate x64

All content/data of any value streams from 24TB+ (I stopped counting) of local network storage on a dedicated server that also doubles as off site backup for work and family via VPN. It's kind of old but it still holds it's own for the kind of gaming I do and I can't justify the outlay on a major upgrade as it'd be a full CPU/RAM/GPU and then new blocks for everything.

Worryingly I tend to spend more time on my phone or the ipad now if i'm honest.

I can kind of see your point - although I wanted to 1920x1200 resolution mainly with mine. Also you could have a 32 inch MBP (lol) and it would be more portable than any rival 15" PC laptop. Well, not quite, but you get my point...

Er no.

I've got a 13" MBP for work, but the dell I had at my previous job had a lot more grunt and was a lot more portable.

Especially so when you didn't have to remember a VGA/DVI/HDMI adapter as well as the laptop and power brick.

2kg for a 13" isn't that light.

Er no.

I've got a 13" MBP for work, but the dell I had at my previous job had a lot more grunt and was a lot more portable.

Especially so when you didn't have to remember a VGA/DVI/HDMI adapter as well as the laptop and power brick.

2kg for a 13" isn't that light.

I'm sorry I can't disagree more. I've never encountered a laptop as portable as a MacBook.

1) You have to carry a "power brick" with other laptops too - especially a Dell. You also have the added misfortune that a Dell battery probably doesn't last any more than 2 hours anyway (my 17inch MBP on the other hand regularly manages 8 hours +). Also, Dell "power bricks" are about as portable as bricks. Giant annoying PSU with a ridiculously thick cable that is impossible to wind. Oh not to mention the huge annoying power plug at the laptop end that makes it uncomfortable to work on your lap (and as it sticks out over an inch usually, any pressure on it and you end up with a knackered power point). Oh, and lack of MagSafe.

2) 2kg for a 13 inch? Find me a lighter laptop. Have you not considered also the thickness of the thing?! My entire MBP is as thick as the screen alone on the horrlble Dell XPS 17 I had.

I'm sorry I can't disagree more. I've never encountered a laptop as portable as a MacBook.

2) 2kg for a 13 inch? Find me a lighter laptop. Have you not considered also the thickness of the thing?! My entire MBP is as thick as the screen alone on the horrlble Dell XPS 17 I had.

It doesn't sound like you have much experience of laptops then, I don't find Macbooks particular portable and in addition their spec is usually pretty basic. My current 13in machine is a Vaio Z5 which at 1.5kg is quite a bit lighter than its equivalent Macbook while its spec is far better than any its rival Macbook could offer, in fact it was better than even what the bigger Macbooks could offer with dual SSDs in RAID 0, 3Ghz processor (the 13in Macbook models topped out at 2.6Ghz), 1600x900 screen (no high res options on the equivalent Macbooks), integrated and discrete graphics plus a blu-ray writer. The Z series that came after went further by offering quad SSDs, an i7 dual core processor and a 1080p screen at a time when it was claimed it wasn't possible for Apple to fit an i5 into the 13in MBP - Sony not only managed that but they were able to do it in a smaller and lighter package with higher performance parts and more components.

John

Edited 20 May, 201214 yr by JohnMcL7

It doesn't sound like you have much experience of laptops then, I don't find Macbooks particular portable and in addition their spec is usually pretty basic. My current 13in machine is a Vaio Z5 which at 1.5kg is quite a bit lighter than its equivalent Macbook while its spec is far better than any its rival Macbook could offer, in fact it was better than even what the bigger Macbooks could offer with dual SSDs in RAID 0, 3Ghz processor (the 13in Macbook models topped out at 2.6Ghz), 1600x900 screen (no high res options on the equivalent Macbooks), integrated and discrete graphics plus a blu-ray writer. The Z series that came after went further by offering quad SSDs, an i7 dual core processor and a 1080p screen at a time when it was claimed it wasn't possible for Apple to fit an i5 into the 13in MBP - Sony not only managed that but they were able to do it in a smaller and lighter package with higher performance parts and more components.

John

did you get change from a million pounds? Sony tax is pretty much equal to Apple tax!

Most of the time I use my netbook for internet surfing, playing the odd game and watching youtube etc:

Lenovo Ideapad S12

Atom N270

3GB RAM

250GB HDD

nVidia ION GPU

9 Cell battery (good for about 6 hours of fairly intensive use and over 8 of light use)

Then I have my desktop that has recently needed a new motherboard but went cheap as just wanted it working and didn't want to upgrade cpu yet. This is currently in the living room while we decorate and move the office to another room:

Q6600 G0 @ stock speed

8GB Corsair XMS DDR3

Gigabyte 560ti OC

128GB Samsung SSD

750GB Samsung HDD

And all in an Antec P180 case

This used to be watercooled with 2x Zalman Reserator towers but following the motherboard change I couldn't be bothered and was sick of having to empy and disconnect everything to move the tower!

Does the job!!!

Woot

Have just ordered parts for new PC. I was quite surprised that the gap between a home built and shop bought pc is as wide as it is.

Not a power house

i3 2100

8Gb DDR3 1333

Asus H61 Mobo

1Tb HD

Win7

No GFX at the moment. I don't game much at all and those I do use occasionally are pretty old. I've read the intel on-board gfx are surprisingly good so I'm going to give it a try first before buying a separate card.

Couple of 120mm fan in this case rather than the 5x 80mm I've got right now so it should be a lot quieter.

Got a 22" monitor already so no need for anything new. Considered an SSD and BD dives but I just don't need that much speed or storage right now.

Got a laser mouse that was about the only extra.

Might have to run a VM with XP for SWMBO and I might consider dual booting with 'nix of some sort to tinker with.

Taking Monday off to do the build.

Laptop - HP Easynote 1.6Ghz dual core

Business/Home - 2 Zoostorms of Ebuyer - 3.4Ghz, 1TB, 8GB Ram.....very fast and enough power for Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator etc...

Although the Laptop is starting to take the pish......its very slow sometimes, even for surfing the net!

Edited 23 May, 201214 yr by Beancounter1980

iPhone, iPad & iMac.

:p

iPhone, iPad & iMac.

:p

Want a job as an expert witness, I hear apple need some new ones

I have a 4 year old Sony laptop running Windows 7 and Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and an iPad.

I've just given my first ever laptop to me Dad, a Toshiba 1.8ghz XP thingie that makes a loud whirring sound and heats the room up. I also gave away an Acer 15" Vista Laptop with a low rent dual core processor and less storage than my biscuit barrel. This leaves me with:

A battered old Evesham Dual core XP tower that is in danger of conking out at any moment (everything is backed up

An Acer 14" timeline X i3 and 320gb (small and superb battery life)

An HP Envy 17 i7, 6gb RAM and 500GB HDD (superb full RGB gamut and woeful battery life. Boy does it get hot)

A Dell XPS 15, i7 8gb RAM, 750bg HDD full 1080 RGB Led screen and a BIG battery

If only I understood how to make any of them work :(

Edited 23 May, 201214 yr by Lady Elanore

I've just given my first ever laptop to me Dad, a Toshiba 1.8ghz XP thingie that makes a loud whirring sound and heats the room up. I also gave away an Acer 15" Vista Laptop with a low rent dual core processor and less storage than my biscuit barrel. This leaves me with:

A battered old Evesham Dual core XP tower that is in danger of conking out at any moment (everything is backed up

An Acer 14" timeline X i3 and 320gb (small and superb battery life)

An HP Envy 17 i7, 6gb RAM and 500GB HDD (superb full RGB gamut and woeful battery life. Boy does it get hot)

A Dell XPS 15, i7 8gb RAM, 750bg HDD full 1080 RGB Led screen and a BIG battery

If only I understood how to make any of them work :(

HTH

currently using an imac, ipad and an old sony vaio laptop

HTH

I will apply it 'virtually' straight away