My computers

GETMAN'S DEVICE SPECIFICATIONS

Excluding my brain and calculators, I posses 7 computing devices:
1 Traditional desktop PC of Theseus from various components
2 Acer Aspire 5 notebook
3 ASRock ION 330 nettop
4 HP Mini 5103 netbook from hell (no more battery)
5 Sony Ericsson W890i Cellphone (still works but needs a SIM card)
6 Raspberry Pi Model B rev. 2
7 Huawei Honor 6 cellphone (soft-rooted)

8 BlackBerry KeyTWO cellphone (finally a keyboard)

9 UMAX Visionbook 12WR FLEX 2in1

There are 4 more computers somewhere the house or in the cellar. The one I had before and still works is a Celeron 900 MHz with 256 MB RAM, GeForce MX 100/200 and 2 DVD drives (one can't burn), but no HDDs, so Live CDs only. Together, we have about a dozen computers, but none is as powerful as mine.

Never more iShits because of lack of memory card support and direct filesystem access (no file managers or music module players). It's a toy, it hasn't even got an USB connector. All manufacturers but Apple agreed on moving to USB. Even a fake 2GB iPod Shuffle (only 64MB) was more convenient to use. MacOS is some strange BSD, at least it's *nix-like.

No consoles for now since nowadays they seem to be incapable of running random machine code from an input media, therefore worthless for the demoscene. Last ones were the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube/Dreamcast generation. Now they serve only for pulling money out of people's pockets. No one needs a console when they can get a home computer instead that can do way more. There's a hack to boot Linux on a PS4, though. Besides, later consoles are too powerful for those 3D effects to be really impressive. We get photorealistic things all the time, but very bland prerendered wave music in AAA games. Good old Genesis/MegaDrive.


PC:

Gigabyte X99P-SLI motherboard
Intel Core i7-5820K @ 6x 3.3 GHz (Turboboost increased to 4.20 blaze it.)
32 GB DDR4 Kingston HyperX Fury RAM @ 2133 MHz (4/8 slots used, quad channel)

256 GB Samsung EVO M.2 nVME SSD with Manjaro Cinnamon (+swap, not separate /home) 
240 GB Kingston SATA SSD with Windows 10 Enterprise on it

1 TB WD HDD for Windows swap and old user profiles

1 TB Toshiba HDD from a flea market
4 TB Seagate HDD for large files and stuff
Gigabyte Windforce OC nVidia GeForce RTX 2070S 8GB

LG DVD+RW drive used rarely (has LightScribe)
Internal 3.5" card reader (creates a lot of drives in This PC)
Corsair RM-850 modular PSU

Put into operation in April 2016. Broadwells were just arriving back then. A year later Ryzen 7 1700 beat the shit out of i7-5820K in multithreading. Singlethreading is about on par AFAIK. Nevertheless this build was still "Covfefe" Lake-proof. It needs an overclock to come close to i5-10400. Ryzen 5 1600 AF provides slightly less performance for way cheaper, but is unobtainium. After 3 years, Ryzen 5 3600 (in sister's PC) fiercely competes, and after 7 years Ryzen 5 7600 with all these DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 buses just wipes floor with it, but AM5 motherboards and DDR5 RAM aren't that cheap.

Jumped from WinXP straight to Win10 Enterprise. Big updates come late, so it should be somewhat more stable, since M$ tests updates on regular people with Home edition now. Few BSODs here and there, more than in Windows 7. I use it like I've used Windows 7 anyway, never again should I put Windows 10 on a traditional desktop. Version-locked DX12 sucks anyway, go Vulkan.

In 2016, 32 GB of RAM might have been considered too many, and now in 2020 it's the aspect that keeps this PC afloat amidst the new "budget" dual channel 6-cores like i5-10600K or Ryzen 5 3600. Many tabs in Chrome and modded Minecraft can eat almost every amount of it. There is still a possibility of upgrading to 64 GB, filling all the slots, if I find the same sticks still selling in the kit of 32 GB. Having pre-matched sticks doesn't interest me, I like fun.

The overclock (3.6 core+uncore, 4.2 boost, power limit +50%, RAM 2400) seems to be stable, but the BIOS always complains of boot failure even when shut down correctly. The memory sticks claimed to support overclocking to 2666 MHz, but memtest makes the PC restart even at 2133. It comes in handy for a pause before the GRUB screen so I can select the OS in time. However, it's annoying during multiple restart Windows updates.

Upgraded from GTX 660 to RTX 2070S in June 2020. The non-modular power supply cables are genuinely a mess. According to some random calculators, the 500W PSU is barely enough for stock operation under sustained load, so no overclocking possibility really. This upgrade seems quite incremental compared to previous jump from NVS 295 to GTX 660. The framerates are way better for sure, but there's no change in playable games, they just run better. May the tensor and RT cores be of help in later games (assuming they fit on HDD) or while learning CUDA or Vulkan. Turing is a compute architecture anyway, nVidia just wanted to sell that extra transistors somehow, so they hyped up raytracing and denoising. After all, if all you want is rasterization performance in current generation games, you can get 2nd hand the proven classic 1080 Ti instead of 1st hand 3070 with circuity you don't even care about. On Linux, Turing is the oldest supported architecture for the new open-source driver, and Kepler support has been dropped from newer Windows games.

Also installed Manjaro Cinnamon to until recently unused M.2 SSD reserved for this purpose. By briefly pulling out the Windows bootloader disk, it was made that GRUB and Windows Boot Manager don't talk to each other, only rediscovering it after updating GRUB. However, Windows can continue to upgrade freely and not disturb the GRUB on the M.2, which being a fully Linux-formatted drive, is ostensibly ignored, suggesting Windows indeed is a technically inferior OS. It's installer couldn't even transfer the MBR to the SATA SSD and left it on the old HDD with multiple corrupted installs of WinXP, so I can't replace it if I want to continue booting Windows, which it ceased to do anyway. Hopefully I won't need to deal with Windows on this machine ever again. 

 

Due to school using M$ products and proprietary Windows software too heavily, I had to. After almost destroying the boot process with multiple attempts to boot so that the windows installer would both see the drives and allow installing that it required a BIOS reset with jumpers, Win10 is back with bootloader on the correct yet slightly aging drive. It even kept the old user data, but the boot process remained oldschool, so no Win11. Reportedly there was a Pitou virus in the MBR. Thanks to Team-Lil for a finally working ISO.

Passmark V10 (old overclock):

Geekbench (Linux): https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/3613580

 

PCPartPicker list (approximate): https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7PH7tn

 

Possible future dream PC: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GhcGpH

Still waiting for Threadripper 7000.

Notebook:

Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51G-8723)
Intel Core i7-8550U @ 4x 1.8 GHz (4.0 GHz turbo)
nVidia GeForce MX150 (2 GB VRAM, Pascal, like GT 1030)
12 GB DDR4 RAM (4 GB onborard, 8 GB in slot)
128 GB SSD
1 TB HDD
1080p IPS display
Ethernet, USB-C, HDMI, USB 3.0, SD, 3.5mm jack (only 1), 2x USB 2.0
Crappy speakers and webcam as usual
Actually decent "Dual Digital Mic"

This one is for doing schoolwork on something better than that shitty Atom. It may be too big (15.6") to carry to lectures, but with that 1080p dislay the scaling was set to 125 %. I didn't pick any ultrabook because of the lack of numpad and potential connectivity issues. Our household isn't equipped for miniHDMI or miniDisplayPort, and Ethernet port will be beneficial if I wanted to be social and take it to a LAN party.

I waited until September. The semester begins in October. AMD failed to put Raven Rigde to stores in time. Therefore Intel got the money again. This notebook was chosen because of the number of cores, again. It's a Kaby Lake-R, the mobile analogy of Coffee Lake, which can be described as adding 2 more cores. What I didn't know was the U-series i5s didn't drop HT this time, but at that time, all i5 KBL-R notebooks didn't come with a dedicated GPU. All dual cores are now trash, no exceptions, not even the new Athlons. Even though, I'm kind of a dumpster-diver when it comes to tech.

It was preconfigured to let users choose between the integrated and dedicated GPU for each application. Custom resolutions are directed by the Intel UHD control panel and the GeForce one is quite limited. Also dwm.exe likes to run on the iGPU, so any accelerated application with it's own rendering needs to be run on the iGPU too when in windowed mode, such as some advanced PassMark tests and VS Code. It's weird that the UHD Graphics can't set supersampled UHD on the 1080p display, and I can't test for HDMI 2.0 either, because there's no 4K TV nor HDMI 2.0 cable around. The dGPU isn't GTX 1050 because no such notebook was available in Czechia at that time, and also to keep me from wanting to uprgrde my aged GTX 660, which still happened to be the most powerful GPU in our household. The MX150 has slightly worse performance for way less power consumption. In DX12 and Vulkan, it may surpass the GTX 660.

Originally planned to go full LXLE and put the OEM Win10 Home into VirtualBox, but since W10 got Bash (based on Ubuntu LTS), I kept it for at least until I have to develop some GUI. The 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD are great for Linux. The Restricted Boot crap can be disabled here, but you have to request Advanced Startup to even get to the BIOS, which is very barren. Del no longer works, you have to use F2, and to boot some other stuff you have to use F12, and the instruction to press that is hidden by default. Also needed is to set the boot mode to Legacy in the BIOS, and you can't boot the pre-installed Windows until you set it back to UEFI. Why it's so hard to play with x86 computers nowadays?

 

Now test driving Win11 on this. Managed to make the taskbar small and remove Edge. Keeping a 1 TB nVME SSD on hand for a Linux install once M$ decides to break something.


Nettop:

Intel Atom 330 @ 2x 1.60 GHz overclocked to 2.0 GHz
4 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM (only 2 slots)
320 GB HDD
nVidia ION chipset (can only decode Full HD in H.264 at 30 FPS (no DP output))
DVD-RW drive (no Blu-ray, we don't have any)

This one has extremely elaborate boot system - 1st you choose if you want open SUSE 11.4 or Windows and after going for Windows you choose if XP or 7. The XP loads very slowly. To all wonder, it all does actually work. It appeared to be dead but it turned out only the CMOS battery was dead. Now it's either dead or the CMOS battery is dead again. Not worth digging into it for the performace. It's quite a nice monitor stand for non-adjustable monitors. There is still another one after sister with only Linux Mint after M$ thought it was a good idea to upgrade perfectly tuned Win7 to Win10, cutting away from booting the openSUSE 11.1 install. The Cinnamon desktop is quite laggy.

I remember installing M$ Security Essentials reduced FPS from 21 to 18 in TMUF. Back then I considered this playable. Nowadays kids are so spoiled as they complain about having "only" 60 FPS in CS:GO. If they played Q3A, they would complain even at 120, because in Q3A you do more acrobacy than in CS:GO. And I played Q3A and CS 1.6 at only 60 and didn't complain. More FPS than your monitor can display won't fix that you are a n00b.


Old netbook:

Intel Atom N550 @ 2x 1.50 GHz
2 GB RAM
300 GB HDD, 200 GB for Windows, 100 GB for Linux
1366x768 display (almost Retina, but only TN)
No GPU (only some onboard "decelerator" GMA 3150)
DC 12V IN
3x USB 2.0
1x D-SUB (AKA VGA) for 1 MOAR MONITOR (1680x1050 on Windows, 2048x1536 on Linux)
1x LAN (but has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth)
2x audio jack 3.5", one in, one out
Stereo speakers (crap quality compared to my 2.1), microphone and webcam (1600x1200 and the same FPS as with Minecraft)
Windows XP Ultra Edition 2009 (Czech) + LXLE 16.04

Originally came with SuSE Linux Enterprise 11, but it had an old kernel (2.6 - like having MS-DOS), so it got replaced by openSUSE 13.1 and Windows XP Ultra Edition 2009 (some Czech warez disrto, but it's abandonware now). Wi-Fi driver in SUSE counts only for 11 channels, but in Europe there are 3 more. So if some Wi-Fi is at 12th, 13th or 14th channel, I must boot to XP. Glad I allocated 200 GB to it, my Torrent usage left me with only few GB of free space.

Due to my former university using Ubuntu (a .deb-based distro), the openSUSE (a .rpm-based distro) got replaced by LXLE, which is Lubuntu configured to look more like Ubuntu Mate. It has nice dark themes for late nights. Unity is ugly and won't run smoothly, same for the KDE of openSUSE. To be fair, openSUSE's default configuration of Xfce, a bit more demanding desktop environment, is very similar to Cinnammon (used by Mint, also a .deb-based distro), which takes inspiration from the familiar Windows GUI and makes it look not like a cellphone app. KDE did that too, but only until KDE3. Newer versions of KDE just suck from all the bloat. That's the reason Knoppix switched to LXDE. LXQT may be mature enough now. I also quite like IceWM and LXLE's JWM. Not getting all the tiling window managers (i3, dwm, bspwm, xmonad) hype, would rather use the standard TWM.

I downgraded (but due to critical regressions and performance, it was an upgrade) to XP because it seemed it could not handle 64-bit 7 properly and better MIDI support. In fact, I just wanted the Xenomorph theme, Royale Noir theme, Yamaha S-YXG50 WDM Softsynth and fullscreen console, along with 16-bit Windows apps compatibility. DOS compatibility sucked in Windows NT ever since, so I used DosBox even on my 1st computer. It can somehow not emulate SB16 satisfactorily in this case, while on Windows 7 it works. Anyway, for Impulsetracker, there's the Gravis Ultrasound emulaton, but the Covox and PC Speaker driver rulez! Although I wanted it to repurpose for music, I found myself attempting to game on this thing, 100% authentic toddlerhood experience like with GeForce MX200.

In terms of connectivity, this piece of early 00s performing electronic thing that appears to be a computer is actually better than a 10x more expensive Macbook, which compares with original Raspberry Pi Model A. 3 USB ports, Ethernet, and 2 jacks, which Apple won't give you even on their best Macbook. Seriously, why are people still buying these when iShits clearly suck compared to conventional PCs? Pretty much like current generation consoles, overpriced strange standard non-abiding PCs.

One day I may buy the cheapest netbook that is being sold new (around $150) and find out that its performance is 10x better and it can run Crysis.

LXLE, in fact Lubuntu, failed to upgrade itself from 20.04 to 22.04 so now running CrunchBang++, which is just Debian. Too light gray theme for my liking, actually, but I can re-rice it maybe. Only have to learn customizing tint2 instead of lxpanel. Also the Wi-Fi is again limited to 11 channels and I have no idea how to enable the rest (we use channel 12), but considering the battery no longer works, might as well plug in that RJ-45.

New netbook:

UMAX Visionbook 12WR FLEX 2in1

Intel Celeron N4100 SoC (4 cores, 4 threads)

4 GB RAM (soldered)

64 GB eMMC

256 GB SATA M.2 (currently unformatted, reserved for Linux)

1366x768 48Hz (!) glossy touchscreen

microSD, 2x USB 3.0, 3.5mm jack, microHDMI

Still more connectivity than a MacBook. Has very detailed BIOS. Attempt to modify some settings in preparation for installing Linux failed so hard it had to be RMA'd, so Win10 it is. No Win11 due to small eMMC. It was very interesting to play PUBG Lite on this thing. Unlike on the GMA, DX12 and Vulkan are supported. More such games are needed.

The rebranded Atoms are quite neat CPUs as far as legacy computing is concerned, but they tend to be the 1st victims of technological obsolescence. Nevertheless, all game developers should ensure their games run on the bottom-most-end systems still sold new, so that kids can play them on their school or grandma's PC. It's not like the company buying one would be an insurmountable expense. There's no time to play games as an adult, trust me. The framerate needs not to be acceptable, the game just needs to not crash. Back in my days, I was glad for each new frame our Coppermine Celeron and GeForce MX 200 managed to render.

Peripheria:

2x EIZO S3433W 1920x1200 - has DP instead of HDMI, quite thick bezel these days

1x EIZO S3431W - looks same but no DP, only DVI and D-SUB

2.1 Speakers (put a sock in bass-reflex hole for more natural bass)

Zowie Celeritas II keyboard (full NKRO, PS/2) and 4 other keyboards
Trust GXT 114 vertical gaming mouse and 3 other mice

USB 7-way hub with togglable ports

Conrad Electronics EM-240 Microphone

Logitech Attack 3 Joystick (11 buttons)

Logitech Wingman Action Gamepad

HP Color LasetJet Pro MFP M176n Printer

Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones and 4 other yet significantly cheaper

Various external HDDs (currently 2 per 1 TB and 2 per 500 GB)

Lots of Flash disks (2x2GB, 2x16GB, 2x32GB, 2x64GB)

External CD drive
External 3.5" FDD
Axiom Air 32 Mini Keyboard