Is there a valid use for multiple PCs
Right now I have three PCs. My laptop that I use for surfing the web, and some light gaming while traveling, my main desktop that I use to do more graphic intensive gaming, a little bit of web design, and other miscellaneous activities, and a third PC that I use for media storage (MP3s, pictures and video) and is a Frankenstein's monster of handy-me-down parts from various PC upgrades that have happened over the years.
I am debating scrapping the Media server and combining the storage if the media server into my main PC, but wanted to know if anyone else out there is utilizing a second PC and what for to see if I can get any ideas on what to do with the spare box.
"Uranus is positioned for summer surprises." - from Tarot.com's mailing list
Xbox Live Gamertag - Yoreel
I use multiple PC's for rendering out animations in maya but thats really it. I cant imagine having multiple PC's at home though. To much clutter.
Thanks for standin' still!
-XBox Gamertag: Tempest Blaze (Without the Y!)
AoC Wicanna : Averic/ToS
I have a desktop and a laptop. The laptop was free from my scholarship though, so I consider it OU's free gift to me.
*Legion* wrote:
Depends on what you need. I currently have two. I will probably have three within the year. I have a desktop for most anything(games, media, business), I have a laptop for work on the go and use in the kitchen for when I grab a smoke or want to sit with breakfast. I am tossing around the idea of a media center PC with a lot of storage for movies.
Few people, your typical e-mailing, typing, surfing types need more than one PC. And sadly, despite the risks to health, these people overpay on laptops.
HTPC in the dungeon, media server parked in the corner of my office, laptop for work and a PC for gaming/surfing/etc. Two more PCs floating around but they're not whole - parts get donated, stuff gets cannibalized when needed...
Media server originally was built to keep the array of noisy hard drives and cooling fans out of the theater room (AKA dungeon), but fans and HDs are so quiet these days that I wouldn't bother with the media server if I was starting over again today. The WD 1TB drive is nearly silent even under load. A pair of Samsung F1 750GBs I picked up on sale (I'm weak) are inaudible even with the case open.
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-I have my main pc/gaming rig.
-My wife's PC.
-Our 'new' laptop (vista).
-Our 'old' laptop (xp), still works when plugged in but mainly used for child #1 to pound on while on the ctrl-alt-del screen but also used when wife is on new laptop and I want to surf while watching tv too.
-A Windows domain controller/file share. Two external drives attached to this also hold the back ups of all the windows profiles from the workstations as well as the server's internal file share drives, I use two externals for redundancy. (Win2K3)
-A Linux Samba/Slimserver box. (Media server)
-A Linux box to RSYNC with the other Linux server. (Backup box)
-A Windows box that was my old gaming rig but is now my main test box for running VMs. (xp)
-A new Windows box that is going to replace the windows VM box. (Win2K8 with HyperV)
-An old DOS/Win95 box for running old games, in fairness this box isn't turned on very often but when I get a hankering for Warlords2 it gets booted up.
Then there's the networked printer, the HP2424M switch and other infrastructure gear to keep it all talking.
Do you ever walk alone like a drifter in the dark?
I'm at eight towers and four (just recycled a fifth) laptops currently.
Towers:
* File server/PDC/Virtual Server
* Primary personal workstation
* Work workstation
* Upstairs HTPC
* Downstairs HTPC
* Kids computer
* Garage workshop computer
* Basement workshop computer
Laptops:
* Personal main
* Wife's main
* Knock around multi-use laptop #1
** OS test system
** Astronomy software for telescope control when needing XP
* Knock around multi-use laptop #2
** Mainly used for a thinclient or web access when downstairs
Xbox Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
--
My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
I have a server running Linux, with a couple of VMs, a Windows desktop, a Mac desktop, a Linux laptop, and a HTPC running MCE. (which sucks.)
I also have a mirrored drive door G4 Mac just sitting there, driveless and unloved.
I have my gaming computer / workstation in the office. My girlfriend uses a laptop for all purposes (including gaming). I've also got a laptop I use at conferences and to surf / remote desktop while I watch TV. The TV runs off of an HTPC performing DVR duties.
I think we need them all, although the HTPC could be replaced by a DVR/media extender I suppose.
We all know that there is no quicker way to empty a joke of its peculiar magic than to try to explain it -- to point out, for example, that Lou Costello is mistaking the proper name "Who" for the interrogative pronoun "who," etc. - D.F.Wallace
I have my laptop for couchsurfing and my main PC for gaming and whatever else. Then there's the old PC in my office/workout space that I use for . . . shut up.
Occasionally
I get the urge to write out
a stupid haiku
If you're not counting actual job/work boxes at the office, I have six right now.
1) my "gaming" computer, which also doubles as a Maya rendering box
2) my old box, which is used for writing code and writing words
3) a file/print server
4) my ancient laptop used by the kids for doing homework
5) Kid box #1
6) Kid box #2
I've found over the years I have to have a separate box for my graphics programs and my development environments. I just run into too many problems on the boxes trying to make them live peacefully together. And the kid divide and conquer thing should be obvious, especially with how much of school is managed online these days.
Duoae wrote:
Currently have 5 machines:
- Mac OS X 10.5 laptop, used as my main machine (with Parallels installed)
- Win XP laptop, used as my admin machine (VirtualCenter and Mac's don't play nicely)
- Boyfriends Vista laptop, his secondary machine
- Main gaming rig, Vista (duh, used for gaming)
- Ubuntu machine, used for *nix testing, routing and firewall
Can never have too many machines...
"Hating me won't make you pretty..."
Malor, I'll take that G4 if you want to give it up.
I've currently got:
- Mac OSX 10.5 Laptop - primary workstation and primary gaming system
- Mac OSX 10.4 Laptop - secondary workstation, primary writing system. The MB keyboard is just SO much nicer for long-term typing, over the MBP.
- Shattered remains of a XP tower.
- SGI Origin200 Server. Currently unused, waiting for me to get enough stuff together to boot it and install the OS.
This is down from my once-maximum of ... 8 systems.
Mystic Violet wrote:
We have a laptop for light gaming while traveling or vacationing (like now woohoo!), my wife's office pc which is faster, and my gaming/media monster pc hooked up to the big tv. If someone else is on the tv I go to the wife's pc for backup, or if I'm on the deck "watching the kids" I'm invariably on the laptop.
After seeing some of the technological decadence of other goodjers, I don't feel like we have too many
my vote cancels out yours
Wow. Some people have serious hardware!
I've just got a desktop for gaming and browsing the web at home/watching DVDs and a laptop for lugging to and from work that covers all manner of uses from minor gaming to data analysis programmes for any random pieces of equipment i use in the lab.
Of - power - insessantly
Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
Death - is - he - who - breaks
this - monument - i - prophesy
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
My list is really simple. I don't have a need to be connected to a PC 24/7... just 16/7
- Main PC for everything I do at home. Serves as Media storage as well. OS: WinXP 32
- Laptop that sits near the couch and serves as a websurfing, email checking ITunes extension while watching TV. OS: WinXP 32
- My former PC which is now the wife's PC which is nothing more than a housing of random files, documents and music. OS: WinXP 32
- My work computer which is at work and serves kind of like a secret host for myself as well as work stuff. OS: Ubuntu 8.04 64 bit
I really don't know what I'm going to do once I build my new machine with all the old ones. I still have the cases and parts of 3 older machines. I'm such a pack rat.
Prederick wrote:
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.
Main PC for gaming, web browsing and the like. Still runs XP, but I'm sure it can handle Vista. I don't want it to, though.
New lappy, Dell XPS M1330, for portable use when I need it. Doesn't do too bad at gaming, either, but I don't use it for that much.
Old lappy, Dell Inspiron 9200, the precursor to the XPS series. I never should've gotten this one, but it seemed powerful at the time. Too big to be a useful mobile system, though. I'll never get another 17" widescreen laptop. I use this one around the house, when I need a computer somewhere else and don't want to use the 1330, for whatever reason (risk of damage, simply closer at hand, etc.)
HTPC, running Hardy Heron for MythTV. Just put a 750 GB Barracuda in it last night to start using it as a media server as well.
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Hook it up to your TV/entertainment center if you can. You might be able to further modify it to record TV and playback any media you want to.
Xbox Live:Kurrelgyre | PSN:Kurrelgyre | Steam:Kurrelgyre
"Never know when you might need a tank." -Johnston Green, Jericho
I've trimmed down a lot from my bad old days
Now I just have my MacBook Pro (and my girlfriend has her MacBook), my Linux desktop, and my Linux/MythTV HTPC/file server. I do have at least one old box hanging around though, just in case I need another system in a hurry, though even that's hard to justify when you can put together a barebones system for a few hundred dollars.
Xbox Live: pneuman | my tech/games/rant blag
Errrr... anyone with one computer out there? o.O
God, I feel left out in the cold.
I have two outdated towers and an oldish laptop. I use them for email and GWJ.
rabbit wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:
XBL: E Munnie
My little brother has a beat to ship laptop. Soon he will have two as I hand him down my old desktop and build anew.
I only have a desktop.
If you don't count the laptop I have from work.
xbox live: Lester King 17
Nothing to see here.
For real.
xbox live: Lester King 17
I just wanted to add that I consider my state wasteful. In some hazy future I expect to build a media PC and a server (perhaps combined). Besides that, I'd just use my laptop for GWJ, email, and the accursed Google Reader. Maybe someday I'll get back into PC gaming.
rabbit wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:
XBL: E Munnie
Gold farming / other botting goodness.
Your friendly neighbourhood hair splitting singularity.
@Yoreel: Swap the Media server for an HTPC and we have the same setup. When it comes to build a new machine, I'm not sure what I'll do with four machines, though.
JUST PUZZLED YOUR ASS UP, SON! -Mr Crinkle
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I just discovered a cable drop in my storage closet. I'm thinking I need to buy a rackmount now.
*maniacal laughter*
Mystic Violet wrote:
Rackmount servers are looooud. Soundproof that closet and get it its own air feed.
Xbox Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
--
My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
Ok I have 5 all together.
1) Main computer, e6600 c2d 2 gigs ram WinXP: Games and whatever the hell I decide to do.
2) Wifes computer: p4 1.6 2 gigs ram, WinXP: Quicken, faxing misc office tpye stuff and surfing the internet with her toe. While listening to Youtubed 80's music.
3) Old Laptop Del 600m (?) Ass-old lappy that can barely do office work, used for college now only used when I go on trips to surf around the internets and some low grade tasks. Seems to be forming into the recipe laptop as it is parked in the kitchen.
4) Wifes Vista Laptop, Nice machine sucky OS: Currently hooked into the Plasma so we can watch Hulu and Netflixs.
5) Servatron, REALLY old computer dual p3 750mhz with 2 gigs of ram. Server / dumping ground for all old HDD's At one point had just under a terrabyte of HDD space (before they had 500 gig HDDS!) but the old drives have died a horrible death. It is currently running WinXP but OS can change at a whim depending on what I need it too do. Currently hosting my trackmania server with a sql backend and pulling torrents every now and then.
All my computers are on the quiet side as the 3 desktops are all stacked near each other in the same room. I have always valued silence over speed, the loudest computer in the house is the Servatron, because of the hand-me down 80mm Craptastic fans that I pulled out of a used powersupply. If it wasn't for the slight hum when operating it would be placed out front with the TV and remote controlled via laptop or wireless keyboard for TV/DVD/DVR duty. I might swap it into my Antec Super Lan boy minus my glowly 120MM when we move and get a house.
Xfire: Pharacon
Tempest says: "A team hat doe snot communicate and talk to each other about what the next move will be is going to lose."