I got a new computer!

My brother is going off to college (JMU, hello GWNF! )so he's getting our old computer. So I got a new one yesterday.

vpr Matrix 240R www.vprmatrix.com

Processor Brand
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor

Processor Speed
2.4AGHz

System Bus
533MHz

Cache Memory
512KB L2 cache

System Memory (RAM)
512MB

System Memory (RAM) Expandable To
1.0GB

Type of Memory (RAM)
DDR SDRAM

Hard Drive Type
Ultra ATA/100 (7200 rpm)

Hard Drive Size
100.0GB

Video Memory
64MB DDR SDRAM

Graphics
nVidia GeForce2 graphics card

MPEG
Yes

Audio
AD1981A integrated

Speakers
Yes

Modem
56 Kbps* ITU V.92-ready PCI internal fax/modem *Capable of receiving 56 Kbps downloads. However, current regulations limit download speed to 53 Kbps.

Network Card
10/100 Intel® Pro (integrated)

CD-ROM Drive
Shared

Maximum CD-ROM Drive Speed
48x

CD-RW Drive
Shared

CD-RW Drive Speeds
4x6x24

DVD-ROM Drive
Yes

Maximum DVD-ROM Drive Speed
16x max. DVD-ROM; 48x max. CD-ROM

DVD-RW Drive
Yes

DVD-RW Drive Speeds
2x1x8

Diskette Drive
Yes

Diskette Drive Type
3.5" 1.44MB

Total Expansion Bays
External: 3 (5.25"); Internal: 3 (3.5")

Available Expansion Bays
External: 1 (5.25"); Internal: 2 (3.5")

Total Expansion Slots
5 PCI

Available Expansion Slots
4 PCI

USB Ports
6 (2 front, 4 back)

Parallel Ports
1

IEEE 1394 Ports
2 (1 front, 1 back)

Serial Ports
1

Keyboard Description
104-Internet PS/2 keyboard

Other Control Devices (mouse, etc.)
PS/2 optical scrolling mouse

Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Compared to my old computer (600mhz P3, 384MB RAM) this thing is blazing fast!

Ah yes, a DVD burner, now you're talking!!

Nice system, i'll bet that baby does smoke 'em!

Happy trails!!

As most of you know I work at Best Buy Part time. Well I was the like twice last month. But anyway, the VPR's are the best computer I have seen in a long time. It is like you just went and bought all real parts and built it your self. But you can't beat the price. For the price you can't touch them with anything else.

I agree. I was looking at the low end P4 1.8 for a gift for my cousin. I don't know why they don't get more press.

I thought something had to be hidden, like a crappy on-board video card or something, so when the sales people were not looking I opened the case (it has thumbscrews).

Mobo was an Intel, all the components were name brand....I love the 6 USB's with 2 in front. Wish it had one more memory slot. The speakers are Altec Lansing, yes?

Don't forget to mention the integrated IDE RAID controller on the motherboard.

The only drawback (for some) is no software. For me it's no issue....like I want some Lotus notes bundled software anyways....

Monkey: Did it come with any software worth a spin?
Congrats, good buy.

Looks sweet!!! congrats!

I built a system for my wife a couple of weeks ago. Purchased from outpost.com or Fry's Electronics.

Specs are:

Antec Tower Case (425 Watt PS) Blue Aluminum w/ window kit.

Gigabyte P4 motherboard with onboard RAID, 3-Firewire ports, 4-USB 2.0 ports, SDIF optical & coxial out, 5.1 channel built in sound.

P4 2.0 GHz 512k cache

(2) 512 Meg 184pin Dimms (1 Gig memory)

(2) Western Digital 7200 RPM UDMA/133 120 Gig Drives (RAID 0, mirrored) (So you only have 120 Gigs of space, not 240)

(2) Maxtor 5400 RPM UDMA/133 120 Gig Drives (Software RAID 1, Stripped 240 Gigs of space)

ATI Radeon AGP 4x 128 Meg Video Card w/ S-VHS out

Cendyne DVD-RW drive (will write DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW discs)

LS-120 Super Drive (IDE)

Logitec Wireless Mouse

Viewsonic 19" pure flat monitor

(Total cooling fans in case = 11) (It's quiet too)

Running Windows XP Professional Edition (Stay away from home edition) (Would be a killer Linux box though)

It ran around $2,500 (not bad for all that. It looks like the alien ware boxes, but faster and cheaper.

Woo hoo! Now she can use microsoft money and outlook even faster.

I bought the drives to store my ever growing MP3 collection which is now up to 174 Gigabytes (and no, I don't own all the CD's...)

So why do they call you "overkill"?............



Nice system!

Ask my wife!

My name is Phil first of all. The name 'overkillphil' was dubbed because everything I do has to be complicated. I just can't do things the simple way. For example. Before I married my wife I went over to fix her garage door opener. It just needed a piece of metal in the chain to activate the stop switch. Now of course I can't just do that. I have to build a 555 timer circuit with two led's that will do the work of the switch. 555 circuits are simple, however in this case to her, it was overkill. When building shelves for the garage in our old house I could have used about 10 2x4's. But to build the shelves to support 50,000 pounds! I had to use 36 of them. The shelving unit was only 8 feet long and three feet deep. There were a total of three shelves. Every two feet there was a 2x4 support going across the length of the shelf.
When installing the satellite dish almost two years ago I had to build a support when mounting the dish to the side of the garden shed. I did this because the dish at it's angle, would not fit. I didn't want the dish to be seen from the back of the house or the street in front. when running the cables I burried conduit and knocked out a concrete step on the side of the house to run the wires. Doing that exposed a space in the basement where there was not a floor joist. I had to install a new joist, and as a result had to replace the side door with a new one...This of course, was in the middle of January in Missouri.


You wanted to know.




Phil
St. Louis

OH! Forgot to add the important one.

WHILE installing this new floor joist, I couldn't swing the hammer very far to get the nail in all the way. So I HAD to go to Home Depot and buy a pneumatic framing gun. You know, the nice ones you can drive 16 penny nails in with! This is my third pneumatic gun. I have the brad nailer, finishing nailer and framing nailer. Do I use them often? No, but I have more tools than most contractors. I have 8 different types of saws too. Don't ask, most where inherited when my father-inlaw died.

Craftsman Jig Saw, Craftsman 16" Radial Arm Saw, Craftsman Circular Saw, Delta 10" Table Saw, Porter Cable Reciprocating Saw, Skill 16" Scroll Saw, Delta 7 1/4" Compound Mitre Saw, DeWalt 12" Compound Mitre Saw...

Also have one of those Lathe/Milling machines that my uncle gave me. Sad part about that one is it weighed 475 pounds. I managed to get it in the basement. I took machine tool design in trade school for a while, but the math killed me. I can turn things though.

I want a plasma cutter next. It would go along with the Tig Welder that I took from my dad because he didn't know what to do with it. He still asks me about it. "Am I ever going to get that back from you?" No...You'll just hurt yourself!


Oh well...I'm not bragging, really...I just have more crap than I know what to do with...The radial arm saw is good for making sub woofer boxes with...But how many of those do you really have to make?



If I had a large pickup truck I'd go into home remodeling business. I do it enough around here.


:/

Phil

Then you owe me $20?

J/K

My buddy just bought the bottom Matrox model as his first computer...., now I'm jonesing for your model after looking at it again...

I went all out on this system. She's always worried about loosing her data. She doesn't like being connected to the server in the basement. That has a RAID 5 array with (5) 9.1 gig drives. I got it from the company I used to work for. Compaq Proliant 1500 Server, 256 Megs ram and (2) Pentium Pro 200MHz processors. (IT'S SLOW) but works well. That server is backed up on a 4mm tape changer. She wanted some redundancy but SCSI was too expensive for this application.

Hell, she doesn't like being connected to the network. I don't know why...But I told her "If I remove your network access you have to go off the cable modem too".

We don't play games on computers. We don't even play games. (Well she does with me...wife thing, ya know...)

Don't be obsessed with Neon lights in cases unless your case sits on your desk. It's useless on the floor, unless you want to crawl under to look at the pretty wires and circuit boards.




Question/Request.

I'm in the process of designing a layout for a digital dash for my 95 explorer. I drew the whole thing lastnight in 3 hours...I could probably get the circuit designed and etched with a lot of work, but do any of you know a design engineer who would like to take on this task?

It is an LED display (as VFD's are custom and expensive), but I figure that the dash in my truck is electrically driven. So more or less this is a fancy volt meter...

If you know of anyone, please send them my way.

Email is pmgodfrey@earthlink.net


Thanks,

Phil