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About Me - My Computers

Computers have been a fairly major part of my life. So it seems only fitting to tell you a bit about those I've owned.

Desktops

AMSTRAD 1640

1994 - 1998

Ah, my old AMSTRAD 1640. This was my first computer, which my Dad bought me in 1994, and on it, I learned the ins-and-outs of DOS, and also GEM.

Intel 8086 8MHz microprocessor
640KB RAM
2 5.25" double-sided double-density (360KB) floppy drives
A custom EGA-ish video adapter
MS-DOS 3.2
GEM 2.0
Plus, an Epson JX-80-compatible Fujitsu printer of some description

This computer sadly reached the end of its life in 1998.

Dell 316SX (which evolved into 'my main system')

1997 - 1998

The next computer in the Rudge household was a Dell 316SX, which ran Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6.2. I upgraded this a lot, and I've still got what is technically the result of all that upgrading now (although I doubt there's a single original component in it any more - Trigger's broom, anyone? ;)).

Intel 80386SX processor at 16MHz
8MB RAM
80MB hard disk
640x480 (16 colours) VGA-capable video adapter (could also do low-res SVGA resolutions)
A 10Mbit/sec SMC EtherCard ISA network card (which I later put in my Compaq P75 - I never actually used it or got it to work in the 386)
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
Microsoft Windows 3.1 (I still have the original floppies for this)
MS-DOS 6.2 (likewise)

At Christmas 1997, I bought an ESS AudioDrive 1688 sound card for it (later moved to the P75), and a 24x CD-ROM drive. This computer evolved in mid-1998 to the following:

Cyrix PR200

1998 - 2001

Cyrix PR200 processor at 166MHz
16MB EDO RAM
1.6GB hard disk
An Avance Logic video card of some description. Still using the Dell monitor, which didn't like resolutions of 800x600 or higher. Playing the Age of Empires demo was fun, as it didn't run in anything lower!
Microsoft Windows 95 OSR2

I upgraded the RAM to 64MB SDRAM a while later, which resulted in a huge speed boost. I also upgraded to Windows 98, and later 98 SE. I got a 13GB hard disk for this machine, and some time later, when the HD seemingly died (it sort of works today, but not for long), another one. The video card was also upgraded, to an S3 VIRGE 375 4MB video card, and a new monitor was purchased in January 1999 (sadly deceased today). July 1999 saw me get a modem and a connection to the Internet, and in November 1999, Owen's Visual Basic Workshop was born, partially based on content I wrote back in 1998. In February 2001, I bought an 8x4x32 Philips CD writer, although that's no longer in active use. I ran Windows XP RC2 on this system (even when it had 64MB of memory), and it ran, albeit slowly. Upgrading to 128MB helped a lot. At some point (summer 2001 maybe, can't remember) I upgraded it again:

Duron 1.2GHz

2001 - 2005

AMD Duron 1.2GHz processor
PC Chips motherboard (*shudder*... never again)
New case
Probably other stuff I can't remember

Some time after, I upgraded to 512MB DDR memory, and bought a 60GB hard disk. Since then, I've bought a DVD-ROM drive, a bunch of network cards and a network hub, a 120GB hard disk, a Pinnacle PCTV Pro TV card, a GeForce 4 MX440 graphics card, and various other bits and bobs. The specs then stood at:

AMD Duron 1.2GHz processor
ASUS A7V333 motherboard
Some random generic and quite bad case (same as before)
1GB DDR memory
120GB + 60GB hard disks
Dual-layer DVD writer: 16x DVD±R read/write, ?x DVD±RW write, 40x CD-R read/write, 24x CD-RW write, 2.4x DVD+R9 write...
16x DVD-ROM drive
Acer AL1715 17" TFT screen
GeForce 4 MX440 graphics card (64MB RAM, PCI)
Pinnacle PCTV Pro TV card
Windows XP Pro, Mandrake Linux, plus various other operating systems

In May 2005, I then upgraded the system further. Various other little upgrades later, and the system evolved into:

Athlon 64

2005 - 2007

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice processor
Abit AX8 motherboard
Quite a nice blue OC-UK Value case
2GB DDR memory
2 x 300GB SATA disks, plus 120GB + 60GB PATA disks (and I still need more storage!)
Dual-layer DVD writer: 16x DVD±R read/write, ?x DVD±RW write, 40x CD-R read/write, 24x CD-RW write, 2.4x DVD+R9 write...
LG L226WTQ 22" widescreen TFT, plus Acer AL1715 17" TFT screen
GeForce 6600GT 256MB PCI Express graphics card
Compro DVB-T200 digital TV card
Pinnacle PCTV Pro analogue TV card
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum sound card with Creative Inspire T7700 speakers
Windows XP Pro, Windows XP x64 Edition, Ubuntu Linux, plus others
100Mbit university Internet connection ;)

In September 2007, an unfortunate accident involving a drink and the power supply rendered my system somewhat dead. As a result, my plan to build a new system was brought forward, salvaging what parts I could from my old PC:

Core 2 Quad

2007 - 2009

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (4 x 2.4GHz) processor
ASUS P5B motherboard
Casecom black mid-tower case
Arctic Power 700W PSU
6GB DDR2 memory (upgraded from 2GB in 2008)
2 x 500GB, plus 120GB PATA disk (the old 60GB disk was retired)
Dual-layer DVD writer: 16x DVD±R read/write, ?x DVD±RW write, 40x CD-R read/write, 24x CD-RW write, 2.4x DVD+R9 write...
LG L226WTQ 22" widescreen TFT, plus Acer AL1715 17" TFT screen
GeForce GTX260 896MB PCI Express graphics card (previously a GeForce 7800GT 256MB, and before that an ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB PCI-X which was on loan from a friend)
Compro DVB-T200 digital TV card
Pinnacle PCTV Pro analogue TV card
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum sound card with Creative Inspire T7700 speakers
Windows Vista Business x64 Edition (previously XP x64, and before that XP Pro 32-bit)
8Mbps/832Kbps ADSL connection (in a private flat this year)

When I purchased my server in March 2008 (see below), the two 300GB disks that were originally in the PC were taken out and attached to the server. An extra 500GB hard disk was purchased for the machine in January 2009, bringing the total up to 1.1TB of storage.

August 2009 then brought more pain and misery for my PC - the motherboard died (although my first thought was a PSU, so I ended up buying a new one of those, too). I'd been planning some partial upgrades, so ended up making a much more substantial upgrade, resulting in:

Core i7

2009 - 2016

Intel Core i7 920 (4 x 2.67GHz) processor
ASUS P6T motherboard
Casecom black mid-tower case
CoolerMaster RealPower 700W modular PSU
6GB DDR3 Corsair 1600MHz memory (triple channel)
1.5TB, plus 2 x 500GB hard disks (the old 120GB disk was retired)
LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray/HD-DVD/DVD±RW/CD-RW combo drive
LG L226WTQ 22" widescreen TFT, plus Acer AL1715 17" TFT screen
GeForce GTX260 896MB PCI Express graphics card
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum sound card with Creative Inspire T7700 speakers
Windows 7 Ultimate (x64), plus Windows Vista Business (x64), Ubuntu, and others
8Mbps/832Kbps ADSL connection

The old TV cards I still have; they're not in my machine at the moment though.

In October 2009, I moved to the US, and shipped my computer across. Alas, DHL bashed it up somewhat, and I had to replace the case and the graphics card. I also bought new monitors, as I didn't ship those over. So, my system is now the same as before, but features:

Cooler Master HAF 922M case
GeForce GTX 285 OC 1GB PCI Express graphics card
2 x 24" Asus VW246H 1920x1080 monitors

In January 2012, I decided to upgrade the RAM on all my main systems, and replaced the existing 6GB of RAM with 16GB. Then, in February 2012, I replaced my graphics card with a GeForce GTX 560 OC 1GB graphics card, as the 285 seemed to be experiencing problems.

In January 2015, we upgraded to an "up to 80Mbps" FTTC connection, which typically delivers around 70Mbps down and 20Mbps up these days.

Core i5

2016 - present

In January 2016 my PSU died, and I decided to upgrade my base system at the same time.

Intel Core i5 6500 (4 x 3.2GHz) processor
ASUS B150-PLUS motherboard
16GB DDR4 Corsair RAM
Cooler Master HAF 922M case
GeForce GTX 285 OC 1GB PCI Express graphics card
Cooler Master G550M 550W PSU
2 x 24" Asus VW246H 1920x1080 monitors
Crucial MX300 750GB SSD (added July 2016) plus 3TB hard disk
LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray/HD-DVD/DVD±RW/CD-RW combo drive
Windows 10 Pro
80Mbps/20Mbps VDSL connection

In July 2020 I upgraded the graphics card to an MSI Radeon RX 580 ARMOR 8 GB OC.

Compaq Prolinea 575

1999/2000 - 2005

I bought this computer second-hand in 1999/2000 as a PC for messing around with and trying older software. I originally ran Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6.2 on it, but since have run Windows 98 on it mainly, and also NT 3.51 as a dual (well, triple) boot system for the past year or so. (Where "past year or so" now refers to, hm, maybe 2002-3 or so?). This system sadly had to be abandoned in August 2005 when we moved house.

Intel Pentium 75MHz processor
16MB RAM originally, upgraded to 32MB
~500MB hard disk (died when I accidentally nudged the power connector when it was plugged into another computer - d'oh!). I've since used an old 200MB hard disk in this, and my 1.6GB HD formerly on my main system.
Built-in Cirrus Logic video chipset (I've used my S3 375 in this for the past few years though)
CD-ROM drive, floppy drive

Laptops

Compaq Evo N1015V

2003 - 2005

What I used to write this paragraph back in 2004, on a ferry. Bought in June 2003.

Mobile AMD Athlon XP 1600+ processor
128MB RAM (later upgraded to 384MB)
20GB hard disk
ATI Mobility U1 video adapter
Windows XP

Compaq Presario 920US

2005 - 2006

Unfortunately, the Evo basically died in 2005, after two years of very thorough use. I replaced it with a second-hand Compaq Presario 920US in late 2005, which is quite similar in specification and design:

Mobile AMD Athlon XP 1700+ processor
512MB RAM
30GB hard disk
ATI Mobility U1 video adapter
Windows XP, Kubuntu Linux 5.10

However, it also has experienced some problems after using it for a while, particularly over the summer of 2006, so I went and bought myself a lovely new MacBook.

MacBook

2006 - 2009

After much deliberating, I decided to plump for a shiny new Intel MacBook in October 2006. It was really rather nice, with a good battery life, sharp screen, and was pretty small and light, compared with my past laptops.

1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor
1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM
80GB 5400rpm SATA drive
13.3" glossy widescreen display
CD-RW/DVD combo drive
Built in 802.11g and Bluetooth
iSight camera, a pile of ports
Mac OS X 10.4.x ("Tiger")

The hard disk unfortunately died in October 2009, though. The DVD drive had been somewhat temperamental for a while, too, so I ended up getting a new MacBook Pro. The laptop still worked otherwise, though, and I continued to use it occasionally for testing and mucking about.

MacBook Pro (2009)

2009 - present

After the death of my MacBook, I needed to get a new laptop pretty quickly, for work and suchlike, so I went and spent a slightly obscene amount of money on a brand new MacBook Pro:

2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
4GB DDR3 667MHz RAM
320GB 5400rpm SATA drive
15.4" glossy widescreen display
GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built in 802.11n and Bluetooth
iSight camera, a pile of ports
Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard")

The hard drive began making worrying noises (amongst other things) in late 2010, possibly due to the large number of transatlantic flights I'd taken it on, so I replaced that with a 500GB 7200rpm disk. Then in January 2012, I decided to upgrade the RAM on all my main systems, and so I replaced the 4GB of RAM in my MacBook Pro with 8GB. In December 2015, the hard disk was replaced with a 240GB SanDisk SSD, which provided a great performance boost. It was upgraded again to a 500GB SSD some time after that.

MacBook Pro (2019)

2019 - present

My 2009 MacBook Pro worked well for many years (after some upgrades), but unfortunately Apple stopped support for it with macOS Sierra. The CPU was also starting to show its age, and the battery was getting increasingly decrepit, so I finally ponyed up even more money for a new MacBook Pro:

2.3GHz Intel Core i9 8-core processor (4.8GHz Turbo Boost)
16GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM
512GB SSD
15.4" Retina display
Radeon Pro 560X graphics processor with 4GB GDDR5 RAM
Intel UHD Graphics 630
4 Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports
802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0
720p Facetime HD camera
macOS 10.14 "Mojave" (at time of release)

Servers

Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A2

2008 - 2010

In March 2008, I purchased a T2-WHS-A2 server to store a lot of my data, and to run various servers (web, database, etc). Initially it was fitted with two 500GB hard drives, but I've added more since then:

1.5GHz VIA C7 processor (which typically runs at around 20°C)
1GB RAM
2x500GB drives built in, plus 4x1TB additional storage (RAID-1 configuration, around 2.3TB usable space)
Gigabit Ethernet
Debian Linux 5.0 ("Lenny")
Pretty much silent!

Unfortunately this server developed some issues in May/June 2010, and was replaced.

SheevaPlug

2009 - 2010

I bought a SheevaPlug while in the US in October 2009, to use as a portable server while travelling between the UK and the US:

1.2GHz ARM processor
512MB RAM
512MB flash memory, 4GB SD card, 500GB USB disk
Gigabit Ethernet
Debian Linux 5.0 ("Lenny")
It's the size of a small power brick!

The SheevaPlug didn't get used too often once I was back in one place, but I think I still have it stashed away somewhere!

Atom server

2010 - 2015

As mentioned before, my T2-WHS-A2 developed some issues in 2010, and the machine that replaced it is now configured as follows:

1.6GHz Intel Atom D510 dual core processor
2GB DDR2 RAM
2x500GB drives built in, plus 4x2TB additional storage (RAID-1 configuration, around 4.1TB usable space in total)
Gigabit Ethernet
Debian Linux 6.0 ("Squeeze")
Still pretty much silent!

This machine has picked up various additional responsibilities over the years, so I decided to upgrade it to 4GB RAM in January 2012. The two 500GB disks were also replaced with two 3TB disks. At that time, I installed FreeNAS on this server and moved the general server responsibilities to the Revo.

Pentium server

2015 - present

I think the Atom server was experiencing some issues, I can't quite remember - either way, I ended up getting some new parts in 2015 for this machine:

3.1GHz Intel Pentium G3240 dual core processor
Asus H81M-PLUS motherboard
8GB DDR3 RAM (upgraded to 12GB when my main PC was upgraded
2 x 3TB plus 2 x 2TB drives (ZFS RAID-10 configuration, around 6TB usable space in total)
Gigabit Ethernet
FreeNAS

Intel NUC

2017 - present

I bought an Intel NUC kit in 2017 to replace the Revo as my main server:

1.5GHz Intel Celeron J3455 quad core processor
8GB DDR3 RAM
500GB SSD
Gigabit Ethernet
Debian Linux

It has since also had an Xbox One USB Digital TV Tuner added to it, allowing TVHeadEnd to distribute Freeview TV streams throughout the local network.

Other

Mac Mini 1.25GHz

2006

I bought this Mac Mini in January 2006 second-hand, for use as a "media centre" appliance in our house the following year, and for general experimentation and development use.

1.25GHz PowerPC G4
512MB PC2700 RAM
ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB RAM
40GB hard disk
Mac OS X 10.3.x ("Panther")
Apple keyboard, Microsoft Basic Mouse
Connected to 17" TFT with main PC via a KVM switch

In the end, though, I sold this machine in October 2006 to help out with the buying of the MacBook.

Acer Aspire Revo R3610

2010 - 2017

I bought a Revo "nettop" in February 2010 when it was on special offer, with the intention of using it as a media PC with XBMC. Due to me living semi-permanently on transatlantic flights for most of 2010, it didn't end up performing this duty until November 2010, but it worked nicely in that role, decoding 1080p video from obiwan with ease. In December 2012, I got a Raspberry Pi for media use and the Revo became my general server instead, until 2017 when it was replaced.

1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 processor
2GB RAM
250GB hard drive
GeForce 9400 ION GPU with HDMI out
Ubuntu Linux with XBMC 10
Hooked up to a Toshiba 37RV753B 37" 1080p TV

Raspberry Pi

2012 - 2017

I bought a Model B Raspberry Pi in December 2012. I installed OpenELEC on it, and it worked as a media centre pretty well for some time. It's not perfect - definitely a bit more sluggish than the Revo - but it consumes practically no power, is tiny, and silent. H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 video decoding via the onboard GPU is excellent - I can watch Blu-Ray quality video with practically no stuttering. (Audio codecs can be more problematic due to the relatively low CPU power - DTS decoding is pretty good these days, but Dolby TrueHD is a no-go.)

Broadcom BCM2835 system-on-a-chip
Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU
512MB SDRAM
2 USB 2.0 ports
100Mbps Ethernet
HDMI output, with CEC support for TV control
OpenELEC media centre software (based upon XBMC)
Hooked up to a Toshiba 37RV753B 37" 1080p TV

ODROID C2

2017 - present

I bought an ODROID C2 to replace the Raspberry Pi, now running LibreELEC. It's considerably more powerful than the old Model B Pi, and handles 4K HEVC video no problem.

Amlogic ARM Cortex-A53 1.5GHz quad core CPU
Mali-450 GPU
2GB DDR3 SDRAM
Gigabit Ethernet
HDMI 2.0 port
USB 2.0 ports
Infrared receiver
LibreELEC media centre software (based upon Kodi)
Hooked up to an LG 49" 4K TV

Mac Mini (2020)

2020 - present

When the new Apple Silicon Macs were introduced, I ended up getting a Mac Mini for development work. It's a powerful little machine, for sure!

3.2GHz / 2GHz Apple M1 (8-core CPU, 8-core GPU)
8GB RAM
256GB SSD
macOS 11 "Big Sur"
Shares keyboard/mouse/monitor with main PC

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