So… I should probably tell people about the computers that I own and what they’re used for.

Laptop - Executor
This is my main workhorse. Anything important that I do is done on this computer. Every night, my “My Documents” folder is copied over the network to Coruscant (see below) to make sure that I don’t loose any data. It’s got one upgrade so far - the hard drive. I bought it with 100GB, thinking that it would be enough to suit my needs, but alas, more was needed. The perpendicular storage technology of the new drive also means much better performance over the existing drive. I’m hoping to replace this with a Lenovo system once the mobile Penryn CPUs arrive in late 2008.

Specs:
Dell Inspiron 6000
Pentium-M 1.86GHz (Sonoma Core)
2GB PC4200 DDR2 RAM
160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3
15.4″ WSXGA display (1680×1050)
128MB ATI Radeon X300 Mobility
Intel PRO/Set Wireless 2200BG
9 Cell 85 Wh Battery
Windows XP Professional SP2

Server - Coruscant
This computer is my file server, and handles some other minor tasks. I’m trying to work on getting it setup as a domain controller as well, but I haven’t had the time to play with that just yet. The heart and soul of this computer is the RAID controller card, which cost as much as some basic computer systems, but is well worth the money if you’re willing to cough it up. Just a word of warning if you’re going to go with Windows and storage arrays greater than 2TB - you’ll need to use a special type of disk partition layout known as a GUID Partition Table. For more information, look here. The RAID5 performance on the 3ware card is stunning - I get average reads of 275MB/s and average writes of 150MB/s!!!

Specs:
Intel E2160 w/ Scythe Ninja Rev. B
ASUS P5B Deluxe
4GB OCZ Gold DDR2-800 (4×1GB)
3ware 9650SE-8LPML
2x WD5000AACS (RAID1 - System drive)
8x WD10EACS (RAID5 - Storage drive)
2x Pioneer DVR-212D
Corsair HX620
CoolerMaster CMStacker 810
Windows Server 2003 x64 R2 SP2

Workstation - Eclipse
I decided this summer to splurge a bit and give myself a computer that would kick the pants out of just about any program I throw at it, and last me a few years to come. Truth be told, the hardware in this system didn’t cost all that much. I’m planning on moving up to Vista once SP1 comes out and “settles”, but in the meantime, XP x64 does nicely for what I do. Regardless, it’s a screamer, and I have no complaints whatsoever.

Specs:
Intel Q6700 w/ ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme
ASUS Maximus Formula
4GB OCZ Platinum DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 (2×2GB)
EVGA 512MB GeForce 8800GT
EVGA 256MB GeForce 8600GT
2x WD6400AAKS (RAID0 - System drive)
Pioneer DVR-212D
Corsair HX520
Antec 900
1x Acer X243w
2x Acer AL2016W
Logitech G15 Keyboard
Logitech MX518 Mouse
Windows XP Professional x64 SP2

As a final note - if you’re standing next to my computers, you can barely hear them. I haven’t taken a sound level meter to my apartment, but from my experience at SPCR, the ambient sound level with the systems running is about 20-22dBa. The ten hard drives in Coruscant are the main source of noise, but there’s only so much that I can do about that at the moment.