Official Garage Computer Thread

[VWPORSCHEGT3]

Ok since i've been spending the last couple of days re-doing my garage computer i thought I'd share my stats and ask the rest of you what you have in your garage!

AMD Athlon 64Bit dual core 2.0ghz chip
4 Gigs DDR2 Memory
200 Gig Sata Hard Drive
DVDRW and DVD drives
WinTV card (soon will be hooked up to the antenna)
PCI-e Video card with 512 worth of memory
Windows XP currently "upgrading" to Vista soon thinking about a dual boot system with Fedora 17 loaded also.
all of this is housed in a Free HP media center case. Im glad they dont make these things specific to their hardware anymore.

not the fastest but much faster than i was running even 3 years ago.. death to the Pentium 4 and all its evil ways!! worst CPU ever designed!!!! i know intel chips even a couple of years ago were faster than AMD chips but im a bit partial to AMD , the've never let me down!

anyways , if anyone would like to share, i would love to geek it up!!!

 

[Gary S]

I put a computer in my garage about a year ago. I can't remember the specs, but I do remember that it has never been turned on or used since it is there. Soon, it will go to the landfill so I can reclaim the valuable space it is taking up.

 

[Falcon67]

Used Dell Latitude 620 work laptop running Win7. It's all I need and doesn't take up much space. Works on the couch in the house too. The desktop stays in the house (business system).

>Windows XP currently "upgrading" to Vista soon thinking about a dual boot system
>with Fedora 17 loaded also.

Surely you don't mean "Vista" - really.

 

[mtwaterguy]

[QUOTE=VWPORSCHEGT3;256701

not the fastest but much faster than i was running even 3 years ago


Three years!!!!!! A three month old computer is a dinosaur.

 

[VWPORSCHEGT3]

I run vista on my main family computer , never had any problems with it, its not as glitchy as others make it out to be. considering a friend of mine has a couple of vista discs and keys for 30 bucks a pop and XP support ends soon i think it may be time.Vista Also has XP compatability mode and 98 compatability also, you just have to go to program properties and select it.

I have a Dell Insprion 1525 with win 7 i thought about putting out there but i decided against it.

Gary I have the computer in there to play music, listen to sermons , look up information if i get stumped on a project etc. the flat screen sits in an area that isnt used on my loading bench and the tower sits next to the desk. while im working the key board and mouse get set off to the side.. no big deal to me but i can understand if you dont use yours, if its a fairly recent computer (last ten years) find a neighborhood kid who can use it, or not your choice. someone giving me my first computer is how i got into them. good ol 286 8 megahertz 512k memory and a 30 megabite hard drive, monochrome display... yeah that thing was pimp lmao...

 

[VWPORSCHEGT3]

other than the multiple core technology , computer advances in my opinion have really slowed! I remember the good ol days of the 90's my elementary and middle school days when cpu's were making 100mhz leaps and memory went from sims to ddram... things now just seem to be yearly developments these days. again my opinion only , someone will quickly dress me down if need be

 

[RalphInCA]

My garage computer is my iPad. I have all my service manuals on it and it is great for looking things up while I am working on my vehicles or if I want to watch a YouTube video of something I am doing.

It is great cause I can sit right next to the vehicle while looking at the screen. Great tool for the garage.

 

[CodeRedZ]

I'm using a old HP at the moment

 

[betcd]

VWPORSCHEGT3 do your self a big favor DON'T put vista on the computer put windows 7 on it is a much better of a operating system

 

[shopnut]

Old hand-me-down HP laptop for my shop.

Here's another thread started by the GJ website owner about 6 months ago if you are interested in the subject: The Garage Computer

I have it set up to display on my 42" LCD screen and details are shown here: Linky

 

[tegguy]

VWPORSCHEGT3 do your self a big favor DON'T put vista on the computer put windows 7 on it is a much better of a operating system

I Agree skip Vista get windows 7!

 

[Lhorn]

I'm sure Windows 7 is better but I've got a desktop Dell that runs Vista (probably 4-5 year old computer) and considering what I do with it (modest needs) it works so well I haven't been able to justify getting a new one. I've found my much newer laptop running Windows 7 to be just as glitchy.

 

[VWPORSCHEGT3]

I have win 7 on a dell laptop i own , but i find it to be no better than vista 64bit ultimate that i have been very happy with. there were some issues with older games and such but i have now found work arounds that im happy with. best of all i can even play my old dos games through a program called dos box. for the garage , my main concern is that XP support ends soon , and I dont have the scratch to waste on windows 7. when i can get a legal copy of Vista for 30 bucks. all preference i guess. anyways, CODE RED! i had one of those old systems in my garage for a while , then my collection of parts got newer lol. if it gets the job done, great! I'll see if i can post a picture of my system! i encourage everyone else... i know , terribly exciting lol

 

[Kevin54]

Currently I have an HP Pavillion in the garage. I bought a new 'puter for the house and brought the old one out here. I have it wired to the 'net, or wireless to be more specific. It's a little slow and will drop signal sometimes, but I am having some cable issues also which I think affects it. It's sort of big for the garage with having a tower, but I'll build a lower shelf to house it. I have a lot of my designs on it from tooling that I have made in the past. Once I get my mill and lathe where I want it, I'll use it for surfing GJ and for designing tooling for whatever.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

I'm running some minor home automation software on a W98 Dell laptop. It's like the Pink Bunny, it just keeps on going.

My basement PC is a 5 year old Dell desktop running XP. I use it for music and internet from the basement.

Everything else is vista or 7.

Jim

 

[VWPORSCHEGT3]

Bump, or is it not a very common thing to have in the garage?

 

[Cameronl]

I put an older computer out there running Linux (LUBUNTU distro, a version of Ubunto with less system intensive gui and apps). The main problem is getting my wireless card to connect to the network. Signal's way too weak. Trying to figure out an easy way to run an ethernet cable out there.

Since I'm still a noob when it comes to auto work, I'm constantly running into the house to check out online instructions and you tube vids. Plus I have a series of DVDs on VW maintenance and repair that I refer to. I ripped the DVDs onto the computer, so I don't have to keep swapping disks. The computer in the garage is a valuable tool.

 

[Falcon67]

Where I am, we have well over 450 PCs. Not a single one ever saw Vista. We had a few bring in Vista machines and when they called the Help Desk our response was "Maybe you shoulda checked with IT first, eh?" XP straight to Win7. Win7 works pretty decent, IMHO.

 

[DeuceV361]

Hey,
I have 2 laptops, one that is suppose to go into the garage, and one to bum around with. My system includes Win7 Pro with an i3 processor 4 gig of ram, HD video capabilities. I can burn with it and hopefully I will be in the possetion of a portable digital router. Something to look forward to. Christmas Maybe!!!!!

 

[CodeRedZ]

I mainly use my computer for pandora in the garage and research, course its pretty old so pandora ***** resources. I've been consider switching it out

 

[danielzig]

My garage computer is my iPad. I have all my service manuals on it and it is great for looking things up while I am working on my vehicles or if I want to watch a YouTube video of something I am doing.

It is great cause I can sit right next to the vehicle while looking at the screen. Great tool for the garage.

I agree. I had an old Amd 2500+ or something with a flat panel monitor that I never use anymore since I got my iPad 2. So much easier just to bring the iPad out there.