What do you need multiple PCs for?

[hat]

So let's hear it from those of you who have multiple computers. Why do you need them and what do you use them for? I could have had a fully functional second computer with an Athlon64 x2 5200+, DFI LanParty UT 590SLI, 120GB IDE hard drive, IDE DVD burner, Corsair vx450w, half decent case and I would have needed to scrape up some DDR2 from somewhere but that wouldn't be too hard at all. However I have absolutely <insert number here>/0 use for a second computer. Anything I need to do I can simply do on this computer. Anything I download or need to save like music, games, programs etc fits very snugly on my 500GB hard drive (still have almost 400GB free space left). I've always ran folding@home on my primary rig (although doing so at this point would be lackluster) and just shut it down when gaming. I used to host the BF2 dedicated server and play on my server at the same time with my dual core (not sure how that would work now with only the single core), but 95% of applications are only single threaded and dual core only really helps with multitasking which I don't do very often. Any video encoding can simply be done in my sleep as I don't do much of that either.

So, those of you with multiple rigs, let's hear from you how you use them.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

the average person gamer etc dosent need more than 1 rig but like me i did have and prefer to use multiple machines on a daily basis for what they are used for there perfect and that is....... TADA a render farm there only on when im rendering i simply use a nas box to access my scene files and then render sections on each individual machine granted ive now sold all the machines

athlon x2 4600+ 8800gts 640 aegia physx xifi soundcard etc etc (old gaming rig sold for a measly $200

athlon x2 3800+ 7300le 256mb turbo cache barebones sold for $275

intel Pentium D 820 + 7300le 128mb turbo cach barebones $sold for $50

other then a render farm i cant think of any use for multiple machines unless u hide them all within 1 uber desk with 2 monitors each and 3 keyboards and mice for the sense of an supercomputer cause every computer nut needs a bigger e-peen

 

[alucasa]

My second rig is acts as a medium to play media files for me and render graphics when needs to. (i7 rig)

My 3rd rig is a customized Network attached storage that I built. It's low-powered, always on 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and it hosts 5 HDDs including an OS drive.

4th rig I have is purely for distributed computing.

All my rigs are listed in my signature along with its spec. Except my main rig, all other rigs are connected via a KVM, sharing one monitor, one keyboard and one mouse.

 

[bigtye]

My first rig was my gaming, do everything rig. But over time it became not so good at gaming, plus reinstalling os's all the time because I would install/uninstall so many games was a pain for my wife who also uses the computer for her work/music.

It's an AMD 4200X2, 9600GT 2gb DDR400

So I built a gaming comp just for me (selfish and unnecessary but I like it). It's the one in my sig a E8500, 4870. It's just for gaming and nothing else, no adobe, no office software or itunes etc. All the crap is on the other one for my wife.

It's a bit excessive but I do enjoy keeping the gaming stuff seperate. They are hooked up through a KVM? cable to share the one monitor and mouse etc. I just switrch between them. I like having 2.

Tye

 

[1Kurgan1]

Main Rig and Secondary Rig in my System Specs. Both pretty beasty, both used all the time. I refused to get off the comp for my gf to play so I built her one along time ago.

 

[Kursah]

My gaming rig for me, and my fiance's gaming rig for her. Both fold and crunch, both are used for multimedia, encoding and mostly gaming. But when it comes to upgrades, fixing things and cleaning them out, they're "my" rigs! lol.



Edit: See sys specs for builds.

 

[erocker]

System in my system specs: Gaming, general fun stuff...
New AM3 rig on the way: Reviews, crunching, folding, file serving..
EEE PC: Backup/travel rig
S754 2800+ rig: for work in the office
P4 rig: other office computer

 

[hat]

My first rig was my gaming, do everything rig. But over time it became not so good at gaming, plus reinstalling os's all the time because I would install/uninstall so many games was a pain for my wife who also uses the computer for her work/music.

It's an AMD 4200X2, 9600GT 2gb DDR400

So I built a gaming comp just for me (selfish and unnecessary but I like it). It's the one in my sig a E8500, 4870. It's just for gaming and nothing else, no adobe, no office software or itunes etc. All the crap is on the other one for my wife.

It's a bit excessive but I do enjoy keeping the gaming stuff seperate. They are hooked up through a KVM? cable to share the one monitor and mouse etc. I just switrch between them. I like having 2.

Tye

Selfish? Un-nescessary? You are a very, very humble man.

 

[MilkyWay]

Well my sister uses my second rig as her intenet and work rig so i guess im okay with that.
But i wanted a rig for just linux i dont have any idea why since i can dual boot fine. My oldduron was going to be my linux rig but the boards shot so i need a new one and id rather spend cash on my current rig that that.

My cousin has 2 rigs, well actually one is his dads work rig and ones his rig but they are both hooked up to an lcd via a switch, the keyboard and mouse are shared. When he wants to switch to the other rig hes set it as double tap scroll lock and down on the direction keys and wham the other rig appears on the screen and the keyboard and mouse work for it! Nifty.

Make it a media rig and use it for lan if you ever have someone over, a htpc of sorts.

If i had another rig it would go in the living room and play media on the tv and be used for a lan.

 

[ShRoOmAlIsTiC]

I use my computer for gaming and storage.
My second rig I use a DFI CFX3200, Opty 170, 2gig of DDR 3200, ati 3870 and xfi xtremegamer for my media rig. I have it hooked up to my HDTV in my livingroom and watch most of my movies and tv shows on it.
My 3rd rig is a DFI NF4 Ultra-D, opty 165, 2gigs of DDR 3200, ati 1950gt and audigy se for my wifes personal work/browse internet rig.

 

[Mussels]

my secondary PC is a HTPC/download box thats on 24/7. it uses <50W of power and is completely inaudible (i dont mean "quiet" or blends in, i mean in dead silence at 3am with no one else in the room, you cant hear it)

My gaming PC is in my bedroom. i simply couldnt sleep with it on. the noise bothers me (and by noise... if i can hear it, i dont like it)

 

[twicksisted]

i have a few pc's in ourt house... mainly becuase i like building pc's but also becuase i can and have the space

The one in my system specs is my main rig and I use this for music production (bit of work) and on my other boot gaming, but we also have a laptop which my GF mainly uses as her day to day rig... I have also recently been building an HTPC for our 46" samsung in the lounge..
This is for browsing the net, watching bluerays etc... and just becuase I always wanted to build the ultimate HTPC.

We still have to find a good use for the HTPC becuase at the moment its very underused... so im thinking of installing a homeserver os on it and keeping it on 24/7 so that i can access it from the web (work on holiday etc..)

 

[Perra]

second rig is my server sitting out on the balcony, dual p3 1ghz, 2gigs pc-133 sdram, scsi-3 15k rpm system drive and a couple of f1 1tb-drives. It's a file-server thats on 24/7.

third rig is a 2 year old laptop for my gf so she leaves my main rig alone

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Windows 95 computer: for games that require DOS/Win 95 and/or ISA audio.
Windows 98SE computer: for about 96-2000 games.
Windows XP x64 computer: for games 2000 and newer except those that refuse to work.
Server 2003 x64 server: for everything that runs 24/7.

I plan to add a Windows XP computer to that lot one of these days for non-x64 games. Only the two x64 computers are usually plugged in, the rest are on an as-needed basis.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I use my secondary rig as a server for hosting games(MW4:Mercenaries).

 

[Ahhzz]

Primary is my gaming rig, dual loaded with Winxp64 and 32. Secondary box is a Torrent downloader, and movie ripper, and currently my other file storage. I've got a third box in the house, older AMD T-bird for my daughter to play Morrowwind and Fate on, and her Barbie and Nancy Drew stuff. Am in the process of obtaining one more to run as a hard drive server, to stock some of the older drives I've got running around. Also running a small 1Tb SAN just for storage.

 

[newtekie1]

Rig1: My Primary Machine, Used for gaming
Rig2: Girlfriend's Rig, My backup gaming rig
Rig3: Backup to the backup gaming rig
Rig4: Work machine(surprisingly I still game on it, I beat Crysis with it...)

 

[DaMulta]

XP system that is for photos/Docs
1 laptop that backs up dvds
1 laptop that surfs the web in the living room
1 laptop that runs the HD/Tv and holds MP3 music
My system the fun system

 

[DreamSeller]

1st PC - gaming and video editing
2nd PC - backup / surfing the web
3rd Laptop - just sitting around, used it until i got 2nd PC

 

[Mussels]

oh i forgot my 3rd PC.

sempron shitbox, uses 40W of power so i find it handy for just bumming around on TPU.

Waste of power to run a 400W+ crossfire machine for firefox

 

[DaMulta]

oh i forgot my 3rd PC.

sempron shitbox, uses 40W of power so i find it handy for just bumming around on TPU.

Waste of power to run a 400W+ crossfire machine for firefox

Psst

Sitting on his OCed Quad machine running a phase, running a meanwell for water pump, running CF4890 for surfing firefox ROFl

 

[Mussels]

Psst

Sitting on his OCed Quad machine running a phase, running a meanwell for water pump, running CF4890 for surfing firefox ROFl

TPU rendering comp....go!

edit: mines loaded

 

[Sir_Real]

I have two gaming pc's on a Lan in my front room. Me & my son go online gaming together. We look after each other on cod:waw & alike. Great fun !

 

[Tau]

Q9450 Machine - Primary workstation, photomanipulation/rendering/mild gaming/general browsing/etc. - This machine is on 24/7.

Q6600 - HTPC, playing TV/recording tv/bit of gaming/emulation play. I also use this machine to offload the majority of my rendering as at most its ~10% cpu usage wile doing tv playback.

Q6600 - Soon to be new fileserver will post more info on this when its done. - will be on 24/7

T7500 Laptop - Mobile workstation basic VMdevelopment

Q6600 - VM Development box. - on 24/7

Server1 - AD/VMserver
Server2 - Exchange Server
Server3 - Firewall
Server4 - Backup of all of the above in VM's

All the servers are also cloned across all the others in VM's so if one goes down i lose zero functionality.


Looking to upgrade to faster servers here in a year or so and move everythign to VM's to save on power and noise.

 

[stanhemi]

All my rig fold 24/7

1- Q9550 folding@home,gaming,internet.
2-E7200 Only folding@home,internet,rarely gaming
3-E1200 only folding@home
4-p4 only folding@home
5-E5200 only folding@home(still need psu and ddr2)