I'm not a gamer, either, and my system pales beside those described by some here but I still reap all the benefits Scott describes above.. After one horrendous experience with a top-rated water cooler, I have relied on air cooling, which I've found amply effective (Prolimatech Megahalems with two Noctua fans, for those who are into such things).
With my system running PSDR and some digital stuff (Fldigi, mostly) plus my FT-950 with LP-Pan and E-Mu sound card to provide panafall and other functions, my CPU utilization rarely goes above 20%. Even when I add SAS and some other statistical software at the same time, I seldom go over 30%. I can start a SAS job, check my email, work on some files in Access, and run PSDR with never a whimper. My point is that it is not necessary to buy or build a PC dedicated to radio and another for your additional work. Spend a little more on just one and let it do everything. Almost always lower cost in the long run, less maintenance, less space required... Just my $.02. On 12/6/11, Scott Myers <[email protected]> wrote: > Since we're getting out our PC manhoods... > > I too use a gaming PC. Big fans, water cooled, over-clocked i7, dual video > SLI, etc., etc., blah, blah. It is very quiet actually. A Digital Storm > system. The big slow fans are the key to being quiet. I don't game, but do > video processing and computer modeling. What I like about a gaming computer > build is that there is absolutely no bloatware that can't be removed... > well, there is no bloatware at all right out of the box. Digital Storm now > sells systems even quieter than mine that do vertical cooling. > > I've even run video processing in the background while flexing. Now that > works it out and the fans spool up a bit under those conditions. When not > doing anything but amateur radio, I can run every bit of amateur radio > software I have and it never gets above 25% processor usage. DPC.. less > than 15 microsecond with occasional spikes to 75 microseconds. > > Also note this computer serves as the iTunes media server for my whole > house. So the wife and kids can be streaming a movie/music from it to > several Apple TV devices while I am Flexing. No problem. It just yawns. > > 73, > Scott AC8DE > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alfred Green > Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 4:02 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [FlexEdge] Fast PC... > > On 12/5/2011 12:51 PM, James T Kirk wrote: >> HAF-X Coolermaster computer case >> >> I think that's sufficient to run Flex. > > > Ah, yes. Certainly enough to run PSDR. > But will you be able to hear anything? > > I don't remember the HAF-X designation, but I do recall looking at a > Coolermaster case the last time I built a PC. > Mostly plastic, with a few blue LEDs in it. I expect a fair amount of RFI to > come from that. > > With the high-frequency CPUs and video cards comes a lot of crud. When my > youngest boy was still living here I could tell when he fired up his gaming > machine. > > I built it for him so I had only myself to blame. > > 73 Alf NU8I > Scottsdale AZ DM43an > > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used > for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist > who are using beta versions of the software. > > > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used > for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist > who are using beta versions of the software. > _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software.
