Test Bed

**cairnswm** · 25-07-2005, 06:47 AM

Later today I am going to fetch 2 computers. This will complete the Game Development Tes tBed I've been slowly building up. I will have:

Celeron 2.4, GeForce4 440 MX, 256MB Ram, 40GB hard drive running Windows ME

Pentium 4 (3.0GHtz), Radeon 9250 (128MB), 256 MB Ram, 120 GB Hard drive running windows XP Home

AMD 64bit 3000+, Radeon X600 (256MB?), 512MB Ram, 40 GB harddrive, running windows XP Home (32 bit)

Intel Centrino 1.5 Notebook with 1GB Ram, Onboard Intel integrated Graphics, 40GB running windows XP Pro.

An external bootable harddrive running Suse linux 9.2 personal. This should be able to boot any of the 4 PCs.

All computers networked using a 100MB 8 port hub.

My kids cant wait to get their 'own' PCs each.

Now to write a game that needs this sort of test bed

Edit: Fixed X600 card type

**Sly** · 25-07-2005, 08:15 AM

Originally Posted by cairnswm

Later today I am going to fetch 2 computers. This will complete the Game Development Tes tBed I've been slowly building up. I will have:

Celeron 2.4, GeForce4 440 MX, 256MB Ram, 40GB hard drive running Windows ME

Pentium 4 (3.0GHtz), Radeon 9250 (128MB), 256 MB Ram, 120 GB Hard drive running windows XP Home

AMD 64bit 3000+, GeForce X600 (256MB?), 512MB Ram, 40 GB harddrive, running windows XP Home (32 bit)

Intel Centrino 1.5 Notebook with 1GB Ram, Onboard Intel integrated Graphics, 40GB running windows XP Pro.

I reckon I should almost be able to hear the fan noise from over here.

So, how did you get a NVidia GeForce and a Radeon X600 onto the same card?

All computers networked using a 100MB 8 port hub.

My kids cant wait to get their 'own' PCs each.

Now to write a game that needs this sort of test bed

If or when I finish a networking demo using my Donk networking components, you can try it out for me since I only have a network of two.

**Traveler** · 25-07-2005, 09:41 AM

An impressive set of pc's you have there!
I also forsee quite a few LAN parties

Serious though, I'd think that for testing purposes you want the specs to be a bit broader, as you appear to score quite high in the videocard & processor department.

**czar** · 25-07-2005, 10:07 AM

That is a nice bunch of machines. The strange thing about writing software is that your program will work fine for 99 computers and the 100th falls flat on its face.

I have a test bed of some 25 computers which is nice. But it still happens that an application will run without error on these 25 computers and then encounter all sorts of problems when we release for use by the rest of our users (some 800 computers). I have managed to work out what sort of programming techniques not to use because the wide range of machines we have available. Having a large amount of computers ensured that when we put out a cdrom with some 30 odd mulimedia educational programs on it there were only half a dozen bugs reported in the first few weeks. And now 6 months no new bugs have surfaced. phew!

Anyway, Red Alert 2 is a great game to play on a home lan

**cairnswm** · 25-07-2005, 01:13 PM

@Sly - Yeah, I wanted the FX5700 but couldn;t find it or the FX5500 or then FX5200 - could maybe get some really expensive GeForce but went with the (just more than budget allows) X600.

@Traveller - the original idea was to fix my P3 - but for long term kiddie happiness we decided to upgrade the P3 to the Celeron (Bottom of the range now really). I tried to get a good cross section of processor types, graphic cards etc. I want to upgrade all 3 PCs over about a 5 year period. In 2 years time upgrade the Celeron etc - this should keep the kiddies happy and also ensure they have decent PCs when they get to University etc.