Oh MY! wanna work for Vavle...

[Myth]

As most Steam users know, the Steam Hardware Survey automatically collects information about the community's computer hardware configurations and presents an aggregate picture of the stats on our web site. The survey helps us make better engineering and gameplay decisions, because it makes sure we're targeting machines our customers actually use, rather than measuring only against the hardware we've got in the office. We often get asked about the configuration of the machines we build around the office to do both game and Steam development. We also tend to turn over machines in the office pretty rapidly, at roughly every 18 months.

Our current base configuration looks about like this:

EVGA 780i SLI FTW Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz Quad-Core Processor
4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 1066MHz ram
(Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam)
1 x NVidia GTX280 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card
1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD
(Seagate, Western Digital)
1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD
(Seagate, Western Digital)
Antec Sonata III desktop case
Zalman CPU Cooler
850W Antec power supply
1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors
Windows XP 32bit

We're currently transitioning to this setup:
EVGA X58 3X SLI Intel Motherboard
Intel Corei7 940 2.93GHz Quad-Core Processor
12GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz ram
(Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam)
1 x NVidia GTX285 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card
1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD (Seagate, Western Digital)
1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD (Seagate, Western Digital)
Lian Li P60-F Case
Intel CPU Cooler
850W Antec power supply
1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors
Windows Vista 64bit

That is SERIOUS kit!
And it implies they think their USERS are heading that way too.
Oh. My.
On several accounts.
For me the 12GB and 30" monitor are the stand-outs!

[JazzyJay]

Yes well, you may envy them but it reminds me of my own work experience where I would test/develop a website using Opera 10b (being high-end browser with the most capabilities) but customers would continue using Internet Explorer 6 that breaks everything completely. If their equipment is very high-end, do they develop and test their games for an average user?

[AberdeenGus]

http://www.cube247.com Myth check out the Leonis ST21

Almost identical kit. Could all be yours for £2800.

[JohnMcClane]

I think I just


PS: Jazzy, Opera 10b? I thought it was only in Alpha atm (thats what i'm running)

[JazzyJay]

I think I just
PS: Jazzy, Opera 10b? I thought it was only in Alpha atm (thats what i'm running)

My sincerest apologies, yes it's still Alpha. Unfortunately, Opera looks kind of rubbish on Linux so I've been using FF3 of late, therefore forgot about the development state of Opera10 branch

[JohnMcClane]

My sincerest apologies, yes it's still Alpha. Unfortunately, Opera looks kind of rubbish on Linux so I've been using FF3 of late, therefore forgot about the development state of Opera10 branch

I gave up on it yesterday, it started crashing every 10 minutes so I wrote my evaluation, sent it off to Opera and went back to 9.64 for Windows, which is still fantastic