Valve HQ upgrades computers; puts everyone elses to shame.

[Monkeywoman]

Over the weekend, Valve released an unexpectedly fascinating piece of information: the specs of the machines sitting on desks across Valve HQ, which are used for development of both games and the Steam platform.

According to a news post over on Steam, Valve change the spcs of their development units every 18 months or so. See how close you are to their current rigs:

* 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

Now see how far away you are from the new generation of machines the company is "currently transitioning to":

* 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's a lot of cores and a lot of GBs.

source; http://storefront.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/message/2269/

[Warboy]

Hmm. I alone still put them to shame tho :p:

[RaZz!]

not that much of an "OMFG HOLY ****"-upgrade :shrug:. the most significant is the ram and the transition to a 64bit os.

[zanzabar]

not that much of an "OMFG HOLY ****"-upgrade :shrug:. the most significant is the ram and the transition to a 64bit os.

they have that and they have the dropping of the 780i, that alone should help them alot

and 12GB of ram instead of 4, to help with the 64 bit

[biohead]

Hmm. I alone still put them to shame tho :p:

Not cool, where yo gettin moneys from?

[Warboy]

Not cool, where yo gettin moneys from?

I meant on a system vs system bases. Not in the scene of "OM*G x amount of 940s."

[Garrett]

lol 1x gtx285 and a 30" screen... try Crysis then ;)

[RaZz!]

they have that and they have the dropping of the 780i, that alone should help them alot

and 12GB of ram instead of 4, to help with the 64 bit

yeah well, but when i first read the topic i thought they did some ubercrazy holycow upgrade from a p4 to a i7 extreme edition or smth :p:

every developer upgrades its mostly nice rigs so i failed to see how this upgrade from valve was anything special or newsworthy :)

[Ket]

Is it just me, or do those "upgrades" seem utterly pointless? i7 isn't that great yet, and the move from a GTX280 to 285 is especially pointless. No performance increases there unless they plan to overclock things (which I seriously doubt)

[ColonelCain]

Is it just me, or do those "upgrades" seem utterly pointless? i7 isn't that great yet, and the move from a GTX280 to 285 is especially pointless. No performance increases there unless they plan to overclock things (which I seriously doubt)

Yeah, but hey, wouldn't you love to get a new top of the line desktop that often? That'd be so sick...

Though, makes you wonder... why does the Source engine not allow higher levels of eyecandy? :shrug:

[BababooeyHTJ]

Why? They only develop games that you could max out with hardware less than half as powerful as the 780i rig, nevermind the i7.

[[XC] riptide]

Gimmee Dual Socket Gainstown with a BANK of adaptec driven Raid0 Drives /SSD or raptors, 16gig ram, .... or shutup valve.

[zanzabar]

the i7 is alot faster for compiling things, and source has alot of eye candy but its not designed to be hyper photo realistic its designed to have physics and scalable textured. if u look at mods or l4d they can do alot

[[XC] Lead Head]

riptide;3673994']Gimmee Dual Socket Gainstown with a BANK of adaptec driven Raid0 Drives /SSD or raptors, 16gig ram, .... or shutup valve.

Why raptors? 15k RPM SAS/SCSI drives are much more fun. I plan on picking one up off ebay sometime this week after seeing just how fast an ancient 10k SCSI drive is:up:

[WrigleyVillain]

All I know is I wanna be their IT guy.

[masterg]

so those old rigs, they gonna auction them or something?

[LaMpiR]

All I know is I wanna be their IT guy.
:up:

[clayton]

lol 1x gtx285 and a 30" screen... try Crysis then ;)

Nah they are too busy working overtime playing Valve games. :D

[Sparky]

stock?? Not impressed :p:

[Easybeat]

I didn't realise it took that much machine to run a complaints desk.

[SamHughe]

minimum i7 config. imo. It won't impress anybody here in XS. 10 times better than the current config the university I work for allows though (q6600+4gb ram if you submit a justification letter to the technology committee).

[m0da]

I thought their "current" systems were the upgraded systems.

Rarely will you see companies spit out new/high-end parts for their workers like this...
who has an i7 940, gtx285 and 750gb disk space at work?!

[safan80]

lol 1x gtx285 and a 30" screen... try Crysis then ;)

lol I have yet to install crysis maybe in 10 ten years.

[Hornet331]

I thought their "current" systems were the upgraded systems.

Rarely will you see companies spit out new/high-end parts for their workers like this...
who has an i7 940, gtx285 and 750gb disk space at work?!

Depends where and at what position you work. :)

[cegras]

lol 1x gtx285 and a 30" screen... try Crysis then ;)

Valve doesn't develop crappy games.

[grimREEFER]

they had those computers and they put out l4d with last gen graphics.
wtf.

[Klarko]

They should fold overnight ^^

[ColonelCain]

They should fold overnight ^^

:yepp:

That begs the question, how many of these rigs do they have? :eek:

[Vinas]

They did mention on the update popup that they have a "rather aggressive build process"... They also mentioned that they upgrade about every 18 months.

Not bad really. I mean, I usually do an upgrade once per year.

[PrometheusCon]

Nice computers. Blows mine away for sure, but then again I'm not a multi-million dollar company.

[haylui]

Hmm. I alone still put them to shame tho :p:

try to get hunderds of such unit to shame them...LOLz

[Warboy]

try to get hunderds of such unit to shame them...LOLz

see my 2nd post in this thread. Kthxbye.

[roofsniper]

I thought their "current" systems were the upgraded systems.

lol i thought the same too.

[randomizer]

Now I understand why my Steam profile has been completely wiped over the weekend. They keep changing hardware on their PCs every 5 minutes :p:

[Loque]

More versus maps, less bling :)

[IronWarrior]

More versus maps, less bling :)

Pills here! :p:

Nice upgrades through, I wonder how many of them choose 2 22"'s over the 30"'s screens.

[deathman20]

Wish my IT department realized there is more to a rig than just tossing cores at it. At least they have common scene and pick a decently clocked rig compared to my 2Ghz quad at work.

[Macadamia]

I'm not 100% sure... but aren't those sponsored hardware? Up to the specific brands and all...


(Plus nobody in their right mind would get a 780i to not run SLI on it)

[kuhla]

....and nobody but me noticed the Antec CP-850s? ....and how exactly are they going to cram those into those Lian Li PC-60FW cases? :rolleyes:

[kg4icg]

ah poor kitty, Randomizer did you type in the wrong password again?

[Savuti]

Nice for Valve and their development team.

Unless you're in a position in a department that justifiably demands anything close to a professional grade workstation and not just another self serving manager that has a say in procurement budget and therefore can get approval for that shiny pc to do high powered email and spreadsheets, I think the average tech knowledgeable corporate staff would be ecstatic to get a PC anywhere close to those specs.

[randomizer]

ah poor kitty, Randomizer did you type in the wrong password again?

No, I auto-login with Windows. I have no problems logging into the account, it's just that my account is missing all games, no longer matches up correctly with my Steam Community ID so I appear to be someone else and have to re-add Steam friends (in fact I added you a second time you might have noticed). That on top of my preferences being reset and my contact email address going back to an old one have me quite annoyed.

[STEvil]

delete clientblob?

[yaddam205]

Gearing up for the next counter-strike I hope!

[randomizer]

delete clientblob?

I re-installed the client completely. But I tried another PC as well and I get the same dysfunctional profile.

[HeXploiT]

source; http://storefront.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/message/2269/

Sweet. I think it's very cool that they're releasing the specs to the public if only to curb our curiosity.
Very nice specs for a work rig.

[AnXioZ]

Daaaaaaaaaaaamn. $1,299 for the monitor alone!!!

[NaMcO]

Valve doesn't develop crappy games.

Crysis is not crappy, it's HL2 that's STILL better overall :ROTF:

[Spectrobozo]

wow 12gb!?
their current rig is already very good...

[Krazeyivan]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that valve like to use spare CPU cycles from all their PC's on the network to render/process various things for them. So even an i7 on the front desk is utilised. That upgrade will help a lot if thats the case.

[largon]

I have no idea how this is news. Or relevant, let alone interesting, for people not working at Valve.
http://largon.wippiespace.com/smilies/bored.gif

[Syn.]

Why? They only develop games that you could max out with hardware less than half as powerful as the 780i rig, nevermind the i7.

Just because they publish games with lower requirements it does not mean they do not need a beefy desktop to develop them.


they had those computers and they put out l4d with last gen graphics.
wtf.

Do you need any better graphics? Would that have made L4D a better game? Those are questions that Valve has worked through using this:

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

Its not a question of what PC they have but what PC's customers have.

[TheKarmakazi]

I have no idea how this is news. Or relevant, let alone interesting, for people not working at Valve.
http://largon.wippiespace.com/smilies/bored.gif

+1 lol

[saaya]

they are using the 780 chipset for workstations? hahahahahahahah :lol:

now THAT must be fun... this might actually explain why valve takes forver to get their games out and why they had so many delays with hl2 and all the episodes haha :D

Im surprised they are upgrading to 940s now, with 950s for the same price just around the corner, and 920s overclocking the same as 940s reaching much better performance than even a 965...

cpu and memory wise they are at the current absolute highend and 2010 mainstream level, but am i the only one who is wondering about the graphics selection? thats current mainstream...

i wish theyd work on sli and xfire sytems to make sure their new titles work well with multi gpu systems.

[Levish]

I'd prefer multi cpu focus over multi gpu

[STaRGaZeR]

Im surprised they are upgrading to 940s now, with 950s for the same price just around the corner, and 920s overclocking the same as 940s reaching much better performance than even a 965...

They don't overclock.


but am i the only one who is wondering about the graphics selection? thats current mainstream...

GTX285 and HD4870 1GB mainstream? Do you live in heaven or something? That's absolutely not mainstream :stick:

[saaya]

if 4870 1gb is highend then what is a 4850x2? extreme highend?
and a 4870x2? ueber high end?
and 4870x2 xfire? mega supa dupa ultra highend? :D

4870 1gb cards cost around 200$, hows that not mainstream?
you think a 200$ card is highend?

[STaRGaZeR]

4870 1gb cards cost around 200$, hows that not mainstream?
you think a 200$ card is highend?

200€ cards are in the perfomance level, not mainstream. You're talking from a XS user perspective and that's just wrong.

[MaxxxRacer]

dam... and all I have is a 2.4GHz P4 single channel system with onboard everything and 512mb of RAM with a 15" CRT. Granted, if I had one of those systems mentioned above I wouldn't be doing much work.


if 4870 1gb is highend then what is a 4850x2? extreme highend?
and a 4870x2? ueber high end?
and 4870x2 xfire? mega supa dupa ultra highend? :D

4870 1gb cards cost around 200$, hows that not mainstream?
you think a 200$ card is highend?

LOL Sascha. 200 dollars is not mainstream. up to and less than 100 dollars is mainstream. Clearly you never worked at a computer store. When I told customers who wanted a video card that a good one starts at 175+, they about crapped themselves, and this was when the U.S. economy was doing great. Your average consumer thninks that a 75 dollar videocard is great and will do everything they want. When it doesnt, they just turn down the resolution and eye candy and deal with ti. Members of XS, and sites like it are the exception to this rule, spending obscene amounts of money in a never ending e-pennis measuring contest.

[initialised]

X* EVGA X58 3X SLI Intel Motherboard x38 ASUS
X* Intel Corei7 940 2.93GHz Quad-Core Processor Q6600 tomorrow
X* 12GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz ram (Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam) 4GB GSkill PI 850MHz
Y* 1 x NVidia GTX285 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card 4870x2 OC
Y* 1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD 500GB Samsung
Y* (Seagate, Western Digital) 1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD 750GB Hitachi
Y* Lian Li P60-F Case Customised Cosmos
Y* Intel CPU Cooler Custom Water Cooling
Y* 850W Antec power supply Antec 850 Quattro
Y* 1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors 50" Samsung PDP
Y* Windows Vista 64bit Same

So not too far off, but I play Left4Dead all the time so I represent their target audience.

[MaxxxRacer]

X* EVGA X58 3X SLI Intel Motherboard x38 ASUS
X* Intel Corei7 940 2.93GHz Quad-Core Processor Q6600 tomorrow
X* 12GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz ram (Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam) 4GB GSkill PI 850MHz
Y* 1 x NVidia GTX285 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card 4870x2 OC
Y* 1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD 500GB Samsung
Y* (Seagate, Western Digital) 1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD 750GB Hitachi
Y* Lian Li P60-F Case Customised Cosmos
Y* Intel CPU Cooler Custom Water Cooling
Y* 850W Antec power supply Antec 850 Quattro
Y* 1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors 50" Samsung PDP
Y* Windows Vista 64bit Same

So not too far off, but I play Left4Dead all the time so I represent their target audience.

As far as absolute computing power of the i7 940 absolutely smokes the Q6600, up until the Q6600 hits 3.8GHz.

[saaya]

200€ cards are in the perfomance level, not mainstream. You're talking from a XS user perspective and that's just wrong.
no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

[STEvil]

no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

I'm on an 8800GTS due to power issues at the moment but I didnt pay $200 for it when I bought it.. darn buying things new lol.

I think Stargazer needs to change perspectives.

[[XC] Lead Head]

no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

I still game on my $150 x1800 GTO:)

[V2-V3]

That would explain a thing or two about how they develop such wonderful games :)

a developer with computers more than capable of playing their games to the fullest!

[MaxxxRacer]

no im talking from a gamers perspective... i dont know anybody playing games with a sub 200 card... maybe casual gamers, but not people who really game a lot as their hobby.

but i guess my perspective is skewed...

You need some perspective my friend. I have no payed over 200 dollars for a videocard in years.

Futhermore, I am gonna get a GTX260 55nm 216SP for 199, which is just under 200 dollars. For a SUB 200 dollar card it is rediculously powerful, as is the 4870 1GB. The 200+ dollar cards that are out right now are for those who have nothing else to spend their money on. If you can not get a satisfactory gaming experience from a GTX260 or 4870 1GB, there is something seriously wrong with you. And if you are one of those fold who games at 2500x1600, you dont even belong in this conversation.

[strange|ife]

I think they just sit around playing games all day

outside of making them also

deerr

[BranNutz]

Well I work for one of the leading aerospace companies in the world and we still are running windows 2000 on half our systems LOL. :rofl:

[Pinacolada]

and who gives a sh..... about this PR stunt ? The better stop ripping off european customers with 1euro=1dollar scam

[Cooper]

Does this mean EP3 coming right up ?

[cmay119]

Does this mean EP3 coming right up ?

Doubtful. :(

[iddqd]

Crysis is not crappy
I was with you until the "not". After that, you were just clearly wrong.

[Jacky]

I have no idea how this is news. Or relevant, let alone interesting, for people not working at Valve.
http://largon.wippiespace.com/smilies/bored.gif


+1 lol
I found this pretty interesting actually. :D