Who are you, and what do you do?
My name is Boris Vorontsov. I'm a graphics programmer and modder, mostly doing work on improving games, adding new features, etc. My current job involves the graphics, optimization and some minor programming for a TBA tactical RTS game. As a hobby, I modify game graphics with the ENBSeries project.
What hardware do you use?
My hardware is an Athlon triple core CPU (2.9 Ghz) with 3Gb DDR2 RAM; GeForce 9600 GT videocard; X-FI Xtreme Music sound card; 6 HDDs, each 1Tb Hitachi (for backups and file storage), two Samsung and one WD Caviar Black drives for OS, swap and software. A Corsair HW620 PSU and a modified Thermaltake M9 case for lowering noise and better air flow. Noise reducing devices and coolers from Scythe.
My display is a hi-res professional CRT, because I hate the image quality and various artifacts of modern monitors. I have two of them, but almost never use the second one.
My mouse is the A4 WOP-35, which greatly helps to reduce the amount of movement with the additional scroll wheel and two extra big buttons. I tried to get several more, even the higher cost gaming model, but they're not any better for me. My keyboard is a classic Mitsumi, and I use an Xbox 360 gamepad for gaming. To make textures or to draw, I use a cheap Wacom tablet. For sound, Philips SHP8500 headphones.
And what software?
My OS is Windows XP. With my current setup I don't need the newest operating system and prefer XP, because I can work with my eyes closed. It was a pain for me to migrate from Win98 to WinXP - my software is all older versions with their classic interfaces, as they have all have the required features for me.
MS Visual C++ for programming. Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter for drawing and image editing. 3DS Max, 3D Coat, and Mudbox for modeling and rendering. For music and sound, Cakewalk Sonar and Sound Forge with many plugins. Video editing software is VirtualDub - I rarely use Adobe Premiere and the features of 3DS Max. Other helpful tools are Beyond Compare, EmEditor and a few by NVidia.
My image viewer is ACDSee. Video players are KMPlayer, Media Player Classic and CrystalPlayer. And Windows Media Player for listening to music.
For Internet, I use Virtual PC with a WinXP image. Browsers are FireFox and Chrome. Messenger is ICQ.
What would be your dream setup?
Definitely android - human, not the Google one. Or mind-controlled PC input would be lovely. Really hope to see these before I die.
I'm interested in tracking devices with a virtual realty helmet, and want to make some addons for 3d modelling software which will allow me to create models in virtual 3D space using my hands. Unfortunately, such hardware is unreasonably priced - it's easier to hire 100 modellers.
A professional digital camera like the Canon EOS. I like photography, but it's better to wait when for I have enough free time, and to buy the newest model, right? Maybe an HDR capturing model will appear on the market - I'm waiting patiently.
PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles to play exclusive games. But I don't have the time to play, so there's no sense in buying them at all, which is sad.
I have old hardware and don't wish to upgrade yet, because the difference in performance is too small. I want a fast enough CPU to emulate PS2 games with modified graphics. Some of them have very nice models and textures, but you can't play masterpieces with the poor image quality of a PS2 console on a TV. Even the latest Intel overclocked CPU are not fast enough - I just need to wait a bit more.
Xbox 360, PS3 or a Wii devkit to develop games for consoles.