Your first self-built PC?

**Arachne** · 17-05-2007

After tinkering about swapping things in and out of various pre-built PCs for a year or so, my first self built PC was:

an AMD K6-2/450
Gigabyte GA5AX mobo
Maxtor 10gig HDD
128MB RAM
Voodoo3 3k vid card (which I think I still have)
SB Live! Value soundcard
Philips CDD3610 CD burner
LG 32x CD-ROM

I loved it dearly, it was rock solid...passed it onto my mum after a couple of years, and she sold it after a year.

What was your first self-built beast?

*MegaDETH* · 17-05-2007

Good thread!!

I am really struggling to think back that far, I think it was 8088 with 64 KB of ram.

Although if I remember correctly I had bought a 286 desktop at 16mhz CPU, and i think it costs around $4k!!!

**Arachne** · 17-05-2007

You paid $4k for a PC?!

And your memory can't be that bad...mind you, I can't believe I remembered all the bits that went into mine

*skelton* · 17-05-2007

Apple Mac Plus logic board in a home made box
with an Apple II power supply. Connected to a
green PC monitor. 68000CPU at 8MHz. 1MB RAM
87/88ish.

The Mac Plus board was later replaced by a
Mac SE30 logic board. 68030 CPU at 16MHz
and 40MB hard-drive.

I didn't get into IBM compatible PC's until the
early 90s. The first one was a 80386SX 40MHz
with 4MB of RAM.

Prof. Honeydew · 17-05-2007

I've never built one.
After my experiences this week, I'll probably keep away from building; it would probably turn out like terminator rather than a trusty, reliable pc

*debro* · 17-05-2007

Amd K6-233Mhz
Dodgy PC-Chips M-571 mobo
2x 128MB Hynix PC133 ram.
8GB Fujistu 5400rpm HD
4MB S3 Virge DX Video Card -misc manufacturer (quickly updated to a 16MB PCI 3DFX Banshee after the first 3D game attempt)
Dodgy 16bit Pci soundcard - I still have the original box

Asus 34x CDrom (that's not a typo) which had terrible trouble with Mode2 discs.
Fujitsu 3.5" floppy drive
Misc PS2 keyboard ...
A-tech PS2 mouse which had issues if light shone through the cracks in the buttons.
Win98SE.
Dodgy stereo speakers.
Acer 15" CRT monitor (Curved screen).
Generic 10Mb PCI network card.
Motorola PCI - WinModem.

*UTR* · 17-05-2007

I think in was a 486 @ 100 mhz machine. Every desktop I have had since then has been self built.

**Kerry56** · 17-05-2007

I used oem machines for years. Didn't get the urge to roll my own till Jan 2003 or so.
It was:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
XP 2100+ cpu
512mb Kingston PC2700 ram
Generic DVD rom
Sony CDRW
Maxtor HD (don't remember if it was 20gb or 30)
Can't remember the original vid card, but I put in a Geforce3 Ti 200 soon after building it.

It has evolved over time and now is my backup machine with this configuration:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
XP 2600+ Barton cpu
768mb Corsair PC3200 ram
BenQ 1620 DVDRW
WD 120gb hard drive
Radeon 9800 Pro video card
Leadtek WinTV 2000 XP tv/video capture card

It is still a responsive, capable computer for most tasks. Video encoding is a bit slow, but I rarely use it for that anymore.

*jwill427* · 17-05-2007

I could have saved so much money had I started building earlier

I got a $2500 gateway in 97, then another $2500 gateway in 2002 (neither were top of teh line, probably in the upper 3/4 tho). I added new parts into both, so I figured I could build one from scratch, then I looked into prices and my jaw dropped when I found out I could build a fairly high end PC for ~$1k

(I checked at the time and it was ~$500 less than gateway could offer a similar rig

)

built late 2005:

AMD 3700
ECS KN1 SLI lite (nf4 939)
generic 2x512mb ddr400
xfx 6800gs
1x maxtor 160gb, 1x WD 80gb hdd
liteon 160p6s
450w psu
thermaltake tsunami

as you can see from my sig, I'm still running the same basic rig, its just been through a few Frankenstein operations

and a few more are due...new CPU cooler is long overdue, PSU is at its limits, video is a bit long in the tooth, the liteon is starting to act up

biggest priority right now is a cooler, and perhaps an external enclosure for the 80gb to take some load off the PSU

**Jedi Master Yoda** · 17-05-2007

Interesting thread...

OK let me think.......... mmmmmmmmmmm.......

Abit KR7A-Raid
AMD Athlon XP 1900+
Mermoy Started at 256MB if i recall, although i cant remember what make.
Sparkle Geforce 2 MX
Sound Blaster PCI128
Teac CD-Rom

Cant remember anything else that was in it.

I still actually have most of the parts still in draws or on shelfs.

**Arachne** · 17-05-2007

Hehe...the "geek" in me is loving all these configs and stories

@Kerry - "roll my own" LOL

wobble · 17-05-2007

Lets see,
Pentium II 400.
Abit mobo.
ATI Rage 128 AGP.
Voodoo 2 3000 PCI.
10Gig WD HD.
256 PC 133? (Maybe 100?)
Sound Blaster 128.
USB 1.0
DiamondMax 56K.
Later updated the CPU to a Pentiun III 750.

Cressida · 17-05-2007

I never actually set out to buy the parts and build a complete PC in one go, it's all been evolutionary. I do remember the fist one I bought in 2001, a cheap supermarket brand with a little PCChips/SiS all-in mobo, Celeron 733, 64MB SDRAM, 4.3GB Seagate, no-name CD-ROM and WinME. I got a 256MB RAM-stick, a Kenwood TrueX CD-ROM and a Maxtor 20GB HD pretty soon after (and started sound-deadening the case

), which is when I made the mistake to set the FSB from 66 to 100 (there wasn't anything in between

). Took the CPU to a PC Shop where they said it tested OK and they sold me a new Asus TUSL2-C mobo. The Celeron never worked quite right again though and I got me a PentiumIII 1133MHz instead, plus another stick of RAM and so on... (an aluminum Lian-Li case and Zalman PSU were next I believe

). So that was my first self-build experience

**Dee** · 17-05-2007

AMD 1800+
Asus M/B (don't remember which one)
Maxtor 80gig HD
512MEG of ram (Samsung)
ATI (All in Wonder graphics)
BenQ DW1620
El Cheapo ATX case
Iiyama 15 inch LCD
My daughter has it and uses it for homework and burning CD's.

zevia · 17-05-2007

If I remember correctly....

Intel 80286
CPU speed: 10 Mhz (yes Mhz!)
DOS only.

**Arachne** · 17-05-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by zevia

If I remember correctly....

Intel 80286
CPU speed: 10 Mhz (yes Mhz!)
DOS only.

So far you and skelton get the Oldest Self-Build Award

*Bjproc* · 17-05-2007

never tried it, i'd like to, but theres on at MESH just now thats tickling my fancy

*NBK* · 17-05-2007

Hi

My first self-built PC was built by me in July 1999. I had previously had a Packard Bell Pentium 60 since 1995.

Motherboard: Abit BX6 Rev. 2.0
RAM: generic 128Mb PC-100 SDRAM
Sound Card: Creative SB Live Value OEM
OS: Windows 98 SE
Processor: Intel Celeron A 333MHz Slot 1
CD-ROM: Digital Research
Hard Disk Drive: Quantum FireBall EX 6.4 GB
Video Card: ATI Rage Fury 32Mb AGP
Case: Enlight
PSU: Sparkle
Monitor: Packard Bell 14"

The Abit motherboard was dodgy causing random reboots and shutdowns. It died and stupid me replaced it with another Abit BE6 II rev 2.0 RAID which caused the same problems. I did not discover this until 2001!!! I subsequently stopped using Abit and now use exclusively ASUS.

The RAM died after warranty and i could not replace until the next year. The CD-ROM died and was replaced by a Pioneer 115? DVD-ROM.

The only stuff that i still have is the Celeron A.

NBK

*MegaDETH* · 17-05-2007

Ahh mine was a 8088 haha I win (well I guess I won't consider that a win)

*skelton* · 18-05-2007

A real homebrew computer. Z80A 8 bit CPU.
8kB RAM, 32kB Rom, Fox RTC chip and
a couple of PIO chips for communicating
with the outside world and driving the
2 line, 16 character LCD display.
Early 90s.

*chas0039* · 18-05-2007

After I got fed up with my TRS 80 and bored with my Osborne, I built a 80186 (not a misprint) with a very fancy amber screen. I opted for Monochrome graphics rather than the lower res. CGA, with a Hercules card. Back then you installed each memory chip by hand and I built a special tool to remove them for testing (hit or miss). Lotus had just upgrades to 123A and the leading word processor was Wordperfect if I remember correctly. I built some 8086s before that but this one was for me.

*Dartman* · 18-05-2007

First PC for me was a tandy dual drive 8088 machine. First self built one was when I upgraded my 386dx25 to a 486/33 with 5 whole meg of RAM. Had a 105 and 52 gig hard drive, dual floppies, no cdrom drive or burner back then. I put the 486 board into my 386 dektop case, velcroed the second hard drive to the drive cage, and happily played Doom, Wing commander, Castle Wolfenstien, etc.

*ripit* · 23-05-2007

You wouldn't believe the first one I used (I didn't build it, my father did). It was a heath kit computer that you actually built (as in had to solder some of the stuff together yourself if I recall right, I was quite young). My brother got into computers heavily, ran bulletin boards etc. so I used built sytems, but the first I actually built myself was a 386 (with his help). I dont remember the specs but I remember being pissed off that I paid 200$ or something like that for a 120MB hard drive, just to have prices drop big time shortly after. I did a few upgrades including a 486 (cannot remember which). I wound up selling it with the intention of buying another, but went to college and wound up just using the schools computers for several years. The next I actually owned was a 900Mhz celeron (pos emachines), which right away got many upgrades, eventually leaving enough spare/old parts to build a second computer, then a third, fourth etc. Now its all just shelves of parts and whatever I happen to put in them according to my mood. That old emachines and the celeron/motherboard met with a violent death by the way (it pissed me off for that last time).

*Mr. Belvedere* · 23-05-2007

A 386. Costed me around $3000 in components and it worked perfectly from the start. I was so proud!

**pepst** · 25-05-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by skelton

A real homebrew computer. Z80A 8 bit CPU.
8kB RAM, 32kB Rom, Fox RTC chip and
a couple of PIO chips for communicating
with the outside world and driving the
2 line, 16 character LCD display.
Early 90s.

very nice one

17-05-2007	#1
Arachne Senior Administrator & Reviewer Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tabby Towers, West of England Posts: 33,774	Your first self-built PC? After tinkering about swapping things in and out of various pre-built PCs for a year or so, my first self built PC was: an AMD K6-2/450 Gigabyte GA5AX mobo Maxtor 10gig HDD 128MB RAM Voodoo3 3k vid card (which I think I still have) SB Live! Value soundcard Philips CDD3610 CD burner LG 32x CD-ROM I loved it dearly, it was rock solid...passed it onto my mum after a couple of years, and she sold it after a year. What was your first self-built beast? __________________ Current drives: Samsung SE-S084C (TS02) + Samsung SH-S223F (SB03 RPC1 + other goodies) + TSST (Samsung) TS-H653F (DW10) + Samsung SH-S203N (SB02 RPC1 + other goodies) + Optiarc AD-5170S (1.12) + Litey LH-20A1H (LL0D) + Samsung SH-S182D (SB06 RPC1) x2 + LG E10N (JE07) + BenQ DW1650 (BCDC) + BenQ DW1640@164B (BEFB) + LG 4167B (DL13 TDB) + NEC ND-4551A (1.Z2) + LG GCE-8520B (1.00) + LiteOn SOHR-5239S (2S0B) Retired: LiteOn LDW-851@SOHW-832 + LiteOn SOHW-1693S + LG 4163B + Pioneer DVR-115D My Review PCs How to delete your upper and lower filters : How to check/enable DMA by Womble Click here to join MyCE.com and be part of our friendly community! Smile...people will wonder what you're up to

17-05-2007	#2
MegaDETH Retired Senior Moderator and Senior Reviewer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Watertown Posts: 4,873	Re: Your first self-built PC? Good thread!! I am really struggling to think back that far, I think it was 8088 with 64 KB of ram. Although if I remember correctly I had bought a 286 desktop at 16mhz CPU, and i think it costs around $4k!!!

17-05-2007	#3
Arachne Senior Administrator & Reviewer Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tabby Towers, West of England Posts: 33,774	Re: Your first self-built PC? You paid $4k for a PC?! And your memory can't be that bad...mind you, I can't believe I remembered all the bits that went into mine __________________ Current drives: Samsung SE-S084C (TS02) + Samsung SH-S223F (SB03 RPC1 + other goodies) + TSST (Samsung) TS-H653F (DW10) + Samsung SH-S203N (SB02 RPC1 + other goodies) + Optiarc AD-5170S (1.12) + Litey LH-20A1H (LL0D) + Samsung SH-S182D (SB06 RPC1) x2 + LG E10N (JE07) + BenQ DW1650 (BCDC) + BenQ DW1640@164B (BEFB) + LG 4167B (DL13 TDB) + NEC ND-4551A (1.Z2) + LG GCE-8520B (1.00) + LiteOn SOHR-5239S (2S0B) Retired: LiteOn LDW-851@SOHW-832 + LiteOn SOHW-1693S + LG 4163B + Pioneer DVR-115D My Review PCs How to delete your upper and lower filters : How to check/enable DMA by Womble Click here to join MyCE.com and be part of our friendly community! Smile...people will wonder what you're up to

17-05-2007	#4
skelton MyCE Resident Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 675	Re: Your first self-built PC? Apple Mac Plus logic board in a home made box with an Apple II power supply. Connected to a green PC monitor. 68000CPU at 8MHz. 1MB RAM 87/88ish. The Mac Plus board was later replaced by a Mac SE30 logic board. 68030 CPU at 16MHz and 40MB hard-drive. I didn't get into IBM compatible PC's until the early 90s. The first one was a 80386SX 40MHz with 4MB of RAM.

17-05-2007	#5
Prof. Honeydew CD Freaks Die Hard Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: The land of snow Posts: 1,336	Re: Your first self-built PC? I've never built one. After my experiences this week, I'll probably keep away from building; it would probably turn out like terminator rather than a trusty, reliable pc

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17-05-2007	#6
debro Blown to smitherines Join Date: Jul 1999 Location: Between the CDFreaks Orange and Blue Portals Posts: 13,338	Re: Your first self-built PC? Amd K6-233Mhz Dodgy PC-Chips M-571 mobo 2x 128MB Hynix PC133 ram. 8GB Fujistu 5400rpm HD 4MB S3 Virge DX Video Card -misc manufacturer (quickly updated to a 16MB PCI 3DFX Banshee after the first 3D game attempt) Dodgy 16bit Pci soundcard - I still have the original box Asus 34x CDrom (that's not a typo) which had terrible trouble with Mode2 discs. Fujitsu 3.5" floppy drive Misc PS2 keyboard ... A-tech PS2 mouse which had issues if light shone through the cracks in the buttons. Win98SE. Dodgy stereo speakers. Acer 15" CRT monitor (Curved screen). Generic 10Mb PCI network card. Motorola PCI - WinModem. __________________ / ----- I remember when all this will happen again -----/ You will be baked ... and there will be cake ... you monster. Click here to still be alive! Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. --Terry Pratchett Primary PC: 1.4Ghz Quad Core Cortex A9, 2048MB Ram, Mali 400 video, 32GB Primary, 64Gb Secondary, 802.11N 2.4/5Ghz, 1280x800@10.1" with one years supply of Jelly Beans Secondary PC: i7-Q720@1.6Ghz, 4GB, 500GB Hybrid HDD, Win7 x64 BusPre, Ati HD5470M-1GB, backlit keyboard. Tertiary PC: Amd Phenom II 945, 4GB DDR2, 120GB Vertex 2, AMD HD7850(OC) 2GB , Win8 Pro, 24" 1920x1200, cordless keyboard + mouse + gaming mouse. Last edited by debro; 17-05-2007 at 03:41.

17-05-2007	#7
UTR MyCE Resident Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 2,879	Re: Your first self-built PC? I think in was a 486 @ 100 mhz machine. Every desktop I have had since then has been self built.

17-05-2007	#8
Kerry56 Administrator Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: West Texas Posts: 14,421	Re: Your first self-built PC? I used oem machines for years. Didn't get the urge to roll my own till Jan 2003 or so. It was: Asus A7N8X Deluxe XP 2100+ cpu 512mb Kingston PC2700 ram Generic DVD rom Sony CDRW Maxtor HD (don't remember if it was 20gb or 30) Can't remember the original vid card, but I put in a Geforce3 Ti 200 soon after building it. It has evolved over time and now is my backup machine with this configuration: Asus A7N8X Deluxe XP 2600+ Barton cpu 768mb Corsair PC3200 ram BenQ 1620 DVDRW WD 120gb hard drive Radeon 9800 Pro video card Leadtek WinTV 2000 XP tv/video capture card It is still a responsive, capable computer for most tasks. Video encoding is a bit slow, but I rarely use it for that anymore.

17-05-2007	#9
jwill427 MyCE Resident Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: SoCal USA Posts: 1,345	Re: Your first self-built PC? I could have saved so much money had I started building earlier I got a $2500 gateway in 97, then another $2500 gateway in 2002 (neither were top of teh line, probably in the upper 3/4 tho). I added new parts into both, so I figured I could build one from scratch, then I looked into prices and my jaw dropped when I found out I could build a fairly high end PC for ~$1k (I checked at the time and it was ~$500 less than gateway could offer a similar rig ) built late 2005: AMD 3700 ECS KN1 SLI lite (nf4 939) generic 2x512mb ddr400 xfx 6800gs 1x maxtor 160gb, 1x WD 80gb hdd liteon 160p6s 450w psu thermaltake tsunami as you can see from my sig, I'm still running the same basic rig, its just been through a few Frankenstein operations and a few more are due...new CPU cooler is long overdue, PSU is at its limits, video is a bit long in the tooth, the liteon is starting to act up biggest priority right now is a cooler, and perhaps an external enclosure for the 80gb to take some load off the PSU __________________ Fold for team 13505 Help us save some lives by joining the Distributed Computing Teams Main rig(aka Arachne's NEW new PC^2 ): Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.6ghz (for now )Folding GPU + SMP 24/7 #2: AMD 4000+ x2 @ 2.4GHz WCG when on Laptop: Celeron 520 1.6ghz @ 2.0ghz WCG when plugged in Full specs here Finally updated! CD Freak for life!

17-05-2007	#10
Jedi Master Yoda Moderator Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Somewhere Out There Posts: 1,339	Re: Your first self-built PC? Interesting thread... OK let me think.......... mmmmmmmmmmm....... Abit KR7A-Raid AMD Athlon XP 1900+ Mermoy Started at 256MB if i recall, although i cant remember what make. Sparkle Geforce 2 MX Sound Blaster PCI128 Teac CD-Rom Cant remember anything else that was in it. I still actually have most of the parts still in draws or on shelfs. __________________ Consoles... PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Meny older consoles retired but not forgotten. Drives... Pioneer DVR-S19LBK, LiteOn iHAS524, Plextor Premium 2(temporarily not in pc), Aopen 1648/AAP Pro(in pvr), Samsung SH-D162C Kreons 0.81 (In External Case). Retired But Still Work... Lite-On SOHR 5239V, Pioneer DVR-111D, Plextor PX-W2410A , Pioneer A05. PC Spec... MSI 770T-C45, AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition, Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB , Powercolor ATI HD 5850, Corsair TX 650W, Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic, Seagate 120GB SATA (x2), Seagate 320GB SATA + WD Caviar Green 2TB SATA. External storage... Seagate 250GB, Seagate 500GB And A Buffalo 2TB. Internet..... Be Unlimited ... up to 24 meg

17-05-2007	#11
Arachne Senior Administrator & Reviewer Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tabby Towers, West of England Posts: 33,774	Re: Your first self-built PC? Hehe...the "geek" in me is loving all these configs and stories @Kerry - "roll my own" LOL __________________ Current drives: Samsung SE-S084C (TS02) + Samsung SH-S223F (SB03 RPC1 + other goodies) + TSST (Samsung) TS-H653F (DW10) + Samsung SH-S203N (SB02 RPC1 + other goodies) + Optiarc AD-5170S (1.12) + Litey LH-20A1H (LL0D) + Samsung SH-S182D (SB06 RPC1) x2 + LG E10N (JE07) + BenQ DW1650 (BCDC) + BenQ DW1640@164B (BEFB) + LG 4167B (DL13 TDB) + NEC ND-4551A (1.Z2) + LG GCE-8520B (1.00) + LiteOn SOHR-5239S (2S0B) Retired: LiteOn LDW-851@SOHW-832 + LiteOn SOHW-1693S + LG 4163B + Pioneer DVR-115D My Review PCs How to delete your upper and lower filters : How to check/enable DMA by Womble Click here to join MyCE.com and be part of our friendly community! Smile...people will wonder what you're up to

17-05-2007	#12
wobble Gone but not forgotten Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Dark Side of the Moon Posts: 1,629	Re: Your first self-built PC? Lets see, Pentium II 400. Abit mobo. ATI Rage 128 AGP. Voodoo 2 3000 PCI. 10Gig WD HD. 256 PC 133? (Maybe 100?) Sound Blaster 128. USB 1.0 DiamondMax 56K. Later updated the CPU to a Pentiun III 750.

17-05-2007	#13
Cressida CE Freak Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Almost there Posts: 4,443	Re: Your first self-built PC? I never actually set out to buy the parts and build a complete PC in one go, it's all been evolutionary. I do remember the fist one I bought in 2001, a cheap supermarket brand with a little PCChips/SiS all-in mobo, Celeron 733, 64MB SDRAM, 4.3GB Seagate, no-name CD-ROM and WinME. I got a 256MB RAM-stick, a Kenwood TrueX CD-ROM and a Maxtor 20GB HD pretty soon after (and started sound-deadening the case ), which is when I made the mistake to set the FSB from 66 to 100 (there wasn't anything in between ). Took the CPU to a PC Shop where they said it tested OK and they sold me a new Asus TUSL2-C mobo. The Celeron never worked quite right again though and I got me a PentiumIII 1133MHz instead, plus another stick of RAM and so on... (an aluminum Lian-Li case and Zalman PSU were next I believe ). So that was my first self-build experience

17-05-2007	#14
Dee Senior Administrator and Reviewer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Scotland, UK Posts: 12,815	Re: Your first self-built PC? AMD 1800+ Asus M/B (don't remember which one) Maxtor 80gig HD 512MEG of ram (Samsung) ATI (All in Wonder graphics) BenQ DW1620 El Cheapo ATX case Iiyama 15 inch LCD My daughter has it and uses it for homework and burning CD's. __________________ We came to wreck everything and ruin your lives, God sent us MyCE SSD Reviews To become a member of MyCE.com just click here to join The Forum Rules \| The SSD FAQ \| The NEC/Optiarc F.A.Q. \| Liggy & Dee's NEC/Optiarc Firmware Page

17-05-2007	#15
zevia Retired Senior Administrator and Review Coordinator USA Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: USA Posts: 10,476	Re: Your first self-built PC? If I remember correctly.... Intel 80286 CPU speed: 10 Mhz (yes Mhz!) DOS only. __________________ Click here to join CDFreaks.com Join CDFreaks Distributed Computing Team, have fun while helping to save some lives! My review PC & Specs & Media Blu-ray to DVD guide Forum Rules \| Blu-ray UDF Driver BenQ/Philips FAQ and tools: BQFlasher, MCSE, WOPC Tool, WinDWFlash LG BE06LU11 Blu-ray \| LG GGW-H10N Blu-ray/HD-DVD \| LG GBW-H10N Blu-ray \| Panasonic SW-5582 Blu-ray

17-05-2007	#17
Bjproc MyCE Resident Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Scotland Posts: 2,965	Re: Your first self-built PC? never tried it, i'd like to, but theres on at MESH just now thats tickling my fancy __________________ Bj click HERE to join cdfreaks

17-05-2007	#18
NBK MyCE Resident Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: North Carolina USA Posts: 960	Re: Your first self-built PC? Hi My first self-built PC was built by me in July 1999. I had previously had a Packard Bell Pentium 60 since 1995. Motherboard: Abit BX6 Rev. 2.0 RAM: generic 128Mb PC-100 SDRAM Sound Card: Creative SB Live Value OEM OS: Windows 98 SE Processor: Intel Celeron A 333MHz Slot 1 CD-ROM: Digital Research Hard Disk Drive: Quantum FireBall EX 6.4 GB Video Card: ATI Rage Fury 32Mb AGP Case: Enlight PSU: Sparkle Monitor: Packard Bell 14" The Abit motherboard was dodgy causing random reboots and shutdowns. It died and stupid me replaced it with another Abit BE6 II rev 2.0 RAID which caused the same problems. I did not discover this until 2001!!! I subsequently stopped using Abit and now use exclusively ASUS. The RAM died after warranty and i could not replace until the next year. The CD-ROM died and was replaced by a Pioneer 115? DVD-ROM. The only stuff that i still have is the Celeron A. NBK

17-05-2007	#19
MegaDETH Retired Senior Moderator and Senior Reviewer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Watertown Posts: 4,873	Re: Your first self-built PC? Ahh mine was a 8088 haha I win (well I guess I won't consider that a win)

18-05-2007	#21
chas0039 MyCE Resident Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Lost in America Posts: 7,123	Re: Your first self-built PC? After I got fed up with my TRS 80 and bored with my Osborne, I built a 80186 (not a misprint) with a very fancy amber screen. I opted for Monochrome graphics rather than the lower res. CGA, with a Hercules card. Back then you installed each memory chip by hand and I built a special tool to remove them for testing (hit or miss). Lotus had just upgrades to 123A and the leading word processor was Wordperfect if I remember correctly. I built some 8086s before that but this one was for me. __________________ Still a few bugs in the system...

18-05-2007	#22
Dartman MyCE Resident Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: USA Posts: 1,775	Re: Your first self-built PC? First PC for me was a tandy dual drive 8088 machine. First self built one was when I upgraded my 386dx25 to a 486/33 with 5 whole meg of RAM. Had a 105 and 52 gig hard drive, dual floppies, no cdrom drive or burner back then. I put the 486 board into my 386 dektop case, velcroed the second hard drive to the drive cage, and happily played Doom, Wing commander, Castle Wolfenstien, etc.

23-05-2007	#23
ripit CD Freaks Elite Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 5,912	Re: Your first self-built PC? You wouldn't believe the first one I used (I didn't build it, my father did). It was a heath kit computer that you actually built (as in had to solder some of the stuff together yourself if I recall right, I was quite young). My brother got into computers heavily, ran bulletin boards etc. so I used built sytems, but the first I actually built myself was a 386 (with his help). I dont remember the specs but I remember being pissed off that I paid 200$ or something like that for a 120MB hard drive, just to have prices drop big time shortly after. I did a few upgrades including a 486 (cannot remember which). I wound up selling it with the intention of buying another, but went to college and wound up just using the schools computers for several years. The next I actually owned was a 900Mhz celeron (pos emachines), which right away got many upgrades, eventually leaving enough spare/old parts to build a second computer, then a third, fourth etc. Now its all just shelves of parts and whatever I happen to put in them according to my mood. That old emachines and the celeron/motherboard met with a violent death by the way (it pissed me off for that last time).

23-05-2007	#24
Mr. Belvedere MyCE Resident Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: in your mind. Posts: 18,838	Re: Your first self-built PC? A 386. Costed me around $3000 in components and it worked perfectly from the start. I was so proud! __________________ "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. When things start getting weird, it's pitchfork o'clock." Do you have too much money? Give bitcoins to 1AdobZQNvfyZuDEbderRfT46KQEKkaW5dE

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