man times have changed...what hardware were u running six years ago?

[Hugo Drax]

I bought a Mac pro in 2006. 4x 2.66 xeons. It is still in use. Works fine, I have 16gb of ram and a 4870 apple ati card in it.

 

[vbuggy]

Well I'll agree that suing bit is stupid, but personally as yet I haven't had a problem upgrading a Mac, my Mac Pro has more non apple parts in it than apple parts now...

How much of it is inside the case / not looking like a spaghetti loom?

It's a hopeless machine EDIT *in the product category* EDIT for upgradability D:

 

[Rhoxed]

Athlon 3800 x2, 2gb pc3200, 2x 500GB in raid 0, 7800GT, Antec TP3 650W

 

[MotionMan]

This is my gif sig from 4 years ago (wait for it to cycle through all three units):

MotionMan

 

[HAL9000]

How much of it is inside the case / not looking like a spaghetti loom?

It looks exactly like it's stock I put some effort in.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Athlon X2 3800+ @2.5ghz, Sli 7800 gt, 2gb of DDR500, some clusterfuck of hard drives and some stupid ugly ass case.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

But I know what you mean, per MB now its PENNIES on what it used to be.

It is incredible how cheap ram is now. When I saw 8gb of ram for $30 on black friday I bought it simply because I could. In comparison to the past it felt "free".

This is my gif sig from 4 years ago (wait for it to cycle through all three units):

MotionMan

I also had one of those black AMD Shuttle PCs. Those little barebone systems were great.

Athlon X2 4200+
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
1GB DDR 400
6800 GT
Audigy 2 ZS
Aspire X-Navigator and 500W PSU D:

I think I still have everything except for the case and PSU. It was a great computer overall, and still fast enough for basic tasks even today.

Oh god, I had that case and PSU also. The PSU with all the colored heatsinks and the fan control nob right? That thing was shit. Also the case was trash.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Oh god, I had that case and PSU also. The PSU with all the colored heatsinks and the fan control nob right? That thing was shit. Also the case was trash.

colored heatsinks?

got a pic?

 

[CurseTheSky]

Oh god, I had that case and PSU also. The PSU with all the colored heatsinks and the fan control nob right? That thing was shit. Also the case was trash.

Yep. I was new to building my own computer at the time, so of course, I figured a "cool looking" (AKA flashy lights) case + PSU all for $150 must be great! Little did I know...

Luckily the PSU never blew up on me, but it got junked as soon as I started reading PSU reviews a couple years later. The case was horrible plastic garbage, though they did at least use aluminum for the interior. It had something like 6 or 8 80mm fans, and sounded like a vacuum on high speed. Ugh.

Thinking back, that was a really fun rig. Overclocking was significantly more challenging than when Core 2's came out, which made it feel all the more rewarding. I managed to get my X2 4200+ to 2.7GHz for a while (I wish I still had the screen shots, I think 2.8ish was where the pros were topping out with that chip), but had to back down to 2.6 in the long run. Such a fun rig.

 

[BoomerD]

6 years ago? The same rig I replaced one year ago.

Pentium 4 3.05 (with hyper-threading!)
Zalman 7700CU cooler
ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe board
2 Gb PC3200 RAM
VisionTek X850XT-PE AGP video card
Yamaha CD burner (don't remember what model...it died in 06-07)

All housed in an Aspire X-Superalien case with too fucking many LED fans.
(replaced the Aspire PSU once I realized what a POS it was...but used it for a couple of years._

 

[Gintaras]

Hardware has advanced way ahead of what current software needs.
No reason to buy latest hardware, unless you're a gamer or for avanced audio/video recording/editing....

nowdays my whole computing approach has changed... ive got a tablet that is my main machine...it does everything i really need and Android pulls it all together so nicely...email,sms,great browser that rivals any of the pc alternatives...because the os is so light it "feels" fast as shit..when its just dual ARM8 @ 1Ghz,and 512mb of ram...

i have a dedicated htpc running a pentium m 1.73/2gb and then a l have core 2 l appy but its basically a dedicated turntable controller and passthrough for its spdif out to my home theater pc which then passes the pcm 2.0 to a ht receiver...so basically nothing moves except the tablet whch goes with me everywhere

6 years ago i was such a geek...overclocking and raid and all...guess im just gettin old......my two machines in in 06..not including my exs little athlon xp pos i thre together for her,or a dual katmai p3 fileserver...

/computer%20screenys/3700sandra.jpg[/url]

 

[Corporate Thug]

opteron 165 w/ 8800GT

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

When the Thinkpad T42p first came out I was one of the first to jump on one, at a cost of $4000. Thinking back boy was that ever stupid, spending so much money on a laptop. I've also thrown away chunks at server-grade builds. Blown enough money over the years on computers and upgrades and gadgetry to get me a decent brand new car.

If memory served me right 6-7yrs ago I was running a dual P3-866 setup.

I'm happy I got out of the PC building phase soon after I went to strictly laptops. Now my main machine is an 27" iMac, with my Playbook and smartphone by my side I'm pretty much set. No longer do I have the "bug" for anything. Only thing I've upgraded on my iMac was ram and SSD drive.

 

[venkman]

At the start of 2006, I was rocking a Pentium D 820 System with a high 6 series Nvidia card IIRC. I upgraded this beast frequently to a Core 2 Duo, core quadro, jacked up the DDR2, updated the vid card, added HDDs. I did my last build in mid 2009 when I got an i7 system. Other than a water cooling system, I haven't upgraded a single thing since 09 and I can play every game as 1920x1080 without issue. I just don't get the DX11 effects.

CPU power is fast outpacing the ability of software to use that power, therefore I think I will have my i7 920 (Oc'd to 4 GHZ with a simple Water Cooling setup) system for a good 5-7 years before upgrading the CPU (starting from when it was built in 09) as long as I can still upgrade the video card for gaming. I think it would last a good 10-12 years if I did not game.

This is assuming nothing craps out of course.

 

[3chordcharlie]

You thought wrong I've replaced everything in my Mac Pro except for the power supply and the motherboard, I don't know where people get these stupid ideas from Macs are as upgradable as any computer.

To be fair, we are talking about a company that has repeatedly convinced its customers to buy a new $800 cell phone, because it is now available in white.

 

[Locut0s]

Can't remember the specs of the system I was running 6 years ago but if anything I'm more of a hardware tech geek now than I was then. Like to keep my computer close to the bleeding edge. NO I can't justify it but meh it's my main hobby. People sink MUCH more into their cars, wood working tools, and other hobbies.

This year I'm going to upgrade the SSD, swap the vid card for an NVIDIA 780 (or whatever they will call it). I might water cool too :hmm:

 

[Via]

I think that's when I had just built my first PC:

7600 GT
X2 4200+
A nice Gigabyte mobo (I don't remember which one)

I stuffed it all into a huge Antec case (w/500W smartpower) that I bought for nothing on sale at my local PC store.

I loved that PC, still my favorite of all.

 

[Eos]

This one is in the garage, collecting dust. But my April 2007 build is still my HTPC, and has been for over three years.

Antec Performance II SX835II $79.50
ASUS K8N-E DELUXE 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb ATX AMD Motherboard $125.00
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle 2.0GHz Socket 754 Single-Core $146.00
(2) PQI POWER Series 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) $220.00
Western Digital Raptor WD360GD $113.00
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB (SATA) $91.00
(2) Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JB 160GB (IDE) $180.00
M-AUDIO US99120 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card $92.00

$1,046.50

 

[Nohr]

Since late 2003 I had been running a Barton 2500+ @ 2.2GHz, 1GB, & 5900. By late 2006 I overhauled it with a C2D E6300 @ 2.8GHz, 2GB, & 7900GS. All in an ugly blue glowing Apevia X-Dreamer II case!

 

[StrangerGuy]

E6300 @ 2.8GHz, 2GB DDR2 800, 7600GS, 320GB HDD.

For just $186 the E6300 puts the whole AMD lineup to shame.

 

[Paratus]

Let's see.
I had the following:
P4 3.2E Presshot
4x512GB of 2-2-2 DDR
Asus P4P800 E mobo (865pe)
Asus ATI 9600xt VIVO
WD 160GB hd
Enermax liberty 500w PSU
Cooler master Praetorian aluminum case.

I think I added another WD 500 GB hd, Zalman 9500 cooler, and a Diamond X1950Pro AGP in 2006.

I'm still using the case. The other parts I've given to family members.

 

[Saint Nick]

Lmao. Six years ago, I just bought the laptop that I still use today. An HP zd8000. I was going to buy a new computer, but bought an HDTV instead

 

[lxskllr]

My daily use computer from 6 years ago was better than what I'm currently using. My C2D box is sitting mostly unused, and I'm running a P4 with 1gb ram :^D

 

[Puddle Jumper]

6 years ago my only system was a Compaq V2000Z 14" laptop with a 1.8ghz AMD Sempron and 768mb of ram.

My current systems

Desktop
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE
8GB DDR3
Radeon HD 6850 1GB
60gb OCZ Agility 2 SSD
120gb Sandisk Ultra SSD
500gb Samsung Spinpoint F1 HDD
800gb WD Caviar Green HDD
2x24" and 1x19" Samsung monitors

Laptop
Lenovo ThinkPad x220
Intel Core i5 2410m
4gb DDR3
Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD

 

[BassBomb]

Early 2006 I was using AMD 3200+ 6600GT, late 2006 C2D E6600 8800GT