What made you build your first pc?

[ScottyB]

I built my first pc (this one I am on) because I ordered a gateway(spent $2500 without a monitor) and it woudln't play games and it paused every few seconds. I called gateway and they sent me new speakers (because they are stupid and thought the skipping was caused by the speakers, although in order to show them it skipped was to play music on the phone) and they said my games froze after 30 seconds of playing was because WinME was based on new code that only brand new games could play on. I then sent it back to gateway, and got on here asked what I should get and built my own system. That was over a year and a half ago.

 

[Migroo]

Resurrected an old 486 that a friend had lieing around - that was my first.

 

[Czar]

because I needed a new processor... then I found out that I needed a new motherboard, and memory, and a new case, but I didnt need a new hd, cdrom drive, floppy drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse and so on. Sounded like a good reason at the time

 

[diskop]

Cause all the cool kids did it.
After I was done I proceeded to jump off a bridge.

 

[metallibloke]

I felt it was a good way to learn more about hardware. Plus everyone else seemed to have done it except me.

 

[nj]

Because my Acer DX2-50 kept spontaneously rebooting everytime I so much as touched it. I had to rip it apart, right down to a bare case, to figure out what was wrong with it. After that, I figured I might as well just save money and build my own.

Incidentally those old Acer cases were pretty good for the time. They opened up without any screws and had the mobo on the door like the powerpc's do now. That was about the only thing good about that computer.

 

[Kadarin]

I was rather non-technical at the time, and my brother convinced me it would be a good idea to buy components that weren't junk. Of course, in doing so, I had to then learn what the hell I was doing, and because of that, my life changed.

 

[erikiksaz]

Will power and the "I can do this!" attitude.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Doom, plain and simple, After playing it on one of my friends machines i was hooked.
I slowly began learning what hardware it took to play Doom, saved the money and partialy asembled it (I had an old packard bell as a base) and i played, and it was good

 

[StattlichPassat]

Got a computer hardware parts catalog in the mail back in 1996 and was astounded that you could build your own computer! :Q Had no idea. After begging and pleading with the parental units for a few years, I finally built an AMD K6-2 400MHz rig in the spring of 1999 before I went to college.

 

[Amused]

I was prompted to after trying to upgrade a Dell. The propriatary mobo and PS pissed me off, so I built my own. I found doing it so interesting and fun, I've built every one since.

By doing so, I've now become my extended family's computer supplier and tech. Woe is me.

 

[RossGr]

'Cuz I'am cheap and could not afford to buy a new system.

It all started when I decided that the cheezy 2" case speaker was not cutting it, this was in ~1990, before sound cards and speakers, most game generated sound used the case speaker. I went to Radio Shack and picked a nice 3" speaker with a BIG honking magnet. At home I opened my case and did a quick connect to the speaker, I was loading Leisure Suit Larry just so I could test it out, meanwhile I was looking at the place I thougth that it would mount, damn, it wasn't going to fit; so I sat the speaker, huge magnet and all, on the HARD DRIVE! Bam!, end of boot, end of hard drive, just that fast. This was a pre IDE HD you needed a special setup disk to do a low level format, needless to say, since I had bought the system (AST 80286/dos3.1) used I did not have the needed disk. The answer was to get a new 12Mhz 286 with motherboard which had the routines in ROM. A few months later I bought a Black mid Tower case for the new mobo and that became my first home built, ~'91 or '92.

 

[max105]

My friend had a p3-450 that he was selling to me for real cheap. Unfortunately, my motherboard didn't support P3's (was on the intel LX chipset). I wanted to upgrade from my p2-300 so I took it. So then I bought the motherboard and the rest of it came with the cpu/mobo slowly.

 

[Mitzi]

First taste of building and upgrading came about '95ish when I upgraded my Pentium 60, 8Mb to a Cyrix PR150+, new motherboard and 32Mb. My friend taught me the essentials.

 

[bulldawg]

Because I had paid $2000 for a POS NEC Pentium 166MMX in late 1997. Sometime in mid-1998 I found the PC Accelerator forums and it seemed that every 10 year old was building a Celery 300A @450. From there I found Sharky's and that led me to here where it seemed everone was getting Celery from Russ. In Jan 1999, I couldn't stand it anymore and built my 300A@464 with a Viper 550 and MX300 for about $1100. Instant addiction. Built about 50 since then.

 

[bulldawg]

RossGr said

I was loading Leisure Suit Larry just so I could test it out, meanwhile I was looking at the place I thougth that it would mount, damn, it wasn't going to fit; so I sat the speaker, huge magnet and all, on the HARD DRIVE! Bam!, end of boot, end of hard drive, just that fast.

I can't help but laugh at that because it sounds like my kind of luck. Bet you were just tickled when that happened!!

 

[BigJohnKC]

I got paid to build my first one. Somehow I was lucky enough to get a job at my ISP, which was and still is a local, very small outfit. They just set me to work out in the shop and figure it all out by myself. Built many, many computers during my time there.

 

[Modeps]

I've been building them ever since the days of the 8088... it's only natural now.

 

[schmedy]

we upgraded from the blazing 286 at work to the flaming 386 and they just gave us mony for some parts, wasn't that hard since my job is electronics, computers are easy.

 

[Paulson]

I was going to use it as a server... but decided if I kept it and put all my parts in it, I could brag that I made it, and my compaq ended up being my server (so I shoved it down in the basement!)

 

[Tiger]

The one day I forgot to wear my tinfoil hat the "voices" told me to "upgrade" my Puckerd Hell.
Every now and then I forget the foil and end up building a new personal confuser.

 

[Spac3d]

Surprised no one said it.... Hot Deal forums! Helped save hundreds on a new machine by waiting and buying components one at a time from good sales.

Spac3d

 

[yakko]

Because I wanted to.

 

[Tripleshot]

After paying $4700 for what was supposed to be the fastest 'puter on the planet in Dec 95, That Zeos Pantera Pentium 133 with 32 megs of ram was obsolete in 3 months and in 4 months micron bought Zeos out and I had no support.

I hung out at computer shops in my spare time, asked lots of questions, took classes and obtained training, and have been building my own every since. It has now turned into a profitable business and I can help my friends and customers get the best for their dollar.

Now MCSE/MCDBA and part of the microsoft Channel partner program, I am meeting with Microsoft in the morning for some other oppurtunites. Being a geek has its rewards.

 

[Masas]

Quake 3 Arena.
pentium 133mhz and a S3 ViRge vid card = no good.