What made you build your first pc?

[Viper GTS]

Money.

My uncle needed a fast machine for large database searches for his new business.

I built him a Pentium 233 the week they were released, paid $450 for the CPU alone.

That was my first ever system build, he's still using it today.

Viper GTS

 

[Booster]

What made you build your first pc?

The lack of money to buy a prebuilt one. I used some parts from an old one, and bought others. I don't regret that I built my first PC, I was completely satisfied with it. Unfortunately, once I built it I couldn't stop and started adding different new parts. Now I think it wasn't the best choice to spend my money.

 

[xirtam]

Eventually, I came to realize that not only was it cheaper, it was also more fun. And I knew that I wouldn't ever even attempt tech support or warranty crap from retailers anyway. Too much of a hassle. I can solve my own problems faster.

 

[FoBoT]

in 1993 there were almost no places to get custom built pc's with custom video and other custom selected parts

so my choice was to buy a "regular" pc and upgrade the crap out of it

or just build it from scratch

 

[randomlinh]

the cheaper argument these days doesn't hold as much as it did before unfortunately.. them big companies can give a lot for 700. with that said, building is a lot more satisfying, and yes, you can fix your own problems faster and with the help of this (and many other) sites. unless of course, you're the kind of person who can't program a vcr.. then you might want to stick w/ dell or gateway

 

[notfred]

I've never built my PC from scratch (I've done it with other PCs, but not mine).
Mine's been evolving since it was a 33mhz 486 w/ 8mb of ram and a 400mb HD.
Fist upgrade was a 66mhz DX2 chip.
Followed that w/ a motherboard and 166mhz CPU. Needed new ram for the new board, so I picked up a 66mhz SDRAM DIMM for it. 32mb.
After that, Igot a 4gb HD.
Machine was much snappier now, but then quake 2 just came out. I bought it. It was slow.

I was guessing it was the fault of my 2mb ISA video card.
Picked up a 6mb Canopus Pure3D (voodoo 1 card).
Ahh.... much better

the game still had a tendancy to load slowly. 64 more MB of ram for me.

After that, the next upgrade was another now mobo/CPU combo. Was up to a 350mhz K6-2. oh, and this mobo had an AGP slot

When half-life came out, I bought it the first day, and a shiny new 16MB TNT card to go w/ it.

After that, I kinda lose track...

Since then, I've been through at leat 5 motherboards, seven processors, 5 or 6 hard drives, at least 6 video cards, a couple sound cards. 2 dvd drives, 2 CD-R drives, 3 or 4 CD-ROM drives, 3 monitors, at least three cases, 2 keyboards....

hell, a lot of stuff.

The same machine, now at version 473.21, is now an Athlon XP 1600+ w/ 80gb of disk space, 256mb ram.

 

[NTB]

Anime Or, more pricely, DVDs. I recieved a pioneer DVD-ROM and Hollywood + decoder for christmas in 2000. Worked beautifully in my old K6-2 400 rig, except that the passthrough on the H+ card made the video output look horendous. but I had to use it or do without, since a 400 wasn't quite enough to run PowerDVD. So as spring rolled around I was on the hunt for a new system. Didn't want to -buy- a new one because I didn't need all new parts; I could scavenge most of them out of my old rig. an MB, processor, and case would do for now. And so by the end of the summer I was running a Duron 750.

Originally posted by: AmusedOneBy doing so, I've now become my extended family's computer supplier and tech. Woe is me.

.


Nate

 

[NTB]

Darn dirty double post


Nate

 

[CraigRT]

I got into PC's, so I wanted to see what it was like to build my own PC.
now it's all I do.

Build my own PC's that is.

 

[Evadman]

I wanted to learn how to solder.

 

[Azraele]

I have yet to build my first pc, and one of these days I'll have the money and the guts to do it.

 

[LANMAN]

I built my own, because then I know what's in it, if I need to expand I know my options, I have no one to blame if it doesn't work, and I can pick what hardware company for each piece instead of some POS the big PC companies put together. Biggest factor of all? My box isn't PROPRIATARY, after the well known ACER's, Hewlett Crappard, IBM and your favorite Packard Hell! :|

I don't by POS monitors like CTX's too. Several years ago, I saw a shipment of 72 monitors come in, and right out of the box 12 didn't work! Another reason to say, "you get what you paid for".

The only other computer that I would think of buying if I didn't build my own, would be Alienware. Expensive, but they don't use crap in their boxes. (My .02)

--LANMAN

 

[DeafeningSilence]

Three main reasons:

3) For the satisfaction of it.
2) To learn more about hardware.
1) I was pissed at my discount CTX machine from Best Buy!

Yes, after three years of college using that piece of junk, I began to build my own machine about this time last year -- an Athlon 1.2 GHz machine. I don't plan on ever going back...

 

[LANMAN]

Originally posted by: Evadman
I wanted to learn how to solder.

:Q







--LANMAN

 

[Jhill]

When I figured out that I could get a lot more bang for my buck is when I learned (mostly from here) how to build one.
And after nagging you guys and bombing you with questions I proudly own an xp 1700 system.

 

[Stark]

It was the next logical step in my journey into geekdom.

Every PC I've ever built, starting with a K6-2 233, is still running.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: lnguyen
the cheaper argument these days doesn't hold as much as it did before unfortunately.. them big companies can give a lot for 700. with that said, building is a lot more satisfying, and yes, you can fix your own problems faster and with the help of this (and many other) sites. unless of course, you're the kind of person who can't program a vcr.. then you might want to stick w/ dell or gateway

Yeah, for bottom rung internet/word processing appliances the OEMs just can't be beat. But if you want a middle/top of the line machine, building it yourself saves 30-50%.

 

[Beau]

I just wanted to do it. I couldn't find a pre-fabbed PC that had all the components that I wanted... so I built it myself.

 

[Frosty3799]

when there was too much family demand for the family computer, and when i got fed up with its slow speed.

It was a gateway P2 400 w/ 128 or 192 ram, cant remember. I built an athlon socket 900, which at the time cost me $200 for just the processor.

 

[kami]

300a@450. default voltage, retail malaysian core (SL32A)...ahh, memories...

 

[SludgeFactory]

When I realized that Dell, Gateway, etc. were skimping on certain components and using crappy motherboards. I always wanted either best performance or at least best bang for the buck. It became really easy to compare things when the Web started to get big in the mid 90s and review sites started popping up.

Now, I don't build a new PC, I just continously upgrade.

 

[Spamela]

i used to order PC's from local shops with the parts i specified because i figured they could get them cheaper than i could. then pricewatch.com (& predecessors) came along.
so, when it came time for a new pc i built the thing from scratch.

 

[TJN23]

Ben aka ThaWolfMan!

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: AmusedOne

Yeah, for bottom rung internet/word processing appliances the OEMs just can't be beat. But if you want a middle/top of the line machine, building it yourself saves 30-50%.

good point. I guess i'm too used to the low budget... 1) i'm a poor college student, 2) anyone who ever asks me to build something always has a low budget (i generally tell them to get a dell or gateway so i don't have to bother w/ support, unless it's family or a good friend).

 

[djheater]

My daughter was born in '98 I was working 3 jobs around 70 hours a week (often more) making $17,500 I had never used a computer... with the exception of word processing... I had a feeling that I'd be pretty good with them... I bought a "build your own" book... because I had no access to the internet.

I've built 10-15 since then. I work with them daily and make over 50k now... Am taking MCSA courses as we speak. Thank god for computers....