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What were the specs of the first computer you ever built yourself?

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My first build was while in college (~1995). I put together a Pentium 75 with 8MB of RAM and a Western Digital 250MB hard drive with a CD Rom Drive. I started with the brand new Windows 95. I can't remember the motherboard manufacturer or chipset, but DFI rings a bell. I upgraded it to a whopping 32MB of ram about a year later and felt like I was the king of the world. 🙂 I remember it being a sweet setup for the original Warcraft and Diablo releases. Ah the good ole days!

-MINOT-
 
I bought an aopen ax6bc and a celeron 466, I should have saved some money and got the 300 everyone else was running at 450.

That mb was great, ran a couple cpus through it but dont remember the rest of the stuff.
 
Uh... i7 920/RII Gene/ 6GB Kingston HyperX 2000MHz yadda yadda ya. I got into this stuff back in '09 and decided to go all out and build an X58 system... then sold it all at a loss and built a cheaper AMD rig.
 
Just got sight of this post and i was speechless by the genius guys we have here.
I mean i never thought of building a system all by my own. but you guys are so competent,Great job guys 🙂
 
WinGeek said:
Just got sight of this post and i was speechless by the genius guys we have here.
I mean i never thought of building a system all by my own. but you guys are so competent,Great job guys 🙂
Click to expand...

??? It's not hard; didn't you ever play with Legos? It's the same, just put the pieces together (and do some research beforehand to make sure they will fit.)
 
First i took apart a Compaq 773mhz celeron, and then upgraded it to a 933mhz Pentium 3.

My first computer i built from scratch was

Intel P4 Willy 2000mhz
256mb DDR1
Ati 7200
34gb Maxtor IDE HDD

I didnt know the first thing how to put a PC together lol, i remember having it all laying on the floor trying to figure out how to put it to together lol. I had to call the store a couple times to help me. The hardest part was figuring out to install Windows 98SE, computers nowadays are easy to install for software.. back then everything was such a damn pain in the ass and hard to learn by yourself.


My brothers 1200mhz Athlon from his brand name pc was faster "loading games" so i got mad and returned the parts. First tho i was talking to people on gamespy arcade lol and they taught me how to overclock the cpu. Eventually tho i returned the parts and got a better computer. Specs were

Athlon Xp 1800+
256mb DDR1
Geforce 3 ti200
34gb Maxtor

I spent many years upgrading that pc going from a 1800+ to a 2000+ then a 2500+ barton, and upgraded the ram to 512mb and got a geforce 4 ti4600, then later i got a Ati 9700pro.

Later i upgraded the whole computer to a 3000+ Athlon 64 S754 when those first came out. I had 1GB of DDR1 and a Raptor 36GB HDD. This was the time when Farcry came out, the 9700pro was aging and eventually i bought a Geforce 6800GT. I had that computer for along time. Then I upgraded the entire computer 2 years later to a Opteron 165 Duel core 1.8ghz oc'ed eventually to 3ghz tops 2.8 24/7. I had 2GB of ram and a 8800GTS, then later upgraded to a 4850. Then i upgraded that computer 1 year later to what i currently have and iv had this PC for a year now minus the video card. I dont have any plans to upgrade this one atm.


One thing i honestly regret about getting into computers is the cost involved. For someone who was 13 years old and building computers and having ppl talk about overclocking the day you put it together... Without all the safty features PC'S have now today in the bios, i destroyed alot of computer parts. I got right into watercooling on my first computer too so i had alot of dead video cards from water dmg....

I killed the 7200 ATI card, i killed the geforce 3 ti200. Then i killed 3 9700pro's, i burned my 1800+ and my 2000+ by cracking the fragile corners on the heatsinks. I burned a couple MB'S also... You have to remember also these video cards and cpu's were more expensive then they are now. My mom had the money so it was nothing to us. However in my years with computers i got wiser, and i havent burned or fried anything in the last 3-4 years. Now when i add up the thousands i spent on PC or i should say my mom spent i wish i was smarter back then. Im 23 now

Today younger kids in that age are lucky, Windows Vista,7,xp are super easy to install... Its almost impossible to fry computer parts now, cpu's core's are now protected. Bios's have auto shutdown's on high heat, ect. We never had any of that when i started
 
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CPU: Intel Dual Core e2160 OC'd to 3.2GHz
Mem: A-data DDR2-800 2GB
Mobo: Asus P35 P5-K LGA775
GPU: Sapphire Radeon x1950 Pro 256MB
Seagate 250GB HD
hec Orion 485W PSU (still worked as of last week but it was retired with the new build)
cheap Rosewill case
Arctic Cooler freezer 7

Lasted a couple years but I felt it was time to upgrade as games were starting to slow down a bit...newer games that is. The x1950 pro wasn't known to oc very well...I got about 5% out of it. didn't help much.
 
Built from a kit, that means bare PCBs, dip sockets, resistors, capacitors, soldering.

4MHz Z-80A, the top of the line CPU in the day

S-100 Bus, 3x16KB RAM cards, utilizing 32 4Kbit chips on each board

2 Dual Density 5 1/4" floppies, 180KB capacity each

Linear power supply with ~1 Farad output filter capacitance

Case is a metal base, with a wood top, looks like an old stereo receiver

Hooked up to an Intertec Intertube RS-232 terminal
 
August 2001

Windows Me
Pentium 4 - 1500MHz
Random Mobo w/ 800MHz FSB for RDRAM
512 Mb Rambus RAM at 800MHz
60GB WD x2 RAID HDDs
CD-RW 52x
DVD-ROM 16x
Floppy Drive
250W PSU
On-Board Video

Replaced Video with Geforce 5600 FX Ultra two years later and upgraded to Win XP.

I ran this rig with a Geforce 6800, USB 2.0 add-in card, and external HDs as my primary until April 2008. It could do anything but FPS games.
 
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My first biuld it pc was from Timex.

SpecificationsProcessorZilog Z80Speed3.25 MHzRAM2K (base)ROM8KStorageCassette TapeExpansionExpansion bus usually for RAM expansionBusProprietaryVideo32x22 text, 64x44 graphics - B/WI/OExpansion BusOS OptionsCassette BASICNotesThe TS-1000 was the American version of the Sinclair ZX-81 which followed the successful Sinclair ZX-80. The popularity of these machines was driven by their low price. In an era of $1,000 computers a machine that came in at $100 to start was noticed.

I just couldn't fogure out how to X-fire or SLI the graphics back then... At least it didn't need a 1200w power supply... LOL!

Bruce
 
Another S-100 user! :awe:

flptrnkng said:
Built from a kit, that means bare PCBs, dip sockets, resistors, capacitors, soldering.

4MHz Z-80A, the top of the line CPU in the day

S-100 Bus, 3x16KB RAM cards, utilizing 32 4Kbit chips on each board

2 Dual Density 5 1/4" floppies, 180KB capacity each

Linear power supply with ~1 Farad output filter capacitance

Case is a metal base, with a wood top, looks like an old stereo receiver

Hooked up to an Intertec Intertube RS-232 terminal
Click to expand...
 
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