What's Your Story

[piggykid1]

What's your story of how you got into technology / computers and about your current computers and setup!

 

My parents wouldn't listen to mine hahaha

 

So Here's My Story:

 

I've always been good with technology like I was the go to kid when neighbors, teachers, friends, family etc. had issues / questions.

So in 5th or 6th grade two rich kids had Mac Airs (but the kids knew nothing about computers nor their own computer) that their parents bought them for no reason.

Anyways I thought that the Airs we pretty cool I had only seen pictures of them until that day.

So I went home and researched for cheaper than $999 dollars.

Then I started looking for cheaper and faster Windows computers (here is when I learned about every component of a computer and generally what parts were good and what parts weren't)

I then heard about building my own so I watched videos to make sure I was able to do it my self.

I have had money saved up from doing chores for neighbors so at this point I started doing lot's more jobs for neighbors.

My money goal was $1000 if you have seen my build planning.

<-------------------------------Read from here if coming from convincing my parents topic---------------------------------------> 

Then very recently my uncle and I were talking about wanting to build my computer together at his apartment.    

Over the next few weeks I was hinting to parents about wanting to build a computer.

After about a few weeks I very nicely asked them at dinner if they allowed me to buy the parts and told them my plan to build with uncle.

They immediately demanded,"Put that money in your bank for college! (probably to cover up the fact they haven't put a dime of their own money in my college fund) I'm not letting you spend that kind of money a computer!" (note that this is my hard earned money from recycling to centers, chores for neighbors, and tasks other people want me to do).

 

Now I'm here borrowing my neighbors computer (my neighbor is awesome) and my actual computer is my moms really old single-core Windows XP PC hahaha

 

Thanks if you have read this whole story and happy discussing!

[Yummychickenblue]

I watched a video game youtuber (BdoubleO100) build one and I thought it was cool and decided I wanted to do so as well and because my dad has already built at least 2 he said yes because he is also awesome.

[techswede]

Had an HP desktop that was pretty horrid when i was gaming.

Got accepted into the Mechwarrior online beta.

Watched a CareyHolzman video about how to assemble a computer.

Ordered the parts and buit it. Got into pc building.

Joined LTT... Lost my soul to the forums

 You know.. The usual

[Anthony10]

Built one last december, looked at other peoples builds, got really into it and it's a nice hobby as I've been so sick the past month.

[ttam]

Grew up with 5 older brothers. Always had computers around. My oldest brother owned a computer store. Second oldest brother was a VP of one of the largest privately owned game companies. Fifth oldest brother is a web developer and was in one of the first professional Counter Strike clans to go pro so in that time (1999-2002) we had access to some of the very first nvidia gfx cards. So I have just always had a good computer and or access to upgrades. As I got older (13,14,15) my brothers would just buy the computers for me since they were all in their 20/30's. Now as an adult I work in the computer industry and well it goes from there.

[Hidden Orange]

Got pissed off at the loading times and frame drops in Mass Effect 2 for the PS3. Also, cheap games on Steam, Humble Bundle, and such.

[piggykid1]

Got pissed off at the loading times and frame drops in Mass Effect 2 for the PS3. Also, cheap games on Steam, Humble Bundle, and such.

what actually is your rig hahaha

[Hidden Orange]

what actually is your rig hahaha

Something like this: an AMD Opteron 1212 office PC.

[piggykid1]

Something like this: an AMD Opteron 1212 office PC.

thanks

[The Crazed Child]

Prepare for an extremely long story:

 

I used to be an aviation freak, I collected model aircraft, went to airshows, etc...

 

Then I discovered Flight Simulator X which meant I could, well, fly planes virtually. I played it on an old C2Q rig with a GT220 and bought a cheap joystick that I still use today. I also played it on a crappy notebook for a while with a 1.8Ghz dual core and 64MB of integrated graphics, even on low settings it performed terribly. Then I discovered DLC scenery and aircraft which made the game more enjoyable (obviously) but it decreased the FPS on both of my PCs. Later on I discovered a Flight Simulation forum and the peeps told me there what components I would need for a good system.

 

Then I asked someone to build me a system with parts that I had chosen. I knew nothing about building PCs then. That system is the main rig in my signature minus the 240GB SSD which I bought later. Before you accuse me of being an Intel and NVIDIA fanboy, Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPU's were optimised for that game.

 

A few years later I was on holiday and came across a games store. They had Train Simulator 2013 there which I was looking at getting, so I ended up buying it. It required a Steam account to activate and download updates, which at the time was kinda annoying. I didn't even know how great Steam was and how Gaben could bless me with sales every year. Then from there I started playing Team Fortress 2 and bought loads more games since. I was still interested in computers at the time, and found out about a form factor called Mini-ITX. I was shocked, I didn't know that they had motherboards that small. I had always wanted to build a PC and this was my chance. After watching Linus' build log videos for ages, I finally purchased the parts and build my Steam Machine/LAN rig in my signature.

 

TL;DR: A shitty game from 2007 that couldn't run on my machine got me interested in gaming and computers.

[piggykid1]

Prepare for an extremely long story:

 

I used to be an aviation freak, I collected model aircraft, went to airshows, etc...

 

Then I discovered Flight Simulator X which meant I could, well, fly planes virtually. I played it on an old C2Q rig with a GT220 and bought a cheap joystick that I still use today. I also played it on a crappy notebook for a while with a 1.8Ghz dual core and 64MB of integrated graphics, even on low settings it performed terribly. Then I discovered DLC scenery and aircraft which made the game more enjoyable (obviously) but it decreased the FPS on both of my PCs. Later on I discovered a Flight Simulation forum and the peeps told me there what components I would need for a good system.

 

Then I asked someone to build me a system with parts that I had chosen. I knew nothing about building PCs then. That system is the main rig in my signature minus the 240GB SSD which I bought later. Before you accuse me of being an Intel and NVIDIA fanboy, Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPU's were optimised for that game.

 

A few years later I was on holiday and came across a games store. They had Train Simulator 2013 there which I was looking at getting, so I ended up buying it. It required a Steam account to activate and download updates, which at the time was kinda annoying. I didn't even know how great Steam was and how Gaben could bless me with sales every year. Then from there I started playing Team Fortress 2 and bought loads more games since. I was still interested in computers at the time, and found out about a form factor called Mini-ITX. I was shocked, I didn't know that they had motherboards that small. I had always wanted to build a PC and this was my chance. After watching Linus' build log videos for ages, I finally purchased the parts and build my Steam Machine/LAN rig in my signature.

 

TL;DR: A shitty game from 2007 that couldn't run on my machine got me interested in gaming and computers.

 

Prepare for an extremely long story:

 

I used to be an aviation freak, I collected model aircraft, went to airshows, etc...

 

Then I discovered Flight Simulator X which meant I could, well, fly planes virtually. I played it on an old C2Q rig with a GT220 and bought a cheap joystick that I still use today. I also played it on a crappy notebook for a while with a 1.8Ghz dual core and 64MB of integrated graphics, even on low settings it performed terribly. Then I discovered DLC scenery and aircraft which made the game more enjoyable (obviously) but it decreased the FPS on both of my PCs. Later on I discovered a Flight Simulation forum and the peeps told me there what components I would need for a good system.

 

Then I asked someone to build me a system with parts that I had chosen. I knew nothing about building PCs then. That system is the main rig in my signature minus the 240GB SSD which I bought later. Before you accuse me of being an Intel and NVIDIA fanboy, Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPU's were optimised for that game.

 

A few years later I was on holiday and came across a games store. They had Train Simulator 2013 there which I was looking at getting, so I ended up buying it. It required a Steam account to activate and download updates, which at the time was kinda annoying. I didn't even know how great Steam was and how Gaben could bless me with sales every year. Then from there I started playing Team Fortress 2 and bought loads more games since. I was still interested in computers at the time, and found out about a form factor called Mini-ITX. I was shocked, I didn't know that they had motherboards that small. I had always wanted to build a PC and this was my chance. After watching Linus' build log videos for ages, I finally purchased the parts and build my Steam Machine/LAN rig in my signature.

 

TL;DR: A shitty game from 2007 that couldn't run on my machine got me interested in gaming and computers.

Nice I read the whole story

[EmotionalSloth]

Um, I friend got me into pc gaming, at first i bought a pre built computer but the I built one myself

[ForeseenVisionz]

lifes to shorrt to save for college,,,just buy it srsly i know this is gunna sound stupid but in this case YOLO is appropriate..

imo.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Put the borrowed machine next to the current one and show them.?

[DIV1D3]

I really, really liked computers, and, yeh, I found LTT . 

[piggykid1]

Put the borrowed machine next to the current one and show them.?

good idea summer is coming next week that is when I could do it and have specs

[SkilledRebuilds]

A side by side comparison of loading the same software.

Shows plenty proof that a faster Pc will save you time and headaches.

[DoubleY]

Loved to play Minecraft and was just getting into the big boy games on PC (AAA Titles) and my PoS Core 2 Duo and HD 6670 couldn't play Black Ops 1, minimum settings at 900p, with all the lowest setting and everything.

So.. that's what really sparked my interest.

 

I found LTT about a year and a half ago, and about a year ago I join the forum. Made friends, made enemies, and eventually built my own PC which I love to this day. Does more than I need. It can actually play Arma 3 at 60ish FPS ultra settings. 

[piggykid1]

Loved to play Minecraft and was just getting into the big boy games on PC (AAA Titles) and my PoS Core 2 Duo and HD 6670 couldn't play Black Ops 1, minimum settings at 900p, with all the lowest setting and everything.

So.. that's what really sparked my interest.

 

I found LTT about a year and a half ago, and about a year ago I join the forum. Made friends, made enemies, and eventually built my own PC which I love to this day. Does more than I need. It can actually play Arma 3 at 60ish FPS ultra settings. 

Nice story and yea your build is sweet

And why did you stop litecoin mining and about how much money did you make from it

Also almost 5,000 posts for you

[DoubleY]

Nice story and yea your build is sweet

And why did you stop litecoin mining and about how much money did you make from it

Also almost 5,000 posts for you

I stopped Litecoin mining because it came to the point where we were only making $15 per month while having 5 270X's mine... (profits after electricity)

Didn't really want to switch to another coin so we sold most of our gear and made $7,000-$8,000 in profits. We still have a few things laying around that we haven't sold yet. 

When I say "we" I mean me and my dad. We mined together  

Probably going to use my share of the profits for camera gear, but we'll see.

 

I'm exited about 5K posts

[piggykid1]

I stopped Litecoin mining because it came to the point where we were only making $15 per month while having 5 270X's mine... (profits after electricity)

Didn't really want to switch to another coin so we sold most of our gear and made $7,000-$8,000 in profits. We still have a few things laying around that we haven't sold yet. 

When I say "we" I mean me and my dad. We mined together

Probably going to use my share of the profits for camera gear, but we'll see.

 

I'm exited about 5K posts

does your dad like computers

[DoubleY]

does your dad like computers

Yep. I believe he's a database manager for Fisher Emerson.

I don't think that's his job title, but that's what he does. He does most things server related for the company, such as buying new servers and improving the infrastructure.

I wouldn't be into computers if it weren't for him. 

[piggykid1]

Yep. I believe he's a database manager for Fisher Emerson.

I don't think that's his job title, but that's what he does. He does most things server related for the company, such as buying new servers and improving the infrastructure.

I wouldn't be into computers if it weren't for him. 

Nice that's pretty cool if my dad like computers he wouldn't have made me put my 1000 dollars into college fund

[Epis]

I always loved video games and such, and I needed a new computer for school. My dad bought me my first desktop (well the first new PC anyway) and I used that for a while. I never really considered using it for games until a friend of mine (who had a pretty horrid laptop, but we'll get to that later) introduced me to TF2 and therefore Steam. TF2 ran abysmally on my new desktop but I couldn't stop playing on it - especially since Steam was so awesome.

 

I looked in to why my computer was running TF2 so poorly and found that the only way I could really make it better was by ditching my crappy PC in favour of a brand-spanking-new one. I found some good looking PCs from the likes of Lenovo, Dell, HP and Alienware (shudder) but I was shocked by the insane prices (at least in Australia).

 

So I decided the best option was to build my own PC. I was so excited to be able to run my fancy new Steam games and in fact, I was able to beat my friends in TF2 games because of the greater FPS. They wanted to know how I became so much better from before when I would lag on the lowest settings @ lowest res. I told them about the greatness of the custom PC and I was able to get that friend with the horrid laptop to get a custom PC too. He was just as amazed as I was. We told everyone about it and lo and behold another friend buys a PC, and another... I now have a couple of different people asking me for recommendations for new PCs and such. Around a third of my IT class now has, or is planning to get a custom PC (with varying levels of knowledge).

 

I learned everything I know by myself by watching videos and reading articles and such - and I owe it all to NCIX, LTT, NewEgg etc. and of course you guys, the tech community.

[Redheadsrule13]

I got into games when I was given a PSP, I then met a new group of friends who occasionally talked about PC's, I ended up nabbing some free systems and combined them into something usable. Then I got a job and saved up enough cash to build a gaming capable system (in sig). I first found Toms Hardware, then LTT though Linuses videos.