what got you into computers and when did you do your first build?

[Andy28]

I loved computers ever since my family got a $4000 P1 computer, played alot of red alert / sc1 / cs as a grew up. Ended up saving enough to buy a AMD 3000+ with like 500gb hdd and my my pride and joy ATI x700 radeon, paid like 250 and it was from a ATI employee that my cousin knew. My computer was a beast and I was super proud of it. Ohh forgot it was in grade 7 so like 12-13 ish. Did alot of online reading guides and was super scared.

[dabagonsmith]

I've always wanted to have a beast gaming machine, consoles where alright for me, but i liked the pc controls alot better. I *gamed* on a laptop for a while and after i graduated i got enough money to finally do a build. I think i done alright with 700 bucks and couldn't be happier :D

[OtakuAmo]

I destroyed my first PC,and then I realized that how important of the PC,So I stepped into it,started to learn about PC...I forget how old was it..

[Wheres_The_Money]

i played xbox and watched Youtube videos about other playing Hutch Seananners and Synwyn i wanted to game on PC so i started to watch videos on how to and now here i am with a PC i made playing games that look so much better now i just use my xbox to hold up my monitor lol

[SubTract]

I suddenly understood the Power of Computers!

Zero Punctuation FTW!

[SubTract]

I first got in to computers when The man came to fix our computer when I was very little, must have been '94 maybe '95 and the components and circuitry fascinated me. Been obsessed with electrical circuitry ever since. Computers being amazing electrical circuits. :D

[Al3x_B0ss]

I can hardly remember what my first PC was, but what I do remember was that I used to go to arcades in Tokyo when I was young. And this was in '95 up until '98 or '99, because I started studying for high school exams.

[Al3x_B0ss]

And I'm 24 years old. So no messing around

[algoat]

Mt friend got me into PC gaming with the old Sierra 'Quest' games. II seriously needed an upgrade from my parents' 386 machine. I saved up all my money when I was 16 on a Pentium 2 for my first system build.

[feteru]

I've always been sort of computer oriented, but I've had a MBP for a few years despite enjoying my gaming. Recently built my first rig in a Silverstone SG05 and I'm loving it.

[MontyBonjangles]

I got into computers when I began to explore electronics at about 10-11, I knew some things back then, such as OS, HDD, RAM and some CPU definitions, but it really kicked off for me five years later when I got plain old fed up of a crappy OEM computer that I absolutely hated it's guts. It was slow, bloated, under-powered and horrendously un-upgradable. Eventually I began to search deeper past my preliminary knowledge and began to plan a build. About three months later, after I scrounged up the parts and know how, I assembled my computer.

That sense of satisfaction and achievement when your POST finishes and windows boots up for the first time on your first build is something that sticks for a while. I remember having sitting down at my desk with a cuppa and a huge grin on my face, and I haven't looked back.

[Glaith]

Monkey Island and Commander Keen.

[Dudenstein]

I was into computers since the 90s but was always hesitant to build cause I thought it was going to be so expensive and difficult. I finally took the plunge in 2011 and built my first computer which is still my main rig but have built computers for friends and family since then. I plan on making a new monster rig in 2014 for Star Citizen though.

[zer0]

91' - first pc @home (PC XT 4mhz @turbo 12mhz)

98' - my friend introduced me to pc building

2002 - first pc build using my own money (videocard was a Geforce 4200Ti, forgot the other components)

[_TechPuppet_]

I have always enjoyed computers (working with them, such as Photoshop and web design etc..), but this past year I was really introduced to computers by my bf. I started watching linus and got hooked. I just started building my computer this past October and I am now thinking about a career with computers.

[ramzorz]

Prior to our family getting out first computer around 2003, I could never get to own one (except for a cheap laptop running 95). It came with Windows XP Home and it was just absolutely amazing to me. We didn't have internet at the time, so naturally, I kept getting bored and just messed around for a while and confirmed my discoveries with the internet once we got it. It's just a vicious addiction.

[fioryfox]

I was first interested into building about 4 years ago. It was all wen my first gaming pc (which was prebuilt) went down a few times and had to fix it myself. And from there my passion for computer stuff just never stop growing and now I am dirt poor and have sweet computer gear :D

[Emperor_Piehead]

I just got into computers earlier this year as I saw how awful games like battlefield 3 performed on console compared to PC and also skyrim's mod community.

[RonHGeneral]

I was always curious about computers and i found out that you can save money building your own so i went on youtube found a series on how to build a computer on newegg's youtube channel and later found out about linustechtips Ive been watching their videos ever since

[Naz]

I got into PCs about 5-6 years. The ago but not that indepth about the hardware aspect I was more into the software aspect of programs, games, movies, etc. However overtime I began to game more on my PC and found that it lacked the horsepower to run games smoothly. I then bought a prebuilt configuration from Dell about 3 years ago but the graphics card a GT 8800 broke after about 1 and a half years, then I began to game on the laptop that I had but it didn't match up to the desktop pc. Therefore last year when i decided that i wanted a new desktop computer I got into the concept of built it yourself, which I knew about before but never dug deep into it.Therefore I decided that I would give it a go, and began to read about hardware components, and also a factor of building my own PC was that i wanted to learn more about hardware components. My search eventually lead me to Linus' videos, and what amazing help they have been, and I thank him for them. It allowed my to build my first gaming pc in July last year and what an amazing difference and excitement it is to build your own machine.

[chingyg]

I went from playing Street Fighter II on the SNES to Lose Your marbles on Windows 98 to Starcraft 1 and that's how I got into computers

I've always wanted to build my own computer but never had the opportunity til now because growing up...my parents forbid me to have a part time job while in school.

[b1gdaddynz]

Have been into computers since I was a kid (Commodore 64, Amiga 500, Amstrad 1512; yes I'm that old) but was never really very technical growing up. I like my tech to be shiny and high quality so I never really thought to DYI until my 13 month old iMac (12 month warranty) and my Xbox 360 died at the same time! After a few attempts at repair I decided to build a computer that would do work, media and gaming well. I did heaps of research and put together my current machine which I found very straight forward. I think the key is to research the components thoroughly; working out in the planning stage if it is compatible and any possible issues. Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions either!

[Drethstoff]

My family constantly broke the computer and my dad could sometimes fix it but eventually the computer got old enough that he wasnt able to fix the problems anymore. I finally started working on the computer and got really interested in the how the computer functioned.

[cxz]

Well I have been into computers since I was little and always wanted to build my own computer, especially after reading some maximumpc. lol Anyway I finally created my first build a couple of months ago, im 23 =(

[Glaith]

The first PC I played on was a 386 at a friends house, I had a commadore 64 but compared to a 386 i was amazed and played many hours of monkey island and commander keen, as me and my freind got older his family got a new PC which we then linked via serial cable oooo yeh the speeds, and played many hours of co-op doom 1 share ware and doom 2 from there i got my self a 486dx which i managed to have run duke 3D at 13-19 fps , sending duke 3d through a serial cable took about 22 hours but was totaly worth it. Then from there I learnt as much as i could from my IT guru and fixing and recycling ALOT of computers....