You kids have it so easy these days in building a computer....

[MblaZe7run]

You kids these days have it so damn easy in building computers. It's utterly amazing how much has changed when 14 years ago at this time, I was spending hours and hours between my college IT classes figuring out why the hell Intel was getting its ass kicked by this "AMD" company and why spending the money on this new "Geforce 3" was such a big deal compared to previous versions that ran Quake 2 just fine but Unreal squashed that.

 

 

Back when I wanted to build my first computer in late 2000/early 2001 as a  young lad of 20 *God I feel old now* I had to go through a rirtual only other old, get off my lawn farts can understand now 

 

 

- lots of snip (I feel like a freaking forum surgeon!) -

 

 

 

My very first computer was one my mom built for a game that came out when I was four. A dual CPU on a slocket riser card, AMD because they were the shit in '99, 128MB RAM, 3x 500MB HDD (with those horribly constructed Master/Slave jumpers that are all now broken and since replaced), and that wonderful 56k modem (That never reached 33k, even on the days the computer gods were blessing us), and a HUGE 17" CRT monitor. That AGP card was hella rad, not sure what one it was though. All that work though, and it is still my second favorite computer ever. I'll have to post pics and specs next time I venture back to my home state and have a chance to examine it one last time before I reassemble it and see if that bad boy still fires up.

 

I take great pride in saying that I truly appreciate where we came from. My mom says she spent close to $2500 on that computer, mainly becasue of the inclusion of TWO CD drives, one read, one write. If I recal correctly, it also had a nice sound card for that day in age. I truly miss the parallel and serial ports being built right into the motherboard, and would gladly go back in time at my current age just to experience it.

 

I should also note that we didn't get rid of our dial-up until my sister was almost eight years old - in 2008. Momma always said that if you can't deal with slow internet, you can't deal with the pleasure of having a computer. She made it a priority to teach myself and my two younger siblings to be grateful for what we have, because in 2008, we were still the only people on our block with internet access.

 

TL;DR - Computer history is important to me, I wouldn't have what I do now without it, so I pay massive respect to the pre-2000s technicians and enthusiasts.

[SeanBond]

I am glad people paved the way for us, because I wouldn't have gone through all that lol.

[Dabombinable]

Remember when ABIT was a big motherboard player?

-snip-

Yep, I actually picked up one of their dual socket motherboards yesterday. And 2x Pentium III 1GHz still work extremely well.

[907rider]

ohhh man the old "slave" and "master" PATA days! I hadn't seen one of those for quite a while till Linus used one in that 300 dollar build off!

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Dealt with all of these without too much trouble when I was 8, surely you could deal just fine with them when you were 20.

[GzeroD]

Remember when all you could do about old power supply cables was this?  Pepperidge farm remembers...

 

 

 

 

I Once tied them all together with a 6 inch wide roll of black electrical tape. I was so smugg that it looked better than using those things. Then I got a second hard drive and ended up with a lot of repairs needing to be made to cut power supply cables.

[EpicAdom]

All hail the seatbelts (IDE cables)

[Arct1c0n]

Yep, I actually picked up one of their dual socket motherboards yesterday. And 2x Pentium III 1GHz still work extremely well.

 

Dude, thats historic, keep it 4eva!

[slightlyjaded]

trying to install a soundblaster 16 pro in 1994.... (think that was the card)

An awesome bit of hardware for it's time that actually let you play music....CD's with the appropriate drive.

 

Getting it to work however? yeah that took a bit of doing, and had constant conflicts with other devices (like the mouse)

I do not miss having to configure interupts for every bit of hardware. USB what's that? plug and play....There were rumours, but nothing had happened yet, and you had better have the driver disks.

 

Acoustic coupler? you've got way too much money don't you....

[Arct1c0n]

I Once tied them all together with a 6 inch wide roll of black electrical tape. I was so smugg that it looked better than using those things. Then I got a second hard drive and ended up with a lot of repairs needing to be made to cut power supply cables.

 

 

And electric tape leaves a fucking sticky mess....  Remember when you could be a total pimp and slice/roll your IDE ables if you were REALLY, REALLY CAREFUL?

 

 

 

[KemoKa]

I remember my dad's old dell.

IDE cables for days, back when computers were still all about the deep south, and that was the first computer I ever saw that had toolless drive removal. They were those awful sleds you had to screw onto the sides of the drive.

Dell Optiplex cases... they split open instead of having side panels.

 

Then we had the Civil War and the filthy northern SATA scumbags took our wonderful Master/Slave system and made everything equal... EQUAL!?

Those were the days when Maxtor ruled the planet earth.
 

[blackadder]

why is this not pinned?

[Arct1c0n]

trying to install a soundblaster 16 pro in 1994.... (think that was the card)

An awesome bit of hardware for it's time that actually let you play music....CD's with the appropriate drive.

 

 

Remember when you HAD to use this cable for full digital CD music?

 

[Geno Boost]

I remember back in those days you had to periodically degauss your monitor after long periods of usage. lol

But they last longer i see have fully functional crt after 30 years can modern led monitors do that.

[Arct1c0n]

 

Those were the days when Maxtor ruled the planet earth.

 

 

 

Dont' ever say...... the M word.....

[WinNut]

why is this not pinned?

Because it's not pin-worthy.

[KemoKa]

Dont' ever say...... the M word.....

You know as well as I do what a bane they were to the existence of things, then... Muahahahahaa I commend you sir for having gone through such a plight

Oh, and taking them apart is murder.

[slightlyjaded]

Remember when you HAD to use this cable for full digital CD music?

 

 

Pretty sure my soundblaster card didn't have one.

But I was installing warlords from a floppy disk.

[Sousuke]

This reminds me of my first PC Build :lol: Windows 98 was awesome back then.

[Dabombinable]

Dude, thats historic, keep it 4eva!

Of course I'll keep it, its my main rig now after all:

 

I remember my dad's old dell.

IDE cables for days, back when computers were still all about the deep south, and that was the first computer I ever saw that had toolless drive removal. They were those awful sleds you had to screw onto the sides of the drive.

Dell Optiplex cases... they split open instead of having side panels.

 

Then we had the Civil War and the filthy northern SATA scumbags took our wonderful Master/Slave system and made everything equal... EQUAL!?

Those were the days when Maxtor ruled the planet earth.

 

Ruled the planet with upside down molex connectors and jumper settings that never made sense until you looked at the manual?

 

Dont' ever say...... the M word.....

Lol, why not? until a few weeks ago I still had a Maxtor 420MB HDD working (the control board died).

[brandishwar]

Heck screw that little "How to build a PC" book. After I fried an AT power supply because I plugged it in wrong, my dad forbid me from buying any more computer parts until I bought and read that ultra-thick, heavy beast called "Upgrading and Repairing PCs". You want to learn everything there is to know, sit down and give that thing a read. Of course today you can just get that on your Kindle or tablet instead of having to deal with that massive tome. The 22nd Edition comes out later this year, slated to be about 1200 pages -- about the same length as the 21st Edition currently on shelves. I think mine was the 10th Edition, which I bought at..... CompUSA.

[Teemo4Life]

Ok grandpa. (Edit)

[Arct1c0n]

Ok grandpa...

 

 

WTF bogan, don't quote my entire post 

[Teemo4Life]

WTF bogan, don't quote my entire post

lol your fault for so long

[MLGNOSCOPEHEADSHOTGETREKT]

You left me crying that we have it so much easier