What was your first computer?

[SpecTre12345]

Was a long time ago, I was 12 years old. In the summer there used to be a huge convention center where they had these gigantic computer part meets with vendors. 

 

I picked out a 600MHz Athlon Thunderbird CPU, a Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator Pro GeForce graphics card and a no name brand Bluish-Green Acrylic Case that was entirely "see through" at the meet. My father and his "hacker friend" selected the rest of the components. We went back to the friend's house and we put it together (they basically told me where to place everything, what to plug in, what to screw in etc.). Took it home afterwards and played Diablo II on it for probably 8 hours straight. 

[aquiesse]

Taking me back a bit here but as memory serves it was something like this.

P3 500 (slot 1), 20GB hard drive, 256mb RAM, S3 Savage GPU running on AGPx4, Windows 98se.

Believe it or not it was top end at the time around mid 1999 and RAM was running at about £1.00 per MB

How times have changed

[EMENCII]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6TJqrH

oh, has also red leds from nzxt... ^^

 

-EMENCII

[toughtrasher]

Had a Pentium 3. All I remember

 

I called it Jeffrey

[Lord Gaben]

Current PC

 

Bitfenix Shinobi Mid Tower Windowed

 

ASUS Z97-PRO

 

Intel i7-4770k

 

16GB Kingston HyperX Blu 1600mhz

 

1TB WD Blue 7200rpm 3.5"

 

ASUS GeForce GTX 770 DirectCUII OC

 

LG DVD Writer, I don't know the model and don't care it's a optical drive

[FatalityDiablo]

My first build was April 2013, although I was trained to build one throu videos that linus has made over the last few years was so much fun

 

Edit: specs are listed below.

[LemonSpice]

What was your first pc that your built? What were your problems while building and recommendations for future builders.

This is an open ended chat so post away

[gundershot]

First PC I built is my current one. My recommendation for new builders would be to spend a LOT of time researching, and ask around on forums, it really pays off.

[Polyvalent]

First PC I built had a single core Athlon and a really old ati card, and 2x1GB sticks of RAM.  Played counter strike like a boss.  Recommendation for future builders: build what makes you happy, not what is gonna impress people or be the biggest epeen.

 

It really is great to see so many first time builders here who have just recently gotten into PC gaming.  It makes me happy that people are keeping PC building and tweaking alive and well.

[OfficialJsP]

my first build is my current and i had no problems at all started up first time

[LemonSpice]

My first build is my current one. The first problem was the aio an h100i was dead on arrival so my pc would die every five seconds and shut down. My recommendation build what you want and if you are using an open air gpu cooler buy extra fans

[Interfectorem]

My first is my current one in my signature. I was actually very afraid I would screw something up with the installation of Windows and Drivers. The actual "putting-stuff-together" part was very easy and straightforward. Since I had watched like maybe 5 hours worth of YouTube building tutorials, I had that part covered. But when it came the time to install Windows, I found out it was actually drop dead friggin' easy. I just popped in the CD into the CD-ROM drive (I heard you can install off a USB too, but I wasn't patient enough). So yea, installing Windows was drop dead easy, contrary to what I had though. Installing drivers was drop dead easy too, Asus had all their motherboard drivers nicely labeled and orginized.

[CoronaBlue]

It has been so long that I don't even remember the specs on that piece of junk. I was totally lost when trying to select components on my own, and my cable management was bad. Seriously bad.

 

So, advice:

1. Research and understand what each piece of hardware does and how they interact. Otherwise you might end up disillusioned when 16GB of RAM doesn't make your computer run fast like you thought it would.
2. Realize that you can very rarely just look at the hardware specs and choose the best product. This is doubly true with graphics cards. Benchmarks are your friends.
3. Anti-static wrist band.
4. Cable management is key. If you do nothing else well, do your cable management well.

Hmm, the first two don't really pertain to the building part itself.  :huh:

[Polyvalent]

Oh another tip is don't build computers like I do, you wont have the same luck.

 

I build on my carpet, with no antistatic wristband, usually with a diet coke sitting very close to where I'm building.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

First PC I built?

 

Intel Core i7 2700K

ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z

16GB of Corsair Dominator CL8 1600MHz

ASUS GTX 580 DCII

Corsair AX750

 

Nothing went wrong. (Although a lot of people in here will hate me for spending my money my way. Even better, I eventually upgraded to 3x EVGA GTX 580 SC+)

[LemonSpice]

First PC I built?

 

Intel Core i7 2700K

ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z

16GB of Corsair Dominator CL8 1600MHz

ASUS GTX 580 DCII

Corsair AX750

 

Nothing went wrong. (Although a lot of people in here will hate me for spending my money my way. Even better, I eventually upgraded to 3x EVGA GTX 580 SC+)

did you overclock that processor and if so how far?

[Briggsy]

technically it was my brother who got the parts and helped me assemble it (I was really young), but it was a 486, and with the turbo button pressed down it got a whopping 80Mhz on the cpu. I can't recall how many MB (yes MB) my hard drive was, but i distinctly remember at some point installing a 33.6Kbps dial up modem, and being excited about it. It had a soundblaster 16 card, which was awesome. I miss DOS   :lol: ... Not!

 

Recommendations: Just like toilet paper, don't cheap out on thermal paste.

[KemoKa]

First computer I ever built ran an Athlon X2 4200+, 1x2GB of DDR2, no GPU, and a stock PSU/case combo.

My recommendation for future builds is that you never, EVER, EVER do ANY of that stuff that I did. Go for good quality components, get an standalone case, cooler, PSU, the works, and DO NOT SKIMP OUT ON ANYTHING LIKE I DID.

[RazrLeaf]

Some key tips

1. Define your budget
2. Define the purpose of your build.  Assign more weight to tasks you currently do, and less to what you want to learn/hope to do.  If you don't play games, and you don't own games, the odds that you'll become a hardcore gamer after your first build isn't all that high.  But if you are willing to endure 15 fps on low setting now, you'll probably play even more when you can do 60 fps on ultra.
3. Figure out what you're willing to pay for.  Do you value silence? Appearance? Ease of use? Upgradability? Brand loyalty?  Those are just some things to get you thinking.
4. Do research.  If you have the time, look at the data and not people's conclusions when you can.  Their conclusions are based on what they value, not what you value.  Real-life benchmarks > synthetic benchmarks > specs.
5. Check compatibility and evaluate how well you stuck to your budget, purpose, and values.  If you didn't stick to your budget, purpose, or values, make changes.  You may learn that you need more budget for your purpose, or that you value certain things more/less.  If you make the changes you need and stick with your budget, purpose, and values, you'll be happier in the long run.

My first build that I did completely on my own was one that was for my father, and my biggest problem was that I wanted to spend more for things he didn't value.  I cared about appearance.  He just wanted something that would perform for as cheaply as possible.  And he wanted an Asus socket 1150 motherboard (which is a terrible tacky gold color that is impossible to color match).  But it was a good exercise in not paying for things that aren't valued.

 

In case you're curious, I ended up putting Kingston HyperX Fury Red on a Asus Z87-Pro. =/

[iJarbus]

My first build would be my current one, the biggest problem I had was that after I had built it, it didn't boot couldn't figure out what I'd done and I was getting a bit stressed at that point as I was worried I'd damaged something in my inexperience. I ended up completely dissembling the PC and starting again and it booted first try, still don't know what I had done wrong. My advice from my limited experience would be to stay calm and not get worried and stressed like I did and to set out a fair amount of time for the first couple of builds as at least for me it took me a fair few hours on the first few.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

did you overclock that processor and if so how far?

 

Pretty conservative 4.4GHz but I really didn't feel a reason to push it harder.

[DigitalHermit]

Rather than a build, it was a rebuild...

 

I was but a kid back then... I tore the system down since it was having problems playing Command and Conquer Generals... Wire management with the IDE cables is pretty hellish... There's also setting the master-slave pins on the hard drives properly...

The biggest problem for me was when the graphics card died... I tried everything but it wouldn't boot... Had to call a relative to diagnose and he said it was the graphics card...

[LemonSpice]

Pretty conservative 4.4GHz but I really didn't feel a reason to push it harder.

how many volts u pumping through that chip

[FloRolf]

my first one is my current one which i updated over time. My recommendation is: Don't cheap out. By the time i build it i didnt have a job but now... hehe.

[LemonSpice]

my first one is my current one which i updated over time. My recommendation is: Don't cheap out. By the time i build it i didnt have a job but now... hehe.

what were the parts you used originally