What was your first computer?

[Mush Brain]

Well this is not my first, but the first i had which was properly capable and high end.

 

 

This contains very old stuff i did years back, so it may seem a bit out of place.

 

This was my first serious gaming build which originally started out with a cheap power supply and a 5770, i shall delve deep after i show you all 2 screens of the rig in it's present day state.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, i bought all the parts originally just before i was leaving the armed forces, so really was a sort of leaving gift to myself... something of remembrance (hard to explain)

Well, in the system at first.

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE

4GB Geil Black Dragon DDR3 1600mhz

MSI 790FX-GD70

ATi Radeon 5770 (sapphire)

Evo Labs 750 watt 80 plus PSU

A hard drive (forgotten)


Anyway... i built this rig, and i get to the OS and what not, i install ATi drivers, and i then restart the PC.
Upon the windows 7 start up screen, i get pink and green lines all over the place, and what looks to be a failing GPU already....
I lost my receipt for the card, so end up selling it for a cheap price...

Now i have no GPU, so i wonder off out to CEX (British trade in place for all sorts of stuff including PC parts)

At this point i was not as knowledgable about GPU's as i am now, and saw this Nvidia 9800 GTX+, so i go and buy it, all excited because the physical card it's self is a nice looking thing...

Stick it in PC back home, all goes fantastically well, then bam BSOD....

So at this point, i am baffled.... i really do not have that much of a clue about anything at this point, i also had no internet... (used a PC in barracks to order parts to be shipped to home for when i leave)

So i enter the bios.... and from memory.... i cannot remember at all what i did, but my PC never booted again.... (i had no idea you could reset a bios at this point)

So i was thinking.... board is just bad or something, so i search for a motherboard using my phones internet, and buy an ASUS 780G chipset board from amazon.

It arrives...
Blah blah blah, boots PC... all goes well for a change, i have to re-enter my key for the OS, all is good.

So by this point, i have a game running.... all seems ok.

Now, i was not too dimwitted, as i knew what some things were ( i used to buy PC magazines, specifically PC gamer and Custom PC)

So, i now venture to the bios to do some CPU tweakery ( i knew nothing about CPU limits etc, as these never came up in magazines)


I put the CPU to 4.7ghz at 1.78v with whatever cooler i had on the CPU at the time.

Needless to say, it did not boot, and i officially killed the motherboard. (so i thought)

But at this point i was still clueless as to what i did....

So now i just sit there staring at my damn PC thinking..... i am gonna win this (was literally like the battle of an uneducated idiot vs machine)

So i rebuild the PC with the same Phenom II chip and the 790FX back in place.

I decided to get the manual out..............

I learnt what CMOS does, so i reset it and walla, the board actually works!!!!

Ok, the CPU still works... and to this day i have no idea how....

Ok, i am now in the OS back to a standard clock and still getting BSOD's, so i enter the bios on the 790FX, and now i am looking at memory.... as i had read that memory can cause instability.

I messed with 1333mhz settings and 1600mhz settings, they did not fix it, i went over this for hours and hours and hours with no luck, but then deep inside the memory config of MSI's CELL menu, i found the timings section, and all read to spec of the memory kit, but there was one that had no mention on the spec of my kit, this was command rate.... it was at 1T, so i slammed it into 2T..

All swinging and dancing now, no more BSOD's!
YAY!!!

Ok, so later into the life of my machine, i am much more clued up on things, and i also have an internet connection.

Anyway, i learnt the dangers of overvolting a CPU, also the rest of the good stuff to do with overclocking (nothing to do with GPU overclocks)

So, i managed a good 3.6ghz on my Phenom II at the time, and i was not pleased at all, i just wanted more from it.... but if i went higher, it would crash....

So i figured, it must be temperatures... ( i had an AC Freezer 7 pro)...

So i then got a Coolermaster Hyper 212+

I also signed up to Tom's hardware at this point, and searched the whole forum in search of info and what not.

I learnt a tonne of things during my time there, and decided to use it for my own gains...

So i find this AMD overclock club where the best of the best OC's surface for Phenom II chips (stable and insane)

I was aiming for 4ghz, i had it in my head for 4ghz, so that was my goal.

Needless to say, i managed my goal with some painful hours of tweaking and retrying, but the feeling was great!

Here is my validation for a stable 4ghz 24/7 OC (this was a big deal for 45nm AMD chips)

Username 384-bit https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Atid2icGx257dFc1MnRteTlMb3VOMy13WklIRWRITXc&hl=es&output=html

As such, i was proud to have my name on the list ( i am a person who is very strong willed in anything i do, and wants to succeed)

So, the Phenom II OC was pretty much done, but i wanted more GPU power, at this point i heard of dedicated physX via a seperate GPU, so i grab a 9800GT, and slap that into the rig along side the main 9800GTX+

Well, it would have been great if the rig failed to boot after i launched batman arkham asylum....

I found that my PSU had popped.....

I went out and bought a Corsair TX650 after reading about cheap power supplies vs ones that are worth every penny.

All was good and power was stable.

Anyway, i had a few idea's as a gift for my bro, so i built a PC for him, almost identical to mine, but with a Foxconn motherboard and a Phenom II x3 720 BE, i decided to give the 9800 GTX+ and 9800 GT combo to him, and upgraded to a 4870 512mb for myself..

This card was TERRIBLE, it stuttered beyond a joke.......


Anyway, i put up with it for as long as i could until i saw a great deal on scan's website (www.scan.co.uk)

GeForce GTX 480 for 170 pounds, now i knew how bad these cards were hot and loud, and also power hungry (according to press and reviews)

The Radeon 5870 1GB which i had hearts for was what i wanted, but at 250 pounds, and being a slower card, it was too hard to swallow, so i went for the 480....

Anyway, this thing was massive when i first saw it... and weighed a lot for a GPU..... (that chunky metal grille )

So anyway.... i put it in the system, and immediately fired up some games, i was in awe at just how fast this thing was.... i mean going from a 4870 stutter fest to this... WOW

Anyway, i was over the moon with my purchase, albeit it being very hot in summer and being a noise fest (this was due to the size of my room i left my PC in)

Anyyway.... time moves by quickly, and my CPU dies... (no idea of the cause, it just died sadly)

I managed to grab a cheap Phenom II dual core (555 BE) and i managed to unlock all 4 cores absolutely rock stable at standard voltage, i then attempt to OC it, and find that i have landed me a gem... i managed to clock this thing to 4.5ghz on a coolit ECO ALC (i forgot to mention that i upgraded the CPU cooler) and was fine in benchmarks, but it could only do 30 minutes in Prime 95 sadly, but it runs stable at 4.2ghz....

Here is my insane validation for this CPU:

Username: 384-bit https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Atid2icGx257dG13NUxROGVjcG41ODRIdC1kWkRKT1E&hl=es&output=html

So... i now have a 4.2ghz Phenom II unlocked Quadcore  money was very well spent!

So, Bulldozer is due to be launched, and benchmarks are due to appear, and i want to upgrade.

We all know how Bulldozer did on review day, so i really have no need to say why i never went for it...

With sandy bridge i5's beating this higher cost CPU, it was a no brainer for me to leave ship for intel.

I had an intel PC before this AMD rig, so i knew my way around some things, so i was ok with this build, and all went to plan smoothly.

My 480 found a new home in my fresh sandy rig.


I know this has been a very long read, and i thank you for reading this.... i just thought i would share how i got into overclocking, and gaming on PC in general...

But this was an iconic PC for me, and one i will never forget, as i learnt so much with it.

We all learn from mistakes, and now i can proudly give knowledge onto others knowing it is safe with full confidence 

It took me some money wastage and a long amount of hours being thick, but i got there in the end without any help by an active person.

I actively sourced info when i could, and at the time of the most dimwitted things i did, i only had magazines to find info...

 

 

Currently the specs now are:

AMD Phenom ii x2 555 Black Edition (unlocked B55 Quad core 4.2ghz)

4GB Geil Black Dragon DDR3 1600MHZ CL7

MSI 790FX-GD70

XFX Radeon 7770 1GB GHZ edition GHOST with Hydrocell @ 1200mhz core, 1500mhz memory 1.21V (voltage is not adjustable)

Xigmatek Utguard (this will be replaced soon with a better chassis as it is a bit grotty)

Corsair TX 650 80 plus bronze (took this apart 2 days ago for a clean)

1x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200RPM (fantastic harddrives these, rapid and responsive, and really move in RAID)
1x Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM



Currently i have a 1680x1050 monitor hooked up to it as the GPU is on the lower end side of things, but does cope more than well enough 

Next up, some benchmarks.


Here is my OCCT validation for the card.

 

 

 

Ok, i decided to bench the GTX 480 in the same rig and the same settings, i have a 870mhz oc on the 480 with 4.1ghz memory (not far off it's maximum 24/7 OC, performance at this OC is more comparable to a 7950/ 660Ti with some breathing room of course.

This will see if the Phenom II is bottlenecking...

You may be surprised....

Same 64man server, Operation Firestorm.

2013-05-20 14:32:14 - bf3
Frames: 22081 - Time: 231225ms - Avg: 95.496 - Min: 48 - Max: 149

Now, the only thing we should be looking at is minimum FPS, both GPU's deliver enough frames average and max, but the 7770 in intense action with tanks bombarding shows it's 128 bit bus weakness.

However, the card was cheap, and it does a fine job, so all in all, i am very happy 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sandy.

 

[Tagiau]

I would, but I do believe it is under a lot of boxes in the basement. Because computers that are 15 years old should never be used.

[Fate]

No actual pics but close enough

 

 

It had an Athlon 64 x2 4000+ Dual core 2.1GHz, AMD 6450, 4GB of ram, 320GB hard drive before I moved some stuff over to my new Phenom II rig a few years ago. 

I was so happy I went from 3-4fps in raids in WoW to 15! (low settings 1440x900) (the upgrade from integrated graphics to 6450)

[Photonic]

Woah that's a lot of info

[SeriouslyMikey]

I don't have images of it. It doesn't even live at my house anymore. 

I miss my 6870.

 

[JoaoPRSousa]

Athlon 64+ (I think) something something

XFX 8500GT

 

I still have it, it still works, other than the HDD, which doesnt even start... I used to play CoD Black Ops in it

[Laputacake]

Dell Optilex 755 SFF with a VTX3D 5450 1GB

[shadowblitz3]

pentium 4, fx 5500

[Mo5]

I don't have any pictures but it had a case with a windowed side panel and an 80mm blue LED fan on it. I also had a blue cold cathode in it and it looked super cool for 2004

 

The basic specs:

Athlon XP 2500+

512MB RAM

FX5200

[Shroomster]

The one in my sig, but in a different case and with a HD7970

[DeViLzzz]

I would, but I do believe it is under a lot of boxes in the basement. Because computers that are 15 years old should never be used.

I totally disagree with that at least for me.  There definitely are some old pcs I built that I wish I still had.

[Fate]

I totally disagree with that at least for me.  There definitely are some old pcs I built that I wish I still had.

Yea for the nostalgia factor, but they're pretty useless by today's standards.

[0r10n]

http://i.imgur.com/Xtjp9dM.jpg

 

It was Athlon 64 2500+ with 512ram and FX5200 GPU First it was with Gforce MX440, with 256mb ram 80gb storage haha oh the good times

[SeriouslyMikey]

http://i.imgur.com/Xtjp9dM.jpg

 

It was Athlon 64 2500+ with 512ram and FX5200 GPU First it was with Gforce MX440, with 256mb ram 80gb storage haha oh the good times

 

I miss CRT monitors. 

[ammarez]

The first Pc that I built, was back in 2001 I was 3 years old and my father finally decided that I should build a pc by myself it had a pentium 4 1.5, a GeForce 2 Ultra, I am not sure about the Ram and the mobo but I think they were an asus cuv4x-m and a Kingston 256mb ram not sure though 

[Atomika]

I had a HP 550 Laptop that I got as a Christmas present, I used it for like 3-4 years solid, constantly on it and then it ended up melting on my lap for some reason and shorted out haha - Picture here

 

I also purchased my first PC when I was 11-12 years old. Me and some friends wanted to get into PC gaming as we played games like runescape and other games like that - picture here

The PC cost me around £300-£350 if I remember correctly, Even though I did some small upgrades to it, new CPU fan, rear exhaust fan etc haha. I also got given an ATI 5550 Graphics card for free from one of my friends' parents that worked in IT as he had some spare components.

 

Old PC specs:

Intel Celeron

4GB Ram

250GB Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD

ATI 5550 Graphics Card

Cooler Master CPU Cooler (Can't remember what one now haha just remember it cost me around £50)

Asus motherboard

 

It ran solid for around 2-3 years, then I built this one I'm now

[airdeano]

sorry mates, but we already have a thread for posting rig/builds here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/183-show-off-your-setup/

[MrCharlieZombie]

What did your first build have inside?

[Tedster]

FX-6100

16GB Corsair Vengeance

Radeon HD 6570 2GB

2TB Seagate HDD
128GB OCZ SSD (died almost immediately)

500w PSU

Terrible case.

[Laputacake]

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2.3Ghz

3GB Samsung and something

VTX3D Ati Radeon HD 5450 1GB

160GB Samsung

220W PSU

Dell Optilex 755 SSF

[Delusional Phil]

... 

Yup ... Nothing ... 

[Oshino Shinobu]

My first build that I bought with my own money (not built by me):

i7 3770K

8GB Kingston HyperX 1600MHz

GTX 670

2TB Seagate Barracuda

MSI Z77 motherboard (can't remember the model)

No name 700W PSU

 

 

First build that I actually put together:

i7 3770K

16GB Kingston HyperX 1600MHz

GTX 780Ti

2TB Seagate Barracuda+ 2x 60GB Sandisk Plus SSD

Asus Sabertooth Z77

Corsair AX860

 

Still got a few of those components in my current build. I also had some changes inbetween the two, but most of it was just one change at a time. A big upgrade is coming up, I can feel it

[MountainDrew]

First build that I bought and put together myself:

 

i7-4770k

Noctua NH-D14

8GB (2x4) G.Skill Ripjaws @1600mhz

EVGA GTX 780 SC

Samsung 840 EVO 128GB and Seagate Barracuda 1TB

MSI Z87 GD65 Gaming motherboard

Corsair RM 650w

Fractal Design Define R4

[Lolzious]

Pentium D 3.2ghz, Dell business class mobo, 320gb HDD, 520w PSU, XFX HD 5770, 4gb DDR3

It ran far cry 3, GTA 4, and a few other games, and that's all I cared about at the time

[pants18]

fx-6300

sapphire amd 7950

corsair cx-750

wd 1tb blue

8gb generic kingston ram

corsair 600t