Your PC history

[HRM]

After seeing some of the old computers being posted I thought it would be interesting to run though my own personal history with PC's.  It was nice to remissness and think of times I have nearly forgot because they were so long ago.  Please add your personal history with computers if you feel like it.  I find it interesting to see how we all got here.

 

 

IBM 5150

 

My uncle worked for IBM in the 80's and sometime late in that decade he brought over this beauty to start my life in the computer world.  I learned how to play chess with this computer and also played a good bit of 'wheel of fortune.'  I can remember the 3.5" floppy disc and a very tetris like look to every pixel on the screen, always with a tone of green to it.

 

 

Compaq Presario  

 

Early 90's our family upgraded and with this came my first taste of the internet.  Running at a blazing 14.4kbps I was suddenly interconnected with AOL's email and chat rooms while spending countless hours learning html, visual basic, c++, photoshop, and bryce.  I would spend most of my time listening to music, making these digital scenes while making a website to host them all and share them.  I tried my hardest to learn VB and C++ but that was a whole nother level, I remember I kept trying to make a clock and it would never work right.  I continued to game this time with titles such as 'Doom, Duke Nukem, and Wolfenstein'

 

 

Dell Dimension

 

Now on this computer I had become a proficient graphic and web designer while breaking into flash at the age of sixteen.  Problem was I had become good enough that hackers contacted me to design them interfaces for their many AOL hacking programs.  Well let me just say it got me in enough trouble to put down graphic and web designing for almost five years.  Wished I hadn't as I would be a lot better than I am now if I had stuck with it.  I also got my first taste of the FPS and online play in this era with Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Delta Force, and Battlefield 1942.  Very fun time as this was all so new that pretty much everyone who tried it was hooked, even with the 56kbps lag.  Once we upgraded to DSL I thought the internet was so fast I had to relearn how to play without the lead.

 

 

Dell Inspiron

 

Now moving into my time with the military I needed a computer on the go that could handle my gaming and graphic/web design.  I used this laptop many of nights in Afghanistan sending emails and getting updates of what was going on stateside.  I also made a website and posted pictures of what we were doing which became a real hit with the whole unit as everyone's family was checking it often.  I don't think that would fly anymore but this was late 2002 and the military wasn't what it is now.  I also got a chance to play a game every now and again when I was on leave which was mainly Counter-Strike, now 1.6.

 

 

Dell Inspiron i15R

 

Since the previous Inspiron served me well I simply got the newer model.  I used this one for school work, which was mainly programming and graphic design.  I did this until my health deteriorated and I had to leave school.  With a lot more time on my hands I started to use it more for gaming which it was starting to struggle to keep up with the newest games coming out.  I was still playing Counter-Strike, this time Source and was reintroduced to Battlefield with Bad Company 2.

 

 

Now this is my current PC

 

I have used this computer since 2010 or 11 not completely sure and it has kept up with modern gaming.  Now it has become plagued with minor issues here and there so I thought I would move to the PS4 to get through the next generation of gaming.  Well since the release I have become disappointed with the PS4's abilities and not seeing it as any better than this computer I am on now.  I don't like the controller either, I need my mouse and keyboard, and the whole PSN community just isn't what I thought it would be.

 

 

Now moving into the future and getting to the level of cutting edge I want to be at, I am going to be ordering these parts at the beginning of February to make my first build.  I am really thankful to Linus and Slick for making all these reviews and how to guides to help me put aside any lack of confidence I had in myself to complete this project.  Now I am real excited to get all these components and begin building a machine that is worthy of the title 'rig' and will be able to fly though frames at light speed.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($319.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler:  Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard:  Asus SABERTOOTH Z87 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory:  Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($215.98 @ Newegg) 

Storage:  Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  ($162.99 @ Adorama) 

Storage:  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.98 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($719.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($719.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case:  Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm  Fans  ($27.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($16.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($16.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($16.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply:  Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($194.98 @ Amazon) 

Optical Drive:  Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($19.98 @ OutletPC) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($132.98 @ OutletPC) 

Keyboard:  Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013 Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($129.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Mouse:  Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse  ($52.49 @ Amazon) 

Monitor: I am waiting to see what CES will bring but I am mainly looking at BenQ XL2420TE & Asus VG248QE w/ G-Sync.  I am really hoping a 27' with G-Sync will be announced at CES.

Other: Dominator Platinum Light Bar Upgrade Kit ($19.99)

Other: EVGA Pro SLI Bridge (2-Way) ($29.99)

[ViruZ_HUN]

 

After seeing some of the old computers being posted I thought it would be interesting to run though my own personal history with PC's.  It was nice to remissness and think of times I have nearly forgot because they were so long ago.  Please add your personal history with computers if you feel like it.  I find it interesting to see how we all got here.

 

 

IBM 5150

 

My uncle worked for IBM in the 80's and sometime late in that decade he brought over this beauty to start my life in the computer world.  I learned how to play chess with this computer and also played a good bit of 'wheel of fortune.'  I can remember the 3.5" floppy disc and a very tetris like look to every pixel on the screen, always with a tone of green to it.

 

 

Compaq Presario  

 

Early 90's our family upgraded and with this came my first taste of the internet.  Running at a blazing 14.4kbps I was suddenly interconnected with AOL's email and chat rooms while spending countless hours learning html, visual basic, c++, photoshop, and bryce.  I would spend most of my time listening to music, making these digital scenes while making a website to host them all and share them.  I tried my hardest to learn VB and C++ but that was a whole nother level, I remember I kept trying to make a clock and it would never work right.  I continued to game this time with titles such as 'Doom, Duke Nukem, and Wolfenstein'

 

 

Dell Dimension

 

Now on this computer I had become a proficient graphic and web designer while breaking into flash at the age of sixteen.  Problem was I had become good enough that hackers contacted me to design them interfaces for their many AOL hacking programs.  Well let me just say it got me in enough trouble to put down graphic and web designing for almost five years.  Wished I hadn't as I would be a lot better than I am now if I had stuck with it.  I also got my first taste of the FPS and online play in this era with Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Delta Force, and Battlefield 1942.  Very fun time as this was all so new that pretty much everyone who tried it was hooked, even with the 56kbps lag.  Once we upgraded to DSL I thought the internet was so fast I had to relearn how to play without the lead.

 

 

Dell Inspiron

 

Now moving into my time with the military I needed a computer on the go that could handle my gaming and graphic/web design.  I used this laptop many of nights in Afghanistan sending emails and getting updates of what was going on  stateside.  I also made a website and posted pictures of what we were doing which became a real hit with the whole unit as everyone's family was checking it often.  I don't think that would fly anymore but this was late 2002 and the military wasn't what it is now.  I also got a chance to play a game every now when I was on leave which was mainly Counter-Strike, now 1.6.

 

 

Dell Inspiron i15R

 

Since the previous Inspiron served me well I simply got the new model.  I used this one for school work, which was mainly programming and graphic design.  I did this until my health deteriorated and had to leave school.  With a lot more time on my hands I started to use it more for gaming which it was starting to struggle to keep up with the newest games coming out.  I was still playing Counter-Strike, this time Source and was reintroduced to Battlefield with Bad Company 2.

 

 

Now this is my current PC

 

I have used this computer since 2010 or 11 not completely sure and it has kept up with modern gaming.  Now it has become plagued with minor issues here and there so I thought I would move to the PS4 to get through the next generation of gaming.  Well since the release I have become disappointed with the PS4's abilities and not seeing it as any better than this computer I am on now.  I don't like the controller either, I need my mouse and keyboard, and the whole PSN community just isn't what I thought it would be.

 

 

Now moving into the future and getting to the level of cutting edge I want to be at I am going to be ordering these parts at the beginning of February to make my first build.  I am really thankful to Linus and Slick for making all these reviews and how to guides to help me put aside any lack of confidence I had in myself to complete this project.  Now I am real excited to get all these components and begin building a machine that is worthy of the title 'rig' and will be able to fly though frames at light speed.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($319.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler:  Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard:  Asus SABERTOOTH Z87 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory:  Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($215.98 @ Newegg) 

Storage:  Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  ($162.99 @ Adorama) 

Storage:  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.98 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($719.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($719.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case:  Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm  Fans  ($27.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($16.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($16.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan:  Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($16.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply:  Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($194.98 @ Amazon) 

Optical Drive:  Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($19.98 @ OutletPC) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($132.98 @ OutletPC) 

Keyboard:  Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013 Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($129.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Mouse:  Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse  ($52.49 @ Amazon) 

Monitor: I am waiting to see what CES will bring but am mainly looking at BenQ XL2420TE & Asus VG248QE w/ G-Sync.  I am really hoping a 27' with G-Sync will be announced at CES.

Other: Dominator Platinum Light Bar Upgrade Kit ($19.99)

Other: EVGA Pro SLI Bridge (2-Way) ($29.99)

 

i like the first one:D So Sexy!

[SoaresGaming]

Nice story there, liked it very much, but i got jellous in the end ;C

[HRM]

i like the first one:D So Sexy!

Yeah she definately captured my attention.  Could you please edit that response and not quote me, just seeing the same story back to back is a little repetitive. 

[Bloodyvalley]

2nd computer is the best imo

 

 

the 3rd one... my dad had that.... he threw it out like 3 years ago, lol.

[brownninja97]

We dont have pictures of our first pcs but ill try to find pics online about the previous ones i had.

 

fujitsu siemens 

I liked this machine, it had a p4 in it and the blue leds were cool but they broke quickly. The pc soon broke after my brother found limewire. This isnt our first pc but i cant remember the name of our first pc.

A while later my dad got pissed because the pc just wouldnt work and i needed something as I had to start working for SATs.

 

We ended up getting a dell insprion 530s in 2008 or 2007, one of them but i have no idea which one.

It was a loud motherfu**er and i hated it throughout its life, it had two gpus in it die and i finally ended it with a sledge

 

Later with the above pc being so bloody loud(it had 40mm fans, very bad move dell) we needed to replace it because no one could focus with it being bloody loud we got a Advent centurion with a phenom x4 in it. I think this was around 2009 and windows 7 had just hit the market.

 

 

Moving on GCSEs were around the corner, i think it was 2011 and I needed my own pc, i also wanted to max out minecraft at the time and no pc in the house could do it, the centurion had a 3450 in it which was horrid. I was just getting into pcs around this time and i sadly thought the radeon 6450 was a decent gpu(BAD MOVE) and so we got a dell insprion 620 mt

 

Fastforward 3 months and I can finally make my own pc(for a customer, not myself), it was the summer 2011 and i was determined, I didnt know about linus at the time and i had watched a lot fo careyholzman to make sure i knew everything. My first case was a coolermaster elite 430

 

I hated the case and never used it again

 

My dad then gets a mac.......

 

 

Later in 2012 I wanted to start upgrading my pc so in the summer i had got around £300, not enough for my own pc but i would just upgrade, so this happened.

 

Sadly the insprion case wasnt built for the task of gaming and so after making some pcs for other people and fixing other pcs here and there i could add some more to it. Currently i need a new cpu and motherboard and im good to go, maybe an ssd.

 

And so here we are, the zalman z9 plus is an awesome and underated case, for the price it destroys everything yet it remains under rated. Its a shame. 

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

Well, right now I'm not at my house, so, when I am, I will surely do it.

[cjeffcoatjr]

Dell Dimension with a P4 that died because I ****ed up the IDE configuration

then HP Compaq dc7100 that I put a 9800GT in

And I used that untill a month ago when I got my current http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2k6QB

[HRM]

funny how limewire helped put one of our pc's down quick too, I think it was the dimension.  Nice to see the evolution there, and nice rig.

[Craftable124]

Some old PC running windows 98. (DIED)

idk what model it was, I had this when I was about three.

 

Dell Dimensions (from 2004) (DIED)

Not sure the exact model, got this at 5 years old, and it died when I was about 11. Had half a gig of ram and a dual core 2Ghz processor. Not sure of GPU, and a 40GB HDD WinXP

 

HP Touchsmart 720 (Still have)

Mom's replacement for the old dell dimensions. Specs are meh, 4Gigs RAM, Dual core 2.7Ghz AMD APU, 1TB HDD, 1600x1900 display. I really wish I knew anything about hardware at that time, Would've built a regular desktop and not wasted the money on an all in one. (Upgraded to win8)

 

PCs that were just mine (those three were family PCs these three are just mine):

 

Asus eeePC laptop (I took it apart, salvaged the HDD and trashed the rest)

Had some form of an atom, a gig of ram, 160GB HDD WinXP. It sounds terrible and it was, but hell, it was like $250 in 2009.

 

MacBook Pro (Late 2011, 13 inch) (Still have)

I regret this one. It was $1299 and specs weren't good, also I got it one month before the 2012 line came out. That doesn't bother me anymore however, because they sucked for the price too.

 

Current Rig 

Built it myself with no GPU (iGFX FTW) and a complete crap case (in-win mana 136) a 500GB HDD out of a laptop. The only expensive bit was the 4770k. Since then I just kept upgrading it. Check my profile for current specs.

 

 

[xXmjzXx]

I had some crappy old dell desktop. A crappy dell inspiron E1505 . and a dell xps laptop.  than some crappy amd build i did... Than the one i have now

 

[theking]

Specs in my signature, my first personal PC.

All the other ones (which i do not remember) was used by my family.

[aidenrelkoff]

First was a old win 98 IBM laptop

 

then a Dell laptop Latitude D510 (Dad's old company pc that they pained over $1500 for lol)

 

then a Toshiba satellite A100, i added another 1gb stick of ram (2 gbs total) Still a crappy pc

 

Then a Samsung 300E (still use, i got it last Dec. in 2012, has win 8 for $250 on sale)

 

And finally, My build that i just got/made 2 weeks ago (in sig. below)

 

First pc had a celeron M (i think) clocked @ 1.1 and a total of 256mb of ram and costed over $1200. My current pc has a FX-4130 clocked @ 4.2 and has 8gb of ram and costed me $601.64 lol what a change. Now that i think, im only 15 and i owned at least 5 pc lol

[DroPouT1999]

I can remember the last couple i had, not the others..

 

Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with a Nvidia 6800 GT i believe, then i upgraded to a Nvidia 7950 GX 2 after that a Nvidia 8800GT

 

Then i had a Intel Q6600 with the Nvidia 8800GT, then i got a Radeon 5850 after a 7850 which also included my upgrade to my current system.

[Cwazywazy]

Okay, um this is going to take a while. Lets start with my desktops:

 

I started with a P3 766MHz and a 64MB Radeon card and 256MB RAM. I used windows 2000 on it with a cruddy CRT monitor. (Countless hours playing crappy flash games and playing 18 Wheels of Steel.) 

 

For my 8th birthday (I think it was) my dad bought me a Compaq low profile desktop. (The same kind my school had) It was a P4 3GHz and 1GB RAM and crappy Intel graphics. (GMA 3100 I think)

This motherboard had no AGP slot and it was in a low profile case so I upgraded to a $15 board from eBay and a old tan case and a Geforce 5xxx (Forget specific model) and then over time I upgraded everything until the time I got rid of it when the only parts that were the same were the CPU and heatsink. (It was a suprisingly good heatsink for a cheap business PC)

 

Then for Christmas 2012 I got a new motherboard, APU, and RAM. Nothing else. I re-used the things like PSU (Which I'm still using because it's a good 500w) and case. (I had to order a HDD and buy Windows) For Christmas 2013 I got my awesome looking Phantom NZXT and used the money I got to buy a second screen.

 

Now for the big list, my laptops, but first let me explain that my dad's work has a technology recycling bin and sometimes my dad finds something good and brings it home. (Usually a laptop every once in a while.) 

 

When I was 5 I got my first laptop, a  Toshiba Tecra 7soemthing. It had Windows 95. I don't even remember what I did on that thing. But I do remember that the battery lasted 5 minutes and it was horrifically slow. My dad gave me an old Toshiba Satellite Pro something. It was also Windows 95 and didn't have internet either but it was quite a bit faster and had a 4GB HDD. Then I had a Mac Powerbook G3. Mac OS 9.2 and 64MB RAM. I did have internet on it but it was only ethernet which meant I had to be sitting in the family room next to the router. I had a Toshiba Portege 660CDT after that. I don't really remember anything about it except that it was Windows 98+ edition and it had the full version of Doom already on there. (Which was fun, being 8 years old.) After that I had a Dell Inspiron 3000 with Windows 2000. I used a USB WiFi stick until I bent it to broken. Then I had a Inspiron 3500 which was one of my favorite laptops. It had a 366MHz Pentium with a 2.5MB video card. I upgraded it to Windows XP and 192MB RAM. I used a PCIMCIA Wifi card so that I could look at cats. Then it was a Compaq Presario 2100 which wasn't too bad with a 2.4GHz CPU and 512MB RAM. Then I had a Latitude D600 which I got "broken" at a tag sale for 5 bucks.Then my Presario R3000. I really loved that laptop. It was made in 2003 and it was one of the best laptops you could get at the time with a 3.2GHz Hyper Threading DESKTOP CPU. 64MB Radeon graphics which I overclocked. It had a glorious 1920x1200 screen. The only downside is that the batteries I bought on eBay for it only worked once before failing.. After that I had another D600 and then a D630 with a Core 2 Duo and Intel graphics. I got a few laptops after that that I never really used: A D500, and two D505s. Then I got my current laptop, a E6500 with a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo. It had Intel graphics but I upgraded the board to a Quadro NVS 160m and thanks to the great cooling I am able to overclock it quite a bit. Then I got a NB255 netbook from a tag sale from the same guy I got the D600 from. It had "A broken HDD" The screen was screwed up and the HDD still works fine without any problems. (The colors were all inverted and screwy. New screen was only 30 bucks.) Then my last laptop was a iBook G4 which came with the keyboard I'm using now.

 

List of my laptops in chronological order: (I tried to keep track as best I could)

 

Toshiba Tecra 7xx

Toshiba Satellite Pro xxxx

Apple Powerbook G3

Toshiba Portege 660CDT

Dell Inspiron 3000

Compaq Armada something (Forgot to mention it above)

Dell Inspiron 3500

Dell Inspiron 3500 (I broke the first one and bought a second)

Compaq Presario 2100 (I wrote about it smoking out in another thread)

Dell Latitude D600

Compaq Presario R3000

Dell Latitude D630

Dell Latitude D500

Dell Latitude D505

Dell Latitude D630 (Broke the first one and bought a parts second)

Dell Latitude E6500 (Currently my main laptop)

Dell Latitude D505

Toshiba NB255 (I use it sometimes)

Apple iBook G4

 

So.. Yeah.

[Applepienation]

I'm too lazy to find photos of computer that I've used/owned, but I started gaming at a rather young age. It started on a Dell laptop sometime around 2000, where I would play Tomb Raider 2 and Mechwarrior 2 with my dad. After some time, he got rid of his dell and replaced it with a Macbook. I eventually inherited that macbook, which was the first computer that ever belonged to me. I didn't do much on it, the occasional game but mostly listen to music and do homework. Sometime around then, I got a Dell desktop with a 1.6GHz dual core, and eventually got a Nvidia 9600GT for it (I just replaced it this September). Myt dad upgraded, I got his laptop and started playing other games, such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, and a few others. Being a Mac, I was fairly limited in the games I could play.

 

I later got a new desktop to replace the older one, with a Q6600, 4gb DDR2 RAM and Windows Vista. I kept the 9600GT. Soon after I melted my Macbook accidentally, and found myself without a laptop for a couple years. Next desktop had a i5-2300, 6gb DDR3 RAM, and still my 9600GT. Around this time I also got my current laptop, a Toshiba Satellite P755 which I love very much. The fact I could play Crysis on a laptop was mind blowing to me, and I spent about 6 months gaming on it until the novelty wore off, and I yet again melted it. (I got it repaired).

 

Finally, just last September I got myself a proper gaming rig, with a i5-4670k, H100i, 8gb DDR3 RAM, and a temporary Radeon 7850 which I may replace with either a Maxwell card, GTX 780, or R9 290 depending.

 

Oh, and somewhere in there I had an old desktop with Windows 95 on it. It had some awesome games on it.