What was your first build? :)

[mihirkula]

Hello...wanted to start a lighthearted thread...so here goes....what were the specs of your first ever build ?

I had this PC...May 2001 i think

Intel P4 1.5Ghz processor
256mb DDR1 RAM
Intel 845GBV Motherboard ...(made a hell of a lot of noise!!)
Onboard graphics ... played Max Payne very well.
20GB Seagate harddrive
Compaq Coloreal 5500 monitor...Still have it...
JBL speakers

 

[IH8U]

AMD 1GHz T-Bird 200MHz FSB Proc (3 or 4 weeks after release)
ASUS MB (unsure as to what it was)
512 RAM (2x 256 sticks PC 133)
GeForce2 Vid (Gladiac)
20Gb Seagate HDD
old NEC? CRT monitor (freebie)(given to me by a co-worker)
Harman Kardon speakers (2.0) free (same as above)

 

[rodney_ws]

My first actual build was a Pentium 200 MMX... paid $600 for that processor alone. Seriously. I can't remember if I had 32 MB or 64 MB initially, but at some point I know I had 64. Ohh... and a Tseng 6000 video card for 2D and a 3DFX Voodoo 1 for the 3D games (Quake) that actually supported it. That was at some point in 1997 I think.

 

[Onus]

Hmmm, I don't remember. I do remember building a "fast 286" (sorry for the oxymoron!) to be a Netware 2.0a server in 1986. That was from scratch, in fact I remember the CPU chip being loose among the peanuts in the box (it actually worked when installed though!). My first personal scratch-build that didn't start out as at least a barebones was probably a 386/sx33 and/or a 386/dx40 a few years later. I'm going to guess they probably had around 4MB of RAM, as I used to run DesQView on them. One had an Amdek 310A amber monitor with a VGA Wonder on it; don't remember my other monitor but I think it might have been a color TV that had a VGA connector on it too. I had a 70MB Miniscribe drive that I bought used for $200, and a 140MB ESDI drive for which I spent about $900 .

 

[stoner133]

Was a Pentium II 350Mhz using an Abit motherboard with a VIA chipset running on Win98SE. I sold the computer to a friend about a year later and it was used till this last December when I built him a new AMD X2 based system. I have the old PII cpu setting right here on my desk.

 

[bliq]

my first build was a Cyrix P150+ on a soyo motherboard. That was in the mid to late 90s.

 

[Steven Bancroft]

My first build which I thought was freaking awesome at the time (2002ish):

Generic $100 computer case from a local store (2x 80mm fans w00t!)

Pentium 4 Prescott 3.0ghz E (Overclocked the 3.2ghz) and thought I was awesome)

Zalman 9500 CPU Cooler

2x 512MB Crucial DDR PC-3200 RAM

2x 160GB Seagate 7200 RPM drives in RAID-0

450W Generic PSU

Radeon 9800 Pro (w00t!!)

Audigy 2 soundcard

Man I remember the first time it played Doom 3... those were the days..

 

[Onus]

I built a Cyrix P166+ on something (Asus?) back in perhaps '95. Those chips sucked power though, and I remember it very quickly blew out the mobo. I was pi$$ed, because there were specific jumper settings for that chip on that mobo, so it ought to have worked. Oh well.

 

[eck]

In 2003:

Generic $50 case http://3ck.us/case.jpg
430 Watt Antec Power Supply
Soyo Dragon Ultra P4X400 Motherboard (**** Via chipset, but supported DDR 2700)
Pentium 4 2.4GHz 533FSB
1GB DDR 400
Radeon 9700 Pro
SB Audigy 2 ZS
120GB Western Digital HD
DVD-ROM
CD-RW

It wsa pretty damn sweet at the time... at least I thought.

Then a year later, I upgraded to an Asus P4P800 since my motherboard was complete trash, along with a P4 3.0GHz 800FSB. Then came the GeForce FX5900 that I flashed to 5950 Ultra. And 2 36GB Raptors in RAID 0... and a DVD-RW drive. It lasted me until early 2008 until I built my current rig.

 

[rgsaunders]

First full build was in 1987 - although it was the 4th computer in the house at that time, predated by a C64 and 2 TI994A systems, all of which I still have in full operational condition today.

Suntac motherboard with dual socketed ram 2 mb
AMD 80286 - 8MHz - 12MHz in Turbo mode
ATI Super EGA card
can't remember brand on the monitor - it was a dual mode EGA/VGA monitor.
5.25 floppy drive
40 MB MFM Hard drive
DOS 3.1 if I recall correctly.
shared the 9 pin dot matrix printer with my C64 system.

Still have an old Heathkit Zenith 8086 system and an Amstrad 286 sitting on the shelf in the garage, even have the Heathkit DOS manuals still.

 

[rodney_ws]

I built a Cyrix P166+ on something (Asus?) back in perhaps '95. Those chips sucked power though, and I remember it very quickly blew out the mobo. I was pi$$ed, because there were specific jumper settings for that chip on that mobo, so it ought to have worked. Oh well.

I had one of those too... worst CPU ever. Ran way too hot... zero overclocking potential... and did seem to burn out rather quickly/reliably.

 

[techgeek]

Built first computer in 1999:

P3 450MHz (first CPU with SSE)
GigaByte GA6-BXE (with the legendary BX chipset)
64MB SDRAM
Hercules Riva TNT (16MB)
8GB Quantum HDD
Floppy
Cheap @ss chase with a PSU
Netgear PCI Ethernet Adapter (still have it)
Windows 98SE

This system played Quake 3 quite nicely. Of course I purchased the graphics card at the wrong time, two months later and I could of had the TNT2. As I mentioned, I built this system in 1999, but I was into computers starting back in the early 80's (with my VIC 20).

 

[doomsdaydave11]

I won't lie... my first build is actually this current one . I've had a ton of older rigs, but never really build my own. Sure I've upgraded them, but still....

 

[Topcover]

p4 3.0ghz with ht prescott
512 ram 2 dim
intel 955x mobo
geforce 6800gt
soundblaster audigy
lite on 16*dvd rom and dvd burner
250gb western digital with 8megs of cache

forget the case but it was a cooler master.

Friend paid me to put it together i soon will be building my first build for myself

 

[SuicideSilence]

O man i though this build was soo cool when i build it lol back in 2004 i think.

Roswill case that looked like a car with a genric 400 Watt psu
amd 3500+
Asus s939 MB
512mb crosair dual channel ddr400 memory
roswill 9600 pro 128 mb
2 80 gb hardrives, raid striped (when it was in hype lol)
nec dvd drive.

O man i would play soo much cs on that thing, i loved it. Funny the psu blew out one day, thankfully not taking the rest of the system with it. I had to go to comp usa (when they still existed lol) to buy a new one. It was a horribly overpriced 450 watt antec, good quality, but was like 100 bucks. I was about 12 at the time. haha those were the days.

 

[nukchebi0]

Coolermaster Cavalier
AMD 3200+
ASRock 939Dual-Sata2
1 GB Corsair ValueSelect
Evga 6800XT
Seasonic S12 380
WD Caviar 80GB
Lite-On DVD drive

I've added a X2 3600+, another GB of RAM, and 7600GT through step-up, but those were the original specs.

 

[rolli59]

Antec case
xp1800+
ECS K7S5A
256Mb value DDR
40Gb Maxtor
GeForce Ti2 64Mb Pallit
Lite On DVD drive
HEC 350watt psu
I built that one in Denmark was expensive the 1800+ was the second fastest cpu on the market at the time, only getting beaten by 1900+

 

[wingsofzion]

Asus PDWD2 Premium
Intel P4 3.2GHZ
74GB Raptor
EVGA 7800GT
Corsair 2GB DDR2 533
Asus DVD Combo Drive
Thermaltake Tough Power 560W PSU
Thermaltake Soprano Mid Tower Case

Nooby Mistake 1: Not going with a full tower case. With the PSU cables and the wires all over it made cable management a b!tch and a half. There was no real air flow at all with all the cluttered mess inside. CPU ran hot as hell all the time no matter what

Nooby Mistake 2: Not checking to see if my PSU had a PCI-Express cable before buying it. Wasn't a big deal but using the molex cables to power my 7800GT with the molex to PCI-E adapter in place made it a little cluttered in the small space i had. It also made me use 2 molex cables instead of one PCI-E cable, which took away my ability to power more devices.

Nooby Mistake 3: Not buying a third party CPU cooler. Man, the Intel heatsink sucked major @ss. The thing sounded like a jet engine when i played games and when it was idle. You'd think with all that spinning it kept the CPU cool. NOT. The CPU ran at like 50c idle and leaped to 66c and beyond when under load with games. The loud cpu made it so unbarrable at times and it was very very distracting. When i changed the fan speed to silent, the temps sky rocketed beyond 75 degrees. Should have listened to my gut and went with a Zalman, but with the small space inside i doubt a zalman would even have fit.

Other than those three mistakes, which i corrected in my newer build last year, check my sig for specs, that PC ran smooth. When i built my new gamer i retired it and turned it into my new work PC (no more Dells for this household). It was a great experience building it though.

 

[Shadow703793]

See my sig.

Celeron 315 @3.6Ghz

P4P-800-MX
512 MB originally 1GB now
Cheap case
NEC DVD burner
on board video
Antec 500W PSU

Thermaltake Xaser Spark 7+ (THE LOUDEST FANS EVER!)

 

[mihirkula]

hehehehe v interesting and funny posts here...its good to reminisce ... last night i watched a 30 min Windows 95 special starring Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston from F.R.I.E.N.D.S on youtube ....

To all the people who built their first rig in the 80s and early 90s...Cheers to y'all! You've seen it all!