Your PC history.

Vengeance · Oct 6, 2003, 05:03 AM

Lets see I'm still fairly new to PC's. I've only been into PC gaming for about 2 1/2 years.
Before that it was all consoles, I was big into online gaming on the Dreamcast.
But most of the guys I played with were also getting into PC gaming.
So I decided to as well.
My very first PC was a Dell 1.1GHz Celeron

Get it for nest to nothing, About what I got for it when I sold it too

My very first PC game was Unreal Tournament, And this Dell ran it like a slide show

But I was told by some of my online buddies that what I needed was a new video card.
And I said "A what?" I had no idea what they meant, till they showed me some links.
And they said all I had to do was put it in the brown slot and I was good to go.
So when I got the money I went to Best Buy. At that time the Geforce 3 was the new kidd on the block.
And it was way to much. Don't remember how much but it was up there.
So the sales guy (Much younger than me) Showed me the Geforce 2 and a Radeon something.
Cant remember what the Radeon was

But all I knew was I wanted a Geforce, All of my buds said to get
a Geforce so thats what I wanted. So I got the top of the line Geforce2. For $149.99 with a rebate.
Took it home opened up my case and I must have set there and looked at it for 30mins.
It had a little small Intel card in the AGP slot. So I didn't think to take it out. (didn't even know for sure what an AGP slot was)
First I tried to stick it in a PCI slot. Didn't fit

I had forgotten about the brown slot thing.
So I'm looking at the poster instructions that came with my GF2 and it showed that it had to go in the "brown" AGP slot.
But it didn't say anything about there already being one there. (lmao what a n00b I was)
So I ended up calling my father in-law and asking him, He said to just pull out the old one, And stick in the new one!
DUH!!!! I was afraid I would screw something up.
So I got in in there, started it up and in ran UT just fine. And then I got Q3 and it ran just fine. And I was happy!
For about 6 months, then the Geforce 4's were hitting the store's So I went and got a Geforce 3 OMG

I was in love with it!
But also there were better games coming out. That my little celeron just couldn't run well.
I got into Marrowind, Dungeon Siege. A few others that just brought it to it's knees.
Again my buddies told me "You need a faster PC

Will it never end?
So like a total fool I went out and did something dumb. I didn't have the cash to go get a new PC, So I saw these Ad's for a "rent to own" store that has PC's (Most of them do) So I went and got me a brand new 2.4GHz P4 and all was good for a while.
Marrowind still ran like crap but most of everything else ran nice and smooth. (except for the weekly payments on that SOB!)
I was about to go out and get a Geforce4 Ti4600 for $299.99 when the 9700/9500's started to hit. I didn't care!
I was a nvidia fan, so I wanted a nvidia card. Till a guy over at overclockers.com showed me some links to the 9500 Pro benchmarks and how at $200.00 it was whipping the crap out of the Ti4600. And it was $100.00 less.
So after reading up on ATI a little I said WTF! lets give it a go. And OMG!!! This was true gaming Bliss!
It ran everything so much better than my old GF3 even Marrowind (But it still ran like crap outside)
And I was very happy........untill.........I read about flashing your bios, so you can overclock it.

And like the fool I am I did it. Seemed to work real well. But it did start to mess up. I would get little white dot's on the screen in games with high detailed textures. Like say dawn's wings in the demo. They would have a few little white dots. Also in 3dMark2K3 the nature demo. Little white dots.

So I tried to flash it back, same-thing.
So I went and got my 9700 Pro ( I really really wanted it anyways)
And I wised up and went out and bought my own PC took the other one back.
I got the top of the line (at the time) Athlon rig from Compaq for about $800.00
Yes everyone keeps telling me I could have built my own but this one was cheap and easy and I got out from under the payments on the other one. That was way to high seeing as how it's a "rent to own" Them guys are high on stuff.

So...whats your PC history?

The_Neon_Cowboy · Oct 6, 2003, 05:25 AM

my god it'd take way to long lets just say i started with a commadore 64... and worked my way up from there

I'm skipping alot here but

commadore 64

a 60mhz p1 with 8mb ram ..mach 2 512k video

a PIII 350 slot 8 mb pci

a amd 500 mhz socket 7 twin vodoo's

slot amd 650 dimond viper 8mb agp

a scoket duron 650 tnt 2

1 ghz tbid origonal radeon 64 mb

1800+ 4200ti

2500+ 9800 pro

keeps on going

this in not to mention the hunderds of systems i've repaired or upgraded or built

~~HawK~~ · Oct 6, 2003, 05:26 AM

Started somewhere in the early 80's
with a C=* Vic20 32kb
then a C= C64 kb later extended with a 5 "" floppydrive annex waterboiler

replaced it with some Amiga's
3x Amiga500 1x with a extended box 2mb mem. & 5mb scsi drive
1x Amiga 2000 4mb mem with a 10mb scsi.
1x Amiga 1200 only a very short time I had this p.o. junk

2x Amiga 3000 1 maxed out with 16mb ram and a IBM 740mb scsi + Picasso2 graphic card.
My first PC; exchanged it for my 3000, the idiot I am.
A 486 with a 80mhz AMD which evolved; via a P 150 - P200mmx - Super7 amd K6-3 400mhz - duron 800mhz, in to my current PC a 1600xp
so in short: oh man i'm getting old

* logo of Commodore E.

Vengeance · Oct 6, 2003, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by The_Neon_Cowboy
my god it'd take way to long lets just say i started with a commadore 64... and worked my way up from there

LOL I never thought about how some people have been into it for a long time.
I was just thinking back to how much I have learned in the last few years.
I went from my hands shaking like mad putting in my first video card (I was afraid I would mess it up)
To putting in fast ram, Better Hard Drives, even a bigger power supply in my PC to run the 9700 Pro.
I have no doubt in my self now! Next time I'm going to go ahead and build my own.
Probably around Tax time next year I'm going to go with a Athlon64 set up.

~~HawK~~ · Oct 6, 2003, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vengeance
LOL I never thought about how some people have been into it for a long time.
I was just thinking back to how much I have learned in the last few years.
I went from my hands shaking like mad putting in my first video card (I was afraid I would mess it up)
To putting in fast ram, Better Hard Drives, even a bigger power supply in my PC to run the 9700 Pro.
I have no doubt in my self now! Next time I'm going to go ahead and build my own.
Probably around Tax time next year I'm going to go with a Athlon64 set up.

Hehe, I once bought 4 ram chips for the A3000 price $400 (not included the trip to Germany to get them), these chips had very thin (hair thick) pens you had to push hard in the mobo, I failed on one which then broke

and had to buy another 4, 'cause it only worked in a set of four, and could only buy in sets of 4, then you'll learn the meaning of sweating..

Kgentatszu] · Oct 6, 2003, 06:14 AM

~LOL, my first OC was a Pentium 200Mhz with MMX, 32MBRam, on-board graphics......it was my first in year 1997, the latest i guess,at that time, i didnt know anythingn 'bout PC's until my next one, i got it 'bout the age of 12 in year 1999...it was a P3 866, 256 PC133 and a Geforce 256 PRO, i bought all these when it first came out, if i didnt remember it wrongly, i dumped around 1500USD for it....WHAT THE F**K!!!!!! then this one..ya know..~LOL

wertret · Oct 6, 2003, 06:15 AM

Well:
In the beginning was the amiga 3000 and it rocks. My designing skills born with "deluxe paint"

Then come my first pentium at 166 mhz, 16 mb, and a riva tnt 16mb.
After that came a pentium 2 at 300 mhz.
Then a pentium 3 550 mhz with 64 mb ram and a riva tnt 2 32 mb.
Then a pentium 3 750 and a geforce 256.
One day i connected to internet for the first time and started to read....
So my new computer was a Amd 1400 256 ram and a flashing geforce 3 (one of the best cards ever)
Then an xp 2200 with 512 ram and a radeon 9700 pro.
Finally i've recently purchased an amd barton 2800 and 1 gb of ram ddr 333. The radeon 9800 xt is coming...

I guess my next step will be an amd 64 and an r400 or 420 card...

The_Neon_Cowboy · Oct 6, 2003, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vengeance

I went from my hands shaking like mad putting in my first video card (I was afraid I would mess it up)

Scary enough i've never been all that afraid... but few have the will to learn .. good for u
i've gotten pretty scary with these things... knowledge truly is power. But, i am hated by many i know couse i'm seen as a no-it-all. I have a above adverage IQ and pick up on lot of things that others can't. (even though i seam to act childish now and then).

Quote:

Originally posted by Vengeance

LOL I never thought about how some people have been into it for a long time.

It's scary to rember to remeber it 2 lol .. i strated @ a young age. I can rember buying games as a book and then geting home to Code it in.... could you image if we still did that today? lol

Quote:

Originally posted by Vengeance

Probably around Tax time next year I'm going to go with a Athlon64 set up.

me 2 but i'll be busting arse trying to get it asap!

krazy1 · Oct 6, 2003, 07:19 AM

EEEK the list is WAY too long.... so a brief summery......

Started with the Original Macintosh's and the Commador 64 (used Macs for 9 years)
Got my first PC 8 years ago and since then I have had over 20 systems.......8 are still in use.....

There is the Readers Digest version.....

tek · Oct 6, 2003, 07:26 AM

HP Pavilion 500MHz
AthlonXP 1800+ / SiS Chipset / GeForce2
AthlonXP 2100+ / A7N8X Deluxe / GeForce MX440, FX5200
AthlonXP 1700+ / Abit NF7-S 2.0 / ATI 9500 PRO

Al_Vampyre · Oct 6, 2003, 07:48 AM

OK here goes,

Had a ZX-80, then a ZX-81, then I got a C64, then an Amiga, was out of computers for a while came back to my first PC which was a 386, then I got a 486DX2, next was my Pentium 166, then I started to build my own PCs the first of which was a Celeron 300A (which o/clocked nicely to 450 - my first O/clock!!), then I went to a P3 - 866 (I think! - which o'clocked to 1Ghz) and last but by no means least my current rig which is a P4 2.4b (at stock because I'm having real problems o/clocking it)....that makes what 22 or 23 years since I bought my first computer - yikes!!!

**MIG-31** · Oct 6, 2003, 08:00 AM

1)486dx2 66mhz 24mb ram(i think) w98se.intel chipset. first full pc bought cheap 3 half years ago.(second hand)

2)p3 450 384mb ram w98se/xp home upgrade.intel chipset(second hand)

3)athlon 1.4ghz 512mb ram xp home upgrade.via chipset(built myself)

30p4 2.5ghz 400fsb 1024mb xp home.sis chipset..(bought from store and regret the day i did)

current)p4 2.4 800fsb 1024mb xp home.intel 865pe chipset

always previously stuck to consoles all the time.

UberLord · Oct 6, 2003, 08:49 AM

Too many PC's to count really. Been into computers since I got a BBC Model B at age 4. First x86 stylie PC was an old Amstrad PC 1512. First PC I modded was an IBM AT (well, modded as in replacing VGA cards

). First comp I owned myself was a i486SX25 - and it was quite good for the time. Since then I've upgraded various bits and pieces until I had replaced everything slowly. By then it was a AMD K6-2.

Now I've got a ninja b**stard PC powerhouse which I still upgrade even this week (54mb wireless networking) However, I recently got an XBox for a few games and I'm liking it over PC gaming. And SW:KOTOR isn't on PC yet so I got the XBox version and it's hmmmmmmmm nice

Judas · Oct 6, 2003, 08:54 AM

Tandy 1000 was my first.... with extreme extended memory... (256KB which is the size of a mothboard today)

DallasStar · Oct 6, 2003, 05:17 PM

1st PC: i was 6 years old.... 'twas an intel 286 w/ blk/wht monitor. i don't know the exact specs (forgive me, i was only 6

).

2nd PC: i was 7-8 years old... 'twas an intel pentium 1 133mhz w/ 16mb ram, 2mb video card, soundblaster 16, and usrobotics 28.8k modem

.....

Current PC: see specs

KiwiRack · Oct 6, 2003, 05:42 PM

& my old fart status may come to the fore..Lol

Started out -Well sorta, wondering what the word PC meant. After discovering that new animal, I got a rather *Cring* nice 286 system, after working on a 8086. Hell, it was Xmas -Even had 2megs ram!

With the advent of 'Games' I learned very quickly, even as an Old Fart how to work DOS to run the blasted things under 3.11, they didn't do well with 3.0 ~But loved the DOS environment.

Much, much later after owning a PC company that I lost because of a woman (yer, happens). I bought into the ASUS BX chipset based mobo with a Celeron, now that BX chip did not get beat out until last year -That's a long life! Later I moved to AMD 1g with an IWILL, which still lives!

{Edit} OoOps forgot the 'ole girl, she's a 486DX100 that I still use today for..oh, well ~'Stuff' Bought the very first one to hit the market.

Today it's an Intel 2.66/533 that I ran @4.13g, slowed it down thinking I could get B&W to work..Nadda, back to 4.13g, with DDR 3700@466 ~1.6v on piped air & ATI 9500 Pro (Cost for most of it was $457). I like both the AMD & Intel, but I do dis VIA.

Love to build systems & tweak out software, have not owned a printer in 6 yrs, why have one?

Don_1 · Oct 6, 2003, 06:23 PM

First computer was an Amiga 2000.
The rest is history too much too list.

tragic · Oct 6, 2003, 06:33 PM

Thats a nice story vengeance, brings back many memories too

I kicked off with, really i cannot remember if it was pentium or amd, but it was 400mhz something or other. 400 seemed a lot then so i was quiet happy with my 56mb of ram and a massive hard drive or 5 Gb. First game i played was Rogue spear if i recall. Ran like crap but man i enjoyed myself in those days.

Then it was a Athlon Thunderbird, then a Athlon XP, then a P4 2.8 and now a P4 3.0, with all the trimmings. Well the new one should arrive in a couple of weeks. The last two i built myself but the latest one i ordered online as my missus is getting fed up with the spare bits littering the place.

Such fond memories though

KiwiRack · Oct 7, 2003, 11:22 PM

And life goes on

But then there is Power OC {Cause it's addictive} & then the silent form of Oops!

I see many, many things & tolerate some; but not one goes unnoticed

Be carefil with x64, maybe more than anyone can handle, best advice ~Don't do it!

Linux is a relief! Though I run everything...I'm well aware of consequence, I live it -Consequence..Lolol

I'm still.....Lurking, nope that IP changed ~ couple of times, according to Will....

Fun, huh

Be very careful of x64, it's harder than you might think.

Cheers!

Vengeance · Oct 8, 2003, 12:33 AM

...............

KiwiRack · Oct 8, 2003, 01:24 AM

Vengeance

Yer, I got that..SOOooo, friend or foe.

Just a thought!

Hey, I make more friends than enemies!

Where are U on the Universal Map?

I'm guessing here, that you have an issue? Time to cume clean or dirty: I don't give a {%s}

I think your comment

Could be 'Expanded' On..Yer IP, got it... Still BS.

If U really want to pis someone off, why don't U really try!

Lolol, go 4 it

Vengeance · Oct 8, 2003, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KiwiRack
Vengeance

Yer, I got that..SOOooo, friend or foe.

Just a thought!

Hey, I make more friends than enemies!

Where are U on the Universal Map?

I'm guessing here, that you have an issue? Time to cume clean or dirty: I don't give a {%s}

I think your comment Could be 'Expanded' On..Yer IP, got it... Still BS.

If U really want to pis someone off, why don't U really try!

Lolol, go 4 it

Again I say

Not trying to piss anyone off!
But your post(s) make no sense to me

friend or foe.? were all friends here!

Hey, I make more friends than enemies! This is good to know.......

Where are U on the Universal Map? It's in my profile, I'm in Texas.

I'm guessing here, that you have an issue? Time to cume clean or dirty: I don't give a {%s} No issues.....Just trying to make a funny post about my PC experience (or lack there of)

I think your comment Could be 'Expanded' On..Yer IP, got it... Still BS. You totally lost me here! again with the

and finaly...If U really want to pis someone off, why don't U really try! where in any of my posts do you think I'm trying to piss anyone off?

Vengeance · Oct 8, 2003, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KiwiRack
& my old fart status may come to the fore..Lol

Started out -Well sorta, wondering what the word PC meant. After discovering that new animal, I got a rather *Cring* nice 286 system, after working on a 8086. Hell, it was Xmas -Even had 2megs ram!

With the advent of 'Games' I learned very quickly, even as an Old Fart how to work DOS to run the blasted things under 3.11, they didn't do well with 3.0 ~But loved the DOS environment.

Much, much later after owning a PC company that I lost because of a woman (yer, happens). I bought into the ASUS BX chipset based mobo with a Celeron, now that BX chip did not get beat out until last year -That's a long life! Later I moved to AMD 1g with an IWILL, which still lives!

{Edit} OoOps forgot the 'ole girl, she's a 486DX100 that I still use today for..oh, well ~'Stuff' Bought the very first one to hit the market.

Today it's an Intel 2.66/533 that I ran @4.13g, slowed it down thinking I could get B&W to work..Nadda, back to 4.13g, with DDR 3700@466 ~1.6v on piped air & ATI 9500 Pro (Cost for most of it was $457). I like both the AMD & Intel, but I do dis VIA.

Love to build systems & tweak out software, have not owned a printer in 6 yrs, why have one?

Well this post I understood just fine

Sorry but I didnt get the last two