PC Building

[Wally_AMD]

I've been around here for a little over a year now and have gotten to know this community pretty well for the most part - especially our regulars. Getting to learn a bit about your PC-related hobbies (gaming, building, modding, etc.) has been a real treat, and I was wondering... when did you build your very first PC?

Although I've always loved gaming, I didn't get into PC gaming until I was in my early teens, and I didn't build my first PC until I was around 19.

Even the rig I'm running is pre-built (SHAME ON ME), but I'm looking to build an AM5 rig by the end of the year if I'm lucky!

[robinyutah]

@eebiii Yes, you are right. I have been into the study for several years. When i realized that i have to make my career, then I started learning the skill and now providing services about as an Austin roofer. But yeah once I build my career, I'll dive into this ocean as well

[robinyutah]

@eebiii  I have just found the first client for Austin roofing services. Now i'll take a look for the building of PC for my own gaming setup.

[AgCN3]

What does your Gaming PC Budget look like?  I know it's truly none of my business, but knowing what you're willing to spend is greatly helpful when giving advice on this topic.  FWIW.

[eebiii]

Great!! Do you have any ideas what you are looking for to start? Case, MB, CPU, etc...?

[masterbasher]

1998 Prior to that it was pre-built or bought for me. Very first was a Commodore Vic-20 for Christmas one year. Got the bug and have been in IT most of my life. Well, until I got outsourced . . .

[jaandoh]

Built my first pc some time in 2000s I think.. 

Can't remember the exact year, 

It had an amd athlon cpu and the name of the core was palomina I think...

[DtDrag]

All the way back in 2015. I've been dying to build another since... It's old and tired now. 😛

[karlschultz311]

I built my first PC in 2012. This was after my Dell XPS tower finally bought the farm and I found out the hard way that many of the Dell components were proprietary and could only be replaced by Dell parts.
I quickly started doing research on how to select parts and build my own machine. Lots of overtime hours were put in to convince my wife to let me buy the components on my list as they went on sale.
That first rig was on a Phenom II X6 chip, and I have always built Team Red since.

 

[BigAl01]

Regarding the overtime hours that were invested in convincing your wife to let you buy components - can I assume you were successful?  Many of us go through this process, otherwise we find ourselves out on the street.  I was lucky to marry another MSEE, so she almost cannot help herself to but approve my computer part procurement cycle (CPPC).

[karlschultz311]

Yeah, we didn't have alot of disposable income at that point (we are a little more comfortable now). The deal was basically we split all of my overtime pay, half to debt repayments, half to the computer bucket. It was a good incentive. Also notice that fat optical drive in there.

[psychosword111]

I have just recently this year built my first pc. It’s a very budget built gaming pc with the ryzen 5600g at its heart but I plan on building me another pc by the end of next year with the 7800x3d as the heart so I can have a proper gaming rig. It took me a while to figure out where everything when but thanks to YouTube and friends I got it running and so far nothing has broken lol

[Soulfoundry]

I built my first PC when I started college in 2008. It was 3rd gen intel i7 and an Nvidia 550 ti 2gb. Ran that setup for 13 years before I joined team red last year. I learned alot from my initial build and my second went alot smoother.

[BigAl01]

Many of us collect 'lessons learned' along the way as we build computers.  Sometimes most of the hard learned lessons are related to software, but early on, it was the hardware interfaces (IRQ assignments, etc.) that caused the most headaches.

[PCProbs1]

2001 (maybe 2002) was my first build - showing my age!

I remember it was Windows XP Pro with a AMD Athlon processor and, if memory serves, a 40GB Maxtor hard drive.

[mandrakeblackstone]

I have always just went into Canada computers told them what I wanted and they built it for me , in 2020  when the first pandemic shut down came I had so much time on my hands and money to burn so thought I would build a PC myself needless to say my current build is the first build I did myself .  

[SeismicForce]

2016

[Bobomby]

Somewhere around 2002 for me. Got interested after taking a Dell apart. Overclocking the pentium 4's was good fun. Water cooling consisted of a pond pump and tubing and a Chevy heater core for a radiator. Only the  custom CPU block was PC specific. 

[BigAl01]

Are you a car guy too?  I never thought to combine my two talents - cars and computers.  I was going to become an auto mechanic, taking courses such as engine rebuilding and tune up in my first year of college.  That was after having an auto mechanics focus in high school (graduated in 1977).  But, I changed my mind and switched to engineering course type work in the second year, got my AA degree, and then went on to four years of university for the BSEE.  Soon I had an MSEE after taking some night courses.  

I certainly would like to see a picture of that heater core in use, if you have it available.

[FrostyDaProto]

never did really build my own pc yet still trying to get the funding but i did make or repair pcs for my friends first one being at 12 years when i did for my cousin a pc rockin a phenon x6 and 8gb of ddr3 ram with a 500gb hdd 
as of right now i plan on making for myself one with a 7600x 32gb of kingston fury ram 6000mhz and as a gpu whatever gets as a christmas discount 

[BigAl01]

Be sure to post some pictures that you take during the build process.

[mengelag]

It was grade 11 circa 1996 and it was and amd. CA t remember the the chip anymore but it was 233mhz or 300mhz in one of those pastey off white cases lol. 

[ardankyaosen]

It looks like I built my first computer back in June 2006.  Let's see how a paste of a parts list spreadsheet works here:

Description	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 1066MHz FSB LGA 775 Processor Model BX805576700	$699.00
Memory	Crucial Technology Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804	$359.99
Video Card	ASUS EN7600GT SILENT/2DHT/256M Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card	$209.99
OS	Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2	$137.99
Motherboard	Intel BOXDP965LTCK Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard	$119.99
Power Supply	PSU SEASONIC|S12-430 RT	$94.99
Case	Antec Lifestyle Solo ATX Quiet ATX Mini-Tower Case (Piano Black)	$85.99
Hard Drive	Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YD 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive	$66.99
CPU Cooler	Thermalright SI-120 CPU Cooler	$49.99
CPU Fan	120mm Nexus Quiet Case Fan	$12.99
Case Fan	92mm Nexus Real Silent Case Fan	$10.99
Thermal Paste	Arctic Silver Ceramique	$3.95
Total		$1,852.85

[BigAl01]

Look how expensive the Intel CPU was back then.  And the video card was almost cheap!  Funny how things switched around over the years.

[petosiris]

Yeah, both Intel and Nvidia has changed their price policies since 2006, that's what's happened @BigAl01.  While Intel has gotten more competition since 2017, Nvidia has less competition now.

[FunkZ]

Been upgrading or assembling OEM style PC's since the early 90's, but the first enthusiast PC I built for gaming and overclocking was in 2002.

AMD Athlon 2000+ (unlocked)
Thermaltake Volcano 7
Abit KX7-333R (volt-mod)
256Mb DDR-333
2x40Gb Maxtor ATA133 RAID0
Gainward GF4 Ti4200 GS
SB Live X-Gamer