What was your first build?

[OzzmanFloyd120]

It's obvious that we're all enthusiasts here, but what about before we knew everything we know? Here is a place to share with everyone the specs of your first build, keep in mind to tell when this build took place.

My first build was in 2005, BF2 had just come out and I completely fell in love with the PC version and I had to be able to play it, unfortunately my PC at the time couldn't handle the load, so I built myself a machine that could handle it.


Processor: Dual Intel P3 866 Slot 1 CPUs
Motherboard: Dell Optiplex GX-300 server board
Cooling: Stock
Memory: 512MB (2*256MB) Toshiba RDRAM800
Video Card: PNY Verto Geforce FX5500 256GDDR
HDD: 2*10GB WDD IDE Drives
LG DL DVDRW+CDRW combo(yes, the same one I still use!)
Case: Modded Dell Optiplex GX-300 Case
Soundcard: Some on board crap
PSU: 250W Dell stock PSU
OS: Windows XP Corp.

Thing was a beastly machine. I ended up tearing it down not long after to go down the AMD64 road

[1Kurgan1]

Oh god, this is going to be good. My dad got a DTA bus that we turned into our hunting shack and it was filled with old computer parts. So me and my cousin found what we could and peiced together the beast from 1993 (granted it was made in about 98 or 99).

CPU - Dual CPU's 486DX 66mhz and 486?? 25mhz
Mobo - Not a clue but was dual socket.
RAM - So long ago and I knew nothing then, but I think a whooping 4mb or so.
Videocard - built in
PSU - no clue probably a hamster in a wheel

I installed windows 98 SE on that thing and ran mech warrior 3 somehow (granted very laggy). But it didn't last long.

[OzzmanFloyd120]

The fact that you were able to run mech warrior 3 on it is both hilarious and amazing.

[1Kurgan1]

Thats all I built it for, and since I was like 11 or so thats the only option I had with no cash. I still don't know how it did it though, lol.

[Binge]

Intel 286-33 with a 20 meg HDD and a 13" screen with 2x 5 1/2" & 1x 3 1/4" floppy.

I don't remember really when it happened but I HATE jumpers and I am glad they no longer exist in a good # of cases.

[BrooksyX]

AMD Duron 800mhz cpu
Biostar Socket A mAtx mobo
Asus Nvidia mx4000 128mb
2x 256 Rosewill (pqi) ram
20gb WD HDD
30gb WD HDD
Rosewill Black case with 350w psu

Man i loved that thing and i didn't even realize that when i built it it was already years out of date. Oh well it still played called of duty 2 and thats all that mattered to me at the time.

[kysg]

My first build man that thing brings back memories lol

I had a cruddy rosewill case with a handle I used the onboard PSU and it burnt out.
my mobo was an MSI nforce 2 k2ngm-v onboard IGP w/geforce 4 MX. It was just sad.

Put a 9200SE in there later that still didn't help lol!!!
had 512mb of RAM from buffalo ddr400.
borrowed cdrom from other comp.
CPU was a sempron socket A 1.8ghz.
hdd was a 80gb hdd with 2mb cache

yep thing was a disaster...

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Originally Posted by BrooksyX

Man i loved that thing and i didn't even realize that when i built it it was already years out of date. Oh well it still played called of duty 2 and thats all that mattered to me at the time.

That's pretty much how my first build went. outdated before I even finished it, but it plaed BF2, and that was all that mattered. Then I seen some benchmarks of my PC vs the AMD-FX chips and it made me want to cry because I thought I finally had a high-end computer.

[Cold Storm]

First:

Amd/ATI build

AMD 3000+
Msi board (whatever is in RM's sig since he took it!)
generic ram
40gb wd
Dvd-rw (sony when it first came out.. 299 at best buy)
ATI all in wonder (forget the last series that came out...)
Some old CRT...

[From_Nowhere]

My first build:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Windsor)
ECS KA3 MVP (This board was and is a POS)
ATI Radeon X1600XT
2x512MB Buffalo Firestix DDR2 800 (Good OC RAM, I think I still have it in my misc. parts drawer)
Western Digital 160GB Hard Drive (SATA II, 7200RPM)
Matshita 16X CD/DVD-RW with Double Layer Support (IDE)
OCZ 600 Watt GameXtream PSU (Another POS)
Apevia X Discovery Mid ATX Tower
17" ViewSonic LCD Monitor (1280x1024) -TERRIBLE
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
Windows XP Media Center Edition


Played Half-Life 2, FEAR, and Halo w/ decent frame rates.

[omiknight52]

A pentium 4 2.4 colcked to 3.0ghz on fast thermaltake heatsink, 1.5gb Ram maxtor 60gb Hdd asrock overclock motherboard and a radeon 9550 oc all just to play one game: DOOM 3 which didn't run well but was able to play it

[p_o_s_pc]

my first build
AMD X2 4600+ @2.5ghz 24/7 2.85ghz benching
Stock HSF (replaced with Asus chilly vent lux)
Gigabyte GA-m61p-S3
(2x512mb)1gb Geil Ultra DDR2 800 CL4
HIS ATI radeon X1950PRO turbo (it died in 2 days replaced with EVGA 7900GS KO) voltmod on 7900GS@1.5v GPU 2.3v mem OCed to 700/1000
Hiper type-R Silver
WD 80gb SATA
Dyno power "Black widow"


played all the games that i had at that time maxed out even Bioshock later when it came out. Scored ~mid 5k at stock when overclocked scored high 5k in 3dmark 06. I still have the 7900GS it is being sent for RMA soon. I am still using the Gigabtye board it is the one i painted and the 1 stick of Geil ram that lived is in my dads computer. The Hyper PSU is in a landfill the HDD is being used in my main rig. I traded the x2 4600+ for a PSU to someone on this forum.

[ShadowFold]

Pentium dual core e2200, gigacrap p35, 2gb DDr2, hd 3850, rosewill case, Wd250gb

[mikek75]

I started late when it comes to building....

AMD 3700 San Diego
DFI CFX3200 DR
2x512mb Crucial Ballistix DDR400 (later 4x512mb DDR500 Ballistix)
X1950Pro
Enermax EG535w PSU

Most of it is now for sale, LOL

[JrRacinFan]

I did do upgrades before this build to an existing Dell and Gateway:

Sempron 2400+
Asrock K7VT4A+
2x 256MB PC3200
ATi Radeon 9500 64MBDDR non pro
120GB Western Digital Caviar SE
8x DVD-ROM
400W Antec PSU (Back when they were s!*@ty)
Cheap POWMAX Case

[thebeephaha]

Soyo KT400 Dragon --> later to ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
Athlon XP 2000+ --> later to 3000+ Barton
256MB DDR266 --> later to 1.25GB
40GB Maxtor IDE --> 120GB Maxtor IDE + 250GB Maxtor SATA
ASUS GF4 MX440 w/ TV Capture
iCute Case + Blue Cathode
Enermax 365w PSU

It was so bomb.

Upgraded from an eMachines eTower 500ix

500MHz Celeron
64MB PC100
4MB ATI Rage
10GB Maxtor

[Cold Storm]

Lol... forgot the PSU... Good old 400w "Gold Edition" Compusa Psu..

[farlex85]

First build about two years ago (around the time I joined this site) w/ the help of a friend:

Pentium D 915 2.8GHZ
MSI 650i
1gb Patriot pc6400
250gb WD SE
x700 pro refurbished
xion solaris case w/ 450w psu
15" crappy CRT

Started as a budget build until I found this site (and some other corners of the internet) and re-discovered my love of gaming (via oblivion, I had been gaming dormant for a while, college directed my efforts elsewhere), and thus slowly invested money into evolving my current build piece by piece.

[BrooksyX]

Ha seems like most of us started of with building ghetto ass PCs. Wish I found techpowerup years ago so you guys could warn me that I was buying crap. I think ive made a lot better choices on my computer recently though

[p_o_s_pc]

Originally Posted by BrooksyX

Ha seems like most of us started of with building ghetto ass PCs. Wish I found techpowerup years ago so you guys could warn me that I was buying crap. I think ive made a lot better choices on my computer recently though

you saying my build was ghetto?

[BrooksyX]

Originally Posted by p_o_s_pc

you saying my build was ghetto?

Not necessarily. I am just saying in general. I know my first pc was hella ghetto.

I had to overclock my 800mhz duron to 1ghz just so I could meet the Call of Duty 2 min requirements.

[p_o_s_pc]

Originally Posted by BrooksyX

Not necessarily. I am just saying in general. I know my first pc was hella ghetto.

I had to overclock my 800mhz duron to 1ghz just so I could meet the Call of Duty 2 min requirements.

i was just messing with you bro

[ShadowFold]

Originally Posted by farlex85

First build about two years ago (around the time I joined this site) w/ the help of a friend:

Pentium D 915 2.8GHZ
MSI 650i
1gb Patriot pc6400
250gb WD SE
x700 pro refurbished
xion solaris case w/ 450w psu
15" crappy CRT

Started as a budget build until I found this site (and some other corners of the internet) and re-discovered my love of gaming (via oblivion, I had been gaming dormant for a while, college directed my efforts elsewhere), and thus slowly invested money into evolving my current build piece by piece.

What friend buys frinds a PD

[BrooksyX]

Originally Posted by p_o_s_pc

i was just messing with you bro

Ha I know but honestly your first build wasn't that bad. I had a very similar build a year ago (same exact motherboard) and it was pretty decent.

[stefanels]

My first Pc that i builded was in july '98:

AMD K6-2 400Mhz
2x128Mb Sd-ram pc100
20Gb WD hard
3DFx Vodoo3 2000 16Mb agp4x
24x Acer Cd-rom + 4x Asus Cd-writer
17" Hyundai CRT

It was a very priced PC