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What got you started with PC's? Tell your story.

dorsetknob

"YOUR RMA REQUEST IS CON-REFUSED"
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
9,105 (1.31/day)
Location
Dorset where else eh? >>> Thats ENGLAND<<<
Dos first then bootleged win 3 :) and on and on......................> and chuck in a 9600 Baund dial up modem
For networking Null modem cable ( Home made by Ghettoing Cables together)
 
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
20,776 (5.97/day)
Location
The Washing Machine
Processor i7 8700k 4.6Ghz @ 1.24V
Motherboard AsRock Fatal1ty K6 Z370
Cooling beQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 3
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200/C16
Video Card(s) ASRock RX7900XT Phantom Gaming
Storage Samsung 850 EVO 1TB + Samsung 830 256GB + Crucial BX100 250GB + Toshiba 1TB HDD
Display(s) Gigabyte G34QWC (3440x1440)
Case Fractal Design Define R5
Audio Device(s) Harman Kardon AVR137 + 2.1
Power Supply EVGA Supernova G2 750W
Mouse XTRFY M42
Keyboard Lenovo Thinkpad Trackpoint II
Software W10 x64
Honestly?

Consoles and laptops.
The end
 
Joined
Dec 14, 2013
Messages
2,603 (0.69/day)
Location
Alabama
Processor Ryzen 2700X
Motherboard X470 Tachi Ultimate
Cooling Scythe Big Shuriken 3
Memory C.R.S.
Video Card(s) Radeon VII
Software Win 7
Benchmark Scores Never high enough
The wife - It's all her fault.
Nuff said. :D
 
Joined
Sep 10, 2016
Messages
805 (0.29/day)
Location
Riverwood, Skyrim
System Name Storm Wrought | Blackwood (HTPC)
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900x @stock | i7 2600k
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WIFI m-ITX | Some POS gigabyte board
Cooling Deepcool AK620, BQ shadow wings 3 High Spd, stock 180mm |BQ Shadow rock LP + 4x120mm Noctua redux
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x32GB 4000MHz | 2x4GB 2000MHz @1866
Video Card(s) Powercolor RX 6800XT Red Dragon | PNY a2000 6GB
Storage SX8200 Pro 1TB, 1TB KC3000, 850EVO 500GB, 2+8TB Seagate, LG Blu-ray | 120GB Sandisk SSD, 4TB WD red
Display(s) Samsung UJ590UDE 32" UHD monitor | LG CS 55" OLED
Case Silverstone TJ08B-E | Custom built wooden case (Aus native timbers)
Audio Device(s) Onboard, Sennheiser HD 599 cans / Logitech z163's | Edifier S2000 MKIII via toslink
Power Supply Corsair HX 750 | Corsair SF 450
Mouse Microsoft Pro Intellimouse| Some logitech one
Keyboard GMMK w/ Zelio V2 62g (78g for spacebar) tactile switches & Glorious black keycaps| Some logitech one
VR HMD HTC Vive
Software Win 10 Edu | Ubuntu 22.04
Benchmark Scores Look in the various benchmark threads
For me, it was playing games on a windows 95 PC, and what really got me hooked was playing return to castle wolfenstein and TES IV Oblivion on a P4 machine, but it was many, many years later that I built my first PC (2014), since then I have built lots of them to make up for lost time
 
Joined
Mar 6, 2017
Messages
3,204 (1.24/day)
Location
North East Ohio, USA
System Name My Ryzen 7 7700X Super Computer
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Motherboard Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling DeepCool AK620 with Arctic Silver 5
Memory 2x16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO DDR5 EXPO (CL30)
Video Card(s) XFX AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
Storage Samsung 980 EVO 1 TB NVMe SSD (System Drive), Samsung 970 EVO 500 GB NVMe SSD (Game Drive)
Display(s) Acer Nitro XV272U (DisplayPort) and Acer Nitro XV270U (DisplayPort)
Case Lian Li LANCOOL II MESH C
Audio Device(s) On-Board Sound / Sony WH-XB910N Bluetooth Headphones
Power Supply MSI A850GF
Mouse Logitech M705
Keyboard Steelseries
Software Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/liwjs3
My first experience with computers was back when Tandy still existed and the system had an 8088. I remember putting some kind of speed up board in it and made it twice as fast. I have no idea what it was, it was years ago. That was my first system, my uncle gave it to me.

I'd get his hand-me-down systems over the years. My father then started getting new systems and he'd give me his older systems. Now it got switched up, I got a new system and he got my older system.
 

phill

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 8, 2011
Messages
15,861 (3.39/day)
Location
Somerset, UK
System Name Not so complete or overkill - There are others!! Just no room to put! :D
Processor Ryzen Threadripper 3970X
Motherboard Asus Zenith 2 Extreme Alpha
Cooling Lots!! Dual GTX 560 rads with D5 pumps for each rad. One rad for each component
Memory Viper Steel 4 x 16GB DDR4 3600MHz not sure on the timings... Probably still at 2667!! :(
Video Card(s) Asus Strix 3090 with front and rear active full cover water blocks
Storage I'm bound to forget something here - 250GB OS, 2 x 1TB NVME, 2 x 1TB SSD, 4TB SSD, 2 x 8TB HD etc...
Display(s) 3 x Dell 27" S2721DGFA @ 7680 x 1440P @ 144Hz or 165Hz - working on it!!
Case The big Thermaltake that looks like a Case Mods
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply EVGA 1600W T2
Mouse Corsair thingy
Keyboard Razer something or other....
VR HMD No headset yet
Software Windows 11 OS... Not a fan!!
Benchmark Scores I've actually never benched it!! Too busy with WCG and FAH and not gaming! :( :( Not OC'd it!! :(
First experience was when my parents decided to buy a Hewlett Packard PC (Curry's special I think) which if memory serves was a P150.. I remember being in to Amiga's and such before hand, and sadly at the issue of my poor Amiga dying (was very nicely upgraded, PPC 603+ with Bvision graphics card and all the trimmings, running Amiga OS 3.5) and just one day, tripped the power out and dead.. Couldn't get it to turn on :( I was gutted and so frustrated!!) and by the time the insurance company sorted something out it just wasn't the same.. No PPC or Bvision anymore...

But I digress..

Then it was on to PC's and as I was going through College at the time I decided that I needed something so a Cryix 150 which was about the same speed as a P120, was my first PC.. I can't remember the specs, Mb's of ram, maybe a couple of Gb hard drive, but when I upgraded I went to a K6-2 with a Voodoo 2 I believe, was way faster!!

Then I went on to a Duron 650Mhz with a Geforce 2 MX 32Mb card which I could overclock and I think it's gone rather badly ever since that date really.. Still I don't regret any of it but I'm pretty sure that my bank account and my home does.. I'm rapidly running out of space for newer hardware!! I mean that is just totally unacceptable if you ask me...
 

Space Lynx

Astronaut
Joined
Oct 17, 2014
Messages
15,800 (4.58/day)
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Kepler-186f
My Dad got hurt at a NFL game in the early 1990's, got a settlement from the NFL. He bought a first gen Pentium 3 grand CPU with part of the money, I played this game called Cheesy Pursuit on it all the time around 23 years ago... hard to remember. Then a few years later Age of Empires came out if i remember right. Good times. No regrets.

If anyone knows how to find that cheesy pursuit game btw, I'd love you forever. I can't find it for the life of me anywhere.
 
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
20,776 (5.97/day)
Location
The Washing Machine
Processor i7 8700k 4.6Ghz @ 1.24V
Motherboard AsRock Fatal1ty K6 Z370
Cooling beQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 3
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200/C16
Video Card(s) ASRock RX7900XT Phantom Gaming
Storage Samsung 850 EVO 1TB + Samsung 830 256GB + Crucial BX100 250GB + Toshiba 1TB HDD
Display(s) Gigabyte G34QWC (3440x1440)
Case Fractal Design Define R5
Audio Device(s) Harman Kardon AVR137 + 2.1
Power Supply EVGA Supernova G2 750W
Mouse XTRFY M42
Keyboard Lenovo Thinkpad Trackpoint II
Software W10 x64
My Dad got hurt at a NFL game in the early 1990's, got a settlement from the NFL. He bought a first gen Pentium 3 grand CPU with part of the money, I played this game called Cheesy Pursuit on it all the time around 23 years ago... hard to remember. Then a few years later Age of Empires came out if i remember right. Good times. No regrets.

If anyone knows how to find that cheesy pursuit game btw, I'd love you forever. I can't find it for the life of me anywhere.

Something like this, perhaps?
https://archive.org/details/24GamesForWindows95
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Messages
5,379 (1.08/day)
I was born into a family where my older brother was introduced to PCs and coding from an early age.
When i was physically able to (about age 3), i started using the PC we had back then (386). Of course i can barely remember anything.
My oldest memory is of playing a game that you punch things and then become an animal. Took me a solid 10 years to realize it was Altered Beast.

From then, what i conciser the first golden era of PC gaming began, with gigantic libraries of MSDOS games. My favorites included Jill of he jungle, Fury of the furries, and Supaplex.

I only got into hardware and PC's guts when i was about 12. Had a PC based on Pentium 3 800Mhz with an nvidia Riva TNT
Quake 3 Arena and UT were the triggers the fueled many years of spending money on hardware
 

stinger608

Dedicated TPU Cruncher & Folder
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
11,102 (1.98/day)
Location
Wyoming
System Name Dean Machine/2020 Ryzenfall
Processor Intel 4790K/AMD Ryzen 3700X
Motherboard MSI 1150 Gaming mATX/Gigabyte AORUS ELITE B550
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED/SilverStone AH240 AIO
Memory 16 gigs Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer/16 gigs G.Skill TridentZ NEO DDR4
Video Card(s) Gigabyte 1660 Super/Gigabyte GTX 1660
Storage Crucial SSD 256 and 2TB spinner/Dual Samsung 980 Pro M2 NVME 4.0
Display(s) Overlord 27" 2560 x 1440
Case Corsair Air 540
Audio Device(s) On board
Power Supply Seasonic modular 850 watt Platinum/EVGA T2-850 Titanium
Software Windows 10 Pro/Windows 10 Pro
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
1,871 (0.35/day)
Location
Heart of Eutopia!
System Name ibuytheusedstuff
Processor 5960x
Motherboard x99 sabertooth
Cooling old socket775 cooler
Memory 32 Viper
Video Card(s) 1080ti on morpheus 1
Storage raptors+ssd
Display(s) acer 120hz
Case open bench
Audio Device(s) onb
Power Supply antec 1200 moar power
Mouse mx 518
Keyboard roccat arvo
After playing Rise of the Triad it took me 4 months to get Duke Nukem 3D to work on the same machine a Vobis 486DX2-66 VL
vobisad.jpg


but after that i was hooked
 
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Joined
May 30, 2018
Messages
1,890 (0.89/day)
Location
Cusp Of Mania, FL
Processor Ryzen 9 3900X
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X370-F
Cooling Dark Rock 4, 3x Corsair ML140 front intake, 1x rear exhaust
Memory 2x8GB TridentZ RGB [3600Mhz CL16]
Video Card(s) EVGA 3060ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming
Storage 970 EVO 500GB nvme, 860 EVO 250GB SATA, Seagate Barracuda 1TB + 4TB HDDs
Display(s) 27" MSI G27C4 FHD 165hz
Case NZXT H710
Audio Device(s) Modi Multibit, Vali 2, Shortest Way 51+ - LSR 305's, Focal Clear, HD6xx, HE5xx, LCD-2 Classic
Power Supply Corsair RM650x v2
Mouse iunno whatever cheap crap logitech *clutches Xbox 360 controller security blanket*
Keyboard HyperX Alloy Pro
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores ask your mother
Our first computer in the house was a HMD Apple II... ...in maybe 1995. I was 5 years old. My dad was the maintenance guy at a church and school that was upgrading their computer lab and decided that 20 working Apple II's were worthless to them and thus simply threw them out. They had a ton of games, too. Mostly learning and more christian-friendly games, but I remember things like Alice in Wonderland, Type To Learn, Math Muncher, Oregon Trail... ...so on. You could not pull me away from that thing for an entire year. I played on that thing every night. The Sega Genesis and SNES I got in 97 is the only reason I stopped playing on it :p

In 2000, we got a crappy, bottom-level HP desktop loaded up with Win2k. We had an iomega cd burner. THIS was where it all started. I friggen loved that thing. Spent almost all of my time on it. It was slow and it crashed all on its own a lot, but I didn't care. I loved watching stuff on newgrounds, ebaums world, and albinoblacksheep. Played a lot of DOOM and ROTT via dos emulators. I got into a few forums and found that I really liked it. I remember getting caught on a lockpicking forum and having to answer some interesting questions from my parents... ...such as why an 11 year old is trying to pick locks. Truth is I just found it interesting. I used to practice on locks around the house when they weren't home. The internet was so awesome to me in that way. I felt like, "Man, you can learn about anything on this thing!" So I spent a lot of time just learning and researching things... ...just sort of answering questions that would pop into my head. As a child, I was always super-interested in figuring out how things around me worked. The internet fed that in a really big way.

As a young child, people would look at me astounded at what I knew and the things I would do for fun... always saying "How did you learn that?!" I was always building things, fixing things, reverse-engineering things, describing how things they probably thought of as "forbidden techno magic" worked. They must've though I was some sort of prodigal genius. To be fair I was an intelligent kid, but I don't think it was anything built into me that facilitated my knowledge. I was generally average. I just found a great tool and learned to put it to good use. I had the library of Algernon at my fingertips and I knew it. I spent a lot of my middle childhood alone, teaching myself things and taking in new information. I would say it was a major formative component to being the person I am today. It cued me into the fact that you don't have to be a genius to do what you want to do and do it well. Very little is beyond the average person in this golden age of information. Because of those experiences picking new things up, I have a very wide/deep range of knowledge and skills, which is what most people around me know me for - most of it things a lot of people would look at themselves and say "I'll never be able to learn that." And it's all thanks to the internet and that old computer. The internet instilled in me the love for learning and problem solving that defines me to this day.

In 2001-2002, Neopets got me into web coding and graphic design (which I did a ton of.) I figured out how to pirate photoshop and took off with it. I found a few small communities to share my work with and got sucked in. I ran several stupid fansites and portfolios that I built from the ground up on like, angelfire and shit like that lol. I remember being frustrated with the lack of control. I was almost spending more time trying to bypass their stupid scripts to get what should've been basic code to work like it did in my local browser. I eventually found a host that gave me full control on the backend. I set up and ran a phpbb forum for friends to have our little secret club where we would do things that would definitely get us in trouble at home :p That stuff ended up being a big part of me. I considered doing signage and websites as a career at one point. The only thing that stopped me was the overwhelming number of other things I wanted to do at the time.

I also pirated a lot of porn and music, which me and friends would barter disks of, much like people used to do with tapes. I ripped through CD-R's much to my parents' dismay. Sometimes I burned stuff I didn't need to just because the idea of it was really cool to me :p

With songs people wanted that I couldn't find, I learned I could rip them off of the radio by feeding the headphone out to the computer's line in. I recorded and chopped them up with audacity. Not the best quality, but friends bought it. I also learned that our monitor had a built-in mic. I remember using that to do mock-up radio broadcasts with friends back in 6th grade. We would play the songs through winamp, with audacity taking the output from that and the mic simultaneously. I must've used splitters to make it happen. Good times.

Admittedly, I ran the thing into the ground. Between all of the viruses from sketchy sites and bad practices, all of the "tweaks" I would make, and constantly topping off the hard drive...


My parents finally got wise and let me get a computer of my own in late 2003. They let me configure my own dell on their website. I remember spending a lot of time deliberating over components... ...just trying to figure out which ones would give me what I wanted within the budget I had. I'd say this is when it all started. This one had WinXP and much better stuff inside. I really liked that computer. This is when I officially started crossing into the realm of becoming a power user. I taught myself the operating system in and out, learned to get it doing everything I wanted optimally, started running backups, keeping it virus free, customizing... ...I sought to master it. I took apart and reassembled that computer countless times. I found myself completely enamored with all of the components inside. I would often open it up and just look at it... ...just kind of tracing the logic behind it and marveling at how it all comes together to do what it does.

I started researching individual parts and learning about how they all contribute to a working system. Everything from how they're made, to what they're made of, to how they work. I made several upgrades to that box. I added ram, as well as a discreet GPU and one of those swanky Soundblaster 5.1 cards. I went back and did a fresh install of XP on my parents old computer. It wasn't enough to save it - the hardware just wasn't good anymore, so I helped them pick out a new one. They completely ignored my advice and bought the cheapest eMachines rig at walmart <_< I never let them live it down. Every time there were problems or it just couldn't handle what they were trying to do I made sure to remind them that they made a mistake buying that thing.

In 2005, I would be forced to learn a lot more. 2 years prior, I picked up the guitar and found my true calling. I was getting decent at it and looking for outlets. I found it in the form of a crappy distortion pedal with a DI out. One day, I realized that I could plug that into the computer to record my playing. After some research, I found my way to fruity loops and cool edit pro. The very first time I layered different passages and threw a drum track over it, it was like a whole new world opened up to me and it quickly consumed all of my time. I thought "Shit I can really do this! I can make songs!"

And that's just what I did. I still have some of the better ones, which I would say are pretty impressive for a highschool freshman with no clue what they were doing :p It really changed the way I thought about music. I found myself seeking out and listening to all sorts of music. And things I struggled to grasp with theory and composition very quickly started making sense as I went along.

But I was hitting a wall. I was getting into VST amp/drum emulation. The latency was unacceptable. Not to mention my rig really couldn't handle loading a ton of tracks/vsts. I couldn't do the things I wanted to do. I would need a new computer.

Shopping pre-builts was depressing. They were SO expensive! This would lead me to build my first computer. I can't remember much. It was a dual-core AMD Athlon with 2 gigs of DDR2, running 32-bit XP. I also got a dedicated DI box to plug into the old Soundblaster card from my old computer. This did the job and allowed me to take my recordings further. Later on I would get a Line 6 pod farm to take the load off. Between working on graphics and recording, I became more deeply interested in OS'es. I felt I had tapped the limit of XP and frankly, wasn't happy with its performance or stability. So I looked to linux. I used the HD from my old build as a test drive. I must've tried a couple dozen distros before settling on Ubuntu. This was a game-changer. It was so fast and stable compared to XP. Everything just seemed to work and I could make it do anything I wanted to with a little time and care. I found the console to be a more superior and intuitive way to get things done. Never looked back.

In 2009, I started making a lot of money working 2 jobs and started getting the itch. I did another build based around a Phenom X3 with 4gb of ram. This one had an acrylic side panel with a bunch of red led's inside. This is when I really got into overclocking. I unlocked the 4th core and spent probably months messing with my OC on that thing. I loved it. I ran a dual-boot ubuntu/xp64 config, which I had painstakingly tuned and streamlined to my liking. Everything was done with purpose and care. I suffered a PSU failure and a couple of HDD failures, both due to bad choices on my part, but otherwise I think I did well for myself.

I started wanting to test my abilities, so I started doing builds for friends, family, acquaintances, and coworkers. I have never had one complaint from any of them and in fact, some of them are still running these builds! How they stand it these days, I dunno. Casual users continue to mystify me. Over the years I have taught them how to be better operators and clearly it has paid off. It felt really good to be doing things like that. I looked back on how much I had managed to teach myself and took great pride in it. Best feeling in the world when you take a skillset you have picked up on your own and use it to accomplish things that benefit you and especially others.

At some point in 2011 I sort of trailed off. I was 21 and off on my own, just exploring other areas of life. Between working, partying, a couple of failed relationships, tragic happenings, and the insane multitude of hobbies and art forms I picked up, I just didn't have the luxury of time, money, or fortitude to keep going. The build I did ran very well and suited my needs fine. Maybe you couldn't game on it but that's what I had consoles for. I made a few slight upgrades to keep it going here and there but otherwise it was totally off of my radar. I had my music, high-end audio, vaping (I was building box mods and exploring coil dynamics in detail,) woodworking, hiking, mountain biking, photography... ...the list goes on. Hard to do that, have a life, and find the time to tinker with PCs. :/


Fast forward to 2018. At age 27, I am calming down and realizing that my time is the most valuable asset I have. My life is more streamlined and I have begun to come into my stride as a person. I've had the requisite ups and downs for learning what is really important. I set goals and I hit them. I barely have a social life and I like it that way. I work a steady 9-5 and moonlight as a handyman doing simple home repairs and water heater installs. I am now single and not looking. I left my sweet "old faithful" build from 2009 with my ex. My focus is on learning as much as I can and building a skillset that is beneficial and enriching to my life and endeavors. I realized that I had a really good thing going with PC building, and that I've always missed it. My living situation is the most stable it has ever been and I actually have spending money... ...and time to do good things with it. Couldn't think of a better time for me to get into PC building.

I did my first build in over a half-decade at the start of this year. I found myself astounded by how far things have come... ...just what you can do with the basest level components is amazing to me. RAM prices and GPU prices notwithstanding, I really liked what I was seeing. I love how cases look and the features they have. Some of this stuff I really wish I had back in the day. RGB is pretty cool in small doses. I did a modest build in a sexy black S340 Elite case. Based it around the Ryzen family with an Asus ROG Strix B350 mobo. 8gigs of ram and a GTX 1050 for when I wanna game a little. Got a Samsung 860 evo as a system drive. SSD's are insanely awesome to me. So snappy. I went with Win10 because I felt like it would actually be a little more challenging for me. Coming from Ubuntu for years, Windows 10 throws me through a loop sometimes, but I like it much better than any of the older iterations and little by little things are coming back to me. Getting up to speed on components was a pretty big endeavor... ...almost like learning everything all over again, but I'm pretty much there now and I've found it all to be really fascinating. The future is amazing. What else can I say?

It isn't much, but I love this build. I love just looking at it, I love the way it runs, and I love that built it. I can't wait to make more upgrades to it. I can't wait to do more builds. I've done 3 this year. 2 for me and one for somebody else. PC's, consumer electronics, and music are really all I care about these days.

Where I go from here, I dunno, but it's good to be back!
 
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Joined
Aug 5, 2007
Messages
2,320 (0.38/day)
Location
Australia
System Name All Ryze
Processor Ryzen 7 1700
Motherboard MSI X370 Pro Carbon
Cooling Air
Memory G-skill Flare x 16GB 2400MHz
Video Card(s) MSI 1080
Storage Intel 600p NVMe 512GB for OS , 1TB WD Black and a 4TB Toshiba
Display(s) BENQ PD3200U
Case Phanteks
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Corsair 750W
Mouse Logitech G403 wired
Keyboard G19
Software Win 10 Pro
The good old C64 with action replay got me hooked , but after that I did not get another PC until I built my first new socket A system.
 
Joined
Apr 8, 2010
Messages
991 (0.19/day)
Processor Intel Core i5 8400
Motherboard Gigabyte Z370N-Wifi
Cooling Silverstone AR05
Memory Micron Crucial 16GB DDR4-2400
Video Card(s) Gigabyte GTX1080 G1 Gaming 8G
Storage Micron Crucial MX300 275GB
Display(s) Dell U2415
Case Silverstone RVZ02B
Power Supply Silverstone SSR-SX550
Keyboard Ducky One Red Switch
Software Windows 10 Pro 1909
It was in highschool when I wanted to play a game called flyff. We had a computer with a VIA chipset which couldn't really handle any 3D. I started to look up on graphics cards and read all about PCs. I didn't end up upgrading that computer though. When I started university I built my first computer with 9600GT.
 
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
5,196 (0.96/day)
System Name Dust Collector
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
Motherboard Asus B550I Aorus Pro WiFi AX
Cooling Alpenfohn Black Ridge V2 w/ Noctua NF-A9x14
Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3200MHz/CL16
Video Card(s) Power Color Red Dragon RX 5700 XT
Storage Samsung EVO+ 500GB NVMe
Display(s) Dell S2721DGF
Case Dan Case A4
Power Supply Corsair SF600 Platinum
Mouse Logitech G603
Keyboard Logitech G613
I was an insolent teenage fuckup with a lot of time on my hands, and after dropping out of high school I needed a hobby to occupy myself with. It's hard to imagine how much has changed since I made this account back in 2009. I was 16 and now I'm closer to 30 than 20. Thankfully there's very little I can complain about now given where I've been, where I am, and where I'm headed.
 
Joined
May 30, 2018
Messages
1,890 (0.89/day)
Location
Cusp Of Mania, FL
Processor Ryzen 9 3900X
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X370-F
Cooling Dark Rock 4, 3x Corsair ML140 front intake, 1x rear exhaust
Memory 2x8GB TridentZ RGB [3600Mhz CL16]
Video Card(s) EVGA 3060ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming
Storage 970 EVO 500GB nvme, 860 EVO 250GB SATA, Seagate Barracuda 1TB + 4TB HDDs
Display(s) 27" MSI G27C4 FHD 165hz
Case NZXT H710
Audio Device(s) Modi Multibit, Vali 2, Shortest Way 51+ - LSR 305's, Focal Clear, HD6xx, HE5xx, LCD-2 Classic
Power Supply Corsair RM650x v2
Mouse iunno whatever cheap crap logitech *clutches Xbox 360 controller security blanket*
Keyboard HyperX Alloy Pro
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores ask your mother
I was an insolent teenage fuckup with a lot of time on my hands, and after dropping out of high school I needed a hobby to occupy myself with. It's hard to imagine how much has changed since I made this account back in 2009. I was 16 and now I'm closer to 30 than 20. Thankfully there's very little I can complain about now given where I've been, where I am, and where I'm headed.
Good vibes man! I feel that so much.

Honestly... kinda looking forward to 30. If you've played your cards right, you still have the vigor and ambition of youthfulness at hand. Your body is fully developed and probably as capable as it'll ever be. Your mind is still fresh and hungry, but now it actually houses some wisdom (hopefully.) The only difference between 20 and 30 is that at 30, you've likely acquired the requisite tools for really making something of it all.

Things like values, self awareness/love/honesty, priorities, potential, convictions... ...all of these little things you take for granted when you're just a kid just sort of jump out at you as an adult. You realize how little you will ever know about anything. As a kid, the idea of limitations and the disappointment of the real world can crush you. But in that way it starts making sense and it makes you a better person. You are less limited by what you don't know and things you can't do. Humility is a powerful tool. A man recognizes his own existence without need for proof and does more with less. There's this new concept you can leverage... known as "personal assets." I.E.: Shit you've earned that makes you, you. Ya aren't just born with the privilege of doing things the easier way.

For me, looking back on 16-23, it's like a switch flipped one day and I just sort of... became a person. I felt myself drop into my skin, like everything before that point didn't even count. My process was "Oh, I'm just a person trying to grow and be happy. Just like everyone around me. Okay, so what do I do now? Ah, I see... that's not so hard. Alright so if I just... ...YES"

You start realizing you're becoming the person you're going to be forever and crystallize in a dramatic cascade. You recognize that the choices you make define who you are. Suddenly that starts to really matter to you more than the things that happen to you. Life's not a game anymore. And yet it's not as scary as you thought. New and difficult experiences are miraculously easier to integrate. More meaningful in a more practical way. It all just makes sense in time. And you know that it will before it does. You learn to take comfort in the idea that things needed to happen and then ask yourself why that is true. The answer is always a new insight into your own happiness. Every major life experience is but a single star in a whole sky of constellations. It's not so bad after all.

That ability is something you gotta earn as you go through life... something that arises from the necessity of meaning that comes along as one emerges from the childhood bombardment of so many chaotic THINGS and just... STUFF, man. You have to suffer that meaninglessness. It's what makes you able to see and react to things like an adult. Most people in their late teens and early 20s don't know how to appreciate the mindset quite yet. The serenity of adulthood is hard to place. I recognized it in people as a kid, but it was such an alien thing to watch how adults handled themselves. Just completely mystifying. Kids don't have that sense of "Hey, you're fucking shit up for yourself right now. Stop and check your stupid emotions."

"You have your whole life ahead of you." Real adults tell you that all of the time when you're a young adult. But let's be honest, nobody has any concept of what that means when they first hear it. When you finally get it, everything changes and you just sort of look back in awe at your choices. Humans are dumb for (at least) a quarter of their lives - one has to go from one place to another a few hundreds of times before it clicks. And even after that, we're still pretty dumb. It's just a more advanced and nuanced bumbling.

I remember the disdain for my elders' tendency for pet affection. It was if they thought "Oh look at you... ... so precious. You're not even a real person yet!" Now, they tend to call me "sir" and treat me as an equal. Still not used to that. Funny thing is, I swear my face hasn't aged a day since 20. When you're at a certain point in life, it's almost like people can sense it and respect you more. I knew something was changing when I started looking at people maybe only 5 years younger than me and realizing how much further they had to go before we would be able to really connect... ...like "Wooooww, they don't even realize it yet! They have NO idea what they're in for..." And you want to tell them... ...but you know you can't. The mindset has become too alien to you. It's not that I look down on them. It's just... there's a distinct simplicity to it that's really obvious when you're seeing it from the other side.

To me it's a real high point - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Late 20s - early 30s is a great place to be. Probably the most important years of a person's life. You can really make a lot of it if you're on the ball.

I dunno... ...for me the steep climb in awareness approaching 30 is pretty incredible. And to think I used to fear reaching, let alone coming out of my early 20s. Now, I'm just glad I made it. It's crazy difficult, but it doesn't really feel that way and it's so much more meaningful. Being a person is weird. I'm weird. Everything's weird. It only gets weirder man, trust me. Nobody really knows what's going on.

Life is fuckin long. Long as hell. Still feels like it just started over here.

Sorry for the platitudinous ramble. Just struck a chord.
 
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When Sony announced PS+ would be mandatory for PS4 multiplayer I decided there was no way I was going to pay for my gaming machine to have access to the internet that I already pay for...cheaper games, better game selection, emulation, mods, hardware upgrades, PC lifespan and warranties, superior controls, multi-functionality and I like to tinker.

Edit: This is actually my 2nd PC that I own. My 1st PC I ended up selling it was an i5-4670K, I believe a Sapphire 7870 ( wanted an XT but they were never in stock). Then a few months later I got my current machine.
 
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dorsetknob

"YOUR RMA REQUEST IS CON-REFUSED"
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Dorset where else eh? >>> Thats ENGLAND<<<
lots of myths /rumours and lies about CP/M and DOS Some Say MS Breached Copyright and Stole Code for DOS
But Bill admits to Adapting and Rewriting CP/M that's Plagiarism and not Copyright Theft
 
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What got me into PC was and always be gaming. I started playing the likes of Doom at early 1995 but I never have any PC until late 90's. It was a modest Pentium non MMX 166MHz with S3 Trio 64V+ card given by my dad. It could run the OG Command and Conquer Red Alert very well and this is the game that got me hooked to PC gaming.

When Red Alert 2 comes out it is obvious my PC wasn't enough and my dad bought Dell Optiplex GX100 with Celeron 600MHz (66MHz FSB) with 64MB SDRAM and Intel i810 graphics (with dedicated VRAM to boot!). It could handle Red Alert 2 well. I played RA2 so much that even if I played it right now I still remember each of the stage 'loopholes' to finish the level quickly.

Later when 3D game emerges like Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Medal of Honor Allied Assault my poor old Dell gives all sorts of problems. The supplied Dell driver is outdated and gives OpenGL problem when trying to run both this game thus I need to look for updated driver via slow 56k dialup. Even so the Intel driver were so terrible it either gives missing textures or it will run with white textures if not crash to desktop.

I started reading what made 3D games tick and makes me read about graphics card and AGP slot with OpenGL and DirecX requirements. I was disappointed after I looked inside the Dell I can't find any AGP slot but still I look for PCI card and find Inno3D Riva TNT2 M64 card. That was my very first add in 3D card. I can at least run the game better and see where am I going with it but performance was very limited since it only have 66MHz FSB with 66MHz RAM speed plus the PCI bus wasn't helping either.

The next upgrade was a weird Elitegroup K7SEM 3.0c. It comes with 'integrated' (soldered to motherboard) Duron 1200+. Its weird because Duron don't have the PR rating moniker like Athlon did. The 1200+ was really only 800MHz Duron (if my memory serves me well) and it have the holy grail AGP slot! The first card I used is GeForce4 MX-440. It was a decent card but as DirectX 8 emerges it lacks the hardware vertex and pixel shader. My very first DirectX 8 card was Powercolor Evil Commando Radeon 9000 64MB. The VERY first thing I do after installing driver is run 3DMark2001SE Nature Test. It was a breathtaking scene seeing pixel shader for the first time. I run it occasionally because it looks amazing.

Those are some of my early days using PC. I still have my Pentium system the Dell is dead and corroded heavily after house renovation but I can't remember what happen to the ECS K7SEM. Kinda miss that weird board. I think its been thrown off with other old junk. Could've used it for retro Windows 98 gaming PC if its still around.
 
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As a child I grew up with an Amiga A1200 in the house, my dad essentially dedicated a room to it and the masses upon masses of floppies he gathered. I loved it and that was my introduction to games and hardware, since it was always having some sort of issue.

I played the DOOM shareware release with my sister and never forgot it, I wasn't old enough or clever enough to get my own setup at this point. Until the day my older brother (by 20 years) came to stay with us, he brought his PC, unfortunately I don't remember the spec but he set it up and started playing Half Life. It was at this point he got a seriously eager kid chomping at his ankles to get a go, he let me play for a bit. Then for months after all I could think about was working out how to get my own system with cool games and imagining all the other cool stuff I could do.

So eventually I convinced a parent to let me take loan of the home PC, of course it was a terrible old beast. Pennies were saved, components were bought, errors were made, lessons were learned and eventually the games were played, the child was happy and now the child is here.
 
D

Deleted member 178884

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A windows me and xp desktop - Loved the cinematic games at like 10fps
 
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Technically, I didn't start with PCs... but a Vic-20 that my brother got in the early 80s. And just being fascinated through the 80s with friends who had Amigas and other Commodores. My family didn't get a proper PC until 1994, when I was already in my late teens.. a 486. But I must've spent day and night with that thing. Learning about PCs was the result of just breaking things.. and being desperate enough to get things up and running. Then by 95 or 96, I discovered Linux and messed around with alternative OSes. Afterwards, I switched back and forth owning Macs and Pcs through the years. I still think Mac OS X is the greatest OS ever... just not Apple's hardware unfortunately. Software wise, they accomplished the dream of a Desktop Unix before anyone.. and really, are still the only ones who do it right.
 
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