What's your happiest/saddest computer/IT related memories?

[Sithaer]

Happiest Hardware I guess when I finally built my first own PC after I graduated high school in 2008. 'I think?'
Before that we used to share the same PC with my bro and it sucked.

At the time it was a decent system with a 8800 GT and a AMD A64 6400+, it was a huge upgrade from what I 'we' had before and it could play anything I threw at it which was a nice change.
Used that system for nearly 2 and half years until the card hit the bucket, after that I slowly upgraded parts.

Saddest Hardware might be the single fan Palit GTX 560 Ti I bought after selling my GTS 450.
It was completely unnecessary but the upgrade itch/lack of experience got the worst of me so I went for it.
That thing was a disaster, had to limit my FPS to 40-45 in every game else it overheated and it was so loud that I could hear it while wearing a headset and playing Serious Sam 'not a quiet game'.

It died on me in ~1 year and since it had no warranty it was good as a paper weight only, learned my lesson regarding multiple things like not to cheap out on cooler design/models and not to buy a GPU when all I'm gonna do is play the same games that run just fine on what I already have. 'This I'm still struggling with, not to upgrade when I don't need it'
That and never buy anything w/o at least 1-2 year retail warranty left just to be sure.

Gaming wise I can't really pick, had many great moments and some not so good ones since I used to play MMOs and other online games for a long time and bunch of stuff happened in those games.
But I guess I had a lot of fun back in my Diablo 2 days with some friends I made there on Battle net, just doing all kinda crap while voice chatting on Ventrilo. 'yeah not even TS at the time'
Some of those friends I'm still in contact with and talk every now and then and it was the game where I started picking up English on my own.

Nowadays its almost only singleplayer for me so its all good/chill. 'Too many backlog games actually, I will never finish them even tho I have time for now'

 

[TheChester]

This could be anything, a piece of hardware, a game, an application, etc. etc. etc.

Speaking of me, the memorable things:

• Games: HoMM 3, Crysis, Deus Ex Mankind Divided
• Computer purchases: my first full size stereo speakers, Google Nexus 5, an HRR monitor - the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz is staggering
• Applications and such: Windows XP (I loved it immensely) - I still consider it the best Windows release ever

The sad things:

• Windows 8/10
• VR - I was absolutely disappointed, had very high hopes, turned out to be a dud

What about you?

There's nothing wrong with Windows 10 my guy. You just gotta "DeMicrosoft" it. Clean install. No internet. Local account. Boot to desktop. Still no internet. Nother PC. GoogleFu ExecTi. USB drive. Fresh PC. ExecTi. Regedit. Edit HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WdNisSvc,WinDefend, Sense, UsoSvc,wuauserv, WaaSMedicSvc. Change Start Dword to 4. Settings. Notifications/Off. Multasking-ShowBlahTimeline/Off. Personalization/Colors/Transparency-Off. Lock Screen/Get fun facts-Off. Start/Show Suggestions-Off. Gaming/Everything Off. Privacy/Background Apps-Off. Reboot. Connect Internet. Chipset/Display drivers from Manufacture(AMD/Intel), Rest from MB maker. Reboot. Login. Windows key+ R. Enter SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe. Adjust for Best Performance. Check bottom 5 boxes. Ok. Ctrl,Shift,Escape. More Details. Performance tab. Cpu. Look at the Utilization. Bet it's 1%. Look at the processes. Bet it's about 100-125. Memory. In use. bet it's under 2gb. In the future. Any and I mean any program you install. Disable anything that wants to open on startup. Enjoy you're blazing fast no DeSoft Windows.

On a serious note. These are some of the things I do. Windows Update causes more issues than it fixes. Keep tabs on the updates. Do the big ones and repeat the process. Find a tool Heidoc Downloader. Genuine ISO fetcher. Antimalware/Defender/Sense. Its more telemetry than it protects you. Really good firewall, file/attachment/download practices are way better than any antivirus/malware software. They just eat system resources. Antimalware Service eats about 10% cpu. Prevents true idle sleep. My 5800x sits at 0.6mv sitting at the desktop not moving the mouse. If I leave razer synapse 3 running. even if it's minimized my idle voltage won't drop below 1.0v. Background processes suck. Also. ExecTi. Looks simple. It's about the most dangerous programs I've come across. Have you ever had to go through the process of changing ownership and permissions of a file owned by Trusted Installer or System. It's a pain. ExecTi is basically the windows Run bar. Execept what ever you open with it opens as Trusted Installer. You wanna eff ship up. That's the little devil ExecTi can do. Also. Since we didn't delete anything. If you want to run updates, when you want to and on you're time. Just open up Regedit with ExecTi. Change the Start Dword in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsoSvc,Wuauserv, and WaasMedicSvc back to 2. Reboot and Windows Update will work just fine. Change the start back to 4 after updating. I am crazy about keeping a clean, tight system. My running procceses after a clean boot are about 55. My cpu utilization sits at 0%. Everything that's in the task scheduler is for telemetetry purposes. I disable everything there. Install you're games, files/downloads to a 2nd drive. This way you don't have redownload anything. You don't think twice about reinstall windows. I've reinstalled windows thousands of times. Never done a system restore/image/backup, lost files. It's not worth it. Performance wise....in Modern Warfare 2019 - ultra textures, 1440p, 100% render resolution. My fps is higher than my 240hz monitor and by more frames than consoles get, I had one kid get pissed at me cause I was getting higher fps and resolution than his 3090.

Anyways....sorry for the rant....sorry if it's not a detailed walkthrough.

Back to the topic at hand. Memorable things....

Diablo 2
Dial Up...that 56k baby!
Aol 5.0
Building my first PC in high school....AMD K6-2.
Lost touch with PC's when the consoles started.
Lost touch with gaming for the past decade, work/life/20's/fiance.
Being able to finally build a PC without ebay, 2nd hand, refurbished, 2nd generation/ obsolete.

My build now is
5800x with a TechN AM4 water block
6900XT Reference with a EK Classic waterblock.
Asus Crosshair VIII Formula
Lian Li PCo-11 Dynamic XL Glass panels on the front, and both sides.
Alphacool XT45 400mm Radiator. Dual 200mm Thermaltake Riing trio 20 fans. Yeah it's a beast. The rad's mounted to the bottom case panel. Had to cut the whole bottom of the motherboard tray.
Gigabyte Fi27Q-X 240hz 1440P monitor.
Logitech G915 TKL
Razer Viper Ultimate 8000hz
HyperX Quadcast S Mic
Schitt Magni Hersey
Dt990 Pros.

 

[xrobwx71]

Happiest: My first true build. If I remember correctly it featured an Intel Pentium II 350Mghz. A Voodoo vid card, A Deskstar HDD. Win 98

Saddest: Finding out Battlefield 2024 doesn't have a single-player campaign.

 

[Liquid Cool]

Happiest Hardware: Looking down at my newly built(from parts I ordered through Computer Shopper) 486 DXII-66. The very large case had a door on the front from top to bottom and wheels...I loved that thing.

Happiest Software: Watching the first program I wrote in Basic light up my CRT.

Saddest Moment: I was sitting at my desk after having moved my new NForce2 build to a newer case with a supposedly "better" power supply. Everyone knew back in the 2004-5 that Ultra power supplies looked pretty cool, but were iffy at best and at the time of original build that was all I could afford. So, when I got a chance to upgrade...I did. I saw the latest Enermax offering on sale at Newegg and nabbed one for myself...they were very popular at the time.

So...as I was sitting there at my desk...POP! POP! POP! The noise sounded like a .22 handgun going off and I was just about to duck myself under my desk when I saw sparks coming out of the back of my pc and running six feet up the wall. It was quite the show....

Where's the sad part? It took my new A-Bit NF7-S motherboard with it.

Best Regards,

Liquid Cool

 

[nnfrancois]

happiest memory? getting my first pc built 5 years ago
saddest? when my rx 570 sillicon blew up while playing star citizen.

 

[Rithsom]

So...as I was sitting there at my desk...POP! POP! POP! The noise sounded like a .22 handgun going off and I was just about to duck myself under my desk when I saw sparks coming out of the back of my pc and running six feet up the wall. It was quite the show....

That actually happened?! Hilarious!

 

[GerKNG]

Best:
Playing World of Warcraft for the first time on my First PC back in 2005 (12.2.2005 was the EU release) and i was 10 years old at the time (just got my first own PC a few weeks earlier)

Worst:
purchasing a Corsair PSU, just to have it explode a month later and killing my Mainboard, CPU and GPU. only the Storage was alive.

 

[Liquid Cool]

That actually happened?! Hilarious!

I can chuckle about it now, but I assure you....at the time, I wasn't laughing. I was hitting the deck... .

Best,

Liquid Cool

 

[64K]

Back when the jonnyguru site was still up they were testing a cheap PSU and it exploded when it was pushed to it's rated wattage. Quite a fireworks show. I'm always wary when someone is asked what PSU they have when they are asking for advice here on a GPU purchase and they simply answer with the wattage printed on the PSU. There is so much more to it than just the wattage.

 

[defaultluser]

My happiest moment: Getting my first modern W95 gaming PC

My saddest moment: realizing I could have built my first Pentium PC for half the cost

Happy moment, Revisited: I upgraded that computer to a Celeron 300a + BH6 plus 64Gb plus closeout Riva TNT fur under $500!

Happy moment, Revisited again I added a MSI Slotkit to upgrade that same computer to a 533A at 800!

That 800 mhz final setup lasted me all four years of college,.

 

[scoutingwraith]

Diablo 2, StarCraft

and of course

Heroes of might and Magic III which i still play to this day lol

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Happiest VR racing. ..

Most sad?! Playing rise of the robots and realising it's photo real graphics We're not going to polish that turd.

 

[Tomgang]

The best part of my pc memory, is litterly what's happening right now. I am building my dream pc. What can be any better than that.

See my project here ongoing. For those interested.

Tomgang´s project 2 systems in 1 case. All air cooled.

I was asked to make a build log for my new project 2 systems in 1 case. You can see all parts that goes in to this build in the link: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/the-show-off-your-tech-related-purchase-thread.225885/post-4537865 The first image of the mini-itx system up and...

www.techpowerup.com

The saddest part of my pc memory is also related to my new build. Just as so many other people, I can't get the dam gpu I want. Asus strix Rtx 3080 ti cause of the pricing and availability

Else the saddent part must be i have to give up on keeping my beloved X58 system do to economic situation. I got scammed a few weeks ago and my economy needs to recover from that by selling out on things I can sell.

 

[BlackSun59]

The saddest thing was realizing that I'd lost a 20GB VeraCrypt hidden volume's contents by accidentally writing to the outer volume. No recovery possible. I still get angry at my own forgetfulness when I recall this slipup.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Probably having enough cash from my first proper job to build my own computer. My parents were super strict about how we used the computer and the internet at home, basically i wasnt allowed to touch the computer or go on the internet unless it was homework related.

By the time a great majority of house were rolling with 512k DSL internet speeds, I was still on 56K dial up with 'limited access'. CPU wise I was rocking a PIII 500mhz with 128mb of ram and a Nvidia Riva TNT2 32MB GPu well into 2001 or 2003 while most folks were with their Athlon XPs or 3ghz Pentium 4s with Geforce 4 cards. I just couldnt keep up.

crap pc, no internet access. what did i do?? Played the hell against bots on UT99 whenever i was allowed extra time to do 'homework'

I asked my dad for a new PC cuz i didnt have a job as i was studying back then but he always said 'we shall see' and i was absolutely smashing chores for 3 years non stop trying to earn it and i got fucking mad in the end and totally gave up because he always gave me the same answer. Finished my studies. got a job and worked my butt off to buy my own machine...

By the time i got around to buying my own machine AMD had more or less just released the K8 architecture and was absolutely dominating the gaming scene so thats where i headed...

AMD 939 3200+
MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum
1GB DDR
ATi 9600SE
NZXT Guardian case.

Around the time i purchased and built my first PC, dad decided to get broadband so we had 1mb between us. What an absolute gentleman.

Picked up the first call of duty game in a bargain bucket for £5 and that turned out to be one of the best games i had ever played in my entire life, both online and offline and for a long time I was just playing the shit out of the United Offensive expansion pack then later joined Battlefield 2 when that came out.


absolute *Chefs Kiss*

 

[LFaWolf]

Probably having enough cash from my first proper job to build my own computer. My parents were super strict about how we used the computer and the internet at home, basically i wasnt allowed to touch the computer or go on the internet unless it was homework related.

By the time a great majority of house were rolling with 512k DSL internet speeds, I was still on 56K dial up with 'limited access'. CPU wise I was rocking a PIII 500mhz with 128mb of ram and a Nvidia Riva TNT2 32MB GPu well into 2001 or 2003 while most folks were with their Athlon XPs or 3ghz Pentium 4s with Geforce 4 cards. I just couldnt keep up.

crap pc, no internet access. what did i do?? Played the hell against bots on UT99 whenever i was allowed extra time to do 'homework'

I asked my dad for a new PC cuz i didnt have a job as i was studying back then but he always said 'we shall see' and i was absolutely smashing chores for 3 years non stop trying to earn it and i got fucking mad in the end and totally gave up because he always gave me the same answer. Finished my studies. got a job and worked my butt off to buy my own machine...

By the time i got around to buying my own machine AMD had more or less just released the K8 architecture and was absolutely dominating the gaming scene so thats where i headed...

AMD 939 3200+
MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum
1GB DDR
ATi 9600SE
NZXT Guardian case.

Around the time i purchased and built my first PC, dad decided to get broadband so we had 1mb between us. What an absolute gentleman.

Picked up the first call of duty game in a bargain bucket for £5 and that turned out to be one of the best games i had ever played in my entire life, both online and offline and for a long time I was just playing the shit out of the United Offensive expansion pack then later joined Battlefield 2 when that came out.


absolute *Chefs Kiss*

Your dad is a good man. If you didn't work hard to earn it, you will never appreciate it, and it won't be your happy memory either. This Father's Day, thank him for teaching you right.

 

[The red spirit]

Your dad is a good man. If you didn't work hard to earn it, you will never appreciate it, and it won't be your happy memory either. This Father's Day, thank him for teaching you right.

That didn't sound like that to me at all. It seems like his father promised to buy some machine if he studied well and he did, but his father didn't do anything in return.

 

[LFaWolf]

That didn't sound like that to me at all. It seems like his father promised to buy some machine if he studied well and he did, but his father didn't do anything in return.

He never promised him anything. Read the passage again.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That didn't sound like that to me at all. It seems like his father promised to buy some machine if he studied well and he did, but his father didn't do anything in return.

Not really, It was more a thing where if i helped out tonnes around the house that i would be able to "work" for it. things like doing the dishes and house keeping etc etc. I was the house maid for 3 years pretty much.

And i did get pretty mad about it too. Im the kind of person that needs to know that what i am working towards is achievable otherwise its just me running towards a light at the end of the tunnel and never reaching the end of the tunnel.

If you say to me "we shall see" I dont like it but im still willing to give it ago but if im doing so much stuff and youre still making me wait and i dont know if its ever going to happen then It will annoy the hell out of me.

Its was like he could move the goal posts whenever he wanted. If he said i didnt do enough, I had no choice but to nod my head and agree.