Your PC upgrade history.

I have to ask, was / is there any particular reason why you ended up going the Mac route?

Yes. Windows Vista!

Before owning my first Mac I bad mouthed them just like 95% of other techs. After owning one I now have a better understanding of their appeal. I had to remove myself from the Windows world for a little while in order to have an appreciation of the other technology that is out there.

That being said, my next system will most likely be another custom build, dual booting Windows 7 and Linux Mint.
 
You could well be right there mate. I can only remember buying a computer, which initially had 16Mb ram, and I could upgrade it to 64Mb for £50. I did. I can't remember if it was the 386 or not. It could of been a P2, 350Mhz.. Talking years ago now lol

Would have been the P2 350 :). Not sure if you were building PCs back then but when I was in my teens I would often buy 1980's systems for about £30 and then rebuild them.

It is actually possible to have 64MB on a 386 but it would be so expensive it would have been far cheaper to buy a Pentium or late 486 system which used the cheaper 72-pin SIMMS.

I really used to love building 386 and 486 systems, you would spent an hour just setting the jumpers on the ISA I/IO card.

My current motherboard only takes upto 2GB for some reason and that will be my reason for upgrading next ;) Will probably get a nice AMD Quad Core system.
 
Yes. Windows Vista!

Before owning my first Mac I bad mouthed them just like 95% of other techs. After owning one I now have a better understanding of their appeal. I had to remove myself from the Windows world for a little while in order to have an appreciation of the other technology that is out there.

That being said, my next system will most likely be another custom build, dual booting Windows 7 and Linux Mint.

Thanks for that. I was just curious as to why the jump. I have never worked on a apple pc, so do not know what it even looks like lol.
 
OMG I forgot to mention that my first very own computer was a Commodore C64. My mother told me that I could to my homework on it.. Told her that she was a crazy woman for saying such evil things..lol... I only used the dam thing for playing games..
 
OMG I forgot to mention that my first very own computer was a Commodore C64. My mother told me that I could to my homework on it.. Told her that she was a crazy woman for saying such evil things..lol... I only used the dam thing for playing games..

Yes I remember having to choose between getting the Commodore 64k and the Spectrum 48k. After intense scrutiny by my good self I seem to remember the Spectrum had more usable free memory over the Commodore :) and went for that. On a side note I got Daley Thomsons Decathlon for the rubber keyboard Spectrum and tried in vain to break the world 100m record with a battery rolling it between the keys to run faster :o
 
You could well be right there mate. I can only remember buying a computer, which initially had 16Mb ram, and I could upgrade it to 64Mb for £50. I did. I can't remember if it was the 386 or not. It could of been a P2, 350Mhz.. Talking years ago now lol

In the early 80's the C64 was simply the best home computer. The Spectrum had too many short cuts, the BBC was too expensive. The C64 was a proper computer with a full 64K of RAM which was also well made.

For sound and graphics nothing touched it until the arival of the 16-bits circa 1985.

I was an avid follower of Commodore Format [magazine] until 1994 when it died.
 
Some of you people amaze me on what you remember. I can not remember all the computers I have had.

My first computer was a C64 (As I see with several others here. Man we are all old lol) How many of you Upgraded to the Commodore 128 when it came out? I tried but never saved up enough money.

The first computer that I built was a P2 for Win98. I can't remember all the specs on it but I will say that the tower I used is the tower on my wife's computer now.
Which I need to upgrade because she wants Win7 an it now has (this was built for me at one time but somehow my wife took it over. Of course that meant I had to build a new one for me YEA!!)
  • Athlon XP 1800 -
  • 2 GB of Kinston RAM -
  • ATI All In Wonder 9600 (how many of you used those AIWs - I went through about 5 of them through different computers - loved them)
  • SOYO Dragon Ultra Mobo (Man I miss that Mobo company)
  • 3 WD - 80 GB Hard Drives in a RAID 5 config.
  • 2 DVD Burners - Card Reader - Floppy Drive and I can't remember what else
  • Windows XP Professional

My Main computer has (pulled straight from my Newegg invoice online)


  • 1 x GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
  • 1 x Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX8500AD2K2/4G
  • 1 x Rosewill RCR-102 52-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port
  • 4 x Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
  • 2 x LITE-ON 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS122-04 - OEM
  • 2 x SAPPHIRE 100236L Radeon HD 3650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
  • 1 x KINGWIN ABT-610MM 610W ATX 12V Ver2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
  • 1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
    Windows 7

I have another computer with

  • 1 x GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
  • 1 x SAPPHIRE 100165L Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
  • AMD 64 Dual-Core Processor
  • 4GB of Ram
  • 2 cheap DVD burners
  • 1 of the drives from above is actually in this computer.
  • Windows Vista Ultimate

I have 4 monitors connected to my main computer, One of the monitors is a dual channel monitor (you can hook 2 computers to one monitor with out a kvm switch) and have my second computer hooked to that monitor.

I use my Vista computer for testing and back up support. If I'm doing a remote job and my main computer go on the fritz.
 
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1.) IBM 8086 - I dont remember the specs
2.) 16mhz, 1MB, 40MB HDD, 3.5", Win3.1
3.) Cyrix 133MHZ, 128MB, 3.5GB, CD-RM, Win98se
4.) Athlon XP 2400MHz, 512MB, 30GB, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, WinXP
5.) Pentium Dual Core, 1GB, 2x74GB Raptor RAID0, 512MB 7900GTX WinXP
6.) Core 2 Duo X6800, 4GB RAM, 2x150GB, 384MB 8800GTS Vista 64-Bit,
Asus Striker @ Formula PC Power& Cooling Turbo-Cool 860W,
Coolmaster HAF932
>upgraded to 8GB, add a 1TB, and running 1 asus 1gb GTS 250 and Win7
7.) also running #6 still but my second PC is Core i7-875k, 8GB, 1TB SATA3,
1GB Radeon HD5770. ASUS P7P55D-E Pro, Coolmaster CM 690 II Adv.

Laptop Toshiba Satellite 2505CDS, HP DV1331US - worked about 2 months, Asus G1S-A1 and I just ordered an Asus EP121 tablet after giving my sister my G1S, Had about 1/2 dozen misc. laptop between the satellite and the asus g1s that didn't even last 1yr
 
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Another misty-eyed C64 owner here. Had the old girl pretty tricked out by the end, with a 1541 floppy drive and a dot-matrix printer grinding out all sorts of stuff in EasyScript and Printmaster. Still looking for a nice updated Elite-style game.
 
Started with a TRS-80 when I was 10 learning how to program in basic, then when i wad 14 I moved to amiga for a few years. After 3 Amigas i finally got a 486dx2/66 with 8MB RAM & 128mb hdd. Then Pentium , Pentium 2, then to a Cyrix processor, then to pentium 4, now to i5. I do have a good vintage collection of Computers too, C64, C128, Many Amigas, and a few rare gems like a sharp carrybag pc/mon which i cant remember model right now and an apple 2E. It feels good to remember back to those days though.
 
I do remember one more thing. The same week i got my pentium pc i bought a car as well and the computer cost about a thousand more than the car. My mum thought i was nuts at the time. I was only 16 but had a good paying part time job
 
These begin when I was about 8 or 10, I had some old Packard Bells prior to that, but was too young to know anything about them. One ran Windows 3.11, the other ran Windows 95. Past that, I had these:

PC1: Dell Dimension 4400
CPU: Pentium 4 1.6gHz
Memory: 256MB
Disk Drive: CD-ROM
Hard Drive: 40GB
Floppy: 3.5" Floppy
GPU: Geforce 4 TI4200se (upgraded years later)

PC2: Custom Build (Replaced PC1)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Memory: 1GB
Disk Drive: CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Hard Drive: 120GB
Floppy: 3.5" Floppy
GPU: Geforce FX 5900 Ultra (vanilla 5900 w/ Ultra BIOS)

PC3: Dell Inspiron E1405 (owned alongside PC2)
CPU: Core Duo T2300 1.66gHz
Memory: 1GB
Disk Drive: DVD-RW
Hard Drive: 100GB
Floppy: LOL.
GPU: Onboard Intel whatchama-thingy

PC4: Custom Build (Replaced PC2)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Memory: 2GB
Disk Drive: DVD-RW
Hard Drive: 250GB
Floppy: LOL.
GPU: Geforce 7900GS (which I OC'd, fried to the point of artifacts, and replaced)

PC5: Custom build (Replaced PC4)
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 2.66gHz
Memory: 16GB
Disk Drive: Blu-ray Burner
Hard Drive: 1TB
Floppy: What in the world is that???
GPU: Geforce GTX 460 1GB

PC6: Google Nexus One (Replaced PC3)
OS: Android 2.3.3 (CyanogenMod7 RC2)
CPU: Quallcomm 8250 Snapdragon 1gHz
Memory: 512MB
Storage Drive: 512MB ROM/16GB MicroSD
Floppy: My charger is floppy? That counts?
GPU: Adreno 200

I guess this is as good a time to show off my current baby I built last year. Sadly, I'm addicted to speed and GPU performance since I game alot. I'll probably rebuild when Bulldozer comes out, and a pair of GTX 570's for SLI will be a tad bit cheaper.

QPnE4.jpg

X82CI.jpg

KqUcj.jpg
 
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1.) IBM 8086 - I dont remember the specs
2.) 16mhz, 1MB, 40MB HDD, 3.5", Win3.1
3.) Cyrix 133MHZ, 128MB, 3.5GB, CD-RM, Win98se
4.) Athlon XP 2400MHz, 512MB, 30GB, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, WinXP
5.) Pentium Dual Core, 1GB, 2x74GB Raptor RAID0, 512MB 7900GTX WinXP
6.) Core 2 Duo X6800, 4GB RAM, 2x150GB, 384MB 8800GTS Vista 64-Bit,
Asus Striker @ Formula PC Power& Cooling Turbo-Cool 860W,
Coolmaster HAF932
>upgraded to 8GB, add a 1TB, and running 1 asus 1gb GTS 250 and Win7
7.) also running #6 still but my second PC is Core i7-875k, 8GB, 1TB SATA3,
1GB Radeon HD5770. ASUS P7P55D-E Pro, Coolmaster CM 690 II Adv.

Laptop Toshiba Satellite 2505CDS, HP DV1331US - worked about 2 months, Asus G1S-A1 and I just ordered an Asus EP121 tablet after giving my sister my G1S, Had about 1/2 dozen misc. laptop between the satellite and the asus g1s that didn't even last 1yr

Did you get the ep121 yet? l am using mine now & loving it.
 
My first computer experience was a PET32 at primary school where they let me and a friend use it pretty much all afternoon.

My first home PC was a Sinclair ZX80, then a ZX81, then a Spectrum, Dragon 32 then a Commodore 64. Then I had long break and then build a P2 based PC.
 
Oh, the memories....

1.) Apple IIe: I bought at garage sale for $20. It had RCA video out so I used it with my TV. I learned BASIC programming on that machine... Anyone remember "Nibble" Magazine? It had a bunch of BASIC source code written for Apple?

2.) 486DX: I think it had like 5 Mb RAM, 500Mb Hard drive. I was using DOS for about 2 years with this computer.
3.) Mac PowerPC: Iit had OS7 on it. I learned POV-Ray on this machine.
4.) Pentium II 233Mhz: 32Mb RAM, 20GB hard drive. I found this one in the trash. Someone threw it out simply because the CD drive was stuck. I replaced the drive and had a working Win 95 computer. My first GUI.
5.) Pentium 4 Dell Optiplex: Yeah, went from 95 to XP. I found this one in the trash too. Not sure why they threw it out. It worked fine.
6.) AMD Athlon 3800 X2 2.2Ghz, 2Gb RAM, 80 GB HD. My first custom build. I spent $900 at the time. It had a beautiful black case and blue interior lights.
7.) My current computer:
AMD 6000+ 3.2Ghz
4Gb DDR2
1TB HD
ATI 4860HD 512 Mb GDDR5
My Current Computer
 
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Oh, the memories....

1.) Apple IIe: I bought at garage sale for $20. It had RCA video out so I used it with my TV. I learned BASIC programming on that machine... Anyone remember "Nibble" Magazine? It had a bunch of BASIC source code written for Apple?

2.) 486DX: I think it had like 5 Mb RAM, 500Mb Hard drive. I was using DOS for about 2 years with this computer.
3.) Mac PowerPC: Iit had OS7 on it. I learned POV-Ray on this machine.
4.) Pentium II 233Mhz: 32Mb RAM, 20GB hard drive. I found this one in the trash. Someone threw it out simply because the CD drive was stuck. I replaced the drive and had a working Win 95 computer. My first GUI.
5.) Pentium 4 Dell Optiplex: Yeah, went from 95 to XP. I found this one in the trash too. Not sure why they threw it out. It worked fine.
6.) AMD Athlon 3800 X2 2.2Ghz, 2Gb RAM, 80 GB HD. My first custom build. I spent $900 at the time. It had a beautiful black case and blue interior lights.
7.) My current computer:
AMD 6000+ 3.2Ghz
4Gb DDR2
1TB HD
ATI 4860HD 512 Mb GDDR5
My Current Computer

hehehe i remember that passing from 98 to XP (although i can't see on you that 98 version :P )
I remember i had an AMD Duron at 800 MHz and 256 Ram. And let's not forget the Riva TNT 2 video card (i think that was it)
 
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