It seems you're just as nostalgic about PC's as I am 😀 I started my PC journey on a 133Mhz 586 with a Cyrix CPU. It was a purely buisness machine, so no sound card, no optical drive and only 8mb of ram. It also came with a 14" Logics monitor and an OKi microline dot matrix printer. Here's the machines original specs:

CPU: Cyrix 5x86-133GP
MB: FIC 486-VIP-IO2
RAM: 8MB (1x 8mb 72pin simm)
HDD: Quantum Fireball 800MB
OS: MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.11
AUDIO: none
VIDEO: Cirrus Logic CL-GD54xx 1MB PCI

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the computer, but I can show you what the case looked like:

I'm actually looking for this exact model case to recreate the machine.

I got the machine as a surprise for my birthday. Initially it played everything I threw at it (mostly older DOS games - Dune2, Volfield, Supaplex, Wolf3d, Doom, Jazz Jackrabbit, etc). The first thing I bought it was more ram - another 8mb simm bought with money I'd gathered over the winter holidays. I remember spending quite a bit of my pocket money on it - buying floppy disks so I could copy games from school / friends / relatives, replacing the shitty mouse it came with and so on. I bought my first sound card in summer the following year - a Yamaha based Genius Soundmaker value, and a pair a cheap plastic speakers. I fondly remember walking all across town to buy the speakers after noticing the passive speakers I had at home (left over from some older machine) were barely audible. The first game I ran on it with sound was Stargunner. Later I got a CD-ROM drive so I could look into the CDs that came with computer and games magazines of the time. It's also when I first installed windows 95 on it. Win95's setup program was as fun to me as games were. I remember the second time I installed win95 (after messing it up by deleting some file in the windows folder) was playing with the HDD while it was working - and poof! - it died. I hid this from my parents of course, but my folks noticed I wasn't spending time at the computer, and dad had the machine taken to the shop I worked part time to have it checked out. The techs there told him HDDs sometimes die to no fault of the user, and dad had the HDD replaced with a 1.2Gb WD. Oddly enough, I just finished razing the money to replace my HDD, and I bought an identical 1.2GB drive to fix the machine (it's the cheapest drive they had in stock at the time). Imagine my surprise when I came home to find out my machine was gone 😜 I kept both drives in the machine. Last thing I bought for this machine is a 3dfx voodoo 2 - it was in 1998 when lots of the demos I got in these magazine CDs required a 3d accelerator. I worked after school for about a year to be able to afford the 3dfx card - and I remember the manager of the computer shop I worked at saying he could upgrade my 586 to a pentium 133 with the money I saved - and that it would be the better choice for games. I of course did not listen, since the only hindrance I saw was lack of 3d acceleration. I bought a CT6670 voodoo 2 12mb (witch I still have) and 16mb of ram, bringing the machine up to 32 megs. When I first launched GL_Quake (after hours of reading magazines and messing with migiGL files) I was blown away. The game ran very well on my 586, with some slowdowns in more open areas, but was very playable, and it looked incredible. It ran quite a bit faster in glide as it was unplayable in software mode. The Quake 2 demo unfortunately was rather unplayable even in glide unless I turned sound off. I did manage to run Descent 2 in 3dfx with a glide patch I found on one of the CDs - same for Carmageddon - and they both ran and looked incredible. Final specs were:

CPU: Cyrix 5x86-133GP
MB: FIC 486-VIP-IO2
RAM: 32MB (4x 8mb 72pin simm)
HDD: 2x1200GB Western Digital Caviar 31200 (silver + green stripe)
ODD: Creative 24x
OS: Windows 95
AUDIO: Genius Sound Maker Value YMF718 based
VIDEO: Cirrus Logic CL-GD54xx 1MB PCI
3DFX: Creative CT6670 12MB Voodoo 2

The year is late 1999, and all PC magazines talk about the GHz race, pentium III and AMD Athlon CPUs, running at clocks up to 7-8 times then my 586. The demos on game magazine CDs all had fancy graphics and required at least a 160MHz CPU with MMX - witch I did not have - nor did I have the money to purchase. Upgrading my machine to the 400Mhz pentium II I wanted would cost me well over 600$, since most mainboards were ATX and required SDRAM - plus the trade-in value for my 586 was tiny. It was the 3dfx situation all over again, but this time I could not gather the money myself because I had to study for my high-school entrance exam that was waiting for me in summer of 2000. As such my folks didn't let me work part time - I had to stay home and study. I had about 150$ saved up - not nearly enough for a PII. It was about as much as I needed for a second hand pentium MMX, but that machine would not run Homeworld, Dungeon Keeper II, Quake 2 (well it ran but it was unplayable), Unreal and other games I wanted to play. I pestered my folks constantly, but they did not understand why I needed a new PC - to them the computer was like a TV or microwave - if it ain't broke' there's no reason to replace it. Trying to explain different specifications and speed ratings was a waste of time - BUT - eventually my folks decided it would be a good idea to get me a new PC so I would stop thinking about it and concentrate on the upcoming exams - and so they did. Without my knowledge, they took my 586 rig to one of my dad's acquaintances to have it upgraded. I was away at my grandparents in another city at the time, and was completely clueless to what was going on with my precious machine.
Coming home after being away from my PC for a few weeks, I went to turn it on and play some Quake - but surprise - my 586 was gone - it had been replaced by another computer. I wanted a Pentium II machine with a Riva TNT2 video card and 64mb of ram - what I got was... a little different 😜 - it was a 450Mhz AMD K6-2 with 128mb of ram, a 4gb HDD, on board video, on board sound and no AGP slot. My V2 was gone, my yamaha card was gone, and so were my hard-drives with all my stuff. I was so angry, but couldn't take it out on my folks since they had no computer knowledge whatsoever. I had a talk with them, and after hearing about the 300$ trade in they paid I explained they'd been ripped off. The Voodoo 2 alone cost that much new (if I recall correctly). I went with them to the "acquaintance" who made the computer and re-negotiated everything. We still could not afford a pentium II, but we got a 350Mhz K6-II, 64Mb of ram, the same 4gb HDD plus one of my WD drives, and I kept my CT6670 witch (luckily he had not sold off yet). I also bought a Creative CD-RW drive witch was really expensive at the time, but it payed for itself in the long run (arrrghhh!) Final specs were:

CPU: AMD K6-2 350Mhz (overclocked to 400Mhz)
MB: Lucky Star P5MVP4
RAM: 64MB PC100 SDRAM
HDD1: 4200GB Samsung Spinpoint
HDD2: 1200GB Western Digital Caviar 31200 (silver + green stripe)
ODD: Creative 12x 10x 32x CD-RW drive
OS: Windows 98
AUDIO: Genius Sound Maker Value YMF718 based
VIDEO: Integrated Trident Blade 3D openGL and D3D capable accelerator (about as fast as a V2)
3DFX: Creative CT6670 12MB Voodoo 2

This is the type of case it came in:

Made by JNC - it was 1 5,25" bay shorter then the one in the picture, AT form factor, but otherwise identical to the one above.

The machine ran all my old games in sw or glide - I could now play GL_Quake at 800x600 butter-smooth - as well as Quake 2 (ran and looked better on the Blade3D), Unreal, Homeworld, Dungeon Keeper 2 (witch ran kind of like crap but was playable) and so on. I loved that machine up until 2000-2001 when I bought an 850Mhz Duron. The only upgrades the K6 recieved were another 64MB EDO stick and another Voodoo 2 witch I bought second hand in 2000. I was finally able to play DK-2 at decent framerates 😀.

In 2001 I felt the need for another upgrade. Luckily my folks gave me some cash to build my sister an entry-level PC (she was 8 I think) so I went to a good friend who owned a PC store and build myself a socket a machine! It was an 850Mhz duron with SD-RAM and a radeon 7500. I kept my Voodoo 2 SLi kit so I could play all my glide games, and also kept my 4GB HDD. I had the K6 remade for may sister - this time with a P5MVP3 board witch had an AGP slot - a Riva TNT2 M64, the 1,2GB WD HDD + another 2Gb seagate I had - an SB-Clone sound card and a faster 500Mhz K6 CPU. Same case, same ODD. Here's the full configuration of my first socket A machine:

CPU: AMD Duron 850Mhz
MB: Matsonic KT266 SDR-DDR combo board
RAM: 128MB PC133 SDRAM
HDD1: 4200GB Samsung Spinpoint
ODD: Creative CD-RW + Sony DVD-ROM
OS: Windows 98
AUDIO: on-board AC97
VIDEO: 64MB Radeon 7500 AGP
3DFX: 2xCreative CT6670 12MB Voodoo 2 SLi

I remember playing GTA3 on this machine, and installing windows XP for the first time.

Along the way the Duron was upgraded to a 1700+ and later a 2200+, 2400+ and 2600+. It wound up with 512Mb of DDR400, an Nforce 2 board, an FX 5200 Ultra with 256MB and a 40GB Matrox HDD. I also bought my first DVD-RW on this machine. In 2003, after winning a Red-Alert contest at a PC expo, I got a socket 939 N-force 3 motherboard. I traded in my old board + CPU + some cash for a socket 939 3200+. This machine was upgraded to a X2 6000+ (AM2 motherboard) in 2005?, and later I went intel with a Q6600 with a 8800GTX - then a Q9550 with twin 2900XT in crossfire, an i7 920 with a radeon 4850 -> a while after I bought it I ended up needing some cash so I traded it in for a Phenom II X4 with a Radeon 4870 + some $$$> It went to my sister's ex boyfriend who I bought it back from 3-4 years later.
Next I upgraded that to an i5 760 + GTX 460. That turned into a i5 3350p + HD 7950, and so on. It went to silly heights - my fastest rig yet was a LGA 2011 machine with a i7 3820, 16gb of quad channel ram, and 3x7950 cards, later replaced with 2x R9 280x.

Messing around with my old LGA 1366 build (i7 920): it still makes a decent gaming PC if overclocked.

Blurry pics of the insides of my Phenom II X4 Black edition:

My i5 3350p + GTX 480 and later radeon HD 7950 build - I got this 4-5 months after selling my Phenom II x4. I was dumbfounded at how fast the machine ran. It's also the first machine I put an SSD in.

The cooler master HAF-XB case - I loved this case for it's design. It first housed my ivy bridge rig, then my LGA 2011 i7. My current segotep TT cube borrows from it but in a smaller form facor:

My first pair of Sapphire 7950 cards - these guys were a huge leap from two GTX 480 cards I had in my i5 3350p build:

Water-cooling my i7 3820:

Water cooling a radeon 7950 with a modded custom loop:

3x 7950 cards!!!

The LGA 2011 setup in it's final configuration - 2x R9 280x:

I even went mobile at certain periods - I had a toshiba qosmio with a Geforce 9700M - and this summer I sold my Asus ROG G751JY to my sister (bought a Yamaha Dragstar a friend was selling for chips and needed the cash).

Pics of my old G751JY - best laptop I ever owned (altought I HATE ASUS with a passion for their shit customer service)

My current rig: - built from stuff I had lying around, second hand parts I got cheap and alike.

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770k overclocket to 4Ghz
MB: Asrock Z77 PRO4-M
RAM: 16Gb Corsair Vengeance 2133Mhz CL11-11-11-27 (4x8GB)
SSD: 240GB A-DATA
HDD1: 1TB HSGT 7200RPM 2.5" from my Asus
HDD2: 2TB WD 5400RPM 2.5" 12'5cm from an external 2.0tb enclosure
ODD: USB Asus DVD-RW
OS: Windows 10 Anniversary Edition
AUDIO: on-board Realtek ALC892
VIDEO: Gainward GTX1070
Case: Segotep TT Cube Black/Red
PSU: 10 year old Mushkin 650-XP modular PSU (no certification, had all capacitors replaced twice, but it's quiet and could handle 2x R9 280x in crossfire)

Nice. Quite a long read, but everyone's PC journey would be a long post. Especially with that many pictures. 🤣

FFXIhealer wrote:

Nice. Quite a long read, but everyone's PC journey would be a long post. Especially with that many pictures. 🤣

I wish I had pictures of my older machines, but back then I didn't have a digital camera, and it never occurred to me that I might actually miss my old rigs - or that I'd start collecting hardware.

I thought I'd share some of my current retro machines - the ones I use more often.

DOS gaming machine - I use this little guy mainly for Sierra games and early 90's dos titles. I'm trying to build this guy into what my original 586 was, but the case and CPU elude me. So far, even after years of actively searching, I've been unable to find the case my childhood PC had (the one in my first post).

CPU: Cyrix 5x86-100GP overclocked to 120Mhz
MB: Lucky Star LS486-E
RAM: 32MB (2x 16mb FPM simm)
HDD: 1200GB Western Digital Caviar 31200
ODD: 36x CD-ROM
OS: DOS + Windows 95
AUDIO: Yamaha SW20-PC OPL4 board
VIDEO: Cirrus Logic CL-GD5426 PCI, 2MB
3DFX: Creative CT6670 12MB Voodoo 2
Case: Shuttle AT case + 200w PSU

My main retro machine is a super socket 7 build. I use a K6-III CPU witch allows on the fly multiplier and cache control, even from DOS (setMUL). This guys sees the most use. I play early 3dfx games on it (descent, carmageddon, pandemonium, etc) as well as 1998-1999 games like Homeworld, Half-Life and so on.

CPU: AMD K6-III+ 400ATZ 1.6v running at 550Mhz 1.8v
MB: Aopen AX59 PRO - VIA MVP3, ATX
RAM: 256MB PC133 SDRAM
HDD: 20GB Western Digital Caviar + 20GB Seagate
ODD: 2005 sony DVD-ROM
OS: DOS + Windows 98
AUDIO1: Yamaha DS-XG (YMF-724)
AUDIO2: Primax Soundstorm M-16C (GuS GF1 clone with 1MB of memory)
VIDEO: MSI Riva TNT2 PRO / 32MB AGP
3DFX: 2x Diamond Monster 3D 2 8MB Voodoo 2
Case: Delux brand plain looking ATX case, 1999-2000 period + 350W FSP PSU

Some games I want to play at high resolutions and with anti-alising, and the K6 can't do that, so I run them on my socket A machine. This is more of a "fanboy" build, since I lusted after these components when they were new, but could never afford them. I play stuff like Homeworld Cataclysm, NFS Porsche, Quake 3 and much newer titles on this machine. It also has a faster variation (939 3800+ / Geforce 6800) witch I don't use much since it's overkill for win98 and 1996-2002 games.

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2333Mhz
MB: Abit AN7 (Nforce 2 ultra)
RAM: 1GB Dual Channel DDR400
HDD: 80GB Western Digital + 40GB Maxtor
ODD: 2003 LG combo drive
OS: DOS + Windows 98
AUDIO: Creative Sound Blaster LIVE!
VIDEO: Sparkle Geforce FX5900XT
3DFX: emulated (nGlide)
Case: blue-white JNC ATX case, 2002-2004 period + 450W ibox PSU (80+ certified, 40a 5v rail, taken off some OEM machine - probably lenovo)

I have quite a few other rigs (a couple in my sig) but since they don't get much use and it would take too much time to enumerate, I'll just stick with the above.