My first full build (after doing some upgrades on a purchased 486, to DX2 and replacing a malfunctioning VLB IDE) is still my favourite.

The "7 bays in my desktop" setup, with a Cyrix 6x86L (I forget which speed), a villainously hot CPU voltage regulator (aided by a front fan), a Cirrus 5446 PCI
The bays ended up loaded with:
1. HDD (a horrifically expensive 4GB)
2. Later, a second HDD - 1.7GB *story at end
3. Floppy drive (3 1/2")
4. Tape drive (3 1/2") - needed some metalwork adjustment to accommodate a bulge in the top plate
5. Floppy (5 1/4")
6, 7, Optical drives, paired as CDROM, CD-RW, later DVDROM / CD-RW
The 3 x 5 1/4 were stacked on the right.
The 3 1/2" were vertical, in two detachable frames, both of which had to be removed to access the RAM.

PS. The 1.7GB drive was a warranty replacement for a 1.2GB picked up for a fiver with a bit of warranty left, I knew from the date on it, and expected a drive of that capacity from a table of mixed drives to be DOA, it was, and successfully RMA'd it

That machine also carried (in final form):
ISA Modem
ISA 2Mb floppy controller - Ditto dash for the tape drive
ISA SB16 ASP MCD (originally ran a CR563B)
ISA Scanner card, later replaced by ISA Parallel card (used as extra for a Parallel flatbed scanner)

The paper label was a reminder for the resources - I think I had to use DMA #0

386DX/40, Et4000 ISA card, desktop Enlight AT case, Northgate 101 keyboard around 1992?

My first PC I built was a 486!

I am not sure what motherboard it was, but it was VLB and had this Win BIOS. I got an AMD 486 DX4 100 CPU, was good value at the time. I did have a fast ET4000 VLB card and I believe a VLB controller. I loved that machine.

I put switches at the front of the case to control FSB and multiplier. Funny how even back in those days I thought a bit outside the box 🤣

Sold it to afford a Pentium 133 machine.

I only had pre built systems until around 2002-2003, so I mostly started in the last days of Socket A...

I was fiddling with parts and learned most of it earlier (with 486s and Pentiums), but, that's when I can say I "built" the PC myself

Ah my firsty... This was back in 2008 when I got my first job and bought my parts.
Some red Biostar motherboard not sure what model.
256MB of RAM
128MB Radeon AGP not sure what Radeon card
160GB IDE hdd
some crappy power supply
Athlon XP 1GHz I tried upgrading it to 2GHz a few years later and the board and the power supply blew, so I realized that need a certain power supply with athlon boards, I blew so many boards.
The case was all plexiglass with light up fans, I know it was a little tacky, but I would rock that case again.

This computer was used for UT99, GTA San Andreas and Halo.

The first system I built myself was a Duron 700mhz system in 2001. Started it when I was 15 but I think I was 16 by the time it was finished. It took me a long time due to not having any money.

I believe I still have some of the parts including the processor and the (Gigabyte) motherboard. It's difficult to remember the specifics but I think it had a GeForce2 MX. I know that originally it was going to just have a 4GB Quantum Fireball HD that I'd salvaged from somewhere, but I think I'd changed that by the time it was finished. I remember having a 30GB Western Digital drive, so it was probably that.

It was nothing special, I had to use really cheap parts, but it was a step up from having to use my dad's Pentium 166 system.

I actually have a couple of old photos of it. Dated 05/11/01:

Built my first computer March '98. I might do a rebuild as I got similar parts as the original build.

• Intel Pentium II 300
  Replaced by a Celeron 566 on a slotket in June '00. Replaced again with Celeron (Tualatin) 1100 in April '02 when it ran as my secondary computer.
  If I could choose again I would bought a Pentium II 266 instead and overclocked it to save some money.
• Asus P2L97
  RMA'ed this one two times before replacing it with a P3B-F in December '99 because it's onboard 3.3V regulator didn't meet my new GeForce DDR power needs.
• 64MB PC66 SDRAM, double height - still got this one in my posession, dont know if it works.
  Replaced with 128MB PC100 in summer '98 due to stability issues, old stick went into my dads computer where it worked just fine. Sometime in '99 or '00 I upgraded to 256MB PC133.
  If I could choose again I would bought a standard height stick with 16 or 8 chips instead of 32.
• 6.4GB Seagate Medalist Pro
• ATI Expert@Play 8MB AGP (ATI Rage Pro)
  Replaced by a Creative GeForce DDR in Desember '99 which I still have in my posession.
  If I could choose again I would bought a cheaper card coupled with a Voodoo 2.
• Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Value - still got this one in my posession.
• Creative PC-DVD Encore Dxr2 (2x DVD-ROM and decoder card)
  Sold in December '99 to finance the GeForce DDR.
  If I could choose again I would bought a CD-ROM instead to save some money.
• 3Com EtherLink III PCI Combo
• Enlight midi tower - still got this one in my posession.
  Got a new PSU for this one in January '00 when the old one failed.
• Cherry PS/2 keyboard
• Microsoft IntelliMouse (ball version)
• Panasonic PanaFlat PF70 17"
  This one went for repair a least two times, also ran a second hand high end Phillips 21" from '92 for some time, it actually contained parts made by SGI and had a nice LCD display for settings.

If you ever want to rebuild that system and don't have a CPU handy, I have my Pentium II 350Mhz with heatsink/fan, it's guaranteed to work properly and I have personally replaced the thermal contact sides with Arctic Silver 5.

FFXIhealer wrote:

If you ever want to rebuild that system and don't have a CPU handy, I have my Pentium II 350Mhz with heatsink/fan, it's guaranteed to work properly and I have personally replaced the thermal contact sides with Arctic Silver 5.

Thanks for the offer 😊 , but I already got three Pentium II's (233, 266 and 333) and an Abit LX6 that doesn't do 100MHz FSB.

Hey, worth a shot. 😜

My first build would have been 1993, it was a 386SX 40 in a desktop case, 2MB ram, 120 MB HD and trident ISA VGA card. I upgraded the RAM to 4MB and added a Soundblaster Pro & a mouse that same year to play DOOM & Hand of Fate, also installed Windows 3.1 for the first time.
The following year, I upgraded again to a 486 VLB board, Cyrix DX/2 80 MHz & Cirrus Logic VLB card. Last upgrade that box had was a Panasonic 2 spin CD drive connected to the soundblaster.

It actually took a little while to get into the hardware inside the box. It was a full decade from our first PC that I finally built a system from scratch in 2003. I wouldn't dare install a new graphics card just a few years prior. 😀

The first build wasn't for myself so I don't have a good recollection, but the one the next spring I remember well.

~May 2004:
Antec Lanboy w/ SmartBlue 350W PSU (The PSU blew up later the same year and got replaced with the TruePower 380S.)
Zalman CNPS7000-AlCu
AMD Athlon XP-M (Barton) 2400+ @ 3000+
ASUS A7N8X-E
2x256MB Kingston DDR400
ATI Radeon 9800 SE @ Pro (Replaced with a 9700 Pro soon after due to graphics artifacts at the guaranteed OC.)
Older parts included: Lite-On LTR-24102B, Nokia 447Xi 17" CRT, Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical and a basic Logitech keyboard.

GTA Vice City and Morrowind finally ran, and very nicely too. 😀

My first PC was built around a 286 motherboard that my dad bought second-hand for me I so would stop constantly working on his XT. The 286 ran at 12MHz CPU, 1MB onboard RAM with the Headland chipset. Started with just the motherboard and case/PSU - a friend told me about a computer scrapping place where I picked up a few pieces and I had a Trident 8900c video card already. I bought myself a floppy drive and drive controller/IO card. I still had to borrow my dad's monitor at first but at least I had a machine of my own. Added a Connor 120MB IDE drive and ISA controller to that soon after but the drive only lasted about a year.

I still have that motherboard - sadly the case was scrapped some years ago. The board has 2 SIMM slots but they were already broken when I received the board back in the day. I tried putting RAM into those slots back then but the machine would only ever register 1MB RAM and I didn't have a manual to see if any jumpers needed to be changed. Recently I ordered replacement SIMM sockets and carefully desoldered the old ones and replaced them. To my surprise the machine still worked after the replacement but still only detected 1MB RAM. After removing the onboard memory and changing jumper settings randomly I eventually got the machine to count up to 2MB! So 20 plus years later the board finally lives up to its potential. It's too slow to play many of the titles I enjoyed back in the day though - so I only use it for old EGA/VGA adventure games and early shareware.

My first computer in 1992 was a cheap "put together from cheapest parts available" kind of machine that built and sold by a local chop shop that called themselves as a computer shop (there were so many around those days). A 386sx16 with 1MB RAM, 40MB HDD, both 5.25" and 3.5" floppies, a 512 KB Oak VGA card, and a monochrome VGA monitor.

This device was so problematic that I forcefully became a home made service technician in no time, and started upgrading by myself from that point. At the same time around, I also became known as the computer guy that solves problems and can make upgrades in my circle of friends and relatives, so I started to have some close relations with local computer shops.

With this background and relations, I upgraded this same basic computer continuously until I switched from AT to ATX (my last AT board was an Asus P5A-B) in about 2000. So I consider the first PC that I built from scratch for myself as this one (I never purchased a complete system in my life apart from this first one in 1992).

If I remember correctly it was a Pentium III 733 on an Asus CUSL2C Black Pearl motherboard, 256MB of RAM, Asus V7700 Deluxe with 64MB RAM (which came with all the bells and whistles like two big name games and 3D glasses), a couple of Quantum HDDs probably around 20GB capacity, a Phillips 4x CDR, a Creative Infra CD, a Sound Blaster Live of unknown model, a 3com NIC, a USRobotics PCI modem, all in an Asus (Elan Vital) T5A case which came with a 300W Elan Vital PSU. There were also some sort of a Microsoft keyboard/mouse set and an ADI 17" monitor. It also included both floppies from my first purchase of 1992 mentioned above. I was still running Windows ME (made the switch from ME to XP around 2005).

I don't really remember, but 2 of my oldest ones were a DX4-100 AT rig which was reasonably thought out but was never fully happy with it and a s370 LX 400MHz Mendocino + 16MB TNT2-M64 PCI (board came without AGP slot) + 192MB SDRAM @66MHz FSB and with the board's onboard Solo-1 disabled because I wanted a real dedicated sound card which turned out to be a PCI Solo-1! Good times as a n00b 🤣

I really loved the Celeron 400 build and actually started using it as my daily rig, even though it was technically slower than my Katmai 550 😵

Let's see, it must have been in 2002. I began doing repairs around late 97, in 01 I replaced the AT case and PSU for an ATX case/PSU (as the Mobo allowed either kind). Then in 2002 I ordered a Mobo with integrated CPU (ECS K7SEM), that's when I pretty much made it my own. I gave it to my sis when she got married, then years after I visited them and saw it there just collecting dust and asked for it back. It is my Win98 rig, besides gaming I also use it for scanning docs and pics with my trusty Canon N640pEx.

The first PC I assembled (mid 03) buying everything had a huge (like 5 bays I think) white ATX case, it had a Biostar M7VKQ mobo with an a Athlon XP 2100 CPU, 256MB PC133 ram, a KWorld capture card (which I still have in storage) a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Mp3 (which I'm using on the K7SEM) and a Sis based 32MB PCI video card. I I was totally free, no longer I had to share the "house PC". The HDD was a 40gb one, which at the time it was plentiful for my gaming, development and video capture / editing / DVD riping. Less than a year after, sadly my father died and I had to sell it to help with the ensuing financial difficulties (I was an entry level IT tech at the time).

First built was:
Intel 440EX @ FSB75 baby AT
Pentium II 266 @ 300MHz
RAM 32MB, then 96MB, then 256MB
PCI S3 Trio 64V+, then AGP Riva TNT 16MB
ISA ESS GoldMedia32 (1868?), then AWE32 CT3900
ISA Yamaha SW60XG
HDD IDE 800MB, then Fujitsu 10,2GB
CDROM 8x, then CDROM 52x
Dual boot - Win98+WinNT4.0 with NT4USB patch from Dell

Second was:
VIA KT333
Athlon XP 1700+ FSB266 Thoroughbred B @ 2200+ FSB333
DDR PC2700 256MB
AGP Riva TNT 16MB
Sound AC97 built-in, then Hoontech YMF754 - first use quadro sound in games (win98)
HDD IDE Ultra ATA100 80GB
CDROM 52x
Dual Boot - Win98+WinXPSP1

Third:
nForce2 Ultra 400
Athlon XP 2500+ FSB333 Barton @ 3200+ FSB400
DDR PC3200 2x256MB Dual Channel
AGP GeForce 4Ti 4200 64MB / AGP Radeon 8500 64MB
PCI Hoontech YMF754 - quadro sound in win98 games
HDD1 IDE Ultra ATA133 60GB
HDD2 IDE Ultra ATA100 80GB
CDROM 52x
DVDRW NEC-2510 - it's a first DVD drive in history which can burn two-ply 8,5GB DVDR+/- and DVDRW+/-
Dual boot - Win98+WinXPSP2

Fourth:
Intel 865
Pentium 4 Northwood FSB800 3,4GHz Intel Confidential Unlocked Multiplier @ 2,4GHz --- 3,8GHz
DDR PC3200 2x512MB Dual Channel, then 2x1GB Dual Channel
AGP GeForce 6800
PCI X-Fi Fatality Pro SB0460 (XP) - first use S/PDIF out for PCM and AC3, then Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect 5.1 in games (mod by Ultras and alex2985)
PCI SB Live! SB0220 / Audigy2 SB0240 (98+DOS)
HDD1 IDE Ultra ATA133 60GB
HDD2 IDE Ultra ATA100 80GB
DVDROM/CDRW
DVDRW
Dual boot - Win98+WinXPSP3

Fifth:
Finally ISA returns!!!
Intel 845
Pentium 4 Northwood FSB533 2,4GHz
DDR PC2100 2x1GB
AGP GeForce 6800 (XP)
PCI Voodoo 4500 MAC DVI (98+DOS)
PCI X-Fi Fatality Pro SB0460 (XP) S/PDIF out with Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect 5.1 in games (mod by Ultras and alex2985)
PCI SB Live! SB0220 (98)
ISA AWE32 CT3900
ISA Yamaha SW60XG
HDD IDE Ultra ATA100 80GB
DVDROM/CDRW
DVDRW
Dual boot - Win98+WinXPSP3

Sixth, present and my favorite:
Intel 865 - BIOS modded for Core2 by LLC
Core 2 Extreme X6800 @ FSB400/533/800, core 600MHz --- 3GHz
DDR PC3200 2x1GB Dual Channel
AGP Radeon HD (XP)
PCI Voodoo 4500 MAC DVI (98+DOS)
PCI Dell X-Fi SB0770 (XP) S/PDIF out with Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect 5.1 in games (mod by Ultras and alex2985)
PCI SB Live! SB0220 (98)
ISA Terratec EWS64 XL (SB Pro) S/PDIF out
ISA Avance Logic AV310 (SB 16) S/PDIF out
ISA GUS Ace
ISA EMU8k CT4390 S/PDIF out
NEC XR385 (Yamaha DB60XG) S/PDIF out mod by author jwt27
Roland SCB-55
Roland MT-32
HDD1 SATA1.0 250GB
HDD2 SATA1.0 250GB
IDE DVDROM/CDRW
IDE DVDRW
Dual boot - Win98+WinXPSP3

Seventh, present too:
VIA KT333
Athlon XP 2600+ FSB333 Barton
DDR PC2700 256MB
AGP GeForce 4Ti 4200 64MB (81.98)
PCI STB Voodoo2 100MHz SLI 24MB (FastVoodoo 2.4.6)
PCI SB Live! SB0060
HDD IDE Ultra ATA133 60GB
CDRW 48x
Windows 98 IF

The very first computer I ever built for myself was in 2002 on a budget so tight a shoestring would be luxury. It consisted of:

-MicroATX mini-tower case (The kind where the PSU "hangs down" and unfortunately blocks airflow to the CPU)
-400w generic PSU
-ECS K7SEM motherboard
-AMD Duron 1GHz processor
-256MB memory
-20GB primary hard drive plus 4GB secondary hard drive, both WD
-32x12x40x CD-RW drive
-Zip 100 IDE drive
-Floppy drive
-56k v.92 modem
-15in Compaq V410 monitor

Yeah, this computer was already very obsolete the very minute I had finished it. Being a college student so poor I couldn't even afford ramen, I had to restrict this build to literally the cheapest parts possible, even salvaging some of the parts from other older computers. It only cost $300 to build, but took many months to do so. Still, even though it was already horrendously obsolete when new, it was still infinitely better than the computer I had been using before (a very, very, VERY crappy and unreliable Compaq Presario 2200 with a Cyrix MediaGX 180MHz, 80MB RAM, 20GB hard drive, 8x CD-ROM, floppy drive, 33.6k modem and Windows 2000).

It was originally configured to dual-boot Windows 2000 and some form of Linux that I can no longer recall, but eventually became a Windows-only machine due to my lack of experience (and admittedly interest) in continuing to use Linux at the time. My method for dual-booting was quite unique though...rather than use a software bootloader, I had wired up some switches on the case that, when flipped, would physically change which hard drive was designated IDE Master, therefore changing which drive would boot. It was a quite nifty solution that, I must admit, I miss with the transition to SATA.

This computer lasted for about three years before being replaced with another build, although during those three years it did get upgraded enough that I suppose you could consider it a new computer in the same case, especially considering I had to replace the motherboard after killing the old one due to a stupidity attack...protip: external USB hubs cannot be powered by the PS/2 port. 😵

Anyway, the final upgraded version of this computer had:

-Same case, but with a 420w Thermaltake PSU
-MSI KM2M Combo-L motherboard
-AMD Athlon XP 2400+
-512MB DDR RAM
-120GB primary hard drive plus 20GB secondary hard drive, both WD
-32x12x40x CD-RW drive (same one as before)
-16x DVD-ROM drive (this replaced the Zip drive after I graduated from college)
-Floppy drive
-56k v.92 modem
-15in HP mx50 monitor

The original version of this system is currently on my retro-rebuild wishlist, but so far the case has been unobtainium.

The first pc fully built from the mainboard on, was probably a Duron 750 system, but I don't remember exactly the mainboard, I think an ECS after the partial delusion with the K6-2 550 that replaced the 350. I already had the Voodoo3 2000 back then. The upgrade was like night and day.
All the pc I had before that, was only partially upgraded, cpu, ram, vga..

Built for free in 2001:
-K6-2 350MHz
-32MB PC100 SDRAM
-Gigabyte GA-5AA
-6GB IBM HDD
-S3 Virge PCI
-Crappy AT case and PSU

Awful for 32-bit 3D games and somewhat OK for 32-bit 2D games. I can't imagine how I survived with any 3D acceleration back then...I remember the Nvidia TNT1 my friend lent me was so godlike to anything I had in possession then because it actually let me played HL1/Counter-Strike and GLQuake at playable frame rates.