I have been a member of the overclock.net forum for 12 years. I was looking through my old post history when I stumbled upon this thread:

https://www.overclock.net/forum/8-intel-gener … ood-advice.html

It was detailed list of the exact parts I had used to build my first gaming PC. I went through more of my old post history, and I saw clues about how I had upgraded the computer, the exact model of the PC monitor I has purchased and lots of other fun things. I decided then that I had to recreate it!

Tracking down the parts was mostly pretty easy. With the exact model numbers on hand, and the newegg links still being active as a resource, I was able to find everything on ebay. The only thing I couldn't find was the case - an earlier model Antec 900. I ended up posting a wanted add in the OCN market place, and a fellow from Sweden was able to ship my one from across the Atlantic. He had kept it almost ten years in like new condition! I couldn't have been more thrilled.

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Nostalgia Build 2008!

The parts:

E8400 "Wolfdale" Core2Duo processor

Biostar "T-Power" TP43D2-A7 mainboard

Sapphire AMD HD 4850 Graphics Card

Mix of G-Skill and OCZ "SLI Ready" Memory 8GB

Antec Basiq 550watt power supply

Xigmatek "Dark Knight" S-1283 CPU Cooler:

Acer x223w TFT 1680x1050 LCD Monitor

I also added an X-Fi titanium sound card, which is similar to the Asus Xonar card I actually owned, and a 960gb kingston SSD as a boot drive - mostly for my own sanity.

Finished Build

The first thing I did was install Windows XP 32 bit, which was the original OS on the system. At the time, windows vista was still a mess and windows 7 hadn't been released, so most gamers were still on XP. Games I played at the time were Mass Effects, Bio Shock, Brothers in Arms, Left for Dead 2, and of course Crysis.

I also overclocked the CPU to 3.78ghz, which it took happily at stock voltage. I could probably go higher with a little tweaking, but this is fast enough. Temperatures are under 60c under a full prime95 load

In order to get AHCI mode working I had to slip stream the appropriate drivers into my image. I also used the mini partition tool to write align my partition. This let me get the most out of my SSD boot drive, which fully saturates the SATA 3 bus.

Finally, I installed lubuntu as a dual boot OS, so I could safely surf the web and do modern computing tasks. With an SSD drive it runs surprisingly well. Web browsing is very snappy, and 1080p 60fps youtube is no problem. In fact, I am posting this thread from my machine now.

Benchmarks

Story time! I got my first part time job at a fast food restaurant when I was 17. I worked all summer, at minimum wage (8.00$ an hour at the time) so I could afford the computer. It cost me a little over 800$ at the time. I spent far more time tinkering with the computer than anything. I experimented with linux, modded the case, and overclocked everything just because. I still lived with my parents, who were separated, so I would cart the computer back and forth from my Mom's house to my Dad's house every week. My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) remembers when I brought all the parts over to her house so her step dad could help me build the thing. I had no idea what I was doing! I figured it out on the way though, doing all of the upgrades myself and later building more computers from scratch.

It has been a lot of fun recreating my first PC and reliving those old memories. I have it in my office now. It will mostly be a piece of furniture that I like to look at. Occasionally, I think I'll play a few retro games on it and surf the web from time to time.