Can't go wrong with identifying with a "namefirstletter+CPU+clock" name on the network. so if you're steve and you got a pentium 66 you can name it Spentium67. Yes that is "period correct"

I only have one system for playing games on older operating systems.

I call it my "Retro Rig". :)

By their sockets (Socket A...) mostly.

I generally don't name any of my systems and some of them are big brand systems with model names anyways (like Compaq Prolinea 4/50 for example), but for something like my late 90s and early 2000s Athlon builds I use for example "early 2000 build", "autumn 2001 build" or "mid 2003 build". They are not names, just dates that highlight the differences.

Everything that isn't a CPU or memory module gets a name, typically like TOSHIBA5 or SAMSUNG4 (both hard drives)

The "computer name" is the name of the motherboard, so that replacing the motherboard changes its name but moving it to a new case doesn't. (My file server over the years has had several names, but it's always been in the same case, a big Cooler Master Stacker.)

(On big systems with multiple boards, the board which the CPU plugs into is considered the motherboard.)

I always like a good pop culture reference.

Tuvix
A build centered on an ASRock 775i65G board. That's LGA775 with AGP 8x - the best of two worlds, if you will.

Brundlefly
The opposite. An ASRock P4i945GC combining PGA478 with PCIe. It does have the ability to run a 64b SL7QB going for it, though. If I stick in my old HD4850 I can turn off the heating for winter.

PC-A01, PC-A02, PC-A03, etc: these are the builds that I keep in my local storage.
PC-B01, PC-B02, PC-B03, etc: these are the builds that i keep in my hometown.

And I also keep an updated database with the build specs, pros & cons for each build, benchmark results, issues I’ve encountered and how I’ve solved them, etc.

I usually go with whatever is fitting or otherwise easy to associate with the specific build timeframe, barring some line-of-sight-names (like the infamous case of Intel's "Batman's Revenge"), going either with a popculture reference, or by a distingushing mark of the specific buid.

Go on a usenet archive circa 1993 and you might notice by careful inspection of sig lines and comments that there are three choices...
LOTR
StarWars
Greek Mythology.

Which is probably why global DNS was invented, imagine the sheer kerfuffle if admin@skywalker.199.112.1.1 got a message intended for admin@skywalker.199.121.1.1

Mst3k was also big among usenet, at least one person must have named their computer Mitchell...

I call them "pentium 1 , 486, other 486, second pentium, pentium 3 and pentuim 4"

I tend to pick an architecture name and a period for them, ie i486 1991-1993 Build, etc.

My daily drivers are not period correct and named Lightning, Firestorm and Avenger..

Law212 wrote on 2026-09-01, 14:36:

I call them "pentium 1 , 486, other 486, second pentium, pentium 3 and pentuim 4"

Crafty!

Early on in my IT career I used to name servers after WWF wrestlers. I had servers named Hogan, Savage, Warrior, Bundy, etc, maybe I should get back to that.

One of the organizations I used to work for named their servers after Walking Dead locations, but I was always concerned they'd run out of names. I also said I'd be concerned about bit rot...

I am kinda random, I intend to have a theme/system but everything just temporarily permanent, so just use a name to help me remember what machine it is. Like one Acer laptop that was cobbled together and barely working was AssPyre, because it was a flaming pile of ass.

With the suffix “Luvin” wherever possible.

I only have IBM branded pc. i use their name: Pc330DX2, Netvista ecc ecc

I only have one that I have a name for and I haven't even built it yet, the name is just the concept rephrased slightly to sound kind of like what the '90s considered cool — "Futuresight". Basically it's just all the stuff from 1996-97 that would turn out to be more like modern stuff than the competition, so like ATX-K5-Rendition V2100 (V1000s are too expensive)-Windows NT/Linux dual boot. I guess if you include laptops I do have Cloud 9 which is my iBook G3 I bought for OS 9... for however period correct single-booting 9.2.2 on a 900MHz G3 is.