Here in Brazil sometimes I hear people calling these machines "built machines/computer/PC" (máquina/computador/PC montado).

brostenen wrote:

"Custom". (still don't fully grasp that "label")

It'll be derived from Custom Cars.

Perhaps this is useful. Maybe you were thinking in the sense of "habit" rather than "made to order".
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=custom

More specifically, a "custom" made item will be one-of-a-kind.

Anyhow! For my country, Canada, we use the same terms as the Americans this time. (We do on most things, but there's a handful of exceptions, plus we use more British terms.)

Do hope RacoonRider pops into this thread. Some Russian terms and phrases are fascinating.

The term "custom" is just because the configuration is customized for 1 person. It's not a mass produced system.

"Bamboo" is an interesting term, but I think it would never catch on here in the US. People here would choose to get really sensitive about it, as they always do about anything that in some way refers to a nationality or race in an informal fashion. People in the US are terrified of somebody calling them "racist", so they get really nervous about slang terminology.

Hmmm... Even if it refers to pandas which it does.
If the parts were all from Denmark, we would be honored if Americans would have called these machines for a Danish. We are actually. Just that it's about a different thing. We call a Danish for Vienna-bread, because it was Austrian bakers from Vienna who began selling it in Copenhagen back then.

Perhaps it is just the twisted Danish humor that are present here. 😉

I've used both "custom" and "homemade" interchangeably over the years, and people here in Southern California seem to understand what I'm talking about when referring to computers (I've also used "one-off" every now and then).

And while I haven't been back to my native country of Ecuador for over 35 years now, I recently spoke with some distant relatives there over the phone and they told me that the term "made to order PC" (Computadora Personal hecha a la orden) is the most common, while "customized PC" (Computadora customizada) is gaining favor with the younger generation. Of course, this info is second (or even third) hand, so I wouldn't be surprised if these terms are wrong (I apologize in advance if they are 😅 ).

brostenen wrote:

Hmmm... Even if it refers to panda's wich it does.
If the parts were all from Denmark, we would be honored if Americans would have called these machines for a Danish. We are actually. Just that it's about a different thing. We call a Danish for Vienna-bread, because it was Austrian bakers from Vienna who began selling it in Copenhagen back then.

Perhaps it is just the twisted Danish humor that are present here. 😉

I agree, and I think most of the world would have no problem with it. It's people in the US that are just too touchy about these things.

brostenen wrote:

And then the term "Clones" because of a direct translation or shortening of the label: "Ibm Compatible or clone".

Here it was "IBM compatible" or "Clone". "Clones" was a shortened version of "PC Clones" which obviously included "IBM compatibles"

Most small shops and mail order outfits were selling system "customised" to the buyers specific requirements. Or you could order your individual components to assemble a system. Really no different to what can be done today.

brostenen wrote:

Hmmm... Even if it refers to pandas which it does.
If the parts were all from Denmark, we would be honored if Americans would have called these machines for a Danish. We are actually. Just that it's about a different thing. We call a Danish for Vienna-bread, because it was Austrian bakers from Vienna who began selling it in Copenhagen back then.

Perhaps it is just the twisted Danish humor that are present here. 😉

Kinda like Vienna sausages being called wiener in Frankfurt and frankfurter in Vienna 😀

brostenen wrote:

Hmmm... Even if it refers to pandas which it does.
If the parts were all from Denmark, we would be honored if Americans would have called these machines for a Danish. We are actually. Just that it's about a different thing. We call a Danish for Vienna-bread, because it was Austrian bakers from Vienna who began selling it in Copenhagen back then.

Perhaps it is just the twisted Danish humor that are present here. 😉

In Australia during the 90s/00s, generic S-E Asian branded items were referred to as "yum cha brand", didn't matter which country it came from ... or that locally branded goods came out of the same factories. Pretty sure that term's fallen out of use here now.

In USSR and early-Russia days, we divided all computers (including non-IBM-compatible ones) into three categories:
"White assembly" (белая сборка) - US and West Europe, mostly branded;
"Red assembly" (красная сборка) - USSR/Russia and some ex-Communist countries;
"Yellow assembly" (желтая сборка) - Asia 😀
Thus homemade computers usually were referred as "yellow assembly" even if the assembling process actually took place in Russia due to the fact that 100% of components came from Asia.

tametick wrote:

Kinda like Vienna sausages being called wiener in Frankfurt and frankfurter in Vienna 😀

We have Vienna-sausages too (Wienerpølser) 😁

Actually...
All electronic's and other junk are referred to as "China-Crap" here in Denmark.
Yet only the shitty stuff. Term deriated from the fact that china does indeed mass-produce crap.

hard1k wrote:

In USSR and early-Russia days, we divided all computers (including non-IBM-compatible ones) into three categories: "White assemb […]
Show full quote

In USSR and early-Russia days, we divided all computers (including non-IBM-compatible ones) into three categories:
"White assembly" (белая сборка) - US and West Europe, mostly branded;
"Red assembly" (красная сборка) - USSR/Russia and some ex-Communist countries;
"Yellow assembly" (желтая сборка) - Asia 😀
Thus homemade computers usually were referred as "yellow assembly" even if the assembling process actually took place in Russia due to the fact that 100% of components came from Asia.

Russian efficiansy... Sometimes better than germanian-style, sometimes not.
Like the idea of categorising into coloured labels like that.
Most outstanding, most.

I have actually heard the term "Top-Dollar" (yes, not even translated) when some technology are of the best quality.
And have been bought cheap when looking at what other stores are selling it for.
Could be a phone or a computer. When it's good, it's "Top-Dollar".

When in Eastern Europe IBM PC became appearing as mass spreaded thing (beginning of 1990s, very late 1980s), they were very expensive. So the price was most important thing. Hence serious brands were not common (they could cost >1.5 times more for same), and almost everythig was gathered from Taiwan parts by a multitude of small firms wich sold these computer parts. Mostly such systems worked good, but as "wind of change" brought a chaos for several years, you could be lucky to deal with a firm sold some broken or untested parts (because the firm could buy them cheaper, had small experience, while a reputation on the market was nothing still). No one practically cared wich brand you have, as in >90% it was a small firm appeared recently (maybe monthes ago) with "production line" in the near room of the shop (no brand name was placed on the case; occasionaly it could be "noname" brand of larger firm). You just had an "IBM" (XT/286/386 etc) or for advanced dudes "IBM PC compatible".
So the situation did not gain for special stable term to appear for "home made" or "custom", as almost everyone had similar class systems. Opposite there could used the term "firm-made" meaning it was by a known brand. Mentioned above terms "white/yellow assembly" - the terms of 1990s beginning mostly. Today, I think, the situation changed not much. Desktop computers have become more affordable, but brands are not popular so the terminology stays.

JidaiGeki wrote:

In Australia during the 90s/00s, generic S-E Asian branded items were referred to as "yum cha brand", didn't matter which country it came from ... or that locally branded goods came out of the same factories. Pretty sure that term's fallen out of use here now.

I still hear it from time to time, and not just with computers. I think it's as much about it originating in Asia as not being able to easily identify where the mediocre quality components came from...just like Yum Cha food as some would say.

The only term I can recall hearing in the late 80s/early 90s here is "clone" as well, before it finally gave way to everything being called a "PC".

shamino wrote:

The term "custom" is just because the configuration is customized for 1 person. It's not a mass produced system.

"Bamboo" is an interesting term, but I think it would never catch on here in the US. People here would choose to get really sensitive about it, as they always do about anything that in some way refers to a nationality or race in an informal fashion. People in the US are terrified of somebody calling them "racist", so they get really nervous about slang terminology.

A wildly available Turkish biscuit 🤣

We were calling the OEMs (IBM, Compaq, HP, Epson, etc.) as "markali" (i.e: "branded") and the others that assembled from parts in small shops generally as "toplama" (i.e. "collected together" / "put together") and sometimes "markasiz" (I.e: no-brand) during the days. OEMs were very expensive with good quality, "toplama" PCs were cheap and built with generic low quality components going into generic beige cases.

Now, there are even a couple of very big local OEMs, which originally started with "toplama" PCs in generic beige cases with cheap label tags. The market is completely different, too. "Toplama" today means generally custom built rigs with high quality/performance parts. And OEMs are generally cheap shits sold by big electronic chain markets. All things aside very few people asking for desktops anymore, laptops and notebooks are all the rage nowadays, if not as much as smart phones and tablets.

here in America custom can also be called a Frankenstein

What part of Oz are you from JidaiGeki? maybe its a QLD thing?
I grew up in Nowra NSW during the mid 90's-00's and never came across the term but then I didn't know about Yam Cha (as in the restaurants) till moving to Sydney in 02.
I usually call them White box, no name, generic PC. I'm not sure which terms I picked up from Oz and which ones from the UK.

I'm liking the colour coded Russian style as well.
Also like Frankfurt Vienna giving each other credit for a bit of food, normally country's try and claim ownership

You mean they are the same? I think here in portugal you can buy either, to tell you the truth never noticed any difference, so that makes sense. 😀

I believe here in portugal the term was "marca branca" literaly white label, but meant that it had no brand. I remember it came to use only in the late 90's.

I live in the Silicon Valley, and I while I do hear people refer to custom-built computers as custom PC's from time to time, it's actually quite rare. Usually, the average Joe just refers to computers by their brand-name because they probably bought an OE system, but other times they'll just say that someone "built me a computer," etc. I remember some systems in the past being proprietary, and I would refer to them as such.

I think one of the reasons people don't refer to custom systems as "custom" so often, here is because physically, they don't look all that different. Unfortunately, unlike automobiles, computers just tend to look like an amalgam of parts because nobody wants to standardize the colors and designs of their products, and things like drive-faces are not the easiest to change as far as color, whether it be by paint or dye. Maybe it's just different for technicians like myself, who can appreciate the insides. And while I have painted PC cases due to my automotive restoration trade, you usually need to find the right case because many cases have designs which would be very difficult to paint, and while dyeing them would be idea at times, trying to dye something as large as the face of a case is not often realistic.