PC History
This page is really more for my entertainment and nostalgia. This page documents the history of the various computers/parts I have owned/used at home since my father gave me my first pc when I was a "tweenager." Clearly I have invested way too much money in computers.
* - Denotes a part that broke
| Date | Parts | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1992? |
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My father gave me this computer he found in an office closet. I generally ignored the computer until I found there were some games that could actually be played on it. (I was a teenager afterall) |
| 1993? |
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I was definitely excited when I purchased this computer. It was equipped with VGA! Amazing 256 color graphics awaited me! |
| 1994? |
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My uncle gave this computer to me and I mostly ignored it. This would not be the last time I would have three computers setup where I lived. |
| 1995? |
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As repayment for yard work a friend's mother gave me this computer. |
| Fall 1996 |
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Upgraded the 486SX |
| Fall 1997 |
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Upgraded the 586-133 |
| Winter 1997 |
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Ah the good old days of 3DFX |
| Summer 1997 |
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- SHOCKING - I spent a huge pile of money to burn CDs. Later when I seemed to be making a lot of coasters I found out my hard drive was broken. |
| Fall 1999 |
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Upgraded the 586-200. Mysterious stability issues plagued this machine until I underclocked the CPU to 428Mhz. |
| Summer 2000 |
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| Fall 2000 |
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| Winter 2000 |
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I bought a DVD Drive and MPEG2 decoder for watching anime with people in the dorm I lived in. I was of course disappointed when the drive arrived broken and I had to wait another week to get a replacement. The decoder would remain (functional) in all my primary PCs until I stopped video editing in 2007. |
| 8-2001 |
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| 10-2001 |
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I purchased this monitor to make video editing a bit easier. It weighed a ton and did the job reasonably well. (1152x864 was my resolution of choice) I donated the monitor in 2009 and it was still fully functional. |
| 9-2003 |
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| 12-2003 |
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This upgrade was definitely not as impressive as previous leaps. I recall wondering what the difference was. I believe at the time the bottleneck for games was my video card. |
| 7-2004 |
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This was the first Shuttle system (of many) I built. |
| 3-2005 |
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This machine was a beast all around. It was built for video editing and thanks to the huge steel case weighed a ton. This was also the first computer I built as a seperate PC. (previously I always upgraded -- and in hindsight that was very risky!) |
| 2-2006 |
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Used this until 2011 (I hated widescreen and loved the 4:3 goodness) |
| 4-2007 |
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Another monstrosity of a PC weight wise and capability wise. The case was likely produced by the same OEM as my previous Antec case (the layout, design, and excessive weight were exactly the same). |
| 3-2009 |
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| 4-2009 |
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My first Intel based PC (that I purchased parts for). The stock fan installation went as poorly as many people have documented. After a week of stability issues I learned that the memory speed was not supported by the chipset. Magically everything was resolved when I set the speed to a lower value. The HD "coolers" ended up increasing the hard drive temperatures. |
| 5-2009 |
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Replaced the BGears passive coolers. Everything was much happier. |
| 4-2010 |
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I wanted to build a new media PC and migrate the previous one (E2200 Shuttle) to my girlfriend to replace her terribly old computer. While the DVD drive is functional it seems a little off at times. Weird noises and occasional issues reading specific discs hints towards it not exactly being the highest quality product. |
| 11-2010 |
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Replaced the MSI P45D3 motherboard that ran into issues. The stock fan installation went off without a hitch after I watched numerous videos explaining the best way to install the CPU fan. When investigating issues the CPU fan mounts were so badly damaged (from my botched install of the E8400 fan) it was not possible to salvage. On the possitive side the Shuttle using the E2200 received a CPU upgrade to an E8400! The Shuttle heat pipe seems to cool the E8400 without issue. |
| 11-2010 |
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The new MSI motherboard had no IDE ports so I was optical driveless! The only logical choice was to get a Blu-ray burner. |
| 11-2011 |
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Amazingly, one of the sticks of Kingston memory failed a Memtest x86+ test! The optical drive rips CDs like a champ. This was the first machine I built for my girlfriend to play games on. |
| 11-2011 |
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Only 2 dead pixels! (why were there ANY???) |
| 4-2012 |
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Regular 2-year replacement... definitely a stable powerhouse. Too bad the optical drive rips CDs at a snail's pace |
| 1-2013 |
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New TV PC |
| 5-2014 |
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Regular two year replacement. This time I built two of the exact same PC to replace my spouse's as well. |
| 8-2016 |
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Regular two year replacement. Again I built two of the exact same PC to replace my spouse's as well. |
| 11-2018 |
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Regular two year replacement. Again I built two of the exact same PC to replace my spouse's as well. |
| 10-2019 |
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New TV PC |
| 12-2020 |
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Regular two year replacement (delayed thanks to the RTX 3070!) |
| 08-2022 |
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Regular two year replacement. Built two (me & spouse). |
| 07-2023 |
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New TV PC |
Points of Interest
- I used to always upgrade my computers. I must have had tons of confidence because now I know better and always buy entirely seperate machines so I am never actually completely down.
- I try to upgrade my PC every two years.
- I have always used nVidia based cards since the purchase of the TNT2 Ultra in 1999 (a notably awesome product itself that somehow survived and functioned for gaming long after the little fan broke).
- The transition from AMD to Intel processors was an unfortunate one... but Intel really seemed to have the better products at the time (and still does).
- MSI motherboards have served me mostly well. I generally purchase higher end MSI motherboards. Whether this is a stupid way to increase my confidence in the product is up for argument.
Problematic Parts and Parts that outright broke
| Part | Lifetime | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown DVD Drive | 0 months | This was dead on arrival (there was a part sliding around making it obvious it was busted before I even tried it). |
| Epox 8KTA3PRO | ? months | During a firmware update the procedure failed and no obvious route existed to restore it. Luckily there was a spare motherboard around! |
| Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W | 0 months | This was dead on arrival. |
| MSI P45D3 Platinum Motherboard | 18 months | There appeared to be some kind of short causing the motherboard to shut off randomly. |
| Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333 | 0 months | Memtest x86+ revealed a problem with one of the sticks I purchased. (PC purchased 11-2011) |
| SAMSUNG 2443BWT-1 Monitor | 0 Months | The viewing angle on this monitor is about -1 degrees. I do not believe there is any angle at which the entire monitor is viewable. |
| Corsair CMK32GX4M2A2666C16 Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MH | 1 day | Memory test passed and then after 1 day of use a stick went bad. |