Computer assembly: My memories over the years

CeleronD

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It just dawned upon myself that its been almost 15 years since I first taught myself how to assemble computers back in 1999. Lest I forget, let me put it down in writing---and share it here.

It was the time when Intel and AMD were just beginning to move away from slot based processors back to the pin based ones.
My first computer which I assembled was from Costronic, a gigabyte board with a mendocino 25nm celeron 500 on a 66mhz FSB and cost me about $350. It could be overclocked by increasing the FSB to 75mhz.

Then Intel started the 18nm coppermine generation. Remember the Celeron 566 with 66mhz FSB? They were so popular because almost all could be clocked to 850 on a FSB of 100. The similar Pentium 3s were much more expensive and did not have better clocking ability.

AMD had for years been having slower clocks but better performance per clock and were using a PR rating---A K6-3 PR300 would be equivalent to an intel pentium II 300mhz. From the mid 2000s, AMD ruled the enthusiast and overclocking world with their Athlon and Duron line. Those were the days when you could buy a Duron 600mhz for under $100 and overclock it to 1000mhz, because AMD left their multipliers unlocked. Even when they started locking their multipliers, all it took was a simple pencil to unlock the bridges. The Abit KT7 Raid and Asus A7V133 were popular boards in those days.

When Intel started the Pentium IV line, AMD was still king, with a 1GHZ Thunderbird Athlon outperforming every single processor in the Intel lineup.
Sadly, most of the mass market then were oblivious to true performance but still caught up in the GHZ hype where faster was perceived to be better. From the performance standpoint, the Netburst Williamette architecture was pretty much a disaster.

With the Throughbred 13nm Athlons in 2002, AMD started a new XP naming system. The XP1700 and XP 1800 were very popular and overclocked very well. They could even be run on dual socket motherboards which were high end in those days, since CPUs had only a single core. i remember having a Soltek "golden flame" board then.
Enthusiasts only started going back to Intel around the time of the Northwood Pentium 4. An example was the Pentium 4 2.8c which could easily run at 3.5ghz. With the Athlon Barton, AMD's dominance faded and it has trailed Intel till today.

I do not remember much from the mid 2000s because I did not change any computer parts from my last Athlon XP2200 and Celeron D to my first Core 2 cpu.

Intel again became the overclocking king with the Core 2 in 2006. I bought mine in Oct 2006---a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 with a core 2 E6300@1.86GHZ which yielded a 50% overclock. The board has just celebrated its 7th birthday and is still in use with a 2nd hand Q6600 while the CPU is now in a drawer.

In 2010, I bought an i5 750 so I could play Starcraft 2 but didn't overclock it till much later. And only just this month, I bought a last generation 3570k and a couple of 2nd hand 2500ks to replace the aging systems(still on DDR2!)

Walking into Sim Lim Square yesterday, it seems that the crowds have really shrunk. The number of shops have also shrunk. gone are the days of M3, marketplace, aquest, superpet, bell, ouni infohighway, green domain, skylet etc. Only a few of the old ones from the last decade are still around, like videopro, fuwell, cybermind, laser.

I think its a matter of time when more of them close down, supplanted by shops with lower rentals/overheads like tradepac, best buy, best bargain, pc themes, mynextcom situated on the outer fringe. And, of course, Amazon/newegg
 

yewtee7

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Bought my first diy intel celeron back around 2004 when the purpose of this account was started hehe..

Then I shorted my first psu because I forgot to screw on the stand-offs lol.. but luckily it was a cheap $10 psu haha..

Switched back and forth from intel to amd as I went to the famous AMD athlon that thrashed intel briefly and then went back to intel e7200 and now still intel i5-2400..

Considering going back to amd fx or wait for the Haswell E-series next year.. now no need to upgrade so often as before liao.
 

UDeepEX

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I used to watch my Dad in 1999 - 2005 replacing computer parts when they fail. Pentium 2s, pentium 4s...RAM, GPUs (A Tonne of instances for this component). I only learnt how to assemble a computer as a General Elective Module in SP in 2008 using old Pentium III parts and only this month did I build my very first full system.

Prior to that though I only know how to replace easy to install components last year. like the GPU (a few times too, Swapped a GTX 550Ti to a 6970, add 1 more for Crossfire, then a GTX 680) Memory and hard drives.

Only 2 weeks ago while recovering from Wisdom Tooth Surgery I like zuo boh nothing to do, then build one la to the specs shown at the specs sidebar. So I turned into a PC builder like.... 2 weeks ago.
 

vanhalen74

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The very first computer I built myself was a AM486 DX4-100.
Prior to that I was using an old 8086XT and an AMD 80386 40mhz.
 

sHrike

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sad to say PC is a sunset industry.

i just upgraded my graphic card and using a core2duo E8400 I can play the latest games...no need to upgrade CPU at all
 
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royfrosty

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My very first PC that I ever had wasn't a diy set. Back then was an Acer desktop. It was running not even pentium 1. If I'm not wrong it was clocked at 600mhz. Booting windows 95 took 5mins, and that was fast back then. I have replaced multiple hard drives and floppy drives. Back then I do not know much about PC. Have been using that till I was PRI 5? Till someone donated a p4 diy PC to me. That is where I started learning more into PC. From there I only help friends and relatives on troubleshooting their PC. After which when I started poly I had my very first Core duo laptop. That was Compaq presario v3000 series. And that went on with more laptops till the last one I had was Razer blade laptop.

I only started building my very first PC late last year when I started working and I have some cash to spare.
 

koroshiya8

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Just came back from there LOL...
i think i'm 1 of the oldest here, my first 'PC' was in 1994 using my brother's 386 and 14.4 connection, playing bbs.. time flies.


anyone knows what happened to MC2 ? Now selling accessories, like pasar malam.

SLS is now dominated by accesories shop, everywhere is selling phone covers, usb cables, china-made tablets etc....

Computer shops, well, only the fittest and smart will be alive... long-life shops like Cybermind and Techdrome have their own survival methodology.. even PCT recently moved to a new unit.. all is not lost, except the slow and uninnovative will be kicked out of competition...
 
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CeleronD

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i'm 34. almost the oldest here!

the first computer I remember was from the times of 286 back in 1984, when computers cost oh-so-much
 

DeadandBuried

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My very first PC that I ever had wasn't a diy set. Back then was an Acer desktop. It was running not even pentium 1. If I'm not wrong it was clocked at 600mhz.

600Mhz would make it a Coppermine generation Pentium 3/Celeron.

My first DIY PC was a 400Mhz Celeron, Gigabyte BX-2000 mobo, 32MB EDO RAM, Creative RivaTNT2 graphics card, and SoundBlaster Live! sound card. Costed a thousand odd IIRC.

Anyone here still remember the BX,TX boards, ALi and VIA?

i'm 34. almost the oldest here!

the first computer I remember was from the times of 286 back in 1984, when computers cost oh-so-much
Yeah, I also recall the 286 computers running at 6MHz/10Mhz Turbo with CGA graphics.
 
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croc1977

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i'm 34. almost the oldest here!

the first computer I remember was from the times of 286 back in 1984, when computers cost oh-so-much
think im older...

i rem mind was IPC....i think is it 486DX or SX....

rem my first game championship manager

during then i rem 720 disk and becum 1.44 by drilling a hold on the side


or playing rtk2 when u need to change floppy....i still play that today....but no floppy...


those were the days where u buy computer free com table and dos 6.22....

those were the days i really miss when there is not much coackroaches , bananas or dark world...
 

sHrike

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Go ahead and lay the claim on being the oldest.... i am still young...lol....this happens to old people who refuse to admit being old...LOL
 

vanhalen74

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Just came back from there LOL...
i think i'm 1 of the oldest here, my first 'PC' was in 1994 using my brother's 386 and 14.4 connection, playing bbs.. time flies.


anyone knows what happened to MC2 ? Now selling accessories, like pasar malam.

SLS is now dominated by accesories shop, everywhere is selling phone covers, usb cables, china-made tablets etc....

Computer shops, well, only the fittest and smart will be alive... long-life shops like Cybermind and Techdrome have their own survival methodology.. even PCT recently moved to a new unit.. all is not lost, except the slow and uninnovative will be kicked out of competition...

I don't think using a 386 puts you in the "old" category. Certainly a 386 is old but not THAT old. :D
 

game goondu

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rike that how to say old...
my first pc, lao pei buy for me... still remember, cost 3k..

its a canon pc. something rike the below picture...

canon1.jpg


even lower specs than that...
8086, two 5 1/4 fdd.... CGA monitor....
games that i played..

alley cat, bards tale, rotk, play games need to swap diskettes...
 

croc1977

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rike that how to say old...
my first pc, lao pei buy for me... still remember, cost 3k..

its a canon pc. something rike the below picture...

canon1.jpg


even lower specs than that...
8086, two 5 1/4 fdd.... CGA monitor....
games that i played..

alley cat, bards tale, rotk, play games need to swap diskettes...
classic...rem play game keep changing disc
 

sHrike

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I like load runner and lhx heli simulation. I rem when i upgrade my 8086 to ega graphic card wah shiok man...16 colour...first time see blue red green on monitor...hahah
 
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