.

[Cochese]

.

 

[GreenGA]

With what limited time I have available, I gave up on building my own computers.  Then again, I may need a new one to run Photoshop and Lightroom and would get a bigger box for about the same money.

The above said, up until I retired from building my own, I had been doing so for almost 40 years. I may still have the computer I built using Byte Magazine's "Kit A Month Program", from 1975.  [cool]  Then again, there's my old Heathkit from about that time too.

 

[mattfc]

Yes have built quite a few, my normal process for getting a new workstation, though have always focused on functionality vs blinging, e.g. no neon lights!

Latest about a month ago is a i7-4790K @ 4.4GHz (watercooled), 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD (2x512GB in RAID 0) and Nvidia Quadro K2200

Built a few Shuttle XPCs and also moded an iMac with SSD

 

[jmbfestool]

I built my own computer a few years ago.

I then ended up getting iMac and my computer went into the loft.

I got it out of the loft a few weeks ago to take it down to my workshop and now it runs my CNC.

Jmb

 

[gkaiseril]

Form circuit boards into pre-build mother boards or from component parts?

I did Processor Technology Sol 20 and Imsai 8080 from parts.

 

[Sparktrician]

I've built my own desktops since '86.  In the last eight years, though, it's been bought laptops only, and I don't see myself going back to desktops in the future. 

 

[GreenGA]

Those are the ones I built and began with; well, TRS 80, Model 1 was in there too.

Ahhh, the days of using a cassette to save programs to. Or the paper tape punch/reader of my Heathkit.

Form circuit boards into pre-build mother boards or from component parts?

I did Processor Technology Sol 20 and Imsai 8080 from parts.

 

[tbellemare]

Those are the ones I built and began with; well, TRS 80, Model 1 was in there too.

Ahhh, the days of using a cassette to save programs to. Or the paper tape punch/reader of my Heathkit.

Form circuit boards into pre-build mother boards or from component parts?

I did Processor Technology Sol 20 and Imsai 8080 from parts.

'Ever drop a box of punch cards?

Tom

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

You guys are old.  [tongue]

I used to build computers, a lot of them. Back in the day, I had my own store.

Nowadays, I just order them. The prices are usually hard to beat versus buying components separately. Companies like Cyberpower PC and iBuyPower and the like will build-to-order and use high quality components that can be upgraded.

I have built a few computers for my kids over the past 5 years, but those may be some of the last.

Just my 2 cents.

Shane

 

[GreenGA]

Not personally, but I did need to run a dropped deck through a sorter/collator at an insurance company in the early 80's.

I was also on-site at a client location in the mid 80's when one of the mainframe computer operators was walking through a couple of swinging doors in the data center when the Haylon Fire suppression system went off and dumped a ton or two (??) into the center of the room, blowing the doors out and knocking the operator off his feet and sent about 5000 cards flying in every direction.  [eek]

One of those things one never forgets as long as they live.  [cool]

Oh, there was no fire, just a system malfunction. [embarassed]

'Ever drop a box of punch cards?

Tom

 

[crsowa]

I build my own PCs.  I used to game a lot online, but have since started other hobbies...I built my current PC 2 years ago or so...it now serves as my very overpriced wireless router...

 

[gippy]

I built a ZX81 from a kit, does that count?

 

[GreenGA]

You built one of those old Sinclair's? Sure, why not, that'll count. [poke]

  [big grin]

I built a ZX81 from a kit, does that count?

 

[vrasilla]

I just upgraded a custom bbyuild with a new z97 workstation mobo and an i7-4790k.  Left the old 16 gigs of  1333 in there. Use it most for cad and 3d rendering

 

[vrasilla]

I would never again buy a pre built pc

 

[GreenGA]

I actually looked at that combo before I decided to wait. I had thought about the z87, but read the z97 supports the Broadwell chip, SATA Express, and the 4970k runs cooler than its predecessor.

We've come a long way with these things. I remember writing an operating system for an early version of a smart card; 80-81 timeframe. I had 4k to work with. Yes..., K, as in kilobytes. [eek]

I just upgraded a custom bbyuild with a new z97 workstation mobo and an i7-4790k.  Left the old 16 gigs of  1333 in there. Use it most for cad and 3d rendering

 

[Rick Christopherson]

The last store-bought computer I bought was a Commodore SX64 portable. I still have it in a box in the garage and it worked the last time I plugged it in.

I have no idea how many systems I've built or rebuilt since then. Mainly because I just keep upgrading various parts at a time, and there is always at least one piece of the old system in the new one--if nothing else, the case. The last round was pretty much complete, though, because the old case just couldn't keep up with the air flow.

5 months ago I had a CPU failure, which I believe is pretty rare. It was still plenty fast, but it was cheaper to replace the whole motherboard and upgraded processor than it was to replace the old CPU with the same one. Unfortunately the new ASUS motherboard isn't recognizing the Quadro FX5800 video card. So I am stuck limping along with an old FX3500 video card.

I'm starting to lose faith in Nvida because they seem to be the root of various computer problems for the past several years. The only other option for SolidWorks is AMD Firepro, but I haven't started researching them yet.

 

[sae]

AMD's drivers are where they are lacking. I don't find them to be as stable as NVIDIA's.

I'm still on a semi-old Sandy Bridge i5-2500k on an ASUS board, seems to have been a sweet spot in price/performance, and haven't felt a need to upgrade yet. I have a GTX 570 that I rarely use, and a mSATA 256GB SSD, all stuffed on a mini-ITX board.

I should've gone mini-ATX and gotten the option to add a second video card since my mini-tower case isn't the smallest case (it's built more as a mini server case, with 6 3.5" drive slots), and I could've gone to 32 GB of RAM easily whereas I'm stuck at 16 GB on this thing.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

AMD's drivers are where they are lacking. I don't find them to be as stable as NVIDIA's.

Really? That can't be good, because the NVIDIA drivers are also unstable and I find I have to re-install them every few months when things get glitchy.

Back with the old motherboard and FX5800, I found that I had to periodically do a hard power cycle (unplug) to keep the video card running smooth. It took a lot of troubleshooting to discover that the video card was never shutting down even when the computer shut down.

 

[sae]

Did you see if anyone else was having compatibility issues w/ that card? The Quadro boards have higher power requirements too iirc, were you starving it for power? Clean power matters more and more nowadays as voltages get lower in attempt to save power (but means everything is more sensitive to power fluctuations).

Motherboard design plays into this as well, the expensive ones have huge (and plentiful) capacitors to dampen and clean up the electrical load. Though coming from ASUS, they don't really skimp on much.