How old were you when you first built your PC?
- Thread starter fiveub
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About 14. Was an AMD XP 2500+ overclocked to be a 3200+. Proper overclocking - buy the cheapest and get the performance of the best model. No paying an "overclockable" K premium like these days.
Tommy's very young but luckily he doesn't have to deal with jumpers!
Tommy's very young but luckily he doesn't have to deal with jumpers!
The the first one i payed for was when i was 15 after i had worked a couple of summers to pay for it. My parents bought me a PC when i was 12 which i always had in bits upgrading components but i didnt build that one my self originally.
11-12, 2008. I've a family friend who teaches various computer science lectures at college. He invited me down and I ended up spending a week learning about various thnigs just about in my grasp along with taking apart computers and putting them back together, everything from 486es to P4s along with tearing down broken computers and salvaging parts into something working. By the end of the week I had probably built something in the order of 50 computers.
I made a computer for myself about age 14. It was easy, I'd done enough already and this time I could pick which parts and know they worked. However with it built it quickly became apparent where my knowledge lacked. I had 1 case fan and a cheap overburdened PSU. Every computer I had built up to that point was either old enough that power and temperature wasn't an issue or for the P4s new and I was given the full set of components. My computer ran bordering on the thermal shutoff, would need the side removed and a desk fan to keep it gaming in the summer, and was built on an old socket after it became outdated, and ultimately I'm incredibly surprised it ran for a year let alone 6 (and still going).
My current computer was built around 2012 age 16 and uses everything I screwed up with the old system. I went AMD as Intel seem to like swapping sockets and motherboards, I prized low temperatures and low noise possibly a little too much, and I used quality components. I've since built a few friends computers and that design goal hasn't changed at all. One wanted flashy lights and cheap components and ended up swapping out all of that for quality and low noise himself after a while.
I made a computer for myself about age 14. It was easy, I'd done enough already and this time I could pick which parts and know they worked. However with it built it quickly became apparent where my knowledge lacked. I had 1 case fan and a cheap overburdened PSU. Every computer I had built up to that point was either old enough that power and temperature wasn't an issue or for the P4s new and I was given the full set of components. My computer ran bordering on the thermal shutoff, would need the side removed and a desk fan to keep it gaming in the summer, and was built on an old socket after it became outdated, and ultimately I'm incredibly surprised it ran for a year let alone 6 (and still going).
My current computer was built around 2012 age 16 and uses everything I screwed up with the old system. I went AMD as Intel seem to like swapping sockets and motherboards, I prized low temperatures and low noise possibly a little too much, and I used quality components. I've since built a few friends computers and that design goal hasn't changed at all. One wanted flashy lights and cheap components and ended up swapping out all of that for quality and low noise himself after a while.
As we are talking specs, it was a 486 sx25 (mhz minus the maths co-processor...), 4mb of ram, 120mb HD and a 14 inch VGA CRT..... ran Dos 6 and Windows 3.1
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I was 16, having just finished my GCSEs. I still have the case, but the inards are long gone.
Specs were:
Intel Pentium 4 3.06Ghz
512MB RAM
ASUS Black Pearl Motherboard
120GB Seagate IDE HDD
128MB ATI Rage Pro Graphics Card
LG 16x CDRW.
4x Samsung DVD/CDRW Combo.
Windows XP Professional
Not a bad machine. I upgraded the RAM and had it as my main machine for several years. It was still in use as my sister's web browser until around 2 or 3 years ago (when I finally upgraded that to a Core 2 Duo).
Specs were:
Intel Pentium 4 3.06Ghz
512MB RAM
ASUS Black Pearl Motherboard
120GB Seagate IDE HDD
128MB ATI Rage Pro Graphics Card
LG 16x CDRW.
4x Samsung DVD/CDRW Combo.
Windows XP Professional
Not a bad machine. I upgraded the RAM and had it as my main machine for several years. It was still in use as my sister's web browser until around 2 or 3 years ago (when I finally upgraded that to a Core 2 Duo).
Deleted member 87287
Deleted member 87287
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Probably about 16, so around mid 90s. I was building them as part of by job by 2000.
These days I spend my time running, building, and fixing corporate networks and tinkering with server clusters. I only really build desktop PCs for myself and friends now
These days I spend my time running, building, and fixing corporate networks and tinkering with server clusters. I only really build desktop PCs for myself and friends now
Last edited:
16 or so? Joined OcUK forums around that time too. My cousin who's recently turned 12 has asked me to help him build his first custom desktop, but wow 10 
.
Although I think remember someone being even younger with their first custom build...
.Although I think remember someone being even younger with their first custom build...
I never had the money or reason to do so... until I was 20 lol. Before that, I think I upgraded a PC when I was 17, but that's not quite building a PC. I hadn't really gotten into it till my late teens if I'm honest. Before that, I simply hadn't really discovered PC building. What can I say... I'm a late bloomer. I didn't realise video games were a thing till the GameCube in 2002 too, despite having played things before that.