I have one of these as well, apparently the HD controller died from shock. One day I’ll do something about that and put the HDs back in.
As far as I can recall, I *think *this PC started off as a “bought new from the store” one… back in '98. But I don’t think a single component is left from it, not even the outer case. Ah ! I know. The floppy drive ! Never changed it, which would explain why it doesn’t work anymore.
I could probably build two or three working boxes from all the spare parts and old components stored around the place, just in case. In case of what ? Hell if I know.
In case we ever go back to floppy discs?
There are parts of my PC dating back to the early 90s. Not many, but I do keep the floppy around, mostly out of nostalgia. Though I replaced the front bezel with a black one.
Most of the rest of it qualifies as my grandfather’s axe. Replaced the head twice and the handle three times, but it’s still my grandfather’s axe. Just putting in a new video card today.
I havn’t bought a ‘new computer’ since… uhm.
But this thing is fast enough to run games that aren’t coming out till February '10. I know that for a fact.
I have three cases that it used to belong to, still hanging about. I like to swap cases when I swap motherboards. I could probably make a working computer out of them.
I have a laptop that’s about four years old, and one that’s about eight.
My PC is a Frankenstein of components. The core PC was upgraded this summer; new motherboard, CPU, memory, power supply, video card. The hard drives, monitor, keyboard, and mouse are of varying ages. The keyboard is probably 10 years old. No Windows key or anything.
I’ve got assorted PCs of varying ages. Two can run modern games. One is there for Wing Commander 1 & 2. One is a test machine. One runs Windows Home Server. One needs a replacement Pentium D CPU, and there are another two 486-class machines in bits.
I picked “Various Ages” but the heart and soul of it (MB, CPU Graphics Card, mem) are all < 3yrs.
Built my new PC from components a couple months ago. Core i5 processor and ATI 4870 card.
I have a high-end desktop for software development.
Ah damn, beaten to the lame punchline by this much. OK, change my vote from “other” to “modest gaming rig purchased within the last 1.5 years…”
another grandfather’s axe here.
Dell Dimension from 2002 (03?). I have upgraded some components but it’s hampered by an old processor (P4 2.4GHz) and an AGP slot for video. So I classified it as “6+ years old” as a more accurate representation than “Varying ages”.
Custom-built my rig March 2008 as an overengineered gaming/media rig. Video cards got upgraded April 2009. Hard drive addition June 2009. When I got Windows 7x64 last month, I added an additional 4GB of RAM and upgraded the HD to a RAID0 array for quicker drive access. My PCs tend to be continuous works in progress, upgraded piecemeal as the technology evolves and components get cheaper; the case usually gets swapped out when it’s time for a new motherboard/processor combo, usually about 3 years after the initial build. I rarely build from scratch – the March '08 build was done after spending 3 years overseas with the military and the 2001 box I had in storage wasn’t worth reusing; count me in the “easy to upgrade” camp.
I built mine between Oct and Nov last year. It replaced the one I built in '06.
If you build a new machine every 2 years you don’t have to get top of the line parts. So you can get 2nd or 3rd tier stuff that will play new games for a few years, and don’t have to spend that much. Thats the strategy I’ve been following, and its been working pretty well. My last 2 comps have never had problems running any games - even the notorious GTA IV runs with no probs, although by time I got it the game was patched a few times.
I bought my quad core desktop last year. My laptop I bought this year.
Self-built core i7 gaming rig with 6GB RAM and an nVidia GTX 260 card less than a year ago.
Fully other.
I’ve built all my PCs from components for a decade now.
Much better from a performance view. All the commercial PC builders cut corners on at least a few components:
[ul]
[li]Power supply[/li][li]RAM speed (not RAM capacity, but Joe Blow doesn’t understand the difference)[/li][li]Graphics card[/li][li]HD speed (again, not capacity but speed)[/li][li]Mobo quality[/li][li]Sound card[/li][li]Cooling (usually PC heatsink and case fans)[/li][/ul]
I suppose I should address Alienware. They build pretty good systems, but then charge like $1000 on top of system cost. Good builds, but very expensive unless you simply can’t handle plugging in a RAM module yourself.
Wow - I’m drooling over here.
All mine have been built from scratch, but I’ve been sticking with AMD for the last few years due to price, so none of my systems would hold a candle to what some of you guys are running.
Here’s what I have:
2 separate low power single core Athlon AM2 processors with entry-level motherboards, 2GB DDR2 RAM each - one runs XP (the kids’ pc) and the other runs Vista Premium (the living room/quasi-HTPC).
My main PC is aging a bit - an AM2 5600+ X2 processor, Radeon 4830 vidcard, 2 GB DDR2 800 RAM, running XP, 500W psu.
My wife’s PC is actually newer and faster - an AMD AM2+ dual-core (forget the model #), 4 GB DDR2 1066, GeForce 9600 GT 600W modular PSU.
All of the above are using Gigabyte mobos, which I’ve found very durable and reliable, even in the entry-level range.
I also have a Windows Home Server running on a single-core Atom system I built from an MSI Wind nettop barebones kit. Plus, I’m also thinking of building an ION/Atom-based HTPC system to put in the kids’ room so they can stream DVDs from the home server to their TV like I can in the living room. And I’ve been thinking of getting a Wind Touchscreen PC for the kitchen, but I’m waiting to see what Apple’s working on in the tablet space.
I bought my current computer Feb of 07 (my laptop is newer, but has no games on it) but I’ve: upgraded the video and sound cards, doubled the ram, and added a second DVD writer to it. I tend to buy computers I feel have potential for customizing 
If I wasn’t posting from it, I’d assume you stole my computer. I’m running the exact same thing.