recreating my first PC build

[KennyPowers]

In late 1998 I was 15 and I built my first PC...not my first computer, but the first one I built from scratch. Over the last year I've been gathering the same components I used back then with the intent of recreating it. The original specs were:

• Soyo SY-5EMA+ motherboard with 1MB L2 cache
• 350Mhz K6-2 overclocked to 392Mhz (3.5x112Mhz FSB)
• Thermaltake Golden Orb cooler
• 8MB ATI Rage Pro Turbo later upgraded to a GeForce DDR on launch day
• 384MB RAM
• Sound Blaster Live
• Hauppauge TV tuner card
• 10/100 NIC
• some random ~4 or ~6 GB IDE drive
• 3.5" floppy
• CD-ROM
• no-name Inwin A500 knockoff case

I've managed to match these really closely, and had a ton of fun putting this build together. I was holding out for the same case I used, but after hunting for it for a year with no luck, I happened across a good deal on this really clean A500 and snapped it up:



I even found an unopened Golden Orb...totally unnecessary for a K6-2, but 15 year old me thought they looked cool in 1999:



I did find the same ATI card I used first, but I decided to cheat ahead to winter 1999 with the video card. I mowed lawns to save up the $300 for this newfangled "GeForce" thang with fancy "DDR" memory. I remember getting home from the mall with the big black box and hurriedly installing it:



The rest of the core components are also pretty much as listed above...also found 384MB of PC133:



Bench testing on the A500's removable motherboard tray and installing Win98SE:



Everything installed...top to bottom: GeForce DDR, slot cooler, Sound Blaster Live, 10/100 NIC, TV tuner card



You might think the TV tuner is useless nowadays, but the AV inputs are still functional. I tested them by playing my Sega Genesis in a window Of course I used a modern power supply. This 24 to 20 pin ATX adapter also adds the -5V line, not that anything in this system currently needs it:



I had no trouble turning the FSB up to 112Mhz and achieving the same overclock I did 25 years ago...it's been rock-solid. Granted, back in the day, that was an overclock for the PC100 RAM I was using, and now I'm using PC133, so that can only help stability. Anyways, here she is all done...I couldn't even wait to find a more permanent home for it. I just grabbed a screen and some speakers and started gaming on the dining room table



I know this isn't the world's most exciting build, but it was fun to relive "my first"

 

[KennyPowers]

Some Commodore gaming using the AV inputs. That WinTV card was grabbed off the free pile at VCF East this year...just happened to be the same one I had back in the day. Parents wouldn't let me have a TV in my room back then, but that card and some rabbit ears provided a sneaky workaround

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Great job. These beige box rebuilds bring back late 90s/TOTC gaming nostalgia feelies for me. I never had a TV tuner card though

Makes me want to snag one and stick it in one of my win boxes.

 

[Stinkerton18]

Ahhh the Golden Orb heatsinks. That brings back some memories!! The computer repair shop I used to work at in the early 2000's still had/sold those for even the Athlon Thunderbirds and Pentium IIIs. Part of me misses having a K6-2 system.

Love the build, and glad to see someone else realizing the value of those TV Tuner cards as video input devices.

 

[Trash80toG4]

That's my favorite (stock) PC Case ever! Thrift store find, it's one of only three I haven't brutalized.

 

[KennyPowers]

That's my favorite (stock) PC Case ever! Thrift store find, it's one of only three I haven't brutalized.

The slide-out tray is pretty slick. This is the case I was hunting for that I never could find:

 

[Trash80toG4]

Not crazy about that over busy lookin' front bezel. The case you found is a very slick. simple design with all controls and blinkiness inline along that prismatic trough. Bottom position of the badge plate is far more elegant. But I will grant you the cool factor of side panel inlet venting swoopiness.

Having done a lot of sheet metal work, I fell in love at first sight of the elegant drive cage/PSU mount diagonal bracing of the chassis.

 

[KennyPowers]

Not crazy about that over busy lookin' front bezel. Theone you found is a very slick. simple design with all controls and blinkiness inline along that prismatic trough. Bottom position of the badge plate is far more elegant, but I'll grant you the cool factor of side panel cooling swoopiness.

I agree the A500 is a better case...it's just not the exact one I used 26 years ago

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I agree the A500 is a better case...it's just not the exact one I used 26 years ago

The first case I had where the housing didn’t come off in a big bent “U” shape was an Antec Dragon mid case. The one I had was space gray and also was the first PC case I got with a window & I particularly loved how the drive bays were all hidden behind a sleek door. That was the first build where I took extra care to sleeve up my psu cables, ran round pata cables and sata and put a blue & ref cathode light in it. Boy I was so proud of that build

 

[KennyPowers]

The first case I had where the housing didn’t come off in a big bent “U” shape was an Antec Dragon mid case. The one I had was space gray and also was the first PC case I got with a window & I particularly loved how the drive bays were all hidden behind a sleek door. That was the first build where I took extra care to sleeve up my psu cables, ran round pata cables and sata and put a blue & ref cathode light in it. Boy I was so proud of that build

Sometime in late 2000 I moved the build in this thread into a ludicrously large Supermicro SC760-A case. That was the first case I painted, sleeved, put cold-cathode underglow on, etc. That case housed two subsequent builds...a dual Opteron and then an FX-51/GeForce 6800GT SLI build. I found a couple grainy pics of the FX-51 system:



I used to lug that case, and a 21" Trinitron, to LAN parties