Ah, if I may... Here's mine :
CPU : Ryzen 5 2600
Motherboard : MSI X370 SLI Plus
RAM : T-Force Delta R DDR4 3000 32 (16x2) GB RGB
GPU : Yeston RX 6800 XT "Sakura Hitomi edition"
SSD : Samsung PM1725a 1.5 TB
HDD : An old 500 GB Seagate Momentus Thin and 8TB Seagate "green ones"
PSU : Seasonic S12G Gold
Cooler : Cryorig H7 QL
Case : some random chinese $20 case, along with 6 random case fans
My PC kind of "evolved" with the times. To be honest I was never a "desktop computer" guy before this one. I was a staunch laptop user, and it was enough for my needs. I didn't really play demanding games, so even an ULV i5 with integrated graphics were all I needed.
Until I learned about this game called "Mirror's Edge Catalyst". I was so stunned with how beautiful that game is. I saw a demo PC on a trade show playing that game, and I was like me watching Avatar at the cinema for the first time and getting wowed by the visuals. So I grabbed a copy (Steam copy, just to be clear I know this site's stance on piracy) and installed it on my laptop. It was the most demanding game I've played up to that point. I knew the performance would be abysmal, but as long as I could experience the environment, that would be enough.
And abysmal it was, even in lowest resolution and graphics settings the laptop only managed around 5-10 fps average. My microwave display had more FPS than that! I was dead set on playing that game, so I decided to build a PC.
I didn't want to go overboard, the PC was built to play that game and ONLY that game, so the part I picked was the exact same as its recommended requirements.
The PC started its life with a Gigabyte GTX 970 paired to a Ryzen 3 1200. Wanted to pick a GALAX but it was too expensive. Everything else was the cheapest parts I could get (A320M ASRock board, 8 GB chinese RAM, no SSD, 500GB HDD pulled from my laptop, random FSP PSU (mistake), and a no name chinese case). Monitor was (and still is) the cheapest 1080p panel I could find. I sourced the keyboard, speaker, and mouse off an internet cafe that was closing (again, basic parts, was a logitech value pack something something). The PC was very basic, but it was able to play Mirror's Edge in high settings, and that was enough to make me happy.
RAM :
But soon, the allure of the PC world started to grow on me. I heard Ryzen didn't like single-channel RAMs, so I switched it to a 16 GB T-Force Delta, and years later, the 32 GB version.
PSU :
Then the PSU blew up. Loud bang and a flash and the PC shut down. This incident was the reason why I signed up to the forums, and it's where my name came from. I picked a Seasonic PSU, thanks to the help of this forum, which has been rock solid since then. Luckily, none of the other parts were affected by the fiery death of my PSU.
Motherboard :
Then I installed 6 RGB case fans, just to make it look less barren. I realized the fans needed a RGB header to work properly, so I upgraded the motherboard to a (used) X370 SLI Plus. Someone local sold the board at a strikingly low price, great deal. X370 was overkill for my needs (and still is) but I picked it for around 140 AUD, X370 was still the cutting edge back then, I believe the street price for the board was around 210 AUD at least, so it was almost half price.
Cooler :
With the RGB case fans installed, I wanted my PC to look even better. I kind of didn't like Ryzen's stock cooler, I wanted something to make my PC "look" powerful. I saw many higher performance PC use tower-style CPU coolers. I chose a Cryorig H7 QL, which was WILDLY overkill for my PC. I basically strapped a 160W cooler to a low-end 65W Ryzen, just because it looked good. I was satisfied though.
GPU :
At this point, I was knee deep in PC gaming. I replayed many games that my laptop couldn't run all these years. I wanted more. Mirrors Edge still had two graphics settings above "High", they are "Ultra" (which stuttered on my setup) and "Hyper" (refused to run at all). I was enamored by Sapphire's line of GPU, specifically their Pulse series of cards. I find them really cute. After some pondering, I finally snagged a Sapphire Vega 56 Pulse at slightly above MSRP. I was lucky though, because soon after I bought it the mining craze reared its head and the GPU was either out of stock or skyrocketed in price.
Was it a wise decision? Yes and no. I paired the Vega 56 with a Ryzen 3 1200. When I described my specs to the PC store guy, he literally laughed at me on how bottlenecked my setup was. But hey, I was there for the cute GPU, not performance.
CPU :
Later on, someone special gifted me a Ryzen 5 2600. Which makes the CPU all the more special, not just some silicon on a plastic substrate covered in some metal. You know how it is. The Ryzen 3 1200 was finally laid to rest (not for long).
SSD :
Then came the SSD. For the longest time I was an unbeliever when it comes to SSD. I had only saw it as a "faster hard drive". My 500GB HDD is fine, so why should invest in wildly-expensive-yet-low-capacity drives?? It took me 15 minutes of me using one of my mate's SSD-equipped laptop to change my mind. I swear, when I first used that laptop, it was so quick and responsive, it felt like an alien-tech to me. Never in my life I thought Windows could be that smooth. One of three instances of technology that managed to amaze me to such extent (after Windows Vista and AMOLED screens). I ordered a Lexar NM600 512GB SSD when I had the chance, and I never looked back to using HDD as a main drive.
Years later, I picked a Samsung PM1725a from where I worked, they were decommisioning some servers and I could get the SSD essentially for free.
HDD
I never really cared about backing up my data. One day my external HDD that contained irreplaceable pictures died after being dropped. Luckily, I had an "unintentional" backup of them (automatic Google Photos backup), and I simply brushed it off as "ok whatever, stuff happens".
hahaha...
We often see people here complaining about performance issues, when having 1500 browser tabs open.
But one day when randomly scrolling through the site I came across your sig. And that image actually got me thinking for the first time. : "That sig is right, what if my hard drives decides to randomly die again? Google Photos might won't save me next time.".
So I got right into it and bought two 8TB Seagate "green" hard drive (couldn't remember the exact model, it was the cheapest one I could find as performance didn't really matter in this scenario). I backed up all of my data (ALL of them, not just important ones) to one of those drives and used the other one as a "daily" in my PC. I was EXTREMELY LUCKY because the 8TB HDD I used daily died in just two weeks since I bought it followed by the factory-installed 250 GB HDD on my laptop dying two days later. If I HADN'T backed up my data, I would've lost all of my memories when I was still a young child. Brutal.
This incident sobered me on how important backing up is. I bought another 2 of those 8TB HDD, copied my backed up data to them, and kept them in different places. One here, one in my parent's house, one in one of my relatives. I returned the broken 8TB HDD and got the warranty replacement, which still ticks to this day inside the PC.
That sig was a godsend. I swear I can't thank you enough. If I hadn't seen that image, my memories of my childhood would've simply, literally, just memories.
GPU (again) :
The latest upgrade to the PC was the GPU. I was still on track on making my PC looking as great as possible. I saw the Yeston RX 6700 XT "Sakura Hitomi edition" randomly when reading videocardz and was royally stunned on how CUTE that GPU is. I don't know anything about anime or that "japan cartoon" stuff, so I have no idea who that character on the GPU is really. I simply find the GPU's shroud model and paint really cute, nothing more. I don't really need the power offered by a 6700XT, by this point I don't even game anymore. But you know how I always choose my GPU : cuteness first, performance later.
It was a chinese-only model AFAIK so I had to pull a few strings and ask for a few favors to procure the model (and even then, the guy could only source a 6800XT, so I ended up picking a GPU even more overkill than I needed). Currently that monster of a GPU (by my standards) is powering a 1080p 60Hz monitor and mere excel spreadsheets. I only use the GPU to output images to the monitor.
So, where do we go from here? I don't know. In my opinion the PC is complete. There's just nothing more to upgrade.
I get told rather often that my current CPU is holding my GPU back, and there are plenty of great affordable Ryzen CPUs that is compatible with the platform I'm running, so supposedly it's high time for me to upgrade that Ryzen 5 2600. But, due to the circumstances of that CPU....... that CPU has deep sentimental value for me, so I don't think I'd upgrade it anytime soon.
That's the story of my PC...
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram