summer_of_alvin :
My history of upgrades:
2007: ATI Radeon 2900 XT @ Intel Q6600 (OC 3.0 GHz)
2006: NVidia GeForce 7800 GS Upgrade
2005: n/a
2004: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro @ AMD Athlon 64 3000+
2003: NVidia GeForce 4200 Ti @ AMD Athlon XP 1700+
2002: n/a
2001: ATI Radeon 7200 @ AMD Athlon K7 700 (OC 850 MHz)
2000: Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS Upgrade
1999: 3DFX Voodoo 3 @ Intel Celeron 300A (OC 450 MHz)
1998: 3DFX Voodoo 2 @ AMD K6 200 (OC 233 MHz)
1997: 3DFX Voodoo @ Intel Pentium 166 MMX
Ahhh... the original 3DFX Voodoo from ten years ago. I still remember it like it was just yesterday. A dedicated 3D graphics accelerator that required a separate 2D video card. First time I ever saw games rendered in "real" high-res 3D polygons instead of ugly low-res sprites.
As close as I can remember from long ago to now:
1984: Atari 1200 home computer with 32k (I bought an external cartridge to have 64k)
1987: Commodore 128, because my software had Atari 800/1200 on one side of the 5 1/4 floppy and Commodore 64 on the other. The Atari ST basically abandoned the old software and I didn't want to have to repurchase the games I had.
1988: Laser 128 kept it along with the C128 to play a bunch of Apple II Wizardry games I'd been given.
1992: First barebones PC with one meg of RAM, a 512k VGA card and a 386SX-40 with a 40 meg Connor hard drive
1993: Cyrix 486DLC-40 on a 386 board with a 1 meg VGA card, kept the same hard drive and RAM.
1995: used 486DX2-50 with motherboard a friend begged me to buy so he could afford his upgrade. Also got a 120 meg hard drive at this time. Also, redwoodtreesprite moved in with me in late 1995 and I introduced her to PC gaming.
1996: 486DX2-80 to play Daggerfall, with Windows 95 and a proprietary Mitsumi CD-ROM drive (ie not IDE had it's own controller card).
1997: Pentium 75 with new board and an 800 meg hard drive, with an SIS 8 meg 2D card and a Diamond Monster Voodoo, and my first IDE CD-ROM.
That PC got the following upgrades:
Pentium 120 because it was a free gift, and then Pentium 166 so I could run Heroes of Might and Magic III.
I really forget what kind of RAM I had back then. I don't think I went over 4 megs, and I was stuck with one 800 meg and one 640 meg WD hard drives for the longest time, until I got a SCSI card for an NEC SCSI CD-ROM and 2 2.1 gig SCSI drives. Then I had all 4 drives for the longest time.
It was also the PC that got a Windows 98 upgrade.
1999: AMD K62-450 on an ASUS motherboard with the legacy SIS 8 meg 2D and a Voodoo 2 12 meg 3D. Went to Windows ME in 2000 to solve issues with the SCSI setup. Redwoodtreesprite was so happy that the system stopped crashing and she could play HOMM 2 (or 3?) without issues that she decided she'd marry me! Also upgraded to a Radeon 64 DDR from the SIS and Voodoo 2.
2002: P4 Williamette 1.6 for Morrowind, with an AIW Radeon 8500 128 and one gig SDRAM (it was an i845 chipset Soyo board). Kept the old K62 system for a year and put a Geforce MX2 in to replace the SIS and Voodoo 2. This was the year that redwoodtreesprite got addicted to Morrowind modding.
That motherboard got an upgrade to a 2.4 Northwood 400fsb.
2004: P4 Northwood 2.8 on an i865PERL with 2 gigs DDR and a 40 gig hard drive. Kept the upgraded 2.4 Northwood system for awhile. Used a Radeon 64 DDR on the old system and moved the AIW 8500 to the new one until I could afford an AIW 9800 Pro. Gradually added hard drives.
February 2007: Athlon X2 3800+ on MSI Nvidia 405 chipset board with 2 gigs Kingston DDR2 667 and a couple of legacy 160 gig WD Caviars, with a Geforce 7600gs. Antec True Power 500 watt.
I moved the X2 3800+ to a new PC for my redwoodtreesprite in Sept 2007, on an ASUS HDMI 690G board, with two gigs Kingston DDR2-667, and upgraded to a 4600+ for my system. She has a 1650 Pro. Also upgraded to an Antec Neo 550 PSU.
February 2008: moved the 4600+ to an MSI 690V board as a temporary solution so I can use the MSI 3870x2 (the Nvidia 405 board does not like ATI cards, it's in the documentation). It's not installed yet, because I'm waiting for the Antec Neo 650 to arrive from Newegg. Also will move everything out of the old RAIDMAX case to a new Antec Nine Hundred gaming case. My wife's PC will get the Antec Neo 550 when I have the 650 installed.
Future upgrades:
Redwoodtreesprite wants more power for modding and 3D graphics, so she'll either get a triple core or quad core, but I haven't decided on whether to wait for 45nm or go B3. She might get a Q6600 instead, as she doesn't have my social conscience vis a vis Intel's OEM rebates.
She was going to get a 3870, but with 4870 due in June, she trusts me and will wait for that. Me, I want a Crossfire board and will eventually have either a 4870 or a 4870x2 alongside the 3870x2 (which should be about as fast as one 4870). That will mean another board and an Antec TPQ 850 or 1000. To avoid CPU limits, I'll need a 3 gigahertz processor and have hopes for 45nm Phenom in late September.
We both have 17" Viewsonic CRT's right now. I'll get a 20" LCD in March and she'll get a 20" LCD when she gets the 4870. We will play musical power supplies again.
I'm still using two 160 gig WD Caviars and one 100 gig Maxtor, but she has several terabytes of storage:
In her X2 3800+/X1650 Pro:
1 500 gig Seagate SATA
2 400 gig Seagates (one SATA one IDE with a SATA adapter)
1 200 gig Maxtor SATA.
external:
1 250 gig WD
1 500 gig Lacie
1 400 gig IDE in a USB 2.0 case
She wants a couple of 1 terabyte Lacies and I want a 2 terabyte Lacie networked drive so we'll finally have enough storage that we all can use.
It's all because of Morrowind modding and unlicensed anime fansubs that never make it to the U.S. market. At least Bluray will have the U.S. and Japan in the same region.
I tolerate Vista because of DX10 gaming. She hates Vista and made me drop her dual boot for Windows Media Center Edition 2005 only. Now I have a copy of Vista Home Premium upgrade I'm not using yet, but it will work for an HTPC down the line.
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