Desktop PCs - Do You Still Have Them?

[pyramid00]

My gaming PC is three years old (AMD FX-8350/MSI (factory OC) 4GB GTX 770). So long as it can play Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 decently, I have no need to upgrade. I'll wait until Star Citizen or SQ42 is released before assembling a new PC.

I started with an 8088/8086 comp in KSA. Graduated gradually to 286, 386, 486 dx turbo, Pentium and now core i3 windows 10 pro. I was given the choice between a laptap and desktop as a bday gift. Choosed the desktop; I can fix a desktop; boring to open a laptop; too complicated and miniaturized. Because the parts of a desktop could be purchased from lazada; PS, mother board, ram, hdd, it's easy to repair. I have a Pentium IV for stndby, a galaxy for viber and hypertension tones only and a reliable (Nokia, hehe) for texting.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I started with an 8088/8086 comp in KSA. Graduated gradually to 286, 386, 486 dx turbo, Pentium and now core i3 windows 10 pro. I was given the choice between a laptap and desktop as a bday gift. Choosed the desktop; I can fix a desktop; boring to open a laptop; too complicated and miniaturized. Because the parts of a desktop could be purchased from lazada; PS, mother board, ram, hdd, it's easy to repair. I have a Pentium IV for stndby, a galaxy for viber and hypertension tones only and a reliable (Nokia, hehe) for texting.

My first computer was a used Commodore C-64. It didn't last long. I immediately switched to a Commodore A500 when it became available. Around the same time frame, I bought a Tandy 1000SX (Intel 8088 with 16-color Tandy Graphics and universal 4-color CGA). I also bought a Tandy 10 MB hard drive (RLL) that went into an ISA slot. That hard drive cost me $500. The OS at the time was MS-DOS 3.2. But, the 1000SX also had Deskmate that was hard-coded into the BIOS chip. I thought Deskmate was pretty neat at the time.


I sold the Tandy and stuck with the Amiga until 1995. I started assembling DIY PCs in 1992 and have been at it since.

Still have a (1993) photo of my 1992 build: AMD 80386DX-40, Paradise SVGA card, 4 MB RAM, 512k cache, 52 MB IDE hard drive. I took the photo because I had just added a Mitsumi 1x CD-ROM drive. I think I had also added a TV tuner by the time I took the photo.

5.25" and 3.5" floppies. VHS and cassette tapes. He He Actually, I also have a few CDs in the photo by that time. The monitor was a 14" Packard Hell SVGA. I can also see my Thrustmaster joystick partially hidden away.

Oh. Had a new GF too. ;)

[Jun aka Pekto]

I was supposed to assemble a new PC not too long ago. But, I used the money instead to assemble gaming PCs for my two kids. The eldest got an Intel i5 4670k/R9 290x/8GB RAM while the youngest got an AMD A10-7850k/R9 380/8 GB RAM.

My current desktop PC: AMD FX-8350/GTX 770 (4GB, factory OC)/8 GB RAM) is a little over 3 years old. I thought about buying a new video card. But, I made it a point to never buy video cards priced over $350 to keep within my mid-range rule. I want to be able to run Star Citizen/SQ42 when they release. I'm hesitant to upgrade now because whatever I buy now may fall short of those games' final system requirements.

It's not like the GTX 770 is completely obsolete. I can still run DOOM 2016 at a good framerate with only minor sacrifices:



Plus, a number of my games seem to have gotten a bump in framerates. The Witcher 3, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4...... All are running much smoother than when I originally played them.

I'm still undecided whether I'll continue buying AMD CPUs or go with Intel. The FX-8350 has done very well in non-gaming tasks (video encoding, conversion, etc). I'll get a clearer picture come 2017/2018.
All our laptops have Intel CPUs as well as my eldest kid's PC. If I upgrade now, it'll definitely be Intel.