Gaming PC History

Building PCs is a fun hobby that I have enjoyed for many years. Below is my best recollection of my PC history.

Current rig

I am very happy with this machine; however, it’s a pain moving downstairs to the lounge to play on the TV. Looking at building a smaller PC specifically for gaming in the lounge and keeping this one in the study.

Gaming rig timeline

2005

This rig is the earliest that I have a record of buying. Everything prior is lost to time. However, those PCs weren’t built for gaming. I honestly can’t remember how I managed to game on the previous PCs I owned. This rig was the start of my adventures in the World of Warcraft.

2007

At some point during 2007, the motherboard or the GPU died, so I upgraded to an Intel CPU. I don’t have the model details; it may have been an E4600 or similar. I also upgraded to my first PCI-E graphics card. Widescreen monitors had become widely available and decently priced, so I got my first widescreen and dual monitor setup. Warcraft never looked better.

2010

2010 was an exciting time for me. The last rig was on its way out, and it was time to upgrade. I spent weeks researching the latest parts, what would go well together, and, most importantly, picking a kick-ass case.

2011

In June 2011, Bitcoin was making news headlines, so a friend and I built a Bitcoin Miner. This was an exciting time.

Within a couple of months, the price of Bitcoin plummeted (not for the first time), so we decided to retire the mining rig. I salvaged two GPUs and built this rig in October to replace the old i5 750.

2012

Upgraded the 2011 rig around September 2012 with 2x GTX 670’s’ and a new Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard. This would last me for several years.

2016

If I remember correctly, I sold the 670s and got a new GPU, ATI R9 390, to help with the aging rig. It was definitely showing its age.

In August 2016, the 2011 rig showed its age, and I built a new Intel machine. I thought the 6500 CPU would be fine, but it ultimately became a bottleneck. Moving from the 650D to its smaller 350D counterpart was a great move and saved space on the desk.

One month later, I gave up on the R9 390 and put it back in the old rig before selling it and upgrading to a GTX 1070. This card was a beast.

2018

I suffered a few years with the 6500 before getting the itch for another new rig. AMD was back in the game with the second generation Ryzen CPUs, and Nvidia had just launched their new 2000 series RTX cards.

In November 2018, I built this beast of a system.

2019

Around October 2019, the Asus 2080Ti started experiencing some troubles. Overheating and coil whine. After what seemed like months, I managed to get a replacement. Aotearoa’s consumer laws are great.

2021

The Ryzen RTX rig is still doing the job; however, the Wraith Prism cooler was too noisy. During Aotearoa’s second COVID lockdown, I upgraded to a be quiet Dark Rock 4 CPU cooler.

2022

Four years later and the Ryzen rig was definitely showing its age. The CPU was struggling, and the GPU was dying.

In August 2022, I looked at how I might add a few more years of life to this rig. Knowing the new generation CPUs and GPUS were on the horizon, I was looking to make some quick, cheap upgrades.

However, while taking advantage of some great sales, I picked up a new Ryzen 5600 CPU and an RTX 3080Ti (It was such a great price I couldn’t pass the opportunity to buy it).

What happened next was crazy. I bricked my motherboard while attempting to flash the BIOS to support the new 5000 series CPU. Then I found out that the 3080Ti was too big for the Meshify C case (seriously, it is double the size of the 2080Ti).

I couldn’t bare not having a working PC and quickly picked up a new motherboard, case and CPU cooler.