Here's some things I mess with on a daily bases (not everything is included)
Main: AMD FX 6300 @4GHz
16GB Corsair Balistics 1600MHz DDR3
GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD3
ATI RADEON 6970 2GB
2x 160GB WD RAID Windows 7 Pro x64
2x 500GB Seagate
1x 1.5TB Hitatchi
DVDRW+/CDRW
Zip 100
------------------------------------
2nd PC (first I ever owned personaly: 1.66GHz Athlon XP 2000+ (originaly athlon 1GHz)
GIGABYTE 7-DX REV 2.2
Kingston DDR 2GB RAM (originaly 384MB)
NVIDIA 7600 256MB (originaly TNT2 RIVA 32MB)
40GB Seagate Windows XP SP2 (originaly maxtor 20GB windows 2000 SP4)
500GB Seagate (not original)
DVD combo drive (ROM)
CDRW
FDD 1.44MB
--------------
Retro's
--------
Oldest first:
IBM XT PC 8088 @4.77MHz
640K RAM
10MB Seagate HD DOS 3.3
1 1.2MB FDD
ATI Graphics Solution plus CGA
-------------------------------------
IBM PS/2 70 386
i386DX @16
i387 @16
8514/a VGA
4MB RAM
IBM(?) 120MB ESDI HDD DOS 5.0/Win3.1
IBM 1.44MB Proprietary Card-Edge
----------------------------------------
Packard Bell 620 (DEAD?)
i486SX-20
4MB RAM
120MB HDD IDE DOS 6.22/Win3.1
1.44MB FDD
1.2MB FDD (5.25)
Oak OTI77 SVGA Decelerator
OPTI chipset(?)
------------------
Compudyne (WORKING ONCE MORE!)
Elite UX486VIO-A
Am486DX-4 100MHz
16MB RAM
540MB HDD Windows 95
1.44MB FDD
CDROM/SB16 clone (AZTECH Sound galaxy 16)
Cirrus Logic SVGA 1MB (not bad at all)
--------------------------------------------
random AT clone
Socket 4 AT board PCCHIPS(?)
Pentium 66MHz
Trident 9420 PCI
Sound Blaster 16/CDROM
1.44MB FDD
3COM Etherlink III PnP ISA (I picked 5 of these up for $2)
1.5GB Maxtor Windows 95 Plus!
-------------------------------------
another AT clone
Socket 7 ms25s matsonic pcchips
PMMX 166MHz
64MB
Voodoo1 4MB / Trident ProVidia 2MB
CMI8330 SB16 clone
Acer 8x CDROM
1.44MB FDD
3GB HDD Seagate Windows 95 OSR2
3COM Etherlink III PnP ISA
-------------------------------
IBM PC 300GL
Pentium 2 366MHz
128MB RAM
4.22GB WD HDD Windows 98
1.44MB
CDRW 52x
Voodoo2 PCI 8MB/ATI Mach64 2MB
Sound Blaster 128PCI
3COM Etherlink III PnP ISA
-------------------------
Compaq Deskpro EN
1GHz Pentium III
512MB RAM
ATI8500DV all in one
Hitatchi 82.2GB HDD Windows XP SP2
AC97' Audio
1.44MB FDD
Removable HDD bay
CDRW/DVDROM
-------------------
that's the list for now

@armonkordi:
That's a lot of pc's. Did you buy them second hand after they aged, or have you had them since they were new? Would be interesting to know how many members here still have a PC they got over 20 years ago (if it's 20 years it's a classic IMO).

Holering wrote:

Would be interesting to know how many members here still have a PC they got over 20 years ago (if it's 20 years it's a classic IMO).

I got my Compaq in 1997. See link in signature. It's not 20 years yet, but it's getting there 😉

In one retro box I'm using the AN430TX motherboard and floppy drive from my first 'bought new' PC in 1997. Was also using the P200 MMX it came with but swapped in a P233 not too long ago.

I no longer have my very first PC build, it was destroyed in an unfortunate accident in 2005 (along with a good amount of old PC hardware as well 🙁 ). The oldest PC parts I have owned since new that still work are the GUS ACE (1996), Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (1996), and Pentium 166MMX (1997). I also still have the original Seagate 430mb hard drive from 1994, but it's broken - suffered a head crash in 1999 (still powers up and runs, but clanks like mad 😵 ).

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

I no longer have my very first PC build, it was destroyed in an unfortunate accident in 2005 (along with a good amount of old PC hardware as well 🙁 ). The oldest PC parts I have owned since new that still work are the GUS ACE (1996), Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (1996), and Pentium 166MMX (1997). I also still have the original Seagate 430mb hard drive from 1994, but it's broken - suffered a head crash in 1999 (still powers up and runs, but clanks like mad 😵 ).

I still have my original 284 MB hard drive from my first PC I ever owned, a packard bell momma bought for me from a store once for xmas. It still runs and reads and writes, most of the original data is gone as it was formatted at one point to install windows95 on it but then the packard bell it was in sort of.. caught fire almost, and had to be trashed. The drive survived though.

kithylin wrote:

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

...caught fire almost, and had to be trashed. The drive survived though...

That's the way it is, every rig - every piece of hardware - has a story..

I differ from many of you since my 'mothership' PC is a Linux box. I do all my tinkering, coding, emulating, web browsing, emailing, youtube watching, and social networking on that rig. My 'gamer' rig I keep clean and optimized for games. I never use it for anything else so I can keep it tweaked for speed.

Instead of putting down my PC history here, just click the computers link in my sig, I have a nice little historical breakdown of all my PCs there.

These are as far as I can remember:

CPU:
K6 Athlon ~600mhz (1998-2003)
Centrino 2ghz (2002-2007)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8ghz (2007-2011) //still have it and it is a server
Intel core I3 370m (2011-early 2012) // didn't last very long due to getting some sort of CIH like virus
Intel core i3 2310 (2012-)

GPU:
???
??? (I am certain it was either SiS or Via though)
Ati Radeon HD 3450 (replacing a Nvidia 6000 series)
Intel HD graphics
Intel HD Graphics 3000

RAM:
128mb PC-133
512mb DDR
1gb DDR2 (later to 2.5 gb)
3gb DDR3
4gb DDR3

OS:
Windows 98SE
Windows XP
Windows Vista (later XP/lubuntu)
Windows 7
Windows 7 sp 1

AMD 486 DX-2 66Mhz w/pcchips w/fake cache
AMD 486 DX-4 100Mhz w/pcchips w/fake cache
Intel Pentium MMX 166Mhz w/ Pcchips tx-pro
Intel Pentium MMX 233Mhz w/ Pcchips tx-pro
AMD K6-2 500Mhz w/Soyo 5ehm v1.3 & Aopen AX59Pro
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 900Mhz Socket A w/Soyo K7-ADA
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1200Mhz FSB 266Mhz Socket A w/Soyo K7-ADA
AMD Athlon XP Palomino 1800+ w/MSI 745 Ultra
AMD Athlon XP Thorougbred 2000+ w/ DFI AK74
AMD Athlon XP Barton 2500+ W/ MSI K74 Ultra
AMD Athlon XP Barton 3000+ w/ MSI K7N2-Platinum & Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 939 Venice E3 w/ DFI Infinity
AMD Opteron 165 939 Toledo w/ DFI Infinity
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4800+ Windsor AM2 w/ DFI Infinity ULTRA II-M2
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5600+ Brisbane AM2 w/ DFI Infinity ULTRA II-M2
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5600+ Windsor AM2 w/ DFI Infinity ULTRA II-M2
AMD Athlon x2 7750 AM2 w/Biostar GF8100 M2+ TE
AMD Phenom x2 555 BE (Unlocked to x4 955) w/ Asus m5a87
AMD Athlon II 250 w/MSI 970a-g43
AMD Athlon II 270 w/MSI 970a-g43
AMD A6-5400K APU w/MSI fm2 a75ma-e35 (retired from gaming this fits perfect with my today's needs)

GPU:

Oak OTI77 VGA 1MB ISA
Trident 9440 1MB PCI
S3 Virge 4MB PCI
S3 Savage 2000 16 MB AGP
Aopen TNT2 M64 32MB AGP
Pine Geforce 2 MX200 32MB AGP
Pine Geforce 2 MX400 32MB AGP
XFX Geforce 4 MX420 64MB AGP
XFX Geforce 4 MX440 64MB AGP
Asus V9400 Geforce MX440-8X 64MB AGP
Powercolor Radeon 9250 128MB AGP
MSI RX9600XT-TD128 Radeon 9600XT 128MB AGP
XFX Geforce 6800GS 256MB PCI-E
XFX Geforce 8800GTS 320MB PCI-E
Powercolor Radeon 5770 1GB PCI-E
Powercolor Radeon 6850 1GB PCI-E

Holering wrote:

@armonkordi:
That's a lot of pc's. Did you buy them second hand after they aged, or have you had them since they were new? Would be interesting to know how many members here still have a PC they got over 20 years ago (if it's 20 years it's a classic IMO).

It's "arman".
My main, my GA-7DX, Compaq Deskpro, and my IBM PS/2 are all first hand. you could count my AT Pentium MMX clone first hand, it was given to me by my aunt
so yeah. the IBM has been my grandmothers since '89.

Interesting topic. Even though I have no real "mothership", because I share my PCs with others. I will soon build one for myself.

PC:
HP Vectra XE310 Series 2 (2005-2007, revived in 2014, bought from a school, made in France)
Acer Aspire T-series (2007-2011, mobo died, I forgot it's actual model name)
Acer Aspire X1420 (2011-2013, small and quiet, but I later moved the mobo to a case with more room and better airflow)

CPU:
Intel Celeron 1GHz
Intel Pentium D 915 2.8GHz
AMD Athlon II X2 220 2.8GHz
Core i7-4770K (will be my upcoming CPU)

RAM:
1x128MB RAM
2x1GB DDR2 RAM (upgraded later to Kingston 3GB DDR2-800)
2x1.5GB DDR3-1333 RAM
2x4GB DDR3-1866 RAM (upcoming)

GPU:
onboard Intel graphics
ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 (onboard)
Nvidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 (onboard, but upgraded to GeForce GT 610 1GB DDR3 later)
GeForce GTX 760 or GeForce GTX 770 (upcoming, once again)

OS:
Windows 98SE
Windows Vista
Windows 7 (loved this OS)

HDD:
40GB HDD IDE
250GB 5400RPM HDD SATA
500GB Seagate Barracuda 2.5" 7200RPM

CPU / Board:
286 - 16 / unknown
Pentium 120 / ECS Board 430FX 256kb Pb-Cache Module
K6-2 400 / Chaintech 5AGM2
K6-2 475 @ 500 / Chaintech 5AGM2
Duron 750 @ 1033 / Asus A7V133
Pentium 4 1.6A (Northwood) @ 2.2 / Asus P4S333
same @ 2.4 / Asus P4P800S
Athlon64 3500+ / Asrock ALiveNF5-eSATA2+
Athlon64 X2 3600+ (Brisbane) / same
Pentium E5200 @ 3.4/ Asrock P45R2000-WiFi
Core2Quad 9450 @ 3.6 / same
i7-2600k @ 4.6 / Asus P8P67 Pro
E3-1240 v3 @3.9 / Asrock Z87 Extreme 4

GPU:
unknown 1MB
ELSA Winner 1000 Trio/V 2 MB / S3 Trio64V+
Typhoon 3DMAX 4 MB/ 3dfx Voodoo Graphics
unknown 8 MB / S3 Savage3D only for 2days due to incompatibility w/SS7 Board
Ati Xpert@Play 8 MB / ATi Rage Pro
Voodoo 3 3000 16MB
Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator Pro 32MB / Geforce 1 DDR
Asus V8200T2 Deluxe 64MB / Geforce 3 Ti 200
Leadtek A350XT 128 MB / Gefoce FX5900 XT
MSI NX7600GT-T2D256EZ 256 MB / Geforce 7600GT
Ati All-in-Wonder X1900 256 MB / Ati X1900
Jetway Radeon HD3850 256 MB / AMD Radeon HD3850 (after a few months the fan control failed and nearly burned the card)
EVGA 8400GS 512MB / nVidia Geforce 8400GS (as Replacement while the Radeon was in RMA)
Club3D Radeon HD3850 256 MB / AMD Radeon HD3850
MSI GTX460 HAWK 1GB / nVidia GTX460
MSI GTX560Ti Twin Frozr II 2GB / nVidia GTX560Ti
Asus GTX770 DirectCU II OC 2 GB / nVidia GTX770

Soundcards:
none @ 286
Creative Labs AWE32 PnP Value upgraded the missing 2MB after 2 or 3 years
Creative Labs Live! Value
Terratec Aureon 5.1 Fun - it sucked and got replaced w/
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS

Mothership PC Components: 1995-2014
===================================
CPU
Pentium 75
Pentium 200
AMD K6-2 400 @ 450
AMD Thunderbird AXIA 1Ghz @ 1.4
AMD XP Barton 2.8+
AMD 64 X2 3800 @ 2.6Ghz
Intel C2D E6300 @ 3.2Ghz
Intel C2D X6800 @ Stock
Intel i5 2500k @ 4.1Ghz

GPU
Cyrus Logic 1mb
ATi Rage II + DVD 4mb PCI
ATi Rage Pro 8mb AGP
3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Nvidia Riva TNT2 M64 AGP
Nvidia Geforce 2 GTS Pro 64mb AGP
Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti4600 128mb AGP
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb AGP
Nvidia Geforce 7900GTO PCI-E
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 320mb PCI-E
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 640mb PCI-E
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT 512mb PCI-E
Nvidia Geforce GTX275 896mb PCI-E
Nvidia Geforce GTX570 1280mb PCI-E

AUDIO
Aztec Sound Blaster Pro Compt. ISA
O/B Basic Sound Card on Socket 7 M577
Creative Sound Blaster Live! PCI
Creative Labs Audigy 2 PCI
Creative Labs XFi Gamer PCI-E
Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 PCI-E

MOBO
Unknown Socket 5 MB
Super Socket 7, PC Chips M577
ABIT KT7a
ABIT NF7-S
Asus Socket 939 *Can't remember the model
Asus P5B-Deluxe, 775
Intel branded, HP OEM (DC5800)
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H

I'm just now getting back into retro PCs, so this will be a good memory exercise for me. I grew up with an original IBM 5150 (4.77 MHz 8088) and various AT clones until I went to college. What's interesting is where I lost interest in gaming. I switched from a Radeon Pro 9500 to a Radeon 9600 for reduced noise in my Shuttle XPC (the move to an XPC was probably the first clue). Then I went OEM for the first time ever with a Gateway. Then I went laptop, which is what I'm writing with now. Anyway, here's what I used as motherships since then (not listing laptops except one):

CPU
Intel 386SX-16
Intel 486DX-50
Cyrix Cx486 DX266
Cyrix 5x86-120GP
AMD K6-2 350
AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) 1GHz
Intel P4 (Northwood) 1.8GHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (my first OEM, a Gateway)
Intel Core i7-2720QM (current, laptop)

GPU
Paradise VGA ISA
STB Velocity 128 (Nvidia Riva 128)
Diamond Monster Fusion
Leadtek GeForce 2 MX DH Pro
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
ATI Radeon 9600 (needed a quiet fanless card)
MSI GeForce 7600GS
Radeon HD 6770M (laptop)

Audio
Sound Blaster 1.5
Gravis Ultrasound Ace
Turtle Beach Montego
Onboard audio solutions

Motherboards
Unknown 486 with VLB
M Technology 407e (Cyrix)
FIC VA-503+
Iwill KK266
Shuttle FS51
Unknown Gateway BTX board
Unknown HP dv7 board

Mothership PC Components: 1991-2014

CPU:
286-16
486slc-33
386DX-40 + IIT387
486DX2-80
Pentium 90@100
Pentium MMX 166@250
AMD K6-2 500
Pentium II 333@470 (?)
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ @ 1750MHz
AMD Athlon XP-M 2500+ @2500MHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ @2500MHz
AMD Phenom II X6 1055 (in use)

VGA:
Ti 256kb ISA
Trident 8900D 1MB ISA
Tseng ET4000/w32 1MB ISA
Tseng ET4000AX 1MB ISA
ATI 3D Charger 2MB PCI + ATI TV Tuner ISA
ATI 3D Rage Pro 4MB PCI
3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 AGP
Geforce 2ti 32MB AGP
Geforce 3ti 200 64MB AGP
Geforce 4200ti 128MB AGP
Geforce 6600GT 128MB PCI-e
Geforce 7900GS 256MB PCI-e
Geforce 7900GT 256MB PCI-e
Geforce 8800GTS 320MB PCI-e
Geforce 8800GT 512MB PCI-e
Geforce 8600GTS 256MB PCI-e
ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB PCI-e
Geforce 460GTX 1GB PCI-e
AMD Radeon HD5450 512MB PCI-e (in use)

Audio:
Creative Soundblaster 16 non-PnP ISA
Creative Live! 5.1 PCI
Creative Audigy PCI (in use)

Motherboards:
Not enough important for me to remember

HDD:
42MB Conner PATA
340MB Quantum PATA
850MB Conner PATA
1GB Quantum PATA
1GB Seagate Low Profile PATA
?
40GB IBM PATA
80GB WD PATA
180GB IBM PATA
160GB Hitachi PATA
200GB WD PATA
250GB Hitachi (2x) PATA
320GB Seagate PATA
400GB Hitachi PATA
500GB Seagate PATA
640GB WD SATA (in use)
1TB WD Green (5x) SATA
1.5TB Samsung (2x) SATA
320GB WD Portable 2.5"
500GB Verbatim Portable 2.5"
2TB Samsung SATA (in use)
1TB Toshiba Portable 2.5" (in use)
2TB WD Green (7x) SATA (in use)
120GB Corsair SSD SATA (in use)
2TB Seagate SATA (in use)

Notebooks:
Asus EEEPC 701
Asus EEEPC 1000HG
Lenovo X61s (in use)

My "Mothership" PC's from 1997-present

THE COMPUTERS THEMSELVES
- Tandy 1000 SX - 1997-2000
- Flight 386 SX (actually a ZEOS 486DX inside) - 2001-2001
- IBM PC-330 100DX4 6571-W5K - 2001-2003
- GEM Computer Products Full-Size AT/ATX Case Modded Beast - 2003-2008
- JCS Model 1 System (with various cases) - 2008-present

CPU
i8088-2 6MHz
i80486 DX-33
i80486 DX4-100
i80386 DX-20
AMD P75
Intel Pentium 120
Intel Pentium 200 MMX
Intel Pentium 233 MMX
Intel Celeron 500
Intel Pentium III 667MHz
Intel Pentium III 1GHz
Intel Pentium D 3.40 GHz

VIDEO
Tandy 1000 Enhanced CGA
Paradise PVGA1A 256KB VGA Card (16-bit ISA)
Cirrus Logic 1MB PCI SVGA (PC-330 on-board video)
Paradise PVGA1A 256KB VGA (16-bit ISA, GEM, 2nd card)
Trident TGUI-9440 PCI (horrid piece of crap with default 75Hz refresh that killed monitors!)
ATI Rage II PCI 2MB 3-D
ATI Rage II PCI 4MB 3-D
XFX NVIDIA GeForce MX400 64MB PCI
XFX NVIDIA GeForce MX4000 64MB PCI
XFX NVIDIA GeForce MX4000 128MB PCI
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT PCI-E 16X

AUDIO
Tandy 3-voice DAC
ESS AudioDrive 1869 16-bit (SoundBlaster Clone)
Reveal/Packard Bell 16 SoundCard w/Sony CD-ROM
AZTEC 16 SoundCard (HP)
SoundBlaster Vibra 16
Diamond Telecommander 2300 Sound Card/Fax Modem
SoundBlaster 16 PCI
SoundBlaster Vibra 16 PCI
SoundBlaster Live 5.1 PCI
SoundBlaster Live 7.1 PCI
Abit SoundMax 5.1 (extension of AW9D Motherboard audio Chipset)
SoundBlaster Live 7.1 PCI
Rocketfish 7.1 (rebranded SoundBlaster Audigy)
ASUS Xonar DGX PCI-E

Motherboards
Tandy 1000 SX System Board
Unknown 386 SX-25 Baby AT Motherboard
ZEOS 459-0000-01B 386/486 Expandable System board w/ 486 Daughtercard and 485 TurboCache
IBM PC-330/350 6571 Select-A-Bus Series Socket 3 System Board
Addonics 386 ISA System Board with SIP Memory (GEM's original board)
Biostar MB-8433UUD
DTK 486-PMB Socket 3 VLB System Board
Gatestar Socket 7 Motherboard w/Tag RAM Unit
ASUS Socket Super 7 Motherboard
Gateway Socket 370 System Board (Baby ATX)
HP "Camaro" System Board, Socket 370 (Baby ATX)
Intel D815EPV Baby ATX "Server" Motherboard
ABIT AW9D Full ATX System Board

HDD
124MB Maxtor 7120AT PATA
244MB Quantum ProDrive LPS PATA
540MB Quantum Fireball PATA
40MB Seagate ST-412? MFM/RLL PATA
540MB Western Digital Caviar PATA
320MB Western Digital Caviar PATA
150MB Western Digital Caviar PATA
830MB Western Digital Caviar PATA
1.2GB Western Digital Caviar PATA
4GB Western Digital Caviar PATA
40GB Western Digital PATA
80GB Western Digital PATA
160GB Seagate SATA
1TB Seagate SATA
160GB 2.5" Seagate SATA
160GB 2.5" Toshiba SATA
80GB 2.5" Toshiba SATA

Notebooks/Laptops
Twinhead Slimnote 433DX/S
Prostar 9200M
AT&T (NCR) Safari 3151
Duracom 5110D
IBM ThinkPad 755CD
IBM ThinkPad 1400i
Everex StepNote NC1500
Acer Aspire One D250
HP something or other small Enterprise Pentium Mobile Laptop
Toshiba Tecra M7

O/S
MS-DOS 3.31 for the Tandy 1000 SX
MS-DOS 5.0
Windows 3.0
Windows 3.1
Windows 3.1 (NEC)
Windows 3.11
Windows 98 SE
Slackware Linux 96'
RedHat Linux 6.1 "Cartman"
RedHat Fedora Core
Ubuntu Linux (lots of versions)
Windows For Workgroups 3.11
Windows 2000 Professional SP3
Windows XP Professional X86
Mint Linux w/Cinnamon Interface
Windows 7 Professional x64

CPU:
Intel 386SX-16 (1992)
Cyrix 486DX-33 (1994)
Cyrix 5x86 120 (1996)
Intel Pentium MMX 120 (1997)
Intel Pentium MMX 233 (1998)
Intel Pentium II 400 (1999)
Intel Pentium III 733 (2001)
Intel Pentium 4 1.4 (2003)
AMD Athlon64 3200+ (2006)
Intel Core2 Quad 9550 (2009)

Motherboard:
Hedeka 386SX-16 (still have it, one of my ongoing Retro projects)
Several 486 boards starting from all ISA, going towards to ISA+VLB to ISA+VLB+PCI, nothing special or known brand (1994-1997)
Gigabyte GA-586TX2 (1997)
Asus P5A-B (1998)
Asus P3B-F (1999)
Asus CUSL2-C Black Pearl (2001)
Asus P4PE with LAN and Firewire (2003)
Asus K8N-E Deluxe (2006)
Asus P5Q Premium (2009)

Display Adapter:
Oak 067 512KB (1992)
Trident 8900 1MB (1993)
Many not so special display adapters including a Cirrus Logic VLB, a couple of S3 PCIs (Virge and Trio64), and a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (1994-1997)
Asus 3DP-V3000TV 4MB PCI (1998)
Asus V3400TNT-TV 16MB AGP (1999)
Asus V7700 Deluxe 64MB AGP (2001)
GigaByte FX5700 256MB AGP (2003)
Asus ENGTS250 512MB PCIe (2009)
Asus GTX560 Ti 1GB PCIe (2012)

Sound Card:
Sound Blaster Pro 2 ISA (1994)
Sound Blaster 16 PNP ISA (1996)
Sound Blaster AWE64 Value ISA (1998)
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 PCI (2001)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZX PCI (2006)
P5Q Premium Onboard (2009)

OS
MS-DOS 5.0 + Windows 3.0 (1992)
MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.1 (1992 - also tried Novell DOS 7.0 for a very short time)
Windows 95 Beta (1995)
Windows 95 (1995)
Windows 95 OSR 2.0 (1997)
Windows 98 (1998)
Windows 98 SE (1999)
Windows ME (2001)
Windows XP Professional (2006)
Windows 7.1 Ultimate (2012)

Okay - by now it's clear that in the 1990's we all upgraded on a regular basis. But that by the early-mid 2000's things trailed off. Was it lack of enthusiasm or did hardware finally created enough of a performance cushion for advancing software? And if so, I wonder why software hasn't seemed seem to have put the same degree of stress on hardware as it once did?

tincup wrote:

Okay - by now it's clear that in the 1990's we all upgraded on a regular basis. But that by the early-mid 2000's things trailed off. Was it lack of enthusiasm or did hardware finally created enough of a performance cushion for advancing software? And if so, I wonder why software hasn't seemed seem to have put the same degree of stress on hardware as it once did?

"Console stagnation" is a popular theory that explains a good deal of it; there's also the more functional side that apart from "rich multimedia content" (e.g. the modern flash-heavy web) you only really need so much memory/CPU power/etc to do things like send emails, write letters, and so forth with a computer. I think it's also a reflection of hardware not making the strides it once did in terms of performance - between the early 1990s to the early 2000s improvements in CPU/GPU/etc performance were usually many orders of magnitude (consider a 486 vs a Pentium 4 for a moment), but from the early 2000s to the early 2010s the improvements weren't as substantial (consider Pentium 4 to Core i7).