I'm don't want to spend too much money on it but have always got what I need while looking to the future to see what's coming down the road. In this way, I am always able to upgrade at a later date and will hopefully keep it running a lot longer. My current one is 6-8 years old and still running great!    It's just that good things won't last forever. 

I've had computers I have built that last about that long. (4-5 years) I was heavily into building for a long time. I wish I never got out of it tbh. It did feel nice buildin this one though.

A fair few years ago now I bought an all singing all dancing PC from  our local Aldi store after getting it home I found that I couldn't install my Imation 120MB floppy drive into it. So I went straight down to my local computer store and bought a new tower and within 1 hour of buying the new PC I had stripped it and had it in bits on the table and started installing the motherboard etc into the new tower.

I was then able to add the 120MB drive into it and was off.

I, like both of you, have always been fascinated with the tech and used to mess around adding bits here and there.

My present set up, bought in 2021 is:

Device        Dell XPS 8940
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz  2.90 GHz
Installed RAM    32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable)
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Edition    Windows 11 Pro
Version    23H2

All in the tower
NVMe CT1000P5SSD8 1TB
Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB
Samsung SSD 870 QVO 2TB

I also have 4 Synology NAS drives

1 to store all my music (using 2 x Samsung 4TB SSD drives not on RAID) my website is backed up daily via Webdav on this drive
1 to store photos and all other personal stuff ( 2 x Seagate 4TB platter drives on RAID = 4TB)
1 to act as backup for the music drive (2 x Toshiba 6TB platter drives on RAID = 6TB)
1 to store all my wife's photography photos (she has he own business) ( 2 x Seagate 2TB platters on RAID)

In case you're wondering my music collection is more than 2.67TB and it's growing all the time.

The reason for the drives in the tower is because every now and then, I try to remember to do it monthly, I clone my current 'C' drive onto the 'Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB' then if for any reason the current drive fails all I have to do is swap the drives over and all I've lost is 1 month of stuff.

I'm a great believer in backups 

That's a pretty nice system. I was running a DELL before this. They're not a bad system really. As for backups.....I should do more of them. I don't know why I stopped. I used to do them all the time but for some reason along the line I just stopped.....weird, lol.

Quote from: Bigguy on Apr 29, 2024, 07:05 AMThat's a pretty nice system. I was running a DELL before this. They're not a bad system really. As for backups.....I should do more of them. I don't know why I stopped. I used to do them all the time but for some reason along the line I just stopped.....weird, lol.

Weird...cause you're weird. Sorry, couldn't resist!

Funny that this came up. I went to Micro Center in St. Davids saturday to look at either getting a new PC or buying the parts to make one. If I buy the parts, I'd prolly would pay them to build it cause it would be guaranteed and would save me the trouble.   I didn't buy anything as it was just a search mission to see what is available now. Their support is and always has been top notch! I've been going there for over 30 years!

It's nice to find a computer shop you can trust. All the ones in this town have shut down. Sometimes I feel like the only computer dude left in my town, lol. And ya....I may be weird but what's the fun in normal....and how do ya really tell who is normal and who is crazy these days, lol.

Quote from: Bigguy on Apr 30, 2024, 04:29 PMAnd ya....I may be weird but what's the fun in normal....and how do ya really tell who is normal and who is crazy these days, lol.

Normal is when you find out the person you were meant to be and be that person...in a good way!!!

Everyone tries to make people be the same. You have unique DNA, you have genes from many people in your ancestry that makes you different. Scientists can tell who you are from anyone else that ever was or will be, yet, people keep trying be like others instead of being the person they were meant to be!

Our job in your life is to figure out who you are and stop trying to be like everyone else! Think about it... The people you admire are different than you and you admire them for that. So, why are you not try to be different so people can admire you like them?  People will hate you no matter what. So, you may as well be different and loving yourself for who you are instead of them hating you and you hating yourself for not being yourself!

Be yourself and be happy and do great things!!!   BTW, welcome to Weird Club, my brother!

Well put

I changed the case on my build. Here's a pic of my setup now:

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Quote from: Bigguy on Sep 29, 2024, 11:18 AMI changed the case on my build. Here's a pic of my setup now:

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That looks very cool BG

Thank you.

I'm not sure I mentioned this but this system has a water cooler. If you look close you'll see it. No heatsink on the cpu.

I can't zoom in to see it better but it does look good! I've always steered away from water coolers. They look great and all but I've heard too many horror stories about them breaking and flooding your PC over the years.

Don't get me wrong, I've always have wanted to try them but am too afraid of losing everything. That's just me...

Oh I hear ya. I'm a bit paranoid to lol. This is an AIO (All in one) system. It comes all closed up and no water needs to be added. I figure as long as it's not moved around much it shouldn't leak....I hope.

They've gotten a lot better over the years. LOL I don't know, maybe hearing those horror stories long ago still affect me like a little kid watching horror movies.

When I bought my new PC I saw an awesome water cooled system and started to buy it. But, I remembered those horror stories and gave it up. LMAO