How'd you get into PC Building?

I'm 34 years old and have had my own personal computer since I was around 8. It's been a fuse blowing, finger/hand/forearm scarring, and money sucking ordeal but don't regret a single minute of it.

My first PC was acquired from the Lakehurst Naval Base in southern New Jersey (you'll know this area because it's where the Hindenburg crashed). They would have these big sell offs of equipment and furniture every so often where you could pick up used computers from the base for really cheap. My dad was obsessed with it. He was always conscious about money and looking for a deal. He would constantly hunt for incredible prices on older computers to bring home. I can't think of a single time that a computer or part came home nonworking. It was a gold mine for a family like mine where money was very tight to begin with.

I'm pretty sure my first personal computer would have been a 286. Once it became obvious that I had a strong interest in them, that computer was quickly replaced with a 386 hand me down and later a 486 as my attention turned to gaming. We would use the Lakehurst computers as they came from the base or tear them apart to see what we could use in our already stable builds. My father would obviously take the best parts for himself and either hand me down or give me the items he didn't want/need. I have no idea how much this was costing back then but I'm positive it was a fraction of what the hardware should have cost (as I already implied, my dad is very thrifty). It was quite the hidden gem to have this source for these components and experience.

Living in the tristate area we had the pleasure of being able to start attending computer shows. I'm saddened that some of you younger builders will likely never get to experience something like this. These were big conventions with large amounts of vendors that had everything you could possibly need related to computers. Parts, games, demos, you name it, it was there. I learned how to haggle with vendors not to mention pit them against each other to get cheaper parts and combo deals. I slowly became more comfortable socializing and bonding with people who had similar interests not to mention of all ages. I met friends in school who were also heavily into PCs and we would bring them with us to these shows. We'd go to the shows a few times a year, repeating the big ones or favorite events as they'd come by again. We wouldn't necessarily purchase anything while there, but it was fun to keep up with real world pricing for components and comparing what was listed in Computer Shopper (there's a name drop for ya) and other pricing sources.

You younger whippersnappers missed out on the days of setting your master/slave drives, configuring IRQs, praying your sound card or video card would "just work", restarting repeatedly hoping something would change and magically make your computer boot, watching in horror as the magic smoke rose from that wire you just plugged in backwards.... ya it was so much "fun." Don't even get me started on juggling floppy disks to install Windows 95 (I kid you not, it took 10+ floppy disks) or the careful configuration of your autoexec.bat, config.sys, io.sys files to boot your system. You think drivers are a pain the ass? You have no idea what it used to be like especially with no internet to rely on for researching issues. I used to format my computers monthly practically. I had an entire checklist of things I needed to do so I didn't forget to reinstall something I needed. I spent hours sitting next to my father watching him troubleshoot random problems, usually due to him voluntarily changing something he didn't need to. I learned a lot and probably gained a lot of patience from watching.

Growing up I was given a healthy dose of PC gaming by my father until he grew out of the hobby (not sure what happened there). Commander Keen, Bouncing Babies! (look it up, it's real), Chopper Commando, The Oregon Trail, The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary etc. were all in my life and kept my interest going. By 1995 I was pretty heavily into FPS titles. Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, Blake Stone, Blood, Redneck Rampage, Carmegeddon (not an FPS but obviously violent)... I was all over them. These games however were what drove me to do whatever I could to keep my computer updated or at least at the bare minimum ready to play the next big game. Gaming started getting a lot more serious as I met more friends and would regularly have them over to host LAN parties. Early off we'd serial connect our PCs together which was quite the hassle. Thankfully proper networking became available on a consumer level and it simplified everything. Again, it was still a total pain in the ass compared to today. We'd spend hours playing Doom II (HEY CJ0R TURNED ON NOCLIPPING AGAIN!!!), Quake, Age of Empires, Starcraft, Warcraft, Command & Conquer, Alien vs. Predator, Total Annihilation etc. It was a great time and I met a lot of close people because of it (different from my normal school friends, I was a punk skater kid surprisingly and didn’t fit the normal “look” or behavior).

Late 90's brought in the era of Half-Life which introduced me to skinning and competitive gaming. I spent so much time every night during high school staying up as late as 4 AM while working on weapon skinning projects or playing with clan mates across the country (we competed at a CAL-M level, I dropped out just as CAL-P was created). Unfortunately, both hobbies died when I went to college. Competitive CS 1.6 was still kicking early in college and I went to CPL when I was 18, but there just wasn't enough time anymore to dedicate to it. I also felt like I needed to be spending my time elsewhere (skateboarding and partying)… boy was I wrong considering how lucrative it could have been for me today. The skinning however did introduce me to graphic design which lead to my programming background which is "somewhat" what I do now (more of a MacGyver at my job).

I love this hobby and am so happy to have been introduced to it. The surprising thing is that I'm not that close with my father yet he was the one that pulled me down this rabbit hole. I'm so thankful he did. I'm also glad that the hobby has been firmly embraced by so many people with different backgrounds, people that you would never suspect. Growing up, it was usually the obvious kids who were nerding out to the new Pentium or Athlon processors. Now a days, you can't tell and I'm very happy to see that. I got my ass kicked trying to defend a few of these friends over the years but still don't regret it at all lol. I’ve probably built over a hundred computers at this point, maybe more, and I still get a thrill out of it. I’m glad to see others are just as excited by it as I am.

TL;DR

34 years old now

Started acquiring and rebuilding PCs out of old retired computers from Lakehurst naval base in the late 80's/early 90's

Went to Computer Shows and began haggling for new parts

Got heavily into PC Gaming (specifically the FPS genre)

Gained a strong interest in game skinning during Half-Life era

Started playing PC games competitively

Transformed game skinning into Graphic Design

Got a great job working as a programmer at a large stable company

Still building computers to this day and won’t give that up for anything. It has totally shaped my entire life and I have gotten so much joy out of doing it for myself along with helping others.