In the last blog article I warned you already that I might write something about my computer upgrading stuff. In case you have no interest in such things you better stop reading now as it will be just so boring. Do not fear, I do no expect any likes or comments on this article as it has nothing to do with my normal topics or the general theme of this blog. In case you are still reading this, good luck.
Being around personal computers is something normal for me ever since my early childhood. Back in the day when I was still in kindergarten by big brother was already in university working on his diploma involving all kind of programming and whatnot all. So he had this super expensive (back in the day) computer and he even had a couple of games he played from time to time. I got my own computer a couple of years after big brother moved out, I think it was in 1994-1995. I was so proud of that machine and it got even 110 MHz. Just to note that I never got into programming unlike my brother. For me everything was about gaming! I never had a console or a Gameboy, it has been always computer gaming. My first games were Lemmings (from 1993), Wing Commander III, Dune II, Command & Conquer, Settlers and many more.
As you might see I really loved only the gaming part when it came to computers. Everything developed very quickly in the computer world and by 1999 I had my first 500 MHz Pentium III and already by 2000 Counter Strike, Diablo and Starcraft happened to me and held me in their firm grip. Around that time we also got our DSL connection (256 kbit/s) so the times of slow ISDN (or even slower back in the middle 1990s) and high costs were over. I frequented LAN Partys and in general everyone in my entire circle of friends was into computer gaming. Of course my grades suffered immensely and I had a though time getting somehow through school. Anyhow the years went on, other games peaked my interest such as Morrowind, Lord of the Rings Online and so forth and I actually graduated with rather good grades from High School.
So fast forward to 2018, I am 31 years old and still love computer gaming. Sure the playing time dropped over the years especially ever since we have two kids and are running our own business. I am the proud owner of a gaming PC which can tackle probably any task or torture you might imagine available. To my current system (or part of it) I got through Ebay where someone sold a new system for half the price. No, I do not want to question now how on earth that person got the hardware/ paid for it as it was all still packed in their original boxes and I even got the original bill with the package stating that everything was just purchased a week prior to me buying it from eBay.
In case you follow me on social media such as Instagram you might have seen my recent upgrading madness. I got a new graphic card and changed the CPU cooling from air to water/ changing all the case fans at the same time to RGB. I do not have the best over-the-top system you can get but it has actually too much power which I will probably never really need.
My current specs are:
- I7-4790K OC to 5GHz
- Maximus VII Hero
- 32GB G.Skill TridentX DDR3-2400
- GeForce RTX 2080TI Founder Edition
- Corsair RM650i PSU
- Corsair H115i PRO RGB
- Corsair Carbride Air 540
- + mutiple SSDs from various brands, two old Samsung HDs for storage, multiple Corsair LL Fans and a terrible mess of cables in the hidden section of the case -> cable management is not my thing
So here you go. I do wonder if anyone actually reached till this last section of this boring blog post! Anyhow this was something I really wanted to write about for some time. Not that I actually planned on what to write or anything like it (actually wrote everything in 15 min) but it is a topic I am really interested in and my computer is part of my refuge. Oh, and in case someone reached this part of the article and has Steam, feel free to add me “Ananrael”.
Are you into computer gaming?
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Crazy Chinese Family 
I read your post. There were words on the computer screen and I read all of them.
I do not know what most of them meant.
At least your brain didn’t switch off while reading it!
The thing is I kept all of it relatively simple as I am by no means an expert (more like a wannabe nerd). You should hear one of my friends talking about games, computer parts and programming…when he starts (already trying to make it easy for me) I kind of see his mouth moving and making sounds but my brain does not compute what he means. Well afterall he prgrammed his first browsergame with 13 or 14 and now before age 30 he is finishing his Doctor in something smarty physicsy programmy thingy (same as his wife!! had their wonderful wedding this summer, Nathan was the flowerchild 😮 ). Both of them are just beyond anything I can understand, no idea what they are doing, no way of understanding but both are award winning in their fields so I’d say they are smarter then me ;D
Well I must admit I read your whole post. Some things (a lot) I didn’t understand but it was nice to hear your passion coming through your post.
Thank you, I actually can’t say how my feelings came through as I did not really think while writing and only did a very quick spelling check. I’d say many people have similar problems understanding others writing/ taking about their passions or hobbies 🙂
I’m not a computer gamer at all.
Software programs have become more complex, especially the operating systems that now push out the software updates and take over one’s computer. I used to install and do basic software troubleshooting when I worked in libraries….that was over 15 years ago when software was simpler. I started my career with DOS screen commands and black/blue screen. That was the level we were working at. No Windows GUI. It was memorizing syntax, commands, etc.
Good old(ish) times. I also started back with DOS but quickly changed to Windows 3.11 though in those days DOS commands were still needed for the very first games to play in order to install and run them. My dear old brother had luck to get a good computer back in the days as our late uncle was a retailer for PC systems straight from the manufacturer and gave a very good deal for my dad (was like 10.000 German marks in 1989, so like 5.000 euros!)
I actually remember a lot of resistance to using Windows GUI…people liked the tangible control of DOS commands!
For me it didnt matter as I was so young when the change happened that I had no issue and enjoyed to have more “for the eyes” with the windows interface
Great post. I have never played Computer games. I started using computer in May 1970 when working for Finnair (photo in my about-me-post). Many years later my wife brought to our home her laptop Toshiba T3100 and it was the first when I realized that this is very different than our work computers. I bought similar laptop to our home, started to use program called Lotus Symphony (Dos).
I went to courses to learn its “programming parts”. Later came Windows and Windows programs. I specialized with Excel worksheets and its macros. Macros fascinated me and they lead me to start to learn Visual Basic. After Visual Basics, I started to learn C++. So, before retirement, I have made few small programs for my company.
Matti.
I knew my way around macros as well in Excel however most of that knowledge is by now gone I fear. You certainly learned a lot when it came to programming languages!
I still got a book about Visual Basic around here and C ++ which I both took from my brother who is a programmer for the past 30 years
This is all amazing! The words like Counter Strike and Diablo were part of my childhood, and I also remember the time when Pentium processor was all the rage. That is quite something to be able to buy the new system half price from eBay and you viewed the original packing receipt. Sounds too good to be true. Oh well wtf. It is what it is 😁
Yeah those games were all the craze back in the day and truth to be told I still play sometimes the newest edition of counter strike! Had some real luck with the eBay purchase and I was scared not to get anything or something less valuable till I opened that package 😁
Still finding time to play the latest CS…well, it’s always good to be a kid again. I remember back it the day when it was quite popular, I played Runescape (Classic and the version right after that). Bit different from CS in that RS is a grinding kind of game) 🙂
Sometimes at evening times I still find times. Back in the day I was even playing with my clan in the German CS league!
Never played runescape I think but then again too much Diablo and later on Lord of the rings online (where I still got a lifetime subscription)
If you played with the German CS league, that is good skills…if swimming didn’t work out maybe you’d have a paycheck from CS…
Never knew Lord of the Rings online was a thing…
Ha nah I was never that good but we did pretty decent as a team.
Yeah Lord of the Rings Online is a real thing and stil going on since 2007! Did in fact play it very actively till 2014 but then had barely enough time for it.
Maybe you will move into a new phase of life and start all this gaming again!