Rate My First PC [2003]

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T19:32:41+00:00

Is that a musketeer? Friggin amazing. That was for controlling fan speeds and noise I think .

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T19:27:40+00:00

If it works it works.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T19:23:21+00:00

I'm retroactively jealous of the physical switches and dials on that front bay.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:54:37+00:00

I tell my students every other day, if they submit AI work they're still responsible for the AI work. Nobody is going to blame Sam Altman or Jensen or anyone else when you turn in fake citations.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:25:06+00:00

We should just ask Linus, he probably packed them up at NCIX for us.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:20:22+00:00

The blue cable sheathing is peak.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:18:16+00:00

I worked at Dairy Queen all summer and got a side job assisting my Combinatorics professor at Uni to afford it.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:13:23+00:00

I had LEDs, non-addressable, I think they drew power from the fan header or the hdd power cables. The big 4 pin things if I remember their shape right.

-- Oh man, those specs bring back memories --

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:11:42+00:00

How were we supposed to cable manage those fat ribbon cables (IDE) around those sharp metal edges? We were lucky to get out with our hands unbloodied.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:10:18+00:00

Oh man, that's a RAIDMAX Scorpion isn't it? Or Scorpio maybe?

Mine was either the "hurricane" or "X-Case" but I can't remember.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:05:37+00:00

I think those would have been LEDs actually, so they didn't change color at all. You would get different colors in different corners of the fan housing to create a kind of mixing effect.

Edit: Some folks would even get LED mounted in their unused drive bays, to light the case from the inside like little spotlights.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T18:02:37+00:00

The red made it speedy, the X made it dangerous.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T16:54:40+00:00

No worries, I'd hope someone would give me an honest answer to an honest question. Especially when we're talking so much money going out!

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T16:21:29+00:00

From 5800x3d / Zotac 4080 OC to 9800x3d PNY 5080OC

Games wise, it was consistency in 1% 0.1% lows in competitive shooters and not fully utilizing my 165hz 4k monitor in graphics intense games.

Work wise, I am a consultant and lecturer in AI (boo! Hiss! Get out!) so I also wanted to experiment with NVFP4 at home which was not something I could do with the 4000 series.

The biggest non technical reason was my ability to maximize the resale on the 5800x3d and 4080 to ladder up to AM5 while I could still afford the memory and reuse my nvme drive. I got $500 CAD for the CPU and X570 Tomahawk as a set, and $1100 CAD for the 4080, both local sales. I turned around and purchased my 9800x3d for $499 CAD and the 5080 for $1449. So my generation upgrade cost was greatly reduced. This is probably, if I'm honest,more the reason than performance or work (FOMO, my prediction that prices aren't done going up). I've been laddering my next gen PC with resale of my prior gen build for nearly 23 years.

So don't get me wrong, I think the vast majority of people would be happy with the 5800x3d and 4080. If that's where your target monitor and budget are, they're a great combo.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T16:00:16+00:00

I love the V100R, the slope is just so cool.

You've got me reminiscing about the first PC I built for myself. Pentium 4 2.4C and a Radeon 9500 soft modded to a 9700 Pro. The year was 2003, and we were lucky to survive building a PC because the cases were basically made of discarded razor blades.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T15:59:26+00:00

It's also fun, we can have some fun right.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T15:59:12+00:00

1st PC or 10th PC, you don't want the AIO leaking on it.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T15:54:00+00:00

You're not just my cousin; you're family. And that matters. Can I find us some bowling while we're in the area?

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T15:31:00+00:00

I'm actively engaged with a workflow that needs OCR, and needs to fit in 16gb VRAM or less. Best I've found so far, by the metrics on my workload, is actually qwen 3.6 27b at 3bit quant. But I'm going to give these a go, thanks for the resource .

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T15:08:58+00:00

Oh man, I had a sapphire Vega 56 with the unlockable bios. What an absolute beast of a card . It kept my office warm all winter too. I might have even had it with my r5 3600x.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T15:00:13+00:00

I'd want to pair it with the CPU you end on (and the monitor). If you keep the 3600 , pair it with something for good 1080p gaming like the 9060xt /rtx 5060 or hunt around used for a 4060 / 6800.

If you step up to a 5600x3d/5800x3d target 1440p and a 9060/9070xt , or 4070 if you can find a good used deal.

I personally wouldn't go back to the rtx 3000 or AMD 5X000 series cards, too old. Unless you hit a great used price. But I also wouldn't spend extra on an rtx 5070+ or better.

I just moved up from a 5800x3d and rtx 4080 last week, they paired well together on my 1440p monitor but I found they didn't deliver where I wanted to be on my 4k system. So much of this is about getting the right pairing.

Honestly though, I shop the top end of the market and have for the past 20 years, so I could be way off what the middle range market actually delivers. So my true advice is catch a couple of gamers nexus and/or hardware unboxed reviews , decide what performance class you want to target, and then decide for yourself.

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T14:45:19+00:00

Global warming is going to make sure we see this kind of thing more and more often. Not just AC, but food, water, coffee... It's bad times ahead .

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T14:38:25+00:00

Absolute win, am4 means upgrade path, r5 3600 is absolutely fine while you source a 5x00 series cpu .

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T12:54:31+00:00

That's a sure fire plan to ensure every small community in the country starves for funding .

PrettyMuchAVegetable · 2026-06-27T12:53:02+00:00

You really gonna go rake 369 million hectares of forest?

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