Around mid 2005, I finished military training, had a wad of cash and knew I'd be on the go a lot. I bought an HP laptop so I could play Oblivion, Hitman 2, BF 1942, and BF2. My buddies and I would have LAN matches when we had time, and I really enjoyed it. That laptop lasted me mid first deployment, but the sand, or "moon dust", was too much.
I went back to consoles from then until 2013, having spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on Xbox 360 consoles, games, XBL subscriptions, and peripherals. By this time I was in college, and my studies involved powerful computers for rendering and modeling, and other media related tasks. This is where I abandoned consoles.
Messing around with game engines, and generally seeing how far things had come hit me hard. I wanted my own workstation so I didn't have to spend so much time on campus, and I could have a sweet gaming rig too!
I did what any reasonable adult would do. I researched and budgeted away for my perfect first build.
The Fartknocker: ASROCK 880FX Extreme4 FX-8350 Sapphire HD 7850 1GB OC 16GB Corsair Vengeance LP 120GB OCZ Vertex 1TB Toshiba HDD Thermaltake 500w Cooler Master Elite 430
Then my needs became greater as I was limited by VRAM and storage for my ever expanding software and game library.
Fartknocker became the Moose-knuckle: ASROCK 880FX Extreme4 FX-8350 Sapphire HD 7850 1GB OC > MSI R9 280X 3GB Gaming 16GB Corsair Vengeance LP 120GB OCZ Vertex 1TB Toshiba HDD Thermaltake 500w > Corsair CX 750 Cooler Master Elite 430 > Enermax OSTROG
Which evolved into the Purger after a hefty work bonus: ASROCK 880FX Extreme4 FX-8350 MSI R9 280X 3GB Gaming > ASUS R9 290X 4GB DCUII 16GB Corsair Vengeance LP 120GB OCZ Vertex 1TB Toshiba HDD (Dead) > 2TB Toshiba HDD + 4TB WD External HDD + 1TB Portable Seagate HDD Corsair CX 750 Enermax OSTROG
My HTPC is and frankenstein and has had more parts swapped than I can remember.
The Shitbird: MSI 970 Gaming FX-6350 MSI R9 280X 3GB Gaming (Repurposed) 8GB GSkill Ripjaw X 500GB Toshiba HDD + 1TB Seagate External HDD Thermaltake 500w (Upgrade in progress) Enermax COENUS
The Shitbird is my real pride and joy, even thought she isn't my primary. My wife and kids use her regulary to make life easier and entertaining, including casual and harcore gaming, homework, web browsing, and generally everything; because it's a fucking PC.
I also like it when friends come over while someone is playing a game and their immediately drawn to the greatness. They always ask what game and what console. My kids don't hesitate to spread the word anymore. It's Poobird.