Saw this thread on another forum, thought it would be fun to see over here :)
Basically, simple rules. Post pics of your PC's from your first ever build, to your current. Next person can then comment on how your style has changed. Leave a comment for the above poster.
Ill start...
My first computers were just the typical old 386/486 gray box boring machines.

I had a 386(4), 486(2),486dx2, Pentium 1, Pentium MMX, Celeron(333mhz), Pentium 2(3), Pentium 3. Those were all just gray box machines, not to much thought of cable managment nor caring about the way the case looks...

Then the Pentium 4 era hit. I decided since I was in highschool then, it was a good time to build a high end computer that could play games and look good too. I think i had the 3.4ghz model. A gigabyte mobo, 2x512meg ram, a all-in-wonder 9600, and my favorite..a Audigy 2 with the front panel. I had this case-

after a couple years of running the computer like that, I got so sick of that case and the noise it produced. So I opted to buy this one, and another gig of ram :)

Sometime about 18 or so months ago I decided my old P4 & ancient AGP vid card wasnt up to the task to modern games...or anything else for that matter.I picked up a amd dual core bundle from my buddy for about $300 (mobo/proc/memory/cooler/crossfired x1600's) It also went in my old Chenbro Gaming Bomb 2 case (listed above) I just couldnt deal with it anymore.
 
Thats when I finally decided to bump up to the 775 socket. I got myself a gigabyte mobo, a Q9550, 4 gigs of gskill ram, a HAF932, a 250gts, a V8, a 650 coolermaster powersupply and I upgraded my old Audigy to a X-Fi.
I had caught the bug and just had to get more, I found myself slowly looking around and thinking about a bigger system, once I had lined up my buddy to buy my new 775 system from me, I quickly put together a I7 build consisting of a 920 D0, a EVGA 758, 6 gigs of gskill ram, a gtx275, a megahalems, and a hx850. I also reused my X-Fi (still got it)At this time I decided I should paint my HAF. (sorry no pics)

I thought I could deal with just staying on air, but eventually got fed up with the OC wall and noise. Now was the time to go watercooled. I also took the opportunity to pick up some sleeved extensions :)



I then picked up a 470 opening day. Decided I needed more power too,So out with the 275 in with the 470, out with the hx850 and in with the EVO1250Got tired of the heat from the 470, sold it to my cousin and bought a 480 with intent to watercool it.At this point my buddy needed to upgrade his case, I took the opportunity to grab myself a MM UFO. As long as I had the UFO I wanted to upgrade my watercooling, so in goes another old school PA120.3




Got my waterblock for the 480 in and redid my loop, moved the pump too :)


Since these pics Ive taken the ugly grills of the front and re-ran some of my cable management. A couple more mods and Ill be happy with it....for now :3
 

^Pics? 
The idea is to storyboard it out and not only tell your story but show some step by step pics. :3
Sounds like you atleast figured out what you were doing :)

I think so many pics would make way to slow to load, at least put in a warning saying picture heavy or something

This is the original Seabigbear (I was so green back than) It had a AMD Athlon X2 6000+ cpu, GIGABYTE mobo that was a something like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128424 & it had 4gb of this Mushkin ddr2 ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146699 & yes I had a 600w Ultra PSU in it & my card I had in it was a MSI 8800GTS 512mb   it was a good starter rig for me to get my feet wet & I would have it but it got burned in my house fire!

This is Seabigbear II I bulid it cause of my house fire & no I did not have info I ganed here or else it would here been a lot diffrent bulid but it got me through a bad time in my life & BTW I hated that case with a passion but here's the specs & pics.



And now to my most powerful rig yet the Seabigbear III  This rig is all because of the greatest members on the greatest forum know to man "The EVGA Forums" I talk to you guys forever & I got the best I could afford at the time & I'm still upgrading to, my specs are in my sig.



 

I love these threads!  Jaw dropping rigs in the first post.  Seabigbear, that's a hell of a lot of cooling hehe.  I actually removed four 120mm fans from my ATCS 840 since I'm going to get a new GTX 480 cooler soon.
 
Anyway, lets see what we have here...
 
Semi complete piece of crap in an Antec 300.  XFX 680i LT, E8400, 4 x 1 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800, GTX 260 CORE 216 55nm, 9600GT, OCZ CrapXStream 700W.  Cooler that was gonna be used was the iBuyPower IBP-Z001, my review is here.

 
Upgraded case to Cooler Master ATCS 840.  Also got a Prolimatech Megahalems with two Scythe CrapStream 120mm x 25mm fans, and 2 x 2 GB OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066 RAM.  

 
Upgraded case with some more mods and fans.  New PSU - Antec TruePower New 750W, installed on the top this time so extra bottom fans could be used.  Upgraded PPU to 9800GT.

 
More fan mods done to the case, including modded side panel.  Swapped out GTX 260 for a GTX 480.

 
Put the plain windowed side panel back on, got some good fans for the Megahalems (Panaflos), EVGA P55 FTW motherboard, 2 x 2 GB G.SKILL ECO DDR3 1600 CL7 RAM, i5 760 CPU, Killer 2100 NIC.

Yea, BG I love my fans & your 1st rig looks like my 2nd rig & I hated that case!

Here is all my systems I used over the years, I don't remember the detailed specs of all them but I do know what models/cpu's/gpu's I had.
 
1. first computer I ever used was a TI99a

 
2. Then I had used an Amiga 500 for a while

 
3. Then a Macintosh Performa 405

 
4. I finally switched to PC and started on a pentium MMX 150mhz and 16MB Voodoo Banshee
5. Then a Cyrix M2 333mhz with a 32MB Geforce 2 GTS (I don't have pictures of these 2 systems)
 
6. Here is a picture of my AMD Duron 600mhz, and later upgraded to a Athlon Tbird 1Ghz, ran my 32MB GF2 GTS on it for a while and later changed it to a 128MB GF4 TI4200

 
7. Then I had a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 1.47Ghz, ran my 128MB GF4 TI4200 and later changed to a 128MB ATI 9600 XT

 
8. Then I had a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2Ghz, I ran my 128MB ATI 9600 XT on it and later upgraded it to a 256MB BFG 6800 GT OC

 
9. Then I had an Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2Ghz that later got upgraded to a Athlon 64 X2 4200+2.2Ghz, I also ran my 256MB BFG 6800 GT AGP on it for a while and later upgraded it to a 320MB 8800 GTS PCI-E (Yes the motherboard I had at this time had slots for both AGP/PCI-E)

 
10. Then we have what my current system specs are in my signature

• May 1996, Family computer: Pentium 75Mhz, 8MB RAM, 4MB video card, 14.4kbps modem; 2yrs later got a 200MHz MMX, 64MB RAM and 56k modem.
• Aug 2003, My first computer: Dell Inspirn 1100 laptop, Celeron 2GHz, Intel 845G chipset, 30GB ATA drive, 8x CD-DVD combo.
• Feb 2006, Second computer: Gateway s-5200S with Pentium D 920, rebuilt 3 months later with CM Centurion case and EVGA GeForce 7600GT, stepped up to 7900GT KO by Aug, RMA'd for 7950GT which I still have.
• Dec 2008, Third computer: current desktop, see sig, started out with 9800GT SC and stepped up to GTX260.  Experimented with a TEC unit.
• Sept 2010, Fourth system upgrade already in progress, yesterday got a Toshiba Satellite L635, Intel 1.86GHz Pentium P6000 (Clarkdale, no HT or Turbo, but socket mPGA988 so I figure I can upgrade, if it was socket 1288, then its soddered on).  Meant for 2D office and internet.  Going to be the first segment of my fourth system, I plan to replace my 3rd system in about a year, or split it into two more segments.

I also have alot of pics and what not. i will save this post for later updating. 
 
 

Love your pics YB.
Lets push this back to the top, this is a fun thread.
I came across one of these the other day while going through some stuff.

My first computer was way back in 1996, it was a Toshiba Infinia with a 166Mhz Pentium 1, 16Mb of RAM, a 4Gb hard drive, and it was all black. Pretty cool for back then.