I’ve been messing with computers for a long time now, and trust me, I don’t usually get sentimental about stuff. However, sometime in the mid 90’s, I think about 94 or 95 I bought a computer case, from some guy called Simes who at the time ran a Bulletin Board called Ind3x that I used a lot. The case was something like £90. At the time, it was a damn good deal, and a 300watt power supply was unheard of in those days, but I was thinking big. It was a full tower case, with a boat load of internal bays and a good number of slots for bays for cd roms, tape drives, floppies, etc. People I knew told me I was daft, £90 for a case was just silly, even in ’95.

Over the 11 years that I’ve had the case, I’ve upgraded the contents repeatedly, there’s nothing inside it that used to be inside it, except for that power supply. I’ve always been a believer in leaving PC’s powered on, and that case has been powered on for around 99% of the time I owned in. From Stockton, to our own house in Stockton, to the flat in Nottingham, the terraced house in Nottingham and finally our own home in Nottingham. I carried it around Stockton when were doing network gaming, I carried it around Nottingham when we did the same. It weighed a rediculous amount even when empty, never mind when fully populated with cards, hard disks, tape drives, etc.

11 years of faithful service. It was my ‘second’ machine for about 3 years, fitting snugly under the desk (only just), and letting me browse the web while playing EQ, but finally, we bought new PC’s, and there’s just no room for it any more. After 11 years, the power supply fan had only just started to make disturbing noises (a gentle chuntering). I can’t say it enough, 11 years of non-stop running from a single power supply and a single fan. It did me proud. I felt it deserved a blog entry 🙂