In 2023, we turn up our noses if we don’t like the RGB lighting strips running along our graphics card. In 1993, the select few enthusiasts who ever dared meddle with the inner workings of their home computer were delighted just to correctly identify their VGA card. Quite aside from the astronomical rise in computational power since issue 1 of this magazine hit the shelves, we’ve seen an equally dramatic transformation in the way desktop machines are put together. It’s basically nerd Lego now, a toybox of coloured parts that fit together in an outrageously proportioned, liquid-cooled display cabinet. But when PC Gamer launched, upgrading your computer was beyond daunting.
And yet people braved it nonetheless. Driven forwards into the gaping maw of a PC’s razor-sharp case panels by a combination of sheer fascination and a desire to keep their rapidly redundant machines current, the early pioneers installed sound cards and SVGA cards. They upgraded their processors without a single millisecond of consideration for RAM cooler clearance because processors didn’t need coolers yet. These brave individuals whacked network cards and game controller adapters into their rigs, and in doing so they brought about a change to the way manufacturers designed computers.
Because, peering into a beige case in ’93, you would have been met with an unfamiliar sight. Firstly, an absolute morass of wires. Wires coming out of everything, wires between wires. No consideration was given to airflow because there was no airflow. There was only wire. Beneath that layer, you found the PCBs. These all looked absolutely identical, had no identifying markers, and were each connected to about 80 wires.