First PC: 386SX 33 MHz w/ 2 MB of ram and 80 MB hdd + 64 KB CGA video card (unknown model or brand) (1993, already a pretty obsolete config by then, it was a hand-me-down from my dad's boss)
Second PC: 486DX4 100 MHz w/ 16 MB of ram and 1 GB hdd + Trident 9440 1 MB (later upgraded to Trident 9680 2 MB) (1995, first PC I actually bought brand new)
Third PC: Pentium MMX 233 MHz w/ 64 MB of ram and 4 GB hdd + Matrox Mystique 220 (1997)
Fourth PC: AMD K6-2 500 MHz w/ 256 MB of ram and 10 GB hdd + Diamond Viper V330 / Nvidia Riva 128 (later upgraded to 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000) (1999)
Fifth PC: AMD Athlon XP Barton 2600+ 1.9 GHz w/ 1 GB of ram and 120 GB hdd + FX 5700 Ultra (later upgraded to 6600GT) (2004, first PC I've built myself)
Sixth PC: Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0 GHz w/ 8 GB of ram and 500 GB hdd + 9800GTX+ (later upgraded to GTX 285) (2008)
Seventh PC: AMD A6 6400k 3.9 GHz w/ 8 GB of ram and 500 GB hdd + HD 8470D (integrated video) (2014, this is my HTPC, still in use)
Current PC: Core i5 4690 3.5 GHz w/ 16 GB of ram and 1 TB ssd + GTX 970 (later upgraded to GTX 1080) (2015)
None of the PCs I've ever bought or built were really top of the line when they were new; I've always went more for cost-benefit builds (though the 9800GTX+ and the GTX 285 were the most powerful single gpu solutions money could buy when I got them).
Notice how in almost every PC I've had, I did one mid-life upgrade on the graphics card later. On most machines this was the only upgrade I did, except on my second PC (the 486 DX4 100) which originally didn't have a CD-ROM drive or sound card, and later I bought a Creative Labs multimedia kit with an 8x CD-ROM drive and a Sound Blaster 16 sound card. Later still I upgraded the SB16 sound card for a SB AWE64 Gold, one of the most memorable pieces of hardware I've ever bought. It really brought new life to these MS-DOS games which had AWE32 or General MIDI support.
The AWE64 carried on to my third and fourth PCs, I was really disappointed that I couldn't take it to my fifth PC since most mobos didn't have ISA slots anymore by then. Contemplated buying an Audigy 2 ZS to replace it but ended up just settling for onboard audio since then, as things had improved greatly since the AWE64 days and it was good enough for me.
I also remember most hardware failures I've had since my first PC (I don't remember going through any hardware problems on my first 3 PCs):
Fourth PC - Had ram (2001) and hdd (2003) failures during its life and they were replaced. Remember the years it happened but don't remember the brands, though.
Fifth PC - Abit AN7 motherboard died around 1 year after I've built it, replaced for an Asus A7N8X-E that never gave me problems. Only mobo failure I've ever experienced.
Sixth PC - PSU and ram failed in a short interval less than 6 months after I've built the PC (both Corsair branded, never again), replaced for XFX PSU and Kingston ram, never gave me problems and are still going strong. It was the only time I've experienced a PSU failure.
Never had to RMA a graphics card or any kind of problems with them, with the amount of stories I see, I think I'm lucky. Maybe it's because I upgrade them more often than other parts...
The E8400 (Sixth PC) really was the biggest trooper of all, used it for 7 years, then gave it to a friend after I've built my current PC and he's still using it as his main PC today.
