top of page

My third computer and one with these Categories:
 

  • My First YOUTUBE PC

 

  • My first computer I had for the longest time

 

  • My first foray into extended emulation

​

  • My first video editing computer.

That MDG shown above looks absolutely barebones. Fortunately, that wasn't my configuration. 

Man, I miss this machine but at the same time, I wish I had more control to actually upgrade it myself.

MDG Horizon 2400

Backstory of my MDG Horizon 2400

I was so upset about losing my Vobis Highscreen to Hard Drive Failure but I guess it was it's time. By 2005, that thing was long in the tooth in terms of specs when compared to the computers of the time running Windows XP.

I saw other people who were running Windows XP but never did my family have one running this operating system
until one day, my father brought in this machine dubbed: MDG Horizon 2400...
Ok. So it actually was my mother who bought the computer but my father was the one who went and picked it up at
a holding depot after my mother purchased it.

I'll never forget that fateful night we plugged in the thing to the wall, set it up, and installed Windows XP/

In fact, this was the first computer where I personally witnessed an OUT OF BOX EXPERIENCE setup.
(Kudos to the late Stan Lepard for scoring the music to the Windows XP OOBE setup though that piece of music predates Windows XP by 5 years thanks to the INTERNET EXPLORER STARTER KIT in 1996.)

What were my specs?

Again, the specs were balls... Not as bad as my Vobis Highscreen was but still unremarkable.

The processor was either an Intel Pentium 4 or the first generation of Intel Core Duo CPUs.
(I distinctively remember seeing an Intel Splash Screen at certain points.
Since this was 2006, This may have been my first computer to use Intel's then Brand Spanking New LGA Socket.)

I still believe that my MDG Horizon 2400 had an ATI Radeon Chipset, not Intel GMA.
I heard Intel GMA was abysmal.
Also, this may have been before AMD's purchase of ATI in the Summer of 2006.

The hard drive was 80GB.

Yes, we were running Windows XP Home Edition. Within my family, we were always stuck with the Home Editions.

My one gripe was that for Optical media, we only had a CD-ROM drive in there. 
Come on man, this was the mid 2000s. I shouldn't be stuck with CD drives when almost everybody had a DVD Drive in their PC.

For speakers, I had a pair of speakers with a subwoofer.

For monitors, We originally had a Samsung CRT Monitor.

Hard to see but the Samsung monitor was there. Ignore the Unicorn on top of the monitor.

Then, sometime in 2009, I switched to a ViewSonic LCD Monitor.
The monitor had built in speakers but as we all know, monitor speakers that don't come from Apple are often tinny so I later brought back my old speakers. which aren't seen in any of these photos.

What did I use the MDG Horizon for?

It was split between my mother and myself.

She often used it to play music on the pc while I used it for some games.

Most of my games were still the same Edutainment titles I had from early childhood but by this point, my interests shifted.
I then played some more entertaining games that were not edutainment.

These games ranged from battleships, to train simulators, Dragon Puzzles, arcade style, etc.

My father also experimented with this machine as well and at one point tried to install UBUNTU on it.
It went as well as you'd expected.

Then in early spring 2009, it was agreed upon that I should have the MDG Horizon 2400 so he moved it to my room, reinstalled Windows XP in it, and that was it. It was mine. All mine.

I also call this my YouTube machine because it was where I was exposed to the world of YouTube.
And for a brief period, I had a YouTube account. It went as well as expected.

Keep in mind YouTube was a different place back then before Google bought the company and changed the website for better or for worse.

As for emulation, I used this machine to emulate more systems... mostly Nintendo systems.

Also, this was the machine which I had my first exposure to video editing but back then, I didn't have the money to buy a license for Adobe Premiere Pro so I used Windows Movie Maker back then.

I did briefly use AVS Video Editor.

What happened to my MDG Horizon?

By 2011, my MDG Horizon 2400 was starting to show it's age.
The troubles weren't as bad as my Vobis Highscreen but still.
The hard drive got infected with a Trojan Horse which despite our valiant efforts, we couldn't remove.

Not only that, but.... no it was just the trojan horse that affected the performance of my machine.

Also, I was scheduled to go to Mexico with my mother at the time so we couldn't bring an infected Windows XP desktop with us on a plane.

Not only that but by June 2011, the situation got so bad that my father decided saving an infected machine was an utter act of necromancy so he wiped the whole drive clean.

When we moved back to Vancouver, my father probably got rid of it.

So to make a long story short, I lost a machine that I held so dearly. In fact, I consider this loss so emotionally painful that for several years, I had several dreams of this machine like this one dream where the apartment I was living in was quarantined due to the infected machine.

If possible, I would want to rebuild my Old MDG Horizon 2400 but finding era appropriate parts is going to be difficult.

I did recently find an old Windows XP computer at my Local Value Village Thrift Store and amazingly, it still worked but it's no MDG Horizon PC so I'll keep searching.... or just rebuild it using a modern case but with new old stock parts.

bottom of page