I remember fondly the NASDAQ bubble days, when it seemed like everyone was upgrading their PC every six months to be able to do useful and fun things, like play the newest 3D games (or to take advantage of the emerging high-speed internet without being slowed down by the piles of cable/DSL ISP crapware that came on the modem install CD).
Back then, custom PC shops competed with the big-box system builders by offering cheaper AMD Athlon based systems that frequently outperformed the much more expensive Intel Pentium III based systems, especially when unlocked and overclocked. But a common thread in the day was debating whether a motherboard with an Athlon CPU and a VIA chipset would be stable enough for the customer’s needs, or if his system should be specified with an Intel CPU and a 440BX based motherboard instead.