First Computer / Your Computer History

[mathewlu]

What was your first computer?

Mine was an IBM PC XT in 1986 (I was ten, my parents bought it without really knowing what it was good for--they still don't):

8MHz proc (I think)
256 KILObytes of RAM
dual 5 1/4" floppy drives
NO hard drive
4 color CGA graphics

I think it cost them $2500.

Cheers,
--Mathew

[firstadopter]

That's faster than my first computer.

Commodore 64.
1mhz CPU
and a whopping 64k of memory. WOW!!! LOL

I had a 5.25" floppy drive that was the size of like 3 bricks.

I think it cost $250? Don't remember.

[russianspeed]

First computer was an HP

120MHZ Pentium I
1.2 gig HD
8 meg ram
4x cdrom
win95

that was the shit back then.

[firstadopter]

When I got my first Pentium 60mhz Gateway in college, my buddies would joke that the lights would dim when I turn it on due to its "super-computer" power. :)

[firstadopter]

My first laptop was a Zenith 386SL. Black and white screen, it ran Windows 3.0 I believe. Man was Windows really bad back then.

[MailManX]

It was a 286-DX66 with a whopping 4Mb of memory and a HUGE 540Mb Maxtor HD. It was freakin' expensive! I remember it costing about $2000 including the upgraded 14" color monitor.

After owning it for a few weeks, I wanted more memory, but RAM was REALLY expensive at that time. Still, I bit the bullet added 4 more MB for a mere $50 per MB. That's an extra $200 to get a grand total of 8Mb. Times have sure changed!

Michael

[firstadopter]

Man that reminds of when I paid $300 for 16 megabytes of ram. These days you couldn't give away 16 megabytes of ram.

[CAG]

I got my 1st machine ~8 years ago...something that someone had build for me...If I recall, it had a 133MHz Intel processor and a 1.2 (or was it 2.1) GB hard drive...cutting edge for the time. It was cheaper than store-bought but I think it still cost me about $2K including the monitor (a 13" NEC CRT). Its amazing what you can get today for that price.

[firstadopter]

My favorite PC was my second home computer, the awesome Amiga 500. That had the best games for its time back then.

[TheAngryIntern]

i'm almost ashamed to admit i used to be a mac person....but in my defense, my mother wanted me to get a mac, cuz she worked for a newspaper, and they used macs, so she got me loads of free software from work (quarkxpress, etc...) But anyway, my first puter was:

Mac LCIII
33 mhz
4 mb ram
80 mb hdd
....and i think that was it for specs!!!

[firstadopter]

No shame with being a Mac owner. They are usually slower, but have a style and grace + great software. Although I love my rip roaring PC, the Mac is just elegant and doesn't crash as much. The software UI just works.

[schleifnet]

tandy 200
parents got it for us in the late 80s for fifty bucks
had a cassette deck for data storage etc and no hard disk or real operation system

it was pretty useless for anything other than an ascii art program and hangman

but it was still cool

plus my dad had one of the first available actually portable laptops in the mid 80s

also a tandy which is now mine woo hoo

[firstadopter]

I remember typing in thousands of lines for silly text BASIC games on my Commodore 64. Then the COMPUTE! magazine let you type in thousands of machine code lines for more complex games. I think I learned how to type fast cuz of this stuff.

[arogan]

Atari 800

I remember when we first got it we didn't even have the Basic cartridge yet. All you got was memo pad. I remember just typing random stuff in memo pad (look I'm typing without paper!) for the first few days.....yeah I was easily amused back then.

Then we finally got the Basic cartridge and did the same thing: typing lines and lines of code from magazines to play simple games. Of course we couldn't afford getting the 1050 (we skipped over the 810) disk drive until much later. We even wrote a simple triangle shooting game (two triangles, one on top and one on buttom, used the paddle controls, shoot lasers at each other (basically drew a line)) that we had to write down the source code on paper by hand.

[Sidneyc]

Mine was back in '86
Commodore 64 with a data tape drive!! I remember waiting about 10 min. for the Pole Position game to load..

[firstadopter]

God Pole position on C64, dang I remember that game. One tiny tiny mistake and you're toast.

[kf_man]

Personally, I had a Commodore64 for a long time, but I never use it (was my dad's, didn't have a clue). My first usable computer was a Timex Sinclair that my grandpa gave me to play with. You hooked it up to a tv and a simple generic tape recorder/player and you were off. It had very simple games like bowling and frogger, but it was loads of fun. I was so young at the time that I don't even have a clue about the specs of it.

My first real computer was an Apple Macintosh Performa 630 CD. A huge name I know, but that was state of the art when we got it and for a steal at $2,500!

Spec:
*33/66MHz processor (never understood that concept)
*8MB RAM (upgraded to twenty by replacing the 4MB chip with a 16MB one, it only had 1 slot though with 4MB onboard memory)
*200MB HD
*CD-ROM built-in
*14" screen

That's about it...I loved playing Doom and a slew of other great mac games that my uncle game me. I used to love that thing, but sadly I traded it in for my next system very willingly.

[firstadopter]

The processor probably similar to the 486DX2-33/66. I think it had something to do with running 66mhz internally, but interfaced with the outside world at 33mhz.

[kf_man]

I guess that makes little to no sense...oh well I suppose...I thought maybe it was like auto turbo. Oh well again... Thanks for the input.

[Rogue]

Mine was an Acer Pentium 60 with the dang chip soldered to the motherboard. But I remember how I got it and feel like sharing.

A friend of mine worked at a local chain store and called me up one day wanting to know if I would like a computer. When I asked how much, $0.00 was the reply. When I got there I had to sign a work request. Apparently the owner brought this into the store to have a modem installed, prepaid and never showed back up. After weeks of trying to get him on the phone, they finally reached his mother, an elderly lady. The owner had passed away and she didn't even know what a computer was and told them to throw it out in the trash. That day I became a trash man and a monster was created.

[firstadopter]

haha that' is sweet. I remember my first Pentium 60mhz.. man that machine was an awesome DooM playing machine.

[TheAngryIntern]

lol! Nice story rogue. wonder what happened to the guy?

[Rogue]

I don't know. Good for me, Bad for him. I just never played a game with the word "ghost" in it on that machine. Didn't wanna push my luck.

[firstadopter]

Let's list your full PC History!

Mine is:

C64
Commodore Amiga 500
Gatebook Colorbook 33mhz
Gateway Penitum 60mhz
with Pentinum upgrad 120mhz
Home-built Pentium Pro 200mhz
IBM Butterfly Thinkpad
Home-built Celeron 300mhz overclocked to 450mhz
Home-built AMD Thunderbird, 1.2 then 1.33ghz after first CPU died
Home-built Intel P4 2.66ghz
Now building a Conroe 6400 system

[TheAngryIntern]

*Apple IIc's that my dad would bring home for the summer from work
*Macintosh LCIII
*Gateway 300MHZ laptop (sold to parents)
*home built AMD athlon 800 desktop, later upgraded to athlon 1200 (sold to a friend)
*Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop pentium 1ghz cpu (sold to parents)
*home built AMD Athlon XP 2000 1.67 GHZ (later given to my sister as a wedding gift)
*home built Intel P4 2.53 GHZ desktop (sold to a roommate)
*home built Intel P4 3.2 GHZ (sold to a roommate)
*home built Prescott 3 Ghz (current system)
*home built AMD64 3500+ SLI (current system)

currently planning on a new Core 2 build of some kind this fall.


What about an addendum with history of people's video cards:
GeForce 2
GeForce 3
ATI 9700 pro (fried when I tried to put an aftermarket cooler on)
ATI 9800XT (replaced the 9700 after the frying)
GeForce 5700 ultra
ATI X800XT Platinum Edition (sold to a friend)
GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI

[arogan]

Memory is pretty shot on this one:

atari 800
atari 800xl
some at&t 8088 green screen clone
no name 286 clone
dell 486 dx2 50
now my memory is shot. Everything from this point on was home built (well except the laptops of course)
I think I had a pentium one in there somewhere but don't remember
then it was a p2 - 350
some sort of p2 based celeron that I OC a lot.

that kind of brings me up to my current fleet of computers:
1) Main gaming rig
os: winxp pro sp2/winxp x64 (dual boot)
Cpu: athlon 64 3000 venice (oc 2.45ghz, 272 X 9, HTT X3, Memory 1:1)
cpu cooling: xp-90, 92mm panaflo H
cpu voltage: vcore 1.425*110%
cpu temps: 35 idle, 44 under prime95 load
mb: DFI Lanparty nf4 ultra d, bios 4/6/2006
ps: antec 480w neo power
memory: 2gb (2x1024) PC4000 (dual channel) g.skill uccc matched pair (oc 272mhz, 2.6v) F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ
memory settings: 1T, 3-4-4-8, interleave enabled, dual channel slot 2 & 4 (orange)
video: XFX 7900GT (oc 520/1400) temps 53c - 77c (under heavy load)
sound: audigy 2zs
hd: 2x Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB Serial ATA II RAID 0, 120gb wd on sata
case: THERMALTAKE Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum
default video settings: 1600x1200, 0xAA, 0xAF

------------------------------------------------------

2) Media Center Edition (use to be old gaming rig):
os: winxp pro / MCE (dual boot)
Cpu: athlon mobile 2600 xp oc to around 3600 xp (200X12)
mb: abit nf7-s 2.0 (nforce2 400 ultra)
ps: antec 480w true blue
memory: 1024 (2x512) megs DDR400 (dual channel) corsair matched pair
video: ati radeon 9700 pro
sound: soundstorm
hd: 250gig WD 8mb SE on SATA
hd: 300gig Seagate PATA
case: raidmax scorpio
default video settings: 1024x768, 4xAA, 4xAF

3) wife's machine:
os: winxp pro
cpu: athlon 2400 xp
mb: epox 8rda+ (nforce 2)
ps: antec 430 true power
memory: 512 megs corsair xms dual channel
video: geforce 4 ti4200
sound: onboard
hd: 40 gig ibm

4) web server:
os: winxp pro
cpu: athlon 1800 xp
mb: epox EP-8K5A2 (kt333)
ps: antec 350SL
memory: 768 megs pc2100 crucial
video: geforce 2 mx400 64mb
sound: onboard via kt333 sound
Hd: 300 gig seagate, 100gig wd, 400gb seagate

5) my son's machine
os: winxp pro
cpu: pentium 3 1 ghz
mb: soyo sy6ba +4 (bx)
ps: 300w?
memory: 384 megs pc100
video: geforce 2 gts-v
sound: sb live
hd: 20gig

6) development box:
os: winxp pro
cpu: athlon 2000xp (thorton)
mb: abit nf7-s
ps: antec 380w true power
memory: 1024 (2x512) megs DDR400 (dual channel) corsair value select
video: geforce 3 ti200
sound: onboard
hd: 120 gig maxtor, 250 gig wd

7) HTPC:
os: winxp pro
cpu: athlon 2400xp
mb: asus a7n8-e deluxe
ps: antec 380w true power
memory: 1024 (2x512) megs DDR400 (dual channel) corsair value select
video: ati radeon 9600 np
sound: soundstorm
hd: 300gb seagate, 250gb maxtor

8) download/burn machine/file server:
os: winxp pro
cpu: athlon 2500xp (oc to 200X9.5)
mb: abit nf7
ps: antec 380w true power
memory: 1024 (2x512) megs DDR400 (dual channel) corsair value select
video: ati radeon 9200 se 128mb
sound: soundstorm
hd: 200 gig seagate, 250 gig maxtor

9) Beige PowerMac G3 (why is this still in the house)
os: os X 10.2.8 (jaguar)
cpu: g3 300mhz
mb: rev 2
memory: 384 megs pc100
video: ati rage pro 6mb
hd: wd 20 gig

10) dell inspiron 5000e laptop: (paper weight, I never turn this on anymore)
os: winxp pro
cpu: pentium 3 750mhz
mb: bx
memory: 512 megs crucial pc100
video: ATI Rage Mobility 128 M3 (16MB)
sound: ess Maestro2E
HD: 30 gig ibm travelstar 5400rpm

11) dell inspiron 8600c laptop:
os: winxp pro
cpu: dothan pentium M 1.6ghz (2mb cache)
mb: intel 855PM
memory: 1 gig ddr333 (samsung, corsair)
video: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo 128mb (m10)
sound: SIGMATEL STAC 9750 AC97
HD: 60 gig hitachi travelstar 7200 rpm 8mb cache

that's like 3.7TB of storage all machines if I count external enclosures (80gb,80gb,80gb,120gb,120gb,300gb). I think I need some consolidation and maybe just one giant media file server with a ton of hard drives. I spend way too much time patching all these systems.

My wife has already told me I've exceeded my max # of pc's allowed in the house. The nerve center (most of the pc's, all the game consoles, hdtv, and a portable air conditioner to help with the heat) room draws so much power that If I turn too many things on I trip the breaker. I fixed this by running additional power to the room by routing an outlet in the attic to the nerve center by dropping an extension down the wall, and added an additional AC outlet to the nerve center where I run the AC and a few computers on on this second circuit.

[firstadopter]

That list is incredible. My wife would never let me do that. Although right now we have an G4 iBook, G4 Mac Mini, P4 homebuilt, and a Conroe on the way. I don't think she would allow more than 4 computers in a house. LOL.

[arogan]

I think at minimum I would need:

1 pc for each family member (4)
production web server
htpc (sits downstairs in the family room)
now here is where I could consolidate. combine the burn/DL/development/MCE/file/media server all into one big box.
1 laptop

so that would mean at minimum I would need 8 pc's total.
The problem is I can't justify ever spending much money on anything but my main Gaming rig and then all the old hardware just trickles down.

[pcmerlin]

Responding to main topic (would take WAY too long to list all of them)

My first computer:

Tandy TRS-80 model III (just over 2Mhz, if I'm not mistaken)
32K ROM chip
no floppy drive - had to use a cassette tape to load and save programs.
8" black and white screen (a whopping 64x16 resolution in text mode 128x64 in graphics mode)
Cassette tape had to be connected via audio jack cables and volume had to be JUST right.

Added on later:
Floppy disk drive - to be know later as single-sided, single density, held about 400k of data, but those that knew the old hole-punch trick could effectively double the storage size (basically allowed you to put the disk in backwards and store data on the back-side of the disk)
400 baud modem - about 1/3 the size of the computer - had to call out on your telephone and set the handset into the cradle on the modem in order for it to work - provided you pushed the right buttons fast enough.

Gee, thanks for reminding me of THOSE days, lol!

PCMerlin

[firstadopter]

Man this is great to re-live old times. My first modem was a 2400 Supra modem, where I would download 720k Amiga disk images. I then spend few hundred dollars to get a US Robotics Courier HST 14.4k modem, man that was so fast back in the day.

[arogan]

Hey I had a supra modem but could never afford one of those fancy US Robotics ones.

My first modem was some expensive 300 baud atari branded modem for my atari 800. Back in the day before the internet when ascii art and BBS were all we had.

[firstadopter]

I ran a BBS back in the day on my Amiga 500. I had like 124 users, I thought at was amazing. LOL.

[stupot42]

Sorry I've not been around much lately guys... busy at work, and we're selling our house and moving, which is really eating up my time.

My first computer was also a C64 with tape deck which took an age to load games... I suppose we were more patient back then. Now I get frustrated just waiting for all the copyright stuff to disappear when loading an Xbox game!

My first real PC was back in the early 90s not sure exactly when, but 93 sounds about right. It was a gateway Pentium 75Mhz (over clocked to 90Mhz by moving 1 jumper ha ha!), 64mb of ram a whopping 800 Mb hdd (that was as big as they got at the time) 8Mb graphics card, 56k Modem... this thing was top of the range and cost more than £2000! I don't know what my dad was thinking when he bought it, but I'm glad he did. And best of all, we only threw it out about 6months ago and that was only because we didn't have room for it... it was still going, and I think would of done for another 10+ years very happily. This thing first came with win 3.1 and then Gateway gave us a free upgrade to Win 95, and I think we later even managed the upgrade to 98.

[TheAngryIntern]

welcome back, stupot42! gl with the house sell and move! You should have kept that old machine if it was still working and made a linux file server or something out of it!

[stupot42]

Thanks TAI. Fingers crossed, it should all go well!

I did consider keeping the machine as a linux firewall, but decided I didn't have the space or time to mess about at that point.

I've got another old PII 266 which I'm going to file-server-ify when I have the time.

[firstadopter]

Update PC history:

C64
Commodore Amiga 500
Gatebook Colorbook 33mhz
Gateway Penitum 60mhz
with Pentinum upgrad 120mhz
Home-built Pentium Pro 200mhz
IBM Butterfly Thinkpad
Home-built Celeron 300mhz overclocked to 450mhz
Home-built AMD Thunderbird, 1.2 then 1.33ghz after first CPU died
Home-built Intel P4 2.66ghz
Home-built a Conroe 6400 system
Mac Mini G4
Macbook Pro "Santa Rosa"