QOTD: What Was Your First Computer?

[joefriday]

Compaq Deskpro 4000N with a Pentium MMX 233Mhz, 3.2GB hdd, 32MB ram, 16x slot load CD, 3.5 floppy, and Windows 95a. That was the family's first computer purchased in 1998. I tried to get them to buy an AMD K6-2 300MHz whitebox computer instead, but they didn't think it would be a good idea to listen to a 16 year old. When I turned 18, I started college and purchased my own computer, an HP Pavilion 6835 with 800MHz Celeron, 128MB ram, 12x CD burner, 3.5" floppy, 30GB hard drive, on an i810 intel board. It ran Windows ME. Came with a 17" Envision CRT, and total cost after taxes was $700. Used that rig until January 2005, then I built my first computer: a Celeron 2.0GHz, ECS PM800-M 1.1, 1GB ram, 60GB Maxtor 7200 rpm drive, DVDRW drive, Winfast capture card, and a Thermaltake Xaser III case. It was a very budget build, but it seemed super fast compared to my old computer. Later on I overclocked that 2.0 Celly to 3.0GHz, and was quite happy for a while, but eventually upgraded to a Celeron D 310 in October 2005, with I overclocked to 3.2GHz/800fsb the day I installed it. That rig has since been parted out. The Celeron D/ECS mobo combo is still doing daily duty in my friend's rig, and he loves it.

 

[damoisture]

Packard Bell 486SX/20Mhz with 2MB of RAM and a 210MB Hard Drive, 5.25 and 3.5 floppies, no modem, a 15" CRT, MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, and a Panasonic Dot Matrix Printer that woke the neighbors. I was in 4th grade, and I'm pretty sure that whole package cost over $2,000.

 

[takenra]

First one I used was an Amstrad pc512. 8086 processor 512Kb RAM. duel 5.25" drives - later got upgraded with a 40Mb Hard card (hard drive attached the expansion slot card). Then have used every version intel processor since from 286 - C2Q (with the odd Athlon in there too!)

 

[Guest]

Ohio Scientific Superboard II 6502 with 8K RAM BASIC in ROM!

http://oldcomputers.net/osi-600.html

 

[Guest]

My first computer was a 386 with 4 mb ram. I remember going to Frys with my dad in like 1994 to buy a 2 MB VGA card. lol

 

[Guest]

My first was an Intel 386DX 40Mhz, ISA bus, 80MB HDD, Trident 512KB video card, 5.25 inch floppy, 2400-bit/s external modem. I think I got in in 1992, paid $1500 for it. A killer PC It was running DOS 5.0 and some barely usable version of Windows (since I only had 4MB of RAM).

 

[chromaone]

Circa 1978, Digital Group Z-80, hand assembled, initially 2K of RAM and an audio cassette interface. Eventually 64K with two eight inch floppy drives and CP/M.

 

[Guest]

Mine was a C64, then C128, Amiga 2000, Mac IIsi, Next Turbo Color....and since then computing has lost it's wonder for me

 

[rykerabel]

Commodore Vic-20.
Sprites rule!

 

[Guest]

Hmm , that would have to be Casio FX-880P.
I wonder if that qualifies though since it was more like an advanced calculator.
For those who remember 2 lines 35x7 dot/ 32 chars LCD screen with virtual screen extending to 8 lines.
Had 32K of memory and 128K ROM with all kinds of math programs.
I created a simple graphics program by combining 4 chars where I could walk around and turn on/off each pixel

 

[radium69]

486DX2 with a whopping 80mhz! and 16mb of ram! it had a floppy and cd drive, and it was loaded with win 95! I loved it and I grew up with it... It played doom, blood, dukenukem, stargunner, wolfenstein 3d , heretic just fine! I had a sound blaster 16 card in there aswell! Good old times... It even had a turbo button and it was as big as a thermaltake armor case , and it weighed like a ton haha... I miss those days...

 

[jimx]

Philips MSX !!! then amiga 500 plus !!!!!! good times...

 

[kittle]

I started with a TI-99/4a computer. 16kb ram, and mom's old 12 inch BW TV as a monitor. Eventually we got a casette "interface" cable -- you had to supply your own cassette player. It was a great day when I was able to store my programs!

After that Dad got a PC AT (8mhz, 640k ram, single floppy drive).
Eventually i scrounged my own "Real" IBM XT from one of my first jobs, and the upgrades went from there.

 

[anthonyas01]

my first system was a compaq (don't remember the model number but i think it was a 2200 series) system that showed signs of having been ripped off from a local supermarket and then sold to us as an old system someone didn't need anymore. I was only 14 or 15 at the time (don't remember) and so i had no idea but wondered what this lotus suite that was installed on it was for. if i remember correctly, it had a 166mhz cyrix w/ 16megs of ram and a 2gig drive runnin win95. i owe this and a subsequent system we bought 2 years later (compaq 7478, 533k6-2 64megs - 8mb dedicated to onboard video, 30gig drive, 4x burner w/no buffer - coaster time! - waaaay loaded for it's time) everything i now know about computers and technology in general. that was our last purchased system before i found tomshardware and i got into the whole diy scene. man, the memories and experiences i had w/those systems. will never forget them

 

[tracyfearson]

Yes, I am showing my age.

My first computer was a Times Sinclair 1000.

With 16k ram expansion and tape drive.

I had used a friends ZX80 and by the time I saved up for one the newer model was out.

 

[blackbeastofaaaaagh]

The first computer I learned use was my dad's:

NorthStar Advantage
-released 1982
- Z80a processor 4 MHz and 8088 co-processor
- 256 KB (originally came with 64)
- SNA networking card.
It's graphics capabilities (640x240 dots) were most impressive for it's time. My friends were blown away by its implementaion of Asteroids versus their puney Apple machine's.

 

[freggo]

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1k of RAM.
Yes, that is 1024 bytes
I startet writing games for it -in Assembler- the next day and with the money I made selling them to local computer dealers bought a then horribly expensive 16k memory expansion and a 'big' add on keyboard. Still have it, still works

 

[SAL-e]

[citation][nom]voynikov[/nom]My first machine was a 6502 based Bulgarian built Pravets 82http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEU [...] c=988&st=1 [/citation]
Before that it was called IMKO2. It was an Apple II clone. I had to build it my self.

 

[king_smeagol]

Timeline of my PC's

THE GOLDEN YEARS
1) 1979 Commodore PET 2001 - spot them in the bunker in terminator 3 ;-)
2) 1982 Commodore 64 - 'the model T' of home computers
3) 1987 Amiga 500 - oh what colour! and SPEEDBALL 2!! woot!
4) 1989 Amiga 2000 w/8mb ram, genlock - a multimedia workhorse at the time
5) 1990 Amiga 3000 16mb, 030 cpu - almost perfect!
6) 1993 Amiga 4000 16mb, 040 cpu, toaster 4000 - life is good!
7) 1994 Commodore dies - ah heck!

THE DARK AGES - the wintel years
8) 2001 PIII - custom build
9) 2005 AMD Athlon XP 2500 Barton - custom build
10) 2007 AMD Athlon X2 4800+ - custom build
11) 2008 Intel e8400, 4gb, 1TB, 8800gt - custom build

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
12) 2008 INTEL q9550, 8gb, 2TB, 8800gt x2 Vista64
13) 2008 Intel q9550, 8gb, 4TB, 9800gt, MacOS 10.5.5 Hackintosh

Finally some hope of the good old days with apple's OSX picking up where Commodores AmigaOS left off. I still have all my CBM pc's and the 2 intel PC's; the rest are in the Bin. The winner is still ye Olde C64 though.

 

[bone squat]

Since I am a youngin' on here my first real computer was:

Dell Optiplex something (before I knew how to build them)
333Mhz Pentium II
128mb SDRAM
4mb ATi Rage pro AGP2X
4GB IDE HDD (massive)

It was pretty slow for a 2000 computer but hey it was free.

My first computer I built myself in 01':
AS-Rock mobo AGP4x lol DDR and SDRAM slots....
Celeron 1.7ghz 128k cache...(ouch)
256mb RAM (later upped it to 384mb of SDRAM then went crazy with 512mb DDR 266...
64mb onboard SIS graphics (later to a powerful..ha..geforce FX 5200 128mb
Eventually dumped the 4gb hard drive and got a massive 12gb for free - eventually getting a 40gb (thought it was the best - still works to this day but makes a super high pitched sound and works only if you tap it slightly - surprised it works at all after 8 years...)

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]bone squat[/nom]Since I am a youngin' on here my first real computer wasell Optiplex something (before I knew how to build them)333Mhz Pentium II128mb SDRAM4mb ATi Rage pro AGP2X4GB IDE HDD (massive)It was pretty slow for a 2000 computer but hey it was free.My first computer I built myself in 01':AS-Rock mobo AGP4x lol DDR and SDRAM slots....Celeron 1.7ghz 128k cache...(ouch)256mb RAM (later upped it to 384mb of SDRAM then went crazy with 512mb DDR 266...64mb onboard SIS graphics (later to a powerful..ha..geforce FX 5200 128mbEventually dumped the 4gb hard drive and got a massive 12gb for free - eventually getting a 40gb (thought it was the best - still works to this day but makes a super high pitched sound and works only if you tap it slightly - surprised it works at all after 8 years...)[/citation]
Appearently old hardware just soldiers on. New stuff breaks. The other day a dvd drive in an experimental computer broke, so I had to replace it. The only drive I had left was my very first cdrw drive. A mitsumi 4x cd burner from '98 ; Cost me the equivalent of 300€ back then. And it STILL WORKS! And last year I gave away a laptop. 233mhz pentium with 128mb ram and a 4gb harddrive. Amazingly even the battery still held power for 10 minutes. But it worked when I gave it away....

 

[lvlouro]

My first pc was a
386 dx2 40Mhz with turbo enabled, if I recall it had about
400mb of hard drive and
2mb ram

 

[KyleSTL]

I only listed the first computer that was 'mine' (albeit a hand-me-down from my dad). If we're talking about first computer used, that would be an Apple IIe. I loved the monochrome pinball game on it. If you got it 'stuck' right it would bounce between to bumpers infinitely. Ending the game required the power switch if you got that to happen.

 

[dragnalus]

It was an NCR DM-V ("Decision Mate Five"). The monitor was built into the thing and it had two 5.25" drives. You'd load up one with an OS, such as GBasic, DOS (version 1 i think), or CPM80. I remember vividly that it was not "IBM compatible" i.e. not x8086 based. I used to spend hours playing a game called ladder, which was an ascii based donkey kong clone (google it.. it's on the web). Also played a primitive text based star trek game... I never could figure out how the hell it worked.

Later we upgraded to an actual 8086, then later a 286. I also of course enjoyed my C64.

 

[Guest]

I'm 14, built my first when I was 9. AMD Duron 1.6GHZ, 768 MB of Ram, 80 GB HDD, All in wonder 2006 (RADEON 9600) Now I have a xeon x3320 (same as q9300) a GTX 280 250 GB HDD, 2GB of ram, and a striker 2 extreme