Question Which CPU was your very first one?

[Endre]

My very first desktop PC was built in 2004 and it had an AMD Duron 950 MHz CPU 😄

Specs:
https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Duron 950 - D950AUT1B.html

 

[roryrocker13]

A celeron from the early 2000s, a clockspeed around 1.3 GHz comes to mind but I might be wrong, first gaming PC had an AMD FX 6100

 

[cuneytisilak]

My very first desktop cpu intel 486 dx2 second Intel MMX 233

 

[alceryes]

Do consoles count?
If yes, MOS Technology 6507 (Atari 2600). If no, MOS Technology 6502B (Atari 400). Around the same time as I got the Atari 400 the family got an Intel 8088 (IBM XT clone).
A couple years later I got the MOS Technology 6510 (Commodore 64). Soooo many fond memories with my C64.
Several years after that was my first modular "PC," an 80486SX clone, then a Pentium 90 in a Compaq, and so on and so forth.

 

[King_V]

Do consoles count?
If yes, MOS Technology 6507 (Atari 2600). If no, MOS Technology 6502B (Atari 400). Around the same time as I got the Atari 400 the family got an Intel 8088 (IBM XT clone).
A couple years later I got the MOS Technology 6510 (Commodore 64). Soooo many fond memories with my C64.
Several years after that was my first modular "PC," an 80486SX clone, then a Pentium 90 in a Compaq, and so on and so forth.

I went along a similar line . . the 6507 for the 2600, but then the 6510 for the C64. It got replaced with a C128 a few years later when the Restore key on the C64 needed to almost be slammed down to work (just that key, no others).

Weirdly, Crazy Eddie, the place I got the C64 from, offered to give me a refund of the amount I originally paid years earlier, which meant that for $20 more, I got a C128. 8502 CPU in that. I spent most of the time using it in C64 mode, and only briefly toyed with CP/M mode which used the Z80 CPU. Had no idea what I was doing it it, so mostly ignored CP/M mode.

Used it until 1996, when I finally got a modern PC, a Pentium 133.

 

[alceryes]

Weirdly, Crazy Eddie, the place I got the C64 from, offered to give me a refund of the amount I originally paid years earlier, which meant that for $20 more, I got a C128.

Hell of a deal! Must be why they called him Crazy Eddie!

 

[Krotow]

Hell of a deal! Must be why they called him Crazy Eddie!

More like due to fraudulent business practice they decided to quietly refund him to avoid unwanted interest from authorities. Which somewhat matches with their business name quite well.

 

[alceryes]

More like due to fraudulent business practice they decided to quietly refund him to avoid unwanted interest from authorities. Which somewhat matches with their business name quite well.

Ahhh. Got it.
I was several states away at that time so I didn't have any interaction with the business.

 

[oldcracc]

My first real processor was an i5-3400 in a prebuilt desktop I put a 1050 Ti in

 

[rickypicky5]

Ahhh. Got it.
I was several states away at that time so I didn't have any interaction with the business.

Alceryes - I saw in your signature you're cooling your i9-9900k (overclocked) with an H80i v2?? How??? What are your CPU temps like?

 

[tecmo34]

Commodore VIC-20 was first for the my family when I was younger.

My first build was an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 in 2007. Up to then, I was using just what ever Dell or Gateway PC, I got my hands on, so don't recall processors.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

My very first was a 6502 running BASIC 😲

 

[alceryes]

Alceryes - I saw in your signature you're cooling your i9-9900k (overclocked) with an H80i v2?? How??? What are your CPU temps like?

The H80i v2 is actually very good. I can game all day and the CPU only gets up to between 70-75C
I've got the vcore and other CPU voltage settings dialed in to keep it nice and cool too.

If I run Prime95 small FFT the temp eventually creeps up to unacceptable levels but it never happens in daily usage.

 

[thx1138v2]

This is history!

Before that I worked on a Univac 9300 with 16KB memory, 4 tape drives (the big ones you see in really old movies), a card reader, a card punch, and a band printer.
Univac 9300
Magnetic core memory

I didn't count that one because I didn't own it.

 

[Schlachtwolf]

My first was a..... in 1996 prebuilt Intel Pentium Pro, man that was fast smoke in those days, I can't exactly remember but I think it could do 200mhz if I am correct. With that and my Atari I was a happy bunny. In those days unless you had a boring haircut. creased jeans, glasses and no girl/boyfriend you never dreamed of building your own PC...

The 80's (when I was teenager...... ahhhh when we were young and the proste still worked.....) PC's were a thing of wonder that only important and brainy people knew how to operate, we youngsters in Ireland looked at them like kids in 1900 watching the first car drive through their village. How times change eh.....

 

[Endre]

Before that I worked on a Univac 9300 with 16KB memory, 4 tape drives (the big ones you see in really old movies), a card reader, a card punch, and a band printer.
Univac 9300
Magnetic core memory

I didn't count that one because I didn't own it.

It’s cool to even see the pictures of such PC parts!

 

[carocuore]

A Duron 750, I still have it, the whole computer in fact, my dad bought it for him in 2001 and it then became the family's computer until 2018 or so, it had a 20GB hard drive that died at some point but was never removed from the case, and to this day it runs on a 80GB drive with Windows 2000, has a floppy drive, a CD reader and a separate CD burner, everything working as a charm.
That thing served me well during high school, I finished it in 2018 btw, I'm not that old.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

A Duron 750, I still have it, the whole computer in fact, my dad bought it for him in 2001 and it then became the family's computer until 2018 or so, it had a 20GB hard drive that died at some point but was never removed from the case, and to this day it runs on a 80GB drive with Windows 2000, has a floppy drive, a CD reader and a separate CD burner, everything working as a charm.
That thing served me well during high school, I finished it in 2018 btw, I'm not that old.

that doesn't sound that different from the 32 bit Pentium 4 PC that I'd been using up until very recently, that also served me well through high-school and in engineering college, it ran Auto-cad in XP strangely well

 

[USAFRet]

that doesn't sound that different from the 32 bit Pentium 4 PC that I'd been using up until very recently, that also served me well through high-school and in engineering college, it ran Auto-cad in XP strangely well

Period appropriate AutoCad would run well.
Todays AutoCad, not so much.

I've been doing the same with Rhino3D over the years.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Since we are in a retro thread I just want to mention that everyone should check out "Computer Chronicles" on Youtube... most everyone should be familiar if you were around in those days. I can remember watching it here and there and it covered everything computers from the early 80's til the early 2000's. Gary Kildall was a co-host.

The show really is an amazing trip down memory lane. I just watched an episode the other day about MS Flight Simulator (which has been around even longer than Windows) and watching that state of the art 1982 version on screen and comparing it to the 2020 version was entertaining.

As said upthread I started on a Commodore Amiga 500 and didn't go PC until the late 90's with Windows 95 and my Pentium 75 that I soon upgraded to a 200MMX.... and this show covered the Amiga as well as Mac.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

Period appropriate AutoCad would run well.
Todays AutoCad, not so much.

I guess, I'll never forget how much laughter I had from my classmates when I told them what PC I was using, but it did the job and saved me from needing to spend money - that is until it's motherboard died, tech doesn't last forever

 

[Krotow]

I guess, I'll never forget how much laughter I had from my classmates when I told them what PC I was using, but it did the job and saved me from needing to spend money - that is until it's motherboard died, tech doesn't last forever

Correct. Especially now decade old systems works just fine if not burdened with tasks too hard for them. My work computer is decade old Dell workstation and it still works fine with very big C++ project in Eclipse CDT compiling, intraweb browsing and can run two large VirtualBox VMs (Ubuntu) inside in same time.

"Period appropriate AutoCad would run well" recalled memories about transition from command line/text mode to GUI era in mid-1990s. At that time every new CPU generation was huge performance improvement. Software sluggish on 386SX-25 was had normal speed on 386DX-40, fast on 486DX-40, very fast on 486DX-133 and achieved light speed on Pentium 100+. It was visible with naked eye. One my old friend data analyst who worked with Excel 4 on 386DX-40, got a new computer with 486DX-133 and Excel 5 and after first launch became unbelievably grumpy. Turned out he was disappointed about that he don't see how numbers in table cells are changing on recalculation anymore. A month passed until he got used to it.

 

[falcon291]

Commodore 64, so MOS 6510.
Then Amiga 500, so Motorola 6800
and then my first PC: 486 DX266

now Intel i7 9700K. Between there are several CPUs.

 

[alceryes]

Raise your hand if your computer had a 'turbo' button!
Mine had the button but it didn't do anything cause it was the slower 80486SX - 25MHz. A friend of mine's did though! Some games were just too fast in turbo mode - completely unplayable.

 

[Krotow]

Raise your hand if your computer had a 'turbo' button!
Mine had the button but it didn't do anything cause it was the slower 80486SX - 25MHz. A friend of mine's did though! Some games were just too fast in turbo mode - completely unplayable.

My first computer(s) even didn't had "turbo" button. I experienced how "turbo" button in computers came and gone together with fancy 7-segment CPU clock speed digits on case front panel. A little nightmare to set them correctly with a ton of tiny jumpers if someone did lost his case manual.

Keyboard lock sometimes worked and sometimes not. Often was used as joke feature to prank classmates and coworkers.

Still remember two turbo dependent games - Digger and Sopwith.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

My PC at work is an 11 year old dell office terminal, all it needs to do is look at the stock database in the workshop, said database is a text based program form 30 years ago

"Period appropriate AutoCad would run well" recalled memories about transition from command line/text mode to GUI era in mid-1990s. At that time every new CPU generation was huge performance improvement. Software sluggish on 386SX-25 was had normal speed on 386DX-40, fast on 486DX-40, very fast on 486DX-133 and achieved light speed on Pentium 100+. It was visible with naked eye. One my old friend data analyst who worked with Excel 4 on 386DX-40, got a new computer with 486DX-133 and Excel 5 and after first launch became unbelievably grumpy. Turned out he was disappointed about that he don't see how numbers in table cells are changing on recalculation anymore. A month passed until he got used to it.

Having used quite a lot of retro tech I can imagine what it would have been like, but I'm not quite old enough to remember it LOL