What was your first true computer -- Give specs!

The first PC in our house was an IBM 4.7Mhz with a 5MB HDD. I think it had 64k of RAM, but I know it was an 8086 CPU. I remember when we got a 10MB HDD ans was told we would never fill it! HA. Even had a 9600 baud rate modem. Ran on PC-DOS, not MS-DOS. At least until the first upgrade. I added cache memory to it and more RAM by adding chips to memory cards. And the monochrome green monitor. Ahh, memories.

The first one I owned was a 286 bought at CompUSA, when they were still independent. Cant tell you much about it, but I remember it was a huge improvement over the old IBM. And I spent more on it than my current 2500k machine!

LOL

My first true computer (whatever that really means ) was a store brand I don't recall, but the specs and prices I do

Non tower case (which was the rage back then)
CPU: Intel 12Mhz 286
MB: Unknown
HDD: 20 MB
RAM: 1 MB
3.5 inch floppy drive
no such thing as USB ports back then
Video Card: Siig ?? CGA that converted colors to 8 shades of grey

Monitor: flat screen black and white (no one could afford color monitors back then other than companies)

Total price for this powerhouse (for it's day) was $2,200 !!!!

A cyrix 166

I was 10 years old. My uncle built it for me.

Intel Pentium - 133MHz
32 MB of ram
6GB hdd
13-inch monitor (thought I died when I finally got a 15 inch)
3.5 inch floppy
5.25 inch floppy

It could run Duke Nukem 3D and Descent all day.

I searched ALL the posts under your question of what was your 1st computer and none of them were ZX81. If you are interested there is a YouTube video about all of the electronic kits Clive Sinclair designed and sold here, an eye opener for me, the guy was a genius.

retrocomputingforum.com/t/the-rubber-keyed-wonder-film-trailer-2024/4437

The Sinclair ZX81 was a programable Micro Computer that sold in kit form for about $100 USD. (1987 $) It ran the basic programing language that you could buy and exchange your own for free (NO U.L.A. at all !). I built the kit that involved soldering into place about 50 - 100 components. To my surprise and amazement I plugged it in and it powered up too a prompt, just like it did for the years that were to follow. For a monitor, you could use any TV you like. For a Hard Drive you could use any Cassette Recorder you like.

I learned Basic, started the largest BBS in my tri-state- area, then I started a PC sales and service business that did a bit more than pay the bills, all because of a $100 kit!

HARDWARE
The BBS ended up being a 4 PC network with 3 phone lines connected via US Robotics Duel Standard Modems, Four Panasonic 6 CD disk changers for a total of 24 CD ROMs, A downstream Satellite Dish feeding UseNet News Groups (Global Email), Had FIDO net too. All connected to 1 Monitor, Mouse and Keyboard.

tandy 1000 RL iirc

How old will we feel when new members say ryzen?

Mine was 1997, hp pre-built with pentium mmx 233mhz, 6gb hdd, and 32gb of ram. Was pretty great, most games were a slideshow but I didn't know any better.

TI-994A. TMS9900 CPU 16 bit 3MHz.

Peripheral Expansion Box (32 KB Ram card, RS232 and parallel port card, Diskette drive control card)
Speech synthesizer
NEC amber monochrome monitor--easier on the eyes than green or white
Smith-Corona daisy wheel printer
Hateful and user-unfriendly keyboard
c.1981

Amiga 3000 with 18MB Ram, 120 and 345MB HDD's, and a Video Toaster 4000 Card. Got the Toaster Card so I could use Lightwave 3D.
Had about $7,000 in the system in 1993, that is like $16,000 in today's money.
When LightRave came out, it was a hack program to let Lightwave 3D run without a Toaster installed, I then traded the Toaster Card for a 486PC, which I then traded for a loaded Amiga 2000, which I sold for $2,500 to a guy who wanted to learn Lightwave 3D, so I got the money back for the Toaster in a roundabout way, lol.



Toaster was hooked up to my AV setup so I could see the renders on a larger screen,

The first one that was "mine" was had an Intel 486DX-33, 8MB ram, a 240MB Conner HD, 1MB Diamond Stealth 24 VLB vid card, 14" monitor, 3.5" floppy and 5.25" floppy. My parents bought it for me when I was headed to college in 1993. First additions were a modem and swiping the Sound Blaster I bought from the family computer lol.

As far as family computers go we had a couple before that. First x86 box was a 386SX-16 with 4MB ram, a 40MB hard drive, 256k vram, 14" monitor, and of course 2 floppies.

Before that my parents bought a Toshiba 100 in the early 1980s. Ran CPM, 2 5.25" floppies, green monochrome screen. That thing cost a good bit. Probably also the highest build quality I've run into in a computer. Gold plated contacts all over the place. They pitched it in the early 1990s after mom changed jobs and didn't need any of her old files anymore. Dad took it apart and salvaged anything that looked useful. Best part was the case fan. After all those years the bearings were still so good you could hold it flat in your hand, rotate the housing, and the blades would barely move. So a few years later when the PSU fan in Dad's Pentium machine died he opened up the power supply and spliced that old 80mm 120V toshiba fan in there to replace the dead 12V fan. AT PSU, so it had a hard switch on the 120V and he just tapped into that.

An IBM Aptiva Pentium 100 desktop that my parents bought for me. I tried to upgrade it with more RAM an a Verite video card but alas, RAM was too expensive so I could only afford to add a little and I had to return the video card because of compatibility issues. That was the point when I swore never to buy branded PCs and the next time I got a PC it would be a custom built "IBM clone".

The first PC we bought was custom built from the place my mom worked (an answering service that also had PC Tech support).

Cyrix 133mhz
32MB RAM
Diamond 2D
Audio - ?
HDD - ?
Mobo -?
Windows 95.

First one at home was an Apple Power Mac 6100 with the PowerPC 601 CPU. I don't recall how much memory; storage was maybe 300 MB.

Before that, I had wanted to bring home a DEC KI-10 that was declared obsolete and headed for scrap, even though it was in perfectly good working order. Unfortunately the wife wasn't having any of it.

Some old IBM 8086 boat anchor, had a 286 prebuilt as well. First real system was a pieced together system. 386dx40. That's when the fun began. VGA from a 1 meg ISA, SB sound, 3.5 and 5.25 floppies, 20 meg Maxtor HD and eight meg of rams. Styling!


Why we bringing up old shit?

bigdogchris said:

The first PC we bought was custom built from the place my mom worked (an answering service that also had PC Tech support).

Cyrix 133mhz
32MB RAM
Diamond 2D
Audio - ?
HDD - ?
Mobo -?
Windows 95.

Click to expand...

The first PC I built was a Cyrix 166+. I sold it a few weeks later when I did some test renders with Lightwave on my Cyrix and my brothers Pentium 100.
The Pentium 100 was so much faster. The Cyrix was marketed as equivalent to a Pentium 166, but apparently not when you ran Lightwave 3D.
Sold it to a buddy to use for gaming and built me a Pentium system, can't remember what speed, 133 or 166.
Oh and speaking of Pentiums, the Pentium 200MMX I bought in 96 was the most expensive processor I bought and kept, it was $525.
I did buy a 68040 40Mhz Warp Engine 4040 for my Amiga 3000 for $1,300, but it didn't fit, it was made for the 4000 and it looked like it would fit but was a few mm to wide and blocked the daughterboard slot.
https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=259