Let's reminisce -- What was your very first computer? Specs please!

aphexcoil

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
322
My first computer was a TI-99/4A. I believe it had 16 kilobytes of ram, no hard-drive and a tape recorder for saving and loading programs.

My next computer was an Apple IIe with 64 kilobytes of ram, still no hard-drive, a 5 1/4" floppy drive and a beautiful monochrome green monitor.

Afterwards, I got an Apple IIgs (amazing graphics at the time!).

Then I went through a couple of Packard Bell computers until I become educated enough to build my own systems.

So what was your first pride and joy? If you have specs or pictures, then show us!
 
I was late to the game: I had many computers BUT the first PC I built myself was an AMD athlon 3400+ Geforce 4 Ti 4600, with 256 mb of PC3200, 40gb samsung HDD in a apeva Qpac case. All my older PCs were built by my dad, who taught me how to build long before I ever built my first system.
 
1984 - Sinclair Spectrum, 48KB memory, Zilog Z80 processor @ 3,5 MHz. Interface 2 with TAC 2 joystick.
Some 25 years later I started collecting different computers and now have around 20 old Commodores and Sinclairs, tons of peripherals and games. Good times.

ZX_Spectrum.jpg
 
I think the first computer I had was an 800 mhz AMD computer... not sure what generation it was.
 
commodore 128 was my first computer.

first one built on my own was a P4 775 system, used a processor ram from a sony vaio i had, got an asus board, oc'd the 2.8 p4 to 3.5, put in an x800gto pcie card, antec super lanboy case (still have this)
 
Commodore Vic 20. I believe I received that in 1981 at the age of 9. This machine taught me how to code. I spent countless hours reading and understanding the examples and modifying the source code of commercial commodore basic applications to better understand how they worked.
 
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I had access to 8088's back in the day, but my first very own all mine computer was a 286/16.
Four meg of ram
20 meg Conner HD
5 1/2 floppy
Generic CD rom
1 meg video card
14" VGA monitor sporting Win 3.1
 
First family computer was an old 8086, no extended memory and an old clunker 5.25" hard drive. Once I was a teenager, I bought my first computer that was solely for my use, a Pentium 100, Asus board w/Triton Chipset, 8GB EDO RAM, Conner 1.2GB hard drive and a whopping Cirrus Logic 1MB video adapter. I remember fondly looking through the motherboard manual and seeing the jumpers for multiplier selection...hmm...what happens if I change this 1.5x jumper to 2.0x. Voila, instant Pentium 133, when the actual chips were stupid expensive. I was also over the moon to have a quad speed CD drive in my tower and an Acer 17" CRT monitor. I ended up copying my entire Metallica Black Album to the hard drive in WAV format...something that took up over half of the entire space and I longed for the day when I could put my entire CD collection on my computer.;)

A year or so later, I realized the benefits of a decent graphics card when trying to play Mechwarrior 2. I put in a Matrox Mystique 4MB and the difference in the computer was incredible. It was like a whole new machine.

Ah...memories...:D
 
486 dx 33mhz 4 mb ram 120 mb hard drive..welcome to 1993...lol...first games played on it..F-117A Stealth Fighter....Offroad...Prince of Persia...Doom...Hardball 3 - 5 <--- Those baseball games were definitely awesome ...etc.
 
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486 dx 33mhz 4 mb ram 120 mb hard drive..welcome to 1993...lol...first games played on it..F-117A Stealth Fighter....Offroad...Prince of Persia...Doom...Hardball 3/4 <--- Those baseball games were definitely awesome ...etc.

Ah yes, F-117 Stealth Fighter by Microprose. Wasted many hours on that game...;)
 
Why is this thread in the intel section?

OP, there were other processor companies way back when computers were invented.

I had a Compaq Cyrix MII cpu that was factory overclocked from 233 to 300.
I was very disappointed because I'd purchased it as advertised at 300mhz then a few months later I learned about overclocking at 16 years old and found out my cpu sucked and it was already overclocked.

32 mb ram and either 4 or 8gb hard drive
I added a voodoo2 and more ram so I could play some games.
 
Tandy 1000TL. Wasn't a bad little box for its time, by a long shot. I remember being blown away by the "graphical" approach of Deskmate for keeping the commonly used programs at your fingertips.

I had to look this up. This thing's processor ran at a mind blowing 8Mhz. Damn.
 
IBM PERSONAL PC 5150 - Borrowed Computer
As a kid, I used an IBM Personal PC 5150 for a long time that my aunt gave me since the computer was already 10 years old. This thing rocked an Intel 8088 processor running at 4.77mhz, dual 5.25 floppy drives, 256kb of RAM and a monochrome green screen (circa 1981) I learned all about DOS and BASIC programming when I was about 8 years old.

MICRON MILLENIA P133 - First Family Computer
I junked around on that old IBM until I was in Jr High (around 1995) when my family got a "REAL" computer that actually had color and wasn't severely out of date. It was a Micron Millenia Pentium (NON-MMX) running at 133mhz with 8MB of ram and a 540MB HDD complete with 4xCD-ROM and a Microsoft sidewinder joystick. This was actually a great machine for its time, and retail on this thing was 3,000! Really puts the cheapness of current hardware in perspective.
Later on I begged my parents and worked odd jobs in order to get myself a Diamond Monster 3D-2 Voodoo2 graphics card for that micron box. This was the PCI device that functioned as 3D-ONLY, you had to have a passthrough vga cable to allow the original video card to perform the 2D duties.

PACKARD Bell - My First Very own computer 1997
My very first computer that was really mine that I bought with my own money was an already long in the tooth at time of purchase Packard Bell that had a 200mhz non-mmx pentium, 16MB of RAM and a 3.2GB HDD, I remember upgrading to 32MB of RAM and being amazed at how much better motocross madness ran. This computer didn't last long for me though, within a year I sold this PC, learned how to build my own computers starting out on a Slot A Celeron 366 that I overclocked to 450 and never purchased a brand name computer again, but those details belong in another post :)
 
Sinclair QL, it had 68008 7.2MHz CPU from Motorola, and 128kB of RAM, I think my parents have that in the loft still, some of the keys don't work last time I powered it on though.
 
My first computer was a TI-99/4A. I believe it had 16 kilobytes of ram, no hard-drive and a tape recorder for saving and loading programs.

My next computer was an Apple IIe with 64 kilobytes of ram, still no hard-drive, a 5 1/4" floppy drive and a beautiful monochrome green monitor.

Afterwards, I got an Apple IIgs (amazing graphics at the time!).

Then I went through a couple of Packard Bell computers until I become educated enough to build my own systems.

So what was your first pride and joy? If you have specs or pictures, then show us!

Same here, TI-99/4A. I wish I knew what happened to that thing. I need to go hunting in the closets at my parents' house.
 
Commodore Vic 20 for me too, with a tape deck. Legendary part of my childhood. It even had cartridge games.
 
My first PC was an IBM P70 Luggable. Got it out of the dumpster at my dads office building. 386DX/20mhz, 8mb ram, 120mb hdd. Still have it. Still works too.

My first New PC was a Gateway 2000 P5-100. Pentium-100 (Eventually OCed to 120mhz), 16mb of ram, and a *GASP* 1GB hdd. Colossal at the time. Got it the day Windows 95 was released. Good times.
 
I've tinkered on a few systems, atari, tandy and the like but none were mine.

The first one that was officially mine was a 486dx. Problem was I got it in 97 and didn't have a modem or software for it, so just played with what was on it (win 3.11)

in 98 I got a Packard Bell Pentium 1 166mhz mmx. 8MBs SDram.

I remember fondly my first real upgrade, 16mbs PC100, scsi card with a tape drive and a 1x cd burner
 
My parents had a 286 that I learned to play on first, but my first that was ACTUALLY MINE was an AMD K6 475MHz. Was my first build :) Don't remember all the other specs, but I think I had a chaintech Nvidia GeForce2 Ti. I've had too many machines since then... lol!
 
Commodore 128 (1986)
-1571 360K 5.25"
-1581 720K 3.5" floppy drives.

Man, all the games I used to play on Commodore: Paradriod, Choplifter, Airwolf, Heart of Africa, Marble Madness, Super Cycle, Impossible Mission, Karateka, Last Ninja, Infiltrator, Transformers, Temple of Apshai Trilogy, Infocom games, Richard Petty's Talladega, 1 on 1: Larry Bird Vs Julius Erving, Pitfall, Winter Games, Summer Games, World Games, Starfleet I, Test Drive, Lords of Conquest, Pirates!, Sierra Boxing, H.E.R.O., Mr Robot, Mail Order Monsters, Skate or Die, Paperboy, Macbeth, Space Taxi, Robin of the Wood, The Captive, BMX Racers, Gumball, Donald Duck's Playground, MicroLeague Baseball, so many more I could list. Been having a hell of a time trying to remember one game in particular: it was a 2D/horizontal still scene helicopter game that you had to fly around hills/land obstacles and shoot enemy anti-air batteries. I think MicroProse made it (it was not Gunship or any of the sequels, since those were "3D" games).

Then got a Packard-Bell 8088 XT 8 MHz "turbo" system (1989)
-640K RAM
-5.25" 360K FDD
-3.5" 1.44MB FDD
-Paradise Autoswitch EGA 480
-14" EGA CRT Monitor 640x480
-DOS 3.31

After that was an 80386SX-33 I built.
-1MB (4x256K) RAM (SIPP?)
-5.25" 360K
-3.5" 1.44K
-255MB Samsung HDD
-Cirrus Logic 1MB SVGA
-14" SVGA 1024x768 0.39dp

And following that was a Cyrix 6x86 PR 120+
-32MB (4x8MB) EDO SIMM
-both FDD from the 386 above
-2.1GB IDE HDD
-Trident 9440-3 2MB (expanded from 1MB)
-monitor from above
-8X CD-ROM

Had a handful of others, such as a PentiumMMX-166, 200, and 233, dual PIII Coppermine 1GHz, various K6-2's, Durons, Athlon XPs (Palomino, Thoroughbred, Barton), Athlon64 3000+ Venice, Opteron 170, Athlon64 X2 6400+, and now the 3770K.
 
Commodore 64 for me in 1983. Can't remember any specs aside from that 65K of RAM. Started playing games on the Datasette which stunk because it was so slllooooow that I could only put the small games on there. Once I got the 1541 disk drive I thought I was in heaven.
 
First exposed to Trash 80's with tapedrives at school, then got an Apple //e. IIRC I had twin floppies and the 80 row graphics card and 128k of ram. Infocom games ftw.
Took a break and then got back in with a Slot 1 Pentium 2 233, 32mb, 4mb Riva 128 card. Quake 2, ho!
 
Awesome. I rarely see anyone else who also had a C=16.

My first computer was also a Commodore 16.

(specs from wikipedia)
Operating system: Commodore BASIC 3.5 (hella better than Commodore BASIC 2.0 on the C=64)
CPU: MOS Technology 8501 @ 0.89 MHz or 1.76 MHz (during v-refresh)
Memory: 16 KB RAM + 32 KB ROM
Display: 320x200, 320x160 (with 5 lines of text), 160x200, 160x160 (with 5 lines of text)
Graphics: TED (320 × 200, 121 colors)
Sound: TED (2 channels, 4 octaves + white noise)
Input: Keyboard (66 keys, 4 function keys, 4 cursor keys), Joystick
Storage: Commodore Datasette 1531

I had saved my pennies as a kid and bought it from Target on clearance. I started learning to program at school on the VIC 20, Trash-80 and Apple ][ computers they had. The Commodore 16's failure was a boon to me. There was little software available, so I would translate games and programs (magazine or book listings) made for other computers, and later write my own software.

First PC:
286-16 @ 20MHz (yeah, overclocking in the late 1980s)
1MB RAM
HUGE 5.25" FH 30MB MFM drive on a RLL controller
Hercules MGA clone, then a Plantronics 16 color CGA, and later ATi EGA card (I still have the ATi EGA Wonder)
5.25" floppy

Pimpin' and playin' Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer.
 
My computer timeline:

1. Apple IIGS
2.8 Mhz CPU, 256K RAM, two 5.25" and two 3.5" drives

http://oldcomputers.net/appleiigs.html

2. 486DX2
66Mhz CPU, 8MB RAM, 42MB HDD, 2x CD-ROM drive, 1x 3.5" drive.

3. Pentium Pro 200Mhz (My first build)
200Mhz CPU, 128MB RAM, 500MB HDD (later upgraded to 2GB), 16x CD-ROM, 1x 3.5" drive.

4. Athlon
1 Ghz CPU, 256MB RAM, 5 GB HDD

5. Athlon 64 x2 (My first overclock)
2 Ghz CPU @ 2.5Ghz OC, 1 GB RAM, 2x 50 GB HDD, etc.

6. Intel Core 2 Q6600
2.4Ghz CPU @ 3.2Ghz OC, 2GB RAM, etc.

7. Intel i5-750
2.66Ghz CPU @ 3.6Ghz OC, 4GB RAM, etc.

8. Intel i5-3570K
3.4Ghz CPU @ 4.4Ghz OC, 8GB RAM, etc.
 
The first computer I used regularly was a 286, made by Compuadd. I think it may have had 1MB of ram, which was straight ballin' back in the 286 days. It also had a 40GB hard drive, both 5.25 and 3.5" floppy drives, and EGA graphics.

The first computer I actually owned myself was an eMachines Celeron 433 of the PPGA persuasion, which had an integrated 4MB ATI graphics card, 32MB of memory (later upgraded to 160), and a 4GB hard drive. It also had Windows ME on it, at one point in its life, which I honestly liked quite a bit, and never understood why everyone else hated it.
 
The first computer I ever brought was a Packard Bell with a 75MHz Intel® Pentium® processor. I believe that it had a 520MB HDD that was just about full from the moment that I got it. After that I don't remember anything about this system.
 
My first computer bought for me was a POS my dad bought me from a used electronics store. Was too young to really remember any specs besides I believe the 486. The first computer I ever bought myself was a Dell w/ a pentium II, 80gb HDD and on board graphics. Upgraded graphics to an BFG 6600gt ultra and thought I was in heaven. Went from 40 fps in Ghost Recon to over 400 fps.
 
Lets see my grandpa had a commodore 64.

I got a Texas Instruments computer when I was little.

My first computer I built myself was an AMD K6-3 450.

From there it was an Athlon 850 and then Thunderbird then a 3400+ S754.

Today I'm on my i7 920 and waiting for Haswell...
 
First computer I had was a commodore 64, no disk drive, no hard drive, no network, nothing. I had to type in programs/games when I wanted to use them, and they vanished when the unit was turned off. Ended up using it probably 2 or 3 times, was too young to figure out to get a disk drive or anything, mostly played consoles any way. First real computer, was a 286 running MS-DOS, played a lot of games on it, one of which, Wing Commander, I liked a lot but was really slow during dog fights. When I got a 486 when that came out, it ran my DOS games so fast I was in heaven. lol.
 
Tandy 1000TL. Wasn't a bad little box for its time, by a long shot. I remember being blown away by the "graphical" approach of Deskmate for keeping the commonly used programs at your fingertips.

I had to look this up. This thing's processor ran at a mind blowing 8Mhz. Damn.

This was also my first family comp, good times. Sopwith Camel was amazing.

My first computer that was mine was a compaq 486dx2 that ran at 66mhz. It was funny I remember the salesman telling me I could run games with the 4mb of ram it came with (specifically under a killing moon). I went back and complained I couldn't and he gave me a whopping 4mb upgrade for free (holy hell 8mb!!).

I later actually bought one of the intel overdrive chips for it, not sure if anyone remembers those. Was able to pop it on and I had an 83mhz pentium. Oh I played some decent on that beast.

First machine I built all myself was a 450mhz p3 slot 1 system (which I overclocked to 500). Took me about 2 hours to realize I had the psu set to 220v when I first tried to power it on. Fond memories.
 
486 with the sweet turbo button, 4mb ram but upgraded to 8mb and Doom ran smooth as butter. :) It cost like $2000 :(
 
My first real PC was an Intel Pentium 233MHz MMX, 32MB of RAM, 3GB Hard Drive, 2MB video card and had Windows 95 installed back in 1998.
 
My first pc bought by myself was a Commodore Amiga 3000/25
It had a 120mb scsi hard drive, 6mb ram, 880kb floppy, and 14" multisync monitor.
Paid $2500 for it in 1992.
1 year later I upgraded it with a Newtek Video Toaster 4000 card, 12mb more ram, and a 345mb scsi drive. The upgrade cost $3500.
I bought the video toaster only for Lightwave 3D, and when Lightwave was undongled from the Video Toaster, I traded the toaster card for a 486DX2/50 pc.
 
Intel 486SX25 (No HS/F required)
2MB RAM (8 x 256KB 30 pin SIMMS)
60MB Conner HDD on a controller card
1.44MB FDD on a controller card
1.2MB FDD on a controller card
ISA Trident Vid card with 1MB VRAMM
ISA Sound Blaster 16 audio
Hayes compatible 14.4 modem
200W PSU
14" CRT
AT keyboard
Serial mouse
Windows 3.1
First game - Wolfenstein 3D

I didn't forget the ODD. I just didn't have one. They were $100 back in 1995.
 
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