A New Poll, What Was Your First PC

[saturdaygig]

Following up the 'how long can win 98 run' poll, hows about this - 'What was your first PC and how did you get to where you are now?'

I got a 386DX40 in 1992 running DOS 5. Eventually I moved to win 3.1, fitted my first sound card and modem.
My first big upgrade was a P100 and at that time my first CD drive came in and Win 95 arrived.
Later I moved to P233 on the same motherboard, later still the current Duron 600 on an ATX board so finally had to get a new case, and moved to Win 98.
Of course there have been various sound and video card and modem upgrades, extra memory, the introduction of CDRW (I'm on my second one of those!)
The monitor and floppy drive still remain from the 386 - so I still regard it as an upgrade.

So what are your stories, people?

SatG

[kenlinzee]

my first PC was a Gateway 400C with a 400 MHz celeron and only 3 PCI card slots, NO AGP, i used it for about two years untill i out grew it, and my niece has a computer, and when she was moving, her computer was in the trunk of her car, she was in a traffic accident and it ruined her computer, so i take my old gateway to her house and remove her harddrive, CDrom drive & floppy drive, and install them in to my old Gateway and install Windoze98se and Linux Redhat7.1 dualbooting, all for FREE!!! and now she love Linux better than windoze...

another Windoze user won over to the OSS Linux camp, HOORAY!!!

got /root???

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MSI K7T266-RU Pro2
AMD Athlon 1600+
(the mother of all motherboards)

[wotz_it_2_ya]

Started off with a spectrum ZX80 or something back in the mid 80's. Then went 10 years or so without (except at work). Got current system 2 or 3 yrs ago and modified it a little since. Is a p3 500.

[Dickster]

A 486DX2/66. It came with no sound card or CD-ROM, so I added those (my first upgrade.) Later the machine developed problems, and IBM graciously replaced it with a Pentium 66.

That machine grew old quickly, so I gave it away and built an AMD K6-2 350 from a barebones kit. I learned a lot from that one (especially the importance of good motherboard and chipset!) After a couple of years my kids got old enough to be interested in computers and naturally wanted to play the latest games. So my dear old Dad now has the 350, and I built a new 1.4 Ghz T'bird system last summer and I hope it will last a couple more years at least!

WOO-HAH, 1000 POSTS!


Oh yeah, I had a Timex 1000 at one time, but that doesn't really count!
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"I'm not a real doctor, I just play one on VDr!"

[This message has been edited by Dickster (edited 04-17-2002).]

[RingoSaturn]

Well, my first COMPUTER was a Texas Instruments TI/99. Had an Apple IIgs for awhile, then a MacSE.

My first "PC" was the Celeron 500 I built for myself.

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...this one goes to 11...

[JWR]

First one was a Timex/Sinclair 1000 followed by an Apple 2C and 2e then PC clones 8088,286386,pentium pentium III.

[Boccaman]

My first was a nightmare. http://discussions.virtualdr.com/eek.gif

My second is a nightmare. http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif

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" To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer "

[Brily]

First computer I had was a Commodore 64...I still love that computer. It was the best. Second system was an Amiga 1024 which had some of the best graphics of its time. Then I took a long break from computers until I got a 400mhz Celeron a couple years back. And now I use a machine I built (about a year ago) which is a 1Ghz.

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G,

Brily

[saturdaygig]

Originally posted by Boccaman:
My first was a nightmare. http://discussions.virtualdr.com/eek.gif

My second is a nightmare. http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif


Yeah, but thats how we like it, huh?

[Cowboy622]

Spend $4,000 on an Apple II GS for the kids because in the late 80's, everyone said Apple was in and IBM (and its clones) were on the way out. The schools all had Apple computers so it seemed like a good idea at the time.
(Actually I had a Slide rule and there was one calculator on campus but you had to book time on it.)

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take !

[This message has been edited by Cowboy622 (edited 04-17-2002).]

[ucklak]

HP65. You could write up to 100 step programs on magnetic strips, feed the strip into the calculator/computer and have 5 function buttons.

Graduated to a Commodore VIC-20 and learned machine language.

Moved to Apple][ and wrote in basic for that.

Then to Commodore64, wrote basic and assembler.

Atari 520ST, onboard midi, WOW and alot cheaper than Apple.

Jumped into the Intel craze, currently have running systems ranging from AMD233 to P3 933 running flavors of Linux and Windows.

Previous computers in between the Atari and AMD 233 have been sold.

[K G G]

1.) mid 80's Commodore C64 with tape-recorder and later floppy drive (the size of a minitower) - did I love the games those days (a little BASIC programming included)

2.) early 90's - AMD K6 40 Mhz, no sound, no ROM, upgraded from 1MB to 4MB SIMM !!! and later the multimedia packet (CD, Sound and 2nd HD) - outrages cost, but lots of learning experience. Went from DOS 5.0 all the way to WIN 95 on this...
now my little sister plays around with it

3.) mid 90's - AMD K6/2 266 (later upgraded to 400Mhz), lot's of modifications and testing all them switches and settings available in WIN98 and the BIOS (lot's of reinstallations because of this too http://discussions.virtualdr.com/redface.gif )

4.) these days - first completely build unit AMD XP 1.53 with all zip and zap one needs (or doesn't http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif ), WIN98SE, and started modding it too (silver case, window, green light)

hahhhhhh, this thread brings back old memories.... http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif

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NEVER get beaten by a machine that can only add 1's and 0's...

[lazlowe]

My first time was with a Radio Shack Color Computer - Coco1 - 4k of RAM - 6068 processor - cartridge loaded software - taped backup and file saving. At the peak of popularity there were 8 magazines devoted to the Coco and I bought everyone of them. - How to expand your RAM - piggybacking 8k chips for a whopping 16k of RAM!!! - the power... the rush...Envying the guy who could afford $300+ for the disk drive... may he burn in hell...
Once hooked, of course I could only feed my habit with bigger and bigger doses... a Coco 2 - real keyboard, no more chiclets...more RAM, Ugh,Ugh...then a Coco 3... 256K of RAM - could it get any better than this?
Alas, the Coco faded into obscurity... and I had to join the herd and bought an 8086, then a 486... a Pentium I 75Mhz...and currently an Athlon 750, 512Mb, 90Gig HD space DVD and CD-RW, Rage Fury Maxx video and SB Live Gamer.
But down in the basement... in a dark corner... I still have that old Coco1 (s/n 00024)tucked away and every once in a while I pull it out and remember simpler times... times before Bill and Windows...ahhhh!

[Prophet]

1)TRS-80

2)IBM PC Jr.

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PROPHET of the POD, c.1998
www.NUTBURGER.com (http://clix.to/Nutburger)

[Prophet]

http://www.vintagecomputerads.com/gallery/1985/1985-compute-february-015.jpg

With a Z-80 CPU and 4K-16K of RAM the Model I sold for around $600 dollars in the late 70s. Software was mainly cassette based like many of the micros of the time, but later disk drives and disk based software became common. The Model I was discontinued in 1981 due to its failure to meet the FCC's Radio Frequency Interference rules.


I have been trying to find this computer for a long time and am now able to add it to my collection. There doesn’t really seem to be that many Model I computers available out there. I think the main reason for this is that the Model I is almost a computer cult icon- many of the original owners just refuse to part with them.


This is a Model I level II computer meaning that the BASIC in ROM has been upgraded and a numeric keypad to the right has been added. I also have a TRS-80 monitor for it, which is really just a repackaged B&W TV set and a Radio Shack cassette player for mass storage. In addition to some general software & manuals I have the T-Bug assembly language software and a number of circuit diagrams for the computer. The person who I got the TRS-80 from used to use it for Z-80 microprocessor development.

http://www.vintagecomputerads.com/gallery/1985/1985-compute-february-014.jpg

The IBM PC Jr. was first released in 1983 for $1300 and featured an 8088 CPU, 64K of RAM, and one 360K 5.25” floppy drive. The PC Jr. was marketed as the home version of the IBM 5150. While it did have a number of interesting innovations such as a wireless infrared keyboard, sound output built into the monitor, and two ROM cartridge slots, the PC Jr. was a total flop and was discontinued in 1985. Computer expansion was done through the use of snap on modules know as “side-cars”. My PC Jr. has the RAM brought up to 128K through the use of one of these sidecars.

edit: vintage ads.

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PROPHET of the POD, c.1998
www.NUTBURGER.com (http://clix.to/Nutburger)

[This message has been edited by Prophet (edited 04-17-2002).]

[kingsknight]

1986)C64
1990)Sega master system
1996)back to the c64 lol
1999)Got my first laptop,Dell p133, 800k video card,24ram 1.2gb HD,33k modem, (i really loved that laptop)

2000)Toshiba 233mhz, 64ram (128upgraded) 2.5mb video card 4gb HD 56k

2002) just got. Sony 700mhz 196ram 10gb 8mb ATI AGP video card (and im in love plays anything) 512kps Cable internet

i dont like PCs too big lol

going from each laptop was such a change!

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I'M only a Student So forgive me if i ask stupid questions, but your help is welcomed
_____________________
AMD 700mhz
196RAM
10gb HD
ATI Rage 8mb AGP x 2
Sony Vaio laptop

[zookeeper]

Howdy
My first computer had a cassette tape drive
2K memory, and you used your tv for a monitor. had alot of other stuff between
that and my first (real)?? atari 800
with a 300 baud modem.
That's when i started my first "BBS"

Now i use what ever is laying the shop.

Hope this helps

[AlaricD]

From 1983 to 1986, I used the Commodore 64. The VIC-1541 floppy drive was always problematic, and eventually the C64 itself just wigged out mostly...

My first MS-DOS computer was the Tandy 2000, which I was given in 1991 by a good friend. Replete with 80186 and 512KB of RAM, as well as a 10MB external HD and a 1200baud "Signalman" modem (not to mention 4-color graphics), I was the envy of my fellow BBSers. (yeah, right!) I learned a lot about DOS back then, although it was MS-DOS 2.11.11. Unfortunately, the Tandy 2000 was merely MS-DOS compatible, but software that needed IBM PC compatibility would often not run properly when certain graphics modes were called on. (When the T2000 was new it blew away IBM's offerings in every category except where it mattered-- compatibility!)

I replaced it in 1992 with the system described in my signature. It started as a 386DX-40 with 4MB of RAM (the computer store offered it w/ 2MB and a B&W inkjet printer, I traded the printer for 2 more MB of RAM), as well as spending an additional $150 to go from a 256KB video card to 1MB, and going from a .31 to a .28 dot pitch non-interlaced monitor. It also came with a 120MB HD, since the ad said 80MB but they were out of that size.

Later that week came another necessary upgrade. I knew my system was better than my friend's 386DX-33, what with my 128KB cache compared to his 64KB cache, not to mention the 7 additional MHz, but games were still more fun on his machine. Something was missing-- SOUND! I went to Wal-Mart and spent the $70.00 for a Sound Blaster 2.0-- money well spent!

I didn't add a math coprocessor (a Cyrix FasMath 387DX-40) until at least a year later. In that year I went from 4 to 8MB of RAM, and even experimented with the Cyrix/Texas Instruments 486DLC-40, but timing issues with my 387 made me switch back to the 386DX. I felt it better to have floating point capabilities than the 1K L2 cache and the 486 instruction set.

Good times, good times...

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Am386DX-40 + Cx387DX-40
32MB, 128KB cache
(2) 540MB HD's
8x CD
2MB Video
SB16 PnP
DR-DOS 7.04
Win3.11 w/ Win32s
--
Just because it's unusual doesn't make it a virus!
Ping is NOT an acronym!

[Train]

TI99-4A then a long break.
Compaq 5222 with 98
Since have built 2 for myself.
One based on the ASUS A7V and jr here which is based on a A7V266-E mobo.
Still have all 4.
Now where is my extended basic book? http://discussions.virtualdr.com/wink.gif

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SMILE
and post back
[ Book mark this post to find it again]

[Lynn Hochwitz]

My first computer was a Leading Edge 4.67mhz (no turbo)...with a whopping 64MB HD to which I later added a 32mb HardCard (for those that may not know what a HardCard was it was a HD on a PC card that you put in an empty slot in the PC) came with a monitor that showed either amber or green text....later upgraded to a RGB monitor (WOW).....came with DOS somewhere in the 3 or 4 version (don't exactly remember)...however I also started my BBS on this system believe it or not....long time ago...

[Prophet]

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif...he, he, I remember those hard cards. I also had a CGA monitor. 4 colors; black, white, pinkish, blueish.
GAWD!

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PROPHET of the POD, c.1998
www.NUTBURGER.com (http://clix.to/Nutburger)

[eagleone]

if i can remember correctly
8086 no hd
8088?
286 16 40 meg hd
486 sx25
486 dx 50
486 dx 66? 540 meg hd
486 dx100
486 dx 166?
pent 75 (i know)
amd 350
amd 500
amd 550
athlon tbird 950 oc to 1000 (present comp)

[spaceman_333]

Like Train, my first was a TI99/4A. After that blistering experience, I swore off for a few years. Then I got a "REAL" computer,
an Epson 286, Epson 386, Acer 486DXs, HP 133,
Compaq 166, Acer 233, IBM 300, Compaq 350,
Emachines 433, Emachines 533, and now I have my own Pentium IV mess!!

What a trip down memory lane.

spaceman

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...more will be revealed.

[wylieww1]

My first was a TI99 with tape drive.
Then a Samsung 8088 with 2 5.25 floppies
Then a 486 DX2 50 with 4megs - 100 meg drv- cdrom
Now a compaq - pentium2 350 24 gig dr cdrom and burner.

Some giant leaps up - this spans from about 1985 to present
Thanks for the reminiscing .

[Herring]

In the mid-70's I was using an IBM type writer with a unit attached to it (about the size of a full tower case) that used magnetic cards about 7" * 3.5" in size. You could store a few pages of text on each card, which would come in handy if you had repetitive work or for backup. Problem was you had to stop and change the globe for a different font. Then the ba*****s came out with the daisy wheel. Couldn't afford that.
Later I recall using theHP 97 (http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp6797.htm) which had its own place in the "computer room" in the brand new office. It served it's duty well calculating areas, volumes, angular closure ratios and more! Loved those little magnetic cards.

Mine in the last while:

80something - 386, 4M RAM, 20M HD (and a math coprocessor)! A crazy machine that everyone envied. Running Autocad 1.8 from a 5.25" Floppy.... What a mad man!

1990 - Mac "something" LC for a while, DTP related.

P133, 96M RAM, 1.6 G HD.... November 96 (Now almost my Linux box(again), but got work to do on it yet)

PIII733......

The times are a changing, just like the climate. http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif

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Just trying to give others a friendly hand.
Click HERE (http://discussions.virtualdr.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?action=intro&default=2) to search this forum.

[zipulrich]

Dell Precision 486SX/25, Win3.1....a hand-me-down from my mom and dad. Still have it - and use it.

[oigle]

LIKE SEVERAL IN THIS thread I started with a Commodore C64. I really enjoyed that machine.
With two floppy drives and the old tape deck it brought me many hours of simple pleasure.
The Commodore Basic books and some study took the edge off early retirementat a time when my Office was becoming computerized. Writing small programs and seeing them work (eventually) was a joy to me. No virus to worry aboutat first and then only simple ones. Then came the 286, followed too quickly by the 386, and then my second joy = a 486 DX4/100. A rapid jump to Gateway when they opened in Australia with a P233 and then
to a Gateway 550 PentIII with 256 ram. I was much saddened by Gateway's withdrawal from Australia. Ah! But Dell is still here.
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif http://discussions.virtualdr.com/wink.gif

[LotusAstra]

I used to mess with "BBC Master" Computers from back in school days, i think it was called "BASIC" on them, i used to make these funny looking games in some of my break times http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif...

started with my own "Atari 520STFM" back in 1990, i used it for around 2 years or so, i still have it in the loft now, still works last time i checked, but sadly doesn't read Double Sided floppys any longer for reasons unknown!

After that it was just a couple of game consoles for me for the following 7 years, the "Sega Mega Drive" followed by the "Sony PlayStation 1", i also aquired a "Philips CDi" with DV cartridge and still use it today for playing Audio & VCD's, and incase u wondering about the PSX its still setup alltho i only use it when mates visit for the pick up and play ease of use!

around 1997 my 1st Real PC was a 386 sumut or other with Win3.1 on it, i did'nt have much use for it really, all it done for me was print stuff, i don't think i had much s'ware http://discussions.virtualdr.com/eek.gif i do remember learning some stuff about menus in autoexec.bat and config.sys files tho http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif.

Around 1998, i began to find out that PC's were evolving so fast and had good gaming potential among other things like Audio & Photo editing and affordable 2X CD Writers...

So i poped into a small PC shop not knowing what the hell i was on about and came out with a new Pre-Built AMD K6 350, Voodoo2, 64MB RAM, 4GB HDD, Win95 etc... all was going wellish so i decided time to have a 2X CD Writer fitted, went well, a month later then i wanted to play my games on the TV so i had them fit a then state of the art "32MB ATi Rage Fury" in there, but this was the begining of the end, anything 3D gaming made the thing crash/restart randomly, so to cut a even longer short i took it back for a full refund, every penny http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif and had nothing more to do with PC's at all for the next 6 months until...

...Until 1999ish a friend knew someone who had the Daewoo Celeron 300 i still use now, was really basic when i got it, i paid a shop to fit in 128MB RAM, 4X CD Writer & SB 1024, then a bit later i decided to try my own hand at fitting a Voodoo3 AGP so i could try some games on it, it rocked, was a good PC then, much more stable than my 1st AMD!

Around 2000 got a HP Pavilion AMD 850, gave it the best bits from my other PC, then up'ed the RAM to 512MB, this too turned out a nice allround stable PC at 1st, until Jan2002 when i got this GEforce 3 in there, now most games crash within an hour or 2 whatever OS, its really anoying but i put up with it for the performance when it does work (couldn't bare the original TNT2 again), i think/hope its problems are Mobo/chipset related and am just waiting for the right DDR Motherboard to come along with a nice XP1800+ CPU and then my next PC i will build all myself and leave this pre built PC junk for the lightweight tasks, i can't wait http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif

Nearly forgot, I also got this Toshiba Celeron 700mhz Laptop had it for nearly a year now, can't fault it at all, esspecially now i just put XP on it, didn't need a single extra driver for any of it, amazing, all on the XP CD, super fast reboots for it now!

Well i think thas enuf of my waffle http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif Hav Phun Dudez http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif

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Let us know how it worked out!
BackUp Windows before you break it, then you can experiment & learn all you can!!!
My PC's! (http://www.boomspeed.com/lotusastra/MyPCSpecs.htm)

[Lance1]

Lets see, I was 40 years old and it was June 1999, and I have never touched a computer before. My friends had computers so I thought that it was time I took the big dive and got one to. I was told that I should have a PC custom built so I did. I ended up with a PII 350 MHz, Asus P2B motherboard, 3dfx Voodoo banshee video card, Creative Awe64 sound card, v90 win modem and a big 64MB of RAM. From the moment that I touched the keyboard on that computer I new what I wanted to do. Now I’m a hardware technician with a networking company just five minutes from my house. It was stressful changing careers at my age but well worth it.

Lance

A+ MCP

[Junker]

1988- Tandy CoCo3, color extended BASIC, 128K ram, 5-1/4 floppy (external)512K, 1989- aded OSR2 Level2 (DOS imitation,but pretty useful)
1997- Packard Hell, 16Mb,2.1 gig HD, Win95 basic.
1999- ugrade: replaced the two piggyback HDs (found lying in the bottom of the case) with 4.3 seagate & doubled RAM to 32Megs & added SP1. (this one is still alive, with a new 10-gig WD HD and 140 Megs RAM , but I haven't fed it an OS yet.(can't find the &%$#& Win95 OSR2 disks)

Present System:

Athlon T-bird 1.3Ghz
256Mb RAM
40Gb HD
16x10x40 CDrw
Sony CPD-100sf monitor
Win98FE (build 1998)
Office 2K
PC-Cillin

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If you want to email me, or anyone, about a problem, please include a description of your system and a reference to VrDr / your post. Thanks. _Junker :>)

[leonvdm]

Vic20 with 3.5k mem, tape drive and TV for monitor. Upgraded it to accept 32k mem. Commodore thought I was crazy.
Then a C128 (had 3 operating systems C64, C128 and ?)
Then a XT with 640 mem and 10meg hd (you will never be able to fill the hd with programs and data)
Then 486 with 2 hds totaklling 20mb
Then P1 166 MMX
Then PIII with .................
Makes you thingk what we were stuck with. But they worked!

[Junker]

leonvdm, that Vic20 must have been a real rubber-burner in it's day, kinda like a porsche 911 in a volkswagen...


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If you want to email me, or anyone, about a problem, please include a description of your system and a reference to VrDr / your post. Thanks. _Junker :>)

[AlaricD]

Originally posted by leonvdm:

Then a C128 (had 3 operating systems C64, C128 and ?)


Probably CP/M. The C64 and C128 could run CP/M programs, however, you did need a boot disk of sorts to do that.



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Am386DX-40 + Cx387DX-40
32MB, 128KB cache
(2) 540MB HD's
8x CD
2MB Video
SB16 PnP
DR-DOS 7.04
Win3.11 w/ Win32s
--
Just because it's unusual doesn't make it a virus!
Ping is NOT an acronym!

[jamesclasater]

Sometime in the late '70s I tried a TIMEX/SINCLAIR, but drank too much beer to make a go of it.
About 1985, I got a C-128 Commodore. That was fun, if a bit complicated to learn, all the manuals assumed that you knew everything.
Then about 1988 bought a 286! Mostly because my sister kept making fun of my Commodore.
Since then I have had several computers.
Catman http://discussions.virtualdr.com/cool.gif

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My doctor tell's me that if I'm not hungry, then I'm not staying on my diet!

[Calpitor]

TI99/4a had programs, word processing etc. on ROM cartridges, casette tape backup, enormous floppies with tiny storage capacity, Epson Dot Matrix printer. Learned early on save and save often and to multiple media http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif
What is a TI99/4a? visit http://www.netten.net/~garycox/ti99.htm

since then I have been busy building PCs for myself, friends, family etc. including this one

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Smile..... from here on out life only gets shorter

[Philip M]

A lot depends on your definition of a PC. Around 1977 I was using a Datapoint Ventek terminal which had limited stand-alone capability. It stored programs on cassette tape and I think had a RAM of 16K. The programming language was Databus, not very advanced fro machine code. It took about 50 minutes to change a single byte of code as the cassette tapes wound back and forth. I recall that these machines cost my employers around £16,000 each in those days. They were really terminals connnected to a mainframe but had limited off-line capability. The one I used printed out address labels.

In 1980 I acquired an Intertec Superbrain. This had 64K RAM, and 2 x 5.25in floppy disk drives of 360K each. Operating system was CP/M and programming language MBASIC, but main use was word processing using Wordstar.

In 1986 I upgraded to an Olivetti M24 - a PC clone O/S MSDOS with 640K RAM and with a RGB colour monitor. This served until 1993 when I bought a Dell with 1MB RAM, O/S Windows 3.1.

Computers have made fantstic progress over the last 25 years. I remeber attending acourse in 1965 when a guy from IBM explained that one day computers would be reduced to the size of a suit case. He lugged a suitacse across the platform to make his point. No-one really believed this prediction! Soon after that time I was using an IBM 370 which was a massive mainframe - it had about 1% of the power of a modern PC.

My very first computer (not my own of course) was in 1960 - an English Electric KDF9. It was about the most powerful thing around at the time, and had 4K of RAM. It was attended by chaps in white coats andc broke down a great deal, and had to be kept at a temperature of 70.5 degrees F and a hunidity of 34 or something or it could not function. Before that I had heard a lot about(but not encountered) LEO, which was Lyons' Electronic Office. I don't suppose many remember J.Lyons these days - they were acquired by Allied Breweries around 1970.

I am 64 so I guess I am one of the older people around here.

[gi1ol]

386sx 16 mhz. MS DOS 4.0, Dosshell WOW!
8MB RAM, 5.25 and 1.44 (720k) floppies plus an 80MB hard disk (more space than I'll ever need....)
About $4,500 -- if memory serves


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I want a big American Automobile with tail fins.

[pipercub]

Atari 800XL from Toys R Us for $99.99. I hooked it up to a T.V. That's where I learned about saving files every so often as I was typing this program and after about four hours there was a little power cut off from the local utilty. There was an Atari club that had 1500 members at one time that I belonged to.

[Rohrad]

First was: Commodore 64 with the large 5-1/4 floppy drive which a friend won on a radio station, which I then bought off of him(Don't remember the amount, but it was not much, in fact I still have it in the closet, however the monitor cable was chewed thru by my moms cat and I could never find another one at the time so that's why I quit using it, along with the fact that I got a Nintendo system 1st generation), Cheap monitor that had audio/video RCA jacks that my father bought me from Sears.

Second: My first "real" Computer If you don't count Sega and the Sega CD(which are not really computers anyway) was a Sony Vaio Pentium 1 (I think)200MMX Tower (sorry don't remember model number), which is still going strong I might add at my brother-in-laws house (used for the kids mainly) with a Sony 15 inch Vaio Monitor. I got into changing sound cards, video cards,hard drives and sound card with this computer. mainly adding a bigger hard drive and Voodoo Graphics card, the one with the pass thru cable.

Third: The one I have now which is a
Sony Vaio PCV-R539DS
Pentium III
550MHZ
256Mb ram
CD/DVD Rom
CD/RW
17 gig hard drive (Internal)
Added a 10 gig hard drive also internal
External Fire wire 80 gig hard drive
ATI Radeon 64 MB DDR VIVO Video Card
56K Modem
I added the extra ram, external and internal hard drive (the extra one I added from my old 200mmx) and upgraded the graphics card to what is above. Latest thing I have added was a 56K V92 best data modem, because for some reason the modems in the Sony's suck (at least in the ones I have had)

My next one? Well I'm hoping for this, but since we didn't get a bonus from work this year (thanks to Mr. Bin Laden!) I will have to save a little will be:
PCV-RX600N
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.20 GHz1
nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP Graphics Card w/ 32 MB SDRAM
256 MB PC-2100 DDR
CD-RW Drive: 16X/10X/40X max.; DVD-ROM Drive: 16X max.
60 GB2 UltraATA/100 Hard Drive
V.90 Modem
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Of Course I will upgrade the video to the Radeon 8500 128MB Video card and up the memory to 1 gig, and then use my 80 gig Firewire drive and probably the modem I just got depending on how well the on in the system works (hopfully they got better by now?)



[This message has been edited by Rohrad (edited 04-18-2002).]

[jadinolf]

Radio Shack's Model I with a whopping 4K of memory.

A cassette recorder was used to load the programs.

------------------
W6OHI

[Nix]

Commodore 64.

------------------
File it under X for X-perience.

[Virtual Patient]

My first pc was a P133 with 16MB RAM and a 1.8gb hard drive with win 95 - well it still is all of the above but had a massive upgrade to 32MB RAM and an exchange of graphics card to a 4MB one and installation of Win 98. This pc is still working well - even with my daughters trying their utmost to kill it!

The pc's I am using at the moment are not much better - Both are PIII one at 450mhz 128MB RAM with a piggy back voodoo 2 graphics card bring it up to 20MB Video memory (the gaming machine). This one only has a 4gb hard drive.
The other is a 600mhz 95MB RAM basic video card and a 10gb hard drive (my work horse).

I am still dreaming of owning an up to date speedy computer - but it's a full time job keeping these three running at a reasonable standard!

VP

http://www.boomspeed.com/patient/Abacus-01.gif

------------------
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth!

[eshows]

I started out with an IBM compatible 80-88 with DOS, although I was too young to really check the version. Great computer ::chuckle:: It may have taken forever to boot, but it never locked up :-) We upgraded to windows 3.1 at some point. on a side note, I found a version of windows 1 on the net the other day. I think I'm going to install on a p4 here in the office <grin>

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

yes, fdisk is a valid form of virus removal
I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol


[This message has been edited by eshows (edited 04-19-2002).]

[IMM]

unlucky enuff to have started playing with a mainframe (amdhal (ibm mainframe clone) if i recall) but the first PC was what I could fix (epson? perhaps ibm? I think?) before that it was kinda an Apple (2e'ish) world. Was much happier to see SUN show up. (miss the motorola and flat mem - never really a SPARC thinker http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif )

BTW - the term PC has ibm origins http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by IMM (edited 04-19-2002).]

[bwbarbieri]

I worked on other people's computers long before I finally got my own Personal Computer. Like others my age, there's a history dating back to the slide ruler. Then came simple desktop models in high school. College is where I saw mainframes using timesharing and punch cards for the first time. Computers 101 started me on many successive years using computers in applications. I remember as I was preparing to leave grad school, some of the computer geeks would gather in one of the back rooms in the basement of the Math Center, oggling those new fangled PC-things. Shortly after that, I used a Macintosh for the first time while still at school.

When I left, each job I had came with it's own PC. But I still didn't have one at home. It wasn't actually until about 1997 that I got my first PC! I already knew a lot about programming and software, but hardware was a mystery.

My first PC was a Dell 433 running at 40MHz with 28MB RAM. It forced to learn about hardware in order to keep it running. Then it was stolen. I replaced it with a PCChips M599LMR. (I bought it without knowing it was PCChips -- in fact, I told the guy I didn't want one!) It really doesn't handle everything I do, but it's light years ahead of the Dell.

Now I have about 20 computers that I've collected while learning about hardware. I've built a number of 486 and slower Pentium models from scratch. Most recent project: 50-page document on basic principles of classic video card operation (yes, that's right, it's finally done!).

Sooner or later, I'll be putting together my own 'dream PC'.

[XXMills]

I started out on a Commodore 64 and later became king of the block when I unveiled a Commodore 128. Long afterwards my Compaq 5360 became lord of the manor. It has been a great computer and I look forward to many more nights of running the Commodore Emulator.

[dbuggy1]

My first computer was an Atari 400 for about $500. The next victum was a Comadore 64 for $300. Inm 1995 i boughta 486 with 8 megs of ram and .164 meg hard drive followed by a Pentium 200 MMX with 2.6 HDD and 64 megs of ram. I now have a Pentium II 350 mgz with 128 megs of ram which i built from parts from a generous cousin. My only problem now other than a needed upgrade is my 2.6 HDD. It has no room.

[saturdaygig]

Well, its been great reading about all these contraptions we started out with. I think Ucklak and Herring take the awards for the least capable first computers, and we also heard some good stories from the likes of Lance1 and PhilipM.
Its been something to see those hard disk drive's we started out with - I started with 40Mb, but some of you didn't have one at all - just a tape recorder or twin floppies. I've now got 375 times more drive space than I started with. I'll kick this topic off again in 2009 - by then I should have over 5 terrabytes!

SatGig

[f117nighthawk]

My first computer was a Toshiba Satellite lappy with a Intel 486 CPU, 8 MB RAM, a 512 MB HD and Win95.

My first desktop was a Compaq Presario 2200, 180 MHz MediaGX CPU, 16 MB RAM, 1.6 GB HD and Win95 B.

Then I bought a Creative Labs Blaster PC from TigerDirect and added an 800 MHz Celeron and 128 MB SDRAM, a 30 GB HD and 32 MB Herculese Prophet AGP card and Win98 SE.

Then I decided I wanted more power so I built this thing I'm using now with 1.4 GHz Tbird CPU, 256 MB Crucial DDR, ATI Radeon 64 MB AGP DDR video card and Win98 SE.

------------------
The Velociraptor (http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=12654)

[b1kra]

Well folks not counting calculators(several) I started in true computers with an IBM sub-mini notebook (p-100 I think?) 70 mb hdd (wow) can't remember the memory but it wasn't expandable(probably 12 mb and the LCD was black and white, although color was sent out if you connected a color svga monitor. Then a got a used Dell desktop 386 W ith 500 mb hdd, 32meg memory and boy was it fast?, maybe 50mhz? But with win 3.1x it was fast enough. After that got the wife an e-machine 400-I tower, Celeron 400mhz and 4.5 gig hdd with 160 meg memory good machine, but not my cup at the time as I was traveling and got another laptop pc clone and AMS travelpro (now out of business) with a pentium IIMMX (not laptop but regular desktop cpu - powerful but hell on batteries) It was 100 mhz and 2 gig hdd. Did fine untill I attempted to flash the bios (eventually found someone that could replace the bios chip) but in the interim I got the present IBM Thinkpad i-series w/433mhz Celeron and 4.6 gig hdd, external pcmcia 10 gig hdd and 160+mb memory, and usb cd burner. Good machine but not as robust as the TravelPro. Fast enough for me w/98SE, and more powerful than anything else I have. By the way all machines are still functioning and in use by relatives today - even the sib-mini note book B&W- though it is badly in need of a new case as the hinges for the lcd have gone away as has some of the other plastic based pieces - oh well no complaints here.

I truely believe I have more than got my monies worth out of the puters I have had.

I am one that does not have to have the biggest, baddest, fastest, most virsitile puter. It just has to do what I need it to do.

------------------
Brian
Always something to learn.
Knowledge is power, and knowledge is where you get it

[Spooky G]

hey, what about the Macintrash SE series. portable, and had 2 floppy disk drives. it had no hard drive so its "disk space" was limited to the size of your 3.5 floppies (about 700k). if you lost the boot disks, then you were screwed. it also came with an earpiercingly loud dotmatrix printer.

[Spooky G]

hey, what about the Macintrash SE series. portable, and had 2 floppy disk drives. it had no hard drive so its "disk space" was limited to the size of your 3.5 floppies (about 700k). if you lost the boot disks, then you were screwed. it also came with an earpiercingly loud dotmatrix printer.

[kallikru]

Made punchcard programs on an IBM mainframe first in the 80's at tech school and got interested. Soon bought a C64 and later Amigas. Ditched my A2000 in '94 and got my first PC: 486DX2 80 MHz. Now running a small herd of machines at home.

------------------
Karl, Denmark
---------
"..and may The Force be with you - too..."

[Murf]

1.abacus
2.Fingers
3.Slide rule
4.Calculator
5.Atari 800
6.Zeneth Z48
7.Micron 386SX 16Mhx 4MB Ram (WOW -that was fast)
Then started building my own:
8.486SX 66Mhz 8MB Ram (Wow -that was even faster)
9.Then went to 32MB RAM -Super fast
10.Cyriz 233Mhz
11. Cyriz 263, then 300 then 333Mhz
12. AMD 400Mhz, then 450
13. Current AMD 500Mhz, 256MB Ram and all that other stuff, .......

Used DOS 3,4,5,6,6.2 Windows 3.0, 3.1, 95 and 98 have 2000 sitting here have not installed yet....Use NT at work...

Whew came a long way in too many years....




------------------
Murf
------------------
Note:"Murf's Garage" (http://members.cox.net/joemurphy/home.htm) under Major Renovation.

[JoeHenry2]

First was an Apple IIe in late 1983. Served well until 1998 when I decided to invest in a IBM clone. I've since graduated to a generic, locally built. I don't know much more now than I did in 1983, sorry to say.

[MACH2]

one of those early compaq 8088 "portables" with a handle yeah right made it portable it weighed a ton.. with a 8x6 screen, dual 5.25 floppies, no hd. dos 1.0 or something er other. really bad, just like the new ones it hung quite often.

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif mach

[^dAvEy^]

Originally posted by Murf:
1.abacus
2.Fingers
3.Slide rule
4.Calculatorthat's as far as I got!
<pc I use is a loaner http://discussions.virtualdr.com/wink.gif>

------------------
^dAvEy^

[dspax]

Commododre 64 where I played all my Dungeon and Dragon games.

[paul3]

My first was a XT with 640 mg memory and use to love the local BBS boards. That first machine was probably my favorite. I graduated to a clone 286 then Dell 486. Now I'm playing with new Gateway IV with 2 gig memory and 120 HD. And in all the years don't know if I've progressed or regressed.

[markp62]

it was a handheld RS TRS-80, one line lcd screen with 1.4 kb, it fitted into a small printer which used adding machine rolls

[NotBear]

My first computer was an Amstrad in the 80's. Am I the only one ?? Games were better on the C64, but it did do word processing and other stuff.

[Dickster]

How far we've come:
www.old-computers.com (http://www.old-computers.com)

------------------
"I'm not a real doctor, I just play one on VDr!"

[OPOVET2]

My first one was a 20 Digit with Bio Memory system. Still got all of them, but the memory is weak at times with slow access times.

First commercial putter was a Data General Mini that had neat toggle switches on the front so when you trouble shot it you could walk the program thru 1 bit at a time. Needed to set to octal 318 to boot. Had neat 8" floppys that you you could tape to a coat hanger and make a good fly swatter.

------------------
REAL FRIENDS DON'T ASK FRIENDS TO FIX PACKER-BELLS AND COMPAQS.

[FireFighter431]

Wow talk about a trip down memory lane.

My first (comp that is) was an atari or C64. My ol' man bought it for me when it just came out.
Then came a 286 IBM
and i have litterally went thought 20 computers since then. Blowing some up, fixing up others. and still trying to get top notch. but Top Notch is getting up'd every month or so. So it is rather had to have a Top of the line computer. One day i will get there though.

------------------
People think candles smell good, but nothing smells worse than the house we just put out because of the candle.Spex (http://www.angelfire.com/retro/firefighter431/comp.html)

[MACH2]

I must admit this is a topic the ol' mach2 show DOES like to see.. (hey.. don't crimp monster?) he may show up in your dumpster collecting rejected battery fluid then go for the cars! )) http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif

LOVED every reply.. sniff!!

mach

[cheetah]

It was a used NEC 286 when I first got mine back in 1994. Had the store upgraded it to 386 six months later and eventually got to 486DX 100MHZ after a year. It was in 1997 when I first put together my own pc from scratch. The computer store owner eventually got tired of me asking him questions and he was the one who encouraged me to pry open my computer case and fool around with it and read more computer magazine. So, I did. My trips to his store decreased dramatically since then. The following computers I put together were P133, AMD 266, PII 450 and finally, my current PIII 700. It was amazing to see how much good the store owner advice had made me.


Asus P3B-F
PIII 700MHz
Maxtor 80gig 7200 ATA/133
Seagate Barracuda 10gig 7200
256MB RAM
Voodoo 3 2000 AGP video card (16MB)
Turtle Beach Montego II sound card
TDK VeriCD 24x10x40 CD-RW
CDROM 52X
Motorola 56K internal modem

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif http://discussions.virtualdr.com/biggrin.gif



------------------
Thanx

[griffinspc]

9th grade teacher with a really fat ruler. Learned to count real quick. We called her a calculating B......

Well never mind.

------------------
"Don't know where I'm goin but there's no sense being late"

[fftaz336]

My first computer was a Tandy 1000.
After that one, I got a Compaq Presario with a Pentium 133 mHz.
Now I have a computer that I built last year. It is a AMD Athlon 700mHz, 50x CdROM, 48x 24x 48x Yamaha CD-RW, 600 mb SDRAM. This was my first attempt at building a computer and it is still going strong. Still fairly fast too compared to my Compaq.:D

[ecrosson]

My first machine was a Packard Bell 1720 P200 with 32MB EDO RAM, and a 5.1GB 5400 RPM drive, 56K modem, and Windows 95OSR2.
It was an OK machine, but just did not have the punch that I wanted in a machine.
I now have 11 machines, all networked, and the one I am currently using is a PIII 733, with 768MB SDRAM, 1 60GB drive, and a 10GB drive, both 7200 RPM, and a CDRW drive, and it runs Windows 2000Pro. There is a big change from what I started out with. I would not trade any of my machines for anything else at this point. I would also build any new machines in the future too, and not buy any of the ready made variety.

My, things have changed since the old days of late 1997.... ;)

[Nix]

After 6 months this thread suddenly comes back to life - fftaz336 are you related to Dr Frankenstein ?

[billmanhart]

My first one was in November 1999, a Compaq Presario micro-ATX with 475-MHz AMD, 64MB PC-100 SDRAM, 8-GB HDD, onboard audio and 8-MB video, with a PCI modem.

I upgraded with a ZIP drive, then an 8X HP CD-RW, then up to a 40-GB HDD that it turned out my Compaq mobo wouldn't accept.

I got a new case, an Intel D850GB mobo, 1.4-GHz P-4, 256 MB RDRAM, an ATI All-in-Wonder vidcard, a Soundblaster PCI512 sound card, and a DVD-ROM drive.

Then I sold the 15" Compaq monitor and got a 19" Envision flat screen CRT.

Then I got a 32X Lite-On CD-RW, a scanner and a faster printer.

Now I have a second hard drive, 80-GB, and I have spent a lot of money by now. :)

[Igor M]

My first computer I made at 1990 and it was hand made IBM-PC XT 8088. I mean I soldered IC on empty PCB myself.

Then about 1993 I replaced it with standard IBM-PC XT by Russian origin with 20M HDD.

At 1994 I bought 386DX40 without soundcard and CD-ROM which I continue to upgrate for present days.

Now I have Celeron 850.

[jge]

Apart from word processers by Amstrad, my first PC was a Fountain, Made in USA and still going strong after 7 years. great stuff, uncomplicated, easy to use and in all departments first rate.

Todays machines are wonderful, but mainly O.T.T, who wants to move around at near the speed of light anyway ?

[Cowboy622]

My kids were small and paid $3500.00 for an Apple II GS (graphics and sound). Back then was told IBM was on the way out and all the schools were going to Apple computers. After about 5-6 years I got smart and went into a Best Buy and picked out the computer I wanted. Took the little card that listed the specs and then took it to a neighborhood computer shop and had him build it for half price.

But like some of the others, I started with a slide rule.

[shiva_42]

OK, you asked for it:

1) Fingers
2) Fingers & Toes
3) TI Red LED Calculator (wasn't allowed on tests!)
4) C64 w/ 1541 Flash Drive, Commodore official monitor, paper-reader (all this stuff still works, but I can barely remember HOW to work it)
5) Original IBM PC, serial # xxxxx253 (was a dealer at the time)
6) IBM XT! (no way I'll EVER need more than 10meg HD, right?)
7) Generic 386-40 (Cyrix chipset, what a dog!)
8) Pentium 133
9) Pentium 300
10) AMD Thunderbird 1.0 ghz, fully loaded, lots of crap, lots of peripherals, more crap (current!)

All of the above, with the exception of #7, which I pawned off on an unsuspecting relative, are under covers, in storage, still operational (cause I don't have time to make boat anchors out of them).

Do I win anything?


:cool:

[CrashDummy]

Ooooh. It would have been a RISC OS (http://www.riscos.org/cgi-bin/artcl?a=welcome) system (which cost an ARM and a leg - hahahahaha!) way back in 1988.

If only Acorn had had a decent marketing strategy ... :(

[Philip M]

My first was a Ventek Datapoint programmed in a close-to-assembler language called Databus. (1976). Storage on audio tapes. Time required to alter 1 byte - 45 minutes.

Then a Intertec Superbrain 2 x 360K floppies, 64K RAM, CP/M (1980).

These were my employer's, not mine!

[spragers2]

Let's see...

First we had a TRS-80 (I still miss playing RoboCop), bought a CoCo 2 or 3 from a neighbor (one had dual disk drives, EAT THAT! :D )

Then a 486 SX 33mhz, we got a bargain - the box said 170 meg HD, the machine had 210 :)

Then a P166 from Best Buy (last Packard Bell I ever touched)

Then a Compaq 600mhz Athlon, custom designed (funny, the salesman couldn't run their configuration computer)

Now, a home-built Athlon XP1700 monster. RAID speed striping, 512MB DDR RAM, surround sound, DVD+CDRW, 56k modem, cable Internet, TV tuner, MS Sidewinder wheel, Gravis Gamepad, webcam, digital cam, printer, scanner, etc. etc. etc.

[b1kra]

Boy after reading what some started with certainly over shadows what I started with. It was a IBM Sub-mini notebook, 80 mb hdd, 12 mb ram,
and 9 inch B&W lcd. It ran Win 3.x and MS Office?. The damn thing traveled with me to England several times(used a lot of floppies was required by work, and it allowed me to send and recieve email) Eventually the case developed several failures, after packing it in my suitcase, but it still lived.

I believe it was a IBM Thinkpad 100.

At work we were still using dumb terminals with what ever software the MIS boys decided, don't remember the make of the DT's but they did work after a fashion.

I then got a used, reconditioned exSAS Dell 386, again running the familliar Win3.x and office?(blank when I recieved it. 300 MB HDD and 32 MB RAM. I upgraded it to win 95 when it came out and used Office 97? and gave the delapidated TP100 to the daughter(still running today) This went for a few years with the Dell in various configurations Including Linus Red Hat.

Bought a TravelPro Laptop with a 2 gig HDD, and maxed the memory at 80 Mb. It was a real screamer P-ll MMX and It ran 98SE and Office 97, later Office 2000. Tried to flash the bios due to Y2K things and it died.

Bought the current laptop IBM Series i Lapper - 4.6 gig HDD and 160+ Ram and a Desktop E-Machine 400 tower. Both running now. The Thinkpad specs are posted in the signature, the E-Machine is 400 mhz with 160+ Ram running 98SE and Office 2000 - The wifes machine, I just fix it and maintain it and boy have I learned some things.

The Dell now resides with another daughter and runs 95 like a trooper.

I found someone with a new bios chip for the Travelpro 100 so it now lives with 98SE and Office 2000 but serves the function as a back up only, as it is slow compared to the present Thinkpad.

This was a neat poll, brought back some memories of things that others experienced as well as my experiences.:)

[Spellsinger]

My first computer was a commodore c64, then Atari 520 st, then Amiga 500 shortly followed by the 1/2 meg upgrade, and a 20 mb external hd with 2 mb ram installed ( great computer ), then it was the Amiga 1200 upgraded later with 80 meg hd and 14.4k modem and Amiga cd32 ( remember them ) that connected to my 1200. Then in 1999 I got a cyrix 233 with 3gig hd and 32 meg ram, 56k modem, that got upgraded to amd 350 then 500 cpu and 128 of ram and voodoo banshee 16 mb, now I have an xp1800 with 256 ddr ram, 40 gig hd, geforce 4 mx440 64 mb, dvd, cdrw and adsl modem.

[MiseryQ]

My first is a Compaq7478... 533mhz K6-2,,, 8X DVD,,,, 4X CD-RW... 30g 5400 hard drive... It ran Win98 and had to have it reinstalled dern near every week... Part my fault part the machine...
My then boss had a Win2k upgrade that he was going to use until someone told hime it had "16 million bugs in it"... So I bought the upgrade installed and that combined with changing the Compaq memory made it bullet proof...

It's now my server running every server application I can throw at it from eDonkey to e-mail...
It's at 550mhz,,, uses a K7 cooler,,, has 512megs (the maximum),,, 1 30g 7200 and 2 40g 7200 drives,,, a 300w PS,,, and runs Win2K Advance Server...

It's like a child,,, I love it and am proud of what it's become...
Jeez,,, I spend to much time with my computers...

[MACH2]

My brain and flash cards to do the math.

electronically? the first commercial palm calculator.

pc? hp 86B statistical with math coprosessor. like 16hz

go figure. my calculator ran faster than that!

Now I kinda laugh at all the xsystems @ 1600x+ gigs? LOL..

I know we've heard it before mach..

Go tell it to the engineers!!

mach :D

[pmckinnie]

MY first computer was a commodore 64, then a 128. Then a couple of years later got a mac LC, the nice little one. Still have it but it's in storage.

Then went to a 386 and learned how to really mess up a computer.Finally learned enough to build my first machine using old parts for the most part. Didn't get on the net until about 3 years ago when I got a machine that would actually work.

I now have a 1.3 gig Tbird running XP Pro and for the most part it's running great. Still have a couple of minor problems but working on them.

Ain't it great how you learn what not to do faster then what you should do???

cheers mac :cool:

[sandmantoy]

my first pc was a gateway 450 mhz. Jumped in with both feet in 99 . Just opened the box on my new alienware area 51 custom yesterday 2.81 GBz pentium 4 on a ASUS mother board and 1 GBz memory :D running windows xp pro.

sandman

[Murf]

1. SlideRule

2. Calculator -WOW

3. ATARI, ATARI,ATARI - ASC and saving programs to a Tape Recorder, and playing that ping pong game...

4. Zenith Z248 don't remember the specs.

5. Wal Mart Special 386SX/16Mhz - a whopping 2MB RAM, 40MB HDD - it zoomed along.. Added a 14.4 Modem all by myself, geez it was quick.

6. Local computer shop put in a 486DX2/66Mhz motherboard and 8 MB RAM I think about $199. Now I had a fast burner - it was fast.... after this I figured out hey I can do these upgrades myself, why pay the computer nerd to do it....

7. Bought my 1st Tower case and moved everything from the 486 into the Tower - hey it worked too...

8. Upgrade's: Added to that 486: 32MB RAM; 4MB Video Card; A whopping 520MB HDD and a Math Co-Processor - now that thing was like a dragster...

9. Ah my first Pentium -built with these hands, using same tower: CyrizPR233 - 64MB Ram, 8MB Vid Card and a HUGE 1.2MB HDD - I was screaming.

10, Between the Cyrix PR233 and my current system, several motherboard's, Cyrix PR 333, then went to AMD K6-2, 350, 400, 450, 500, about 3 different mobo, several Vid Card's gradually going from 8MB to 16MB to 32MB to current 64MB...

Finally, many years later sitting her with this 800Mhx celeron, 64MB Vid, 20GIG HDD, 256MB RAM blah blah blah. Next to the T-Bird then it will fly...

Of all the systems I have built and owned the best was the ATARI - WHY- it was simple, cheap (at that time) and not very upgradeable - look at the $$ I saved....

[jmtjet]

IBM Model 30 286. (cost=2900.00 bucks) Upgraded it to Windows 3.1. Had to have some moe ram to get it to run well(another trip to the bank) As it turned out, I liked DOSSHELL better than Win 3.1. It had a 20.8 MB harddrive, one floppy drive and around 1 MB of ram.

After running Windows 3.1, I said: "This Windows operating system will never replace DOS"

After awhile I kinda got tired of it, though my wife used it for word processing. Then along came the thing we now know as the INTERNET, and we went out and bought a Compaq to surf the net. We now have two computers that I've built, plus high speed internet connections.

[imadreamer2]

l. Fingers
2. 10key adder
3. ti 55
4. This one and only Max Tech 3000 IBM clone (aren't they all) Pent 2, 366mghts (that for some reason runs at 400, I did nothing after the first format and reinstall has been running at 400 since?) with a rebuilt 50 dollar monitor that only had a 30 day warranty. Started with 32mb ram, then went up to 192 although 4 are for the built in video card. And if it wasn't for all the help at these tech boards i probably would have died two years ago. It keeps working for what I do so unless I win the lotto which I probably wont, I will keep going with this one as long as I can, or as long as I can keep win98 fe up and running. What can I say it only cost me 500 plus tax. Oh yea don't forget the 50 dollar monitor. Knock on wood ......

Oh yea I forgot I did use IBM computers at work but they weren't mine and all I did with them was wordprocessing and statistical analysis. Never messed with setting, registrys, or anything like that.

[Luke92881]

My grandfathers used to (Might still) have the IBM PCjr.
I used to mess around with that when I was at my grandparents house, I learned BASIC on that thing.

My first Pc at home though, was a 33Mhz Packard Bell
It had no sound or CD-ROM, I later installed those myself.
It came with Win 3.1 but that somehow died on me, so I was runnning in DOS for about a year...Then I got Win95 and a a video card SVGA 1mb card.....hmmm oh yeah and there was only 1 SIMM Slot on this thing, I upgraded it from 4mb of RAM to 12mb.

My next computer was a compaq 5190 Which is still used as a family computer. It is 400Mhz, DVD drive, upgraded to 256 Ram, CD-Burner, Zip Drive, and 12 Gb hard drive.

And my current Pc I built in May is listed in my quote.