Commodore 64.
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File it under X for X-perience.
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Commodore 64.
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File it under X for X-perience.
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
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2002/03/1.gif
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When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth!
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>
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- 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).]
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 https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ )
BTW - the term PC has ibm origins https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
[This message has been edited by IMM (edited 04-19-2002).]
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'.
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.
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.
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
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.
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The Velociraptor
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.
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Brian
Always something to learn.
Knowledge is power, and knowledge is where you get it
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.
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.
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.
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Karl, Denmark
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"..and may The Force be with you - too..."
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....
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Murf
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Note:"Murf's Garage" under Major Renovation.
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.
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.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ mach
that's as far as I got!Quote:
Originally posted by Murf:
1.abacus
2.Fingers
3.Slide rule
4.Calculator
<pc I use is a loaner https://discussions.virtualdr.com/>
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^dAvEy^
Commododre 64 where I played all my Dungeon and Dragon games.
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.
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
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.
How far we've come:
www.old-computers.com
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"I'm not a real doctor, I just play one on VDr!"
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.
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REAL FRIENDS DON'T ASK FRIENDS TO FIX PACKER-BELLS AND COMPAQS.
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.
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People think candles smell good, but nothing smells worse than the house we just put out because of the candle.Spex
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! )) https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
LOVED every reply.. sniff!!
mach
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
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
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Thanx
9th grade teacher with a really fat ruler. Learned to count real quick. We called her a calculating B......
Well never mind.
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"Don't know where I'm goin but there's no sense being late"
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
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.... ;)
After 6 months this thread suddenly comes back to life - fftaz336 are you related to Dr Frankenstein ?
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. :)
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.
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 ?
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.
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:
Ooooh. It would have been a RISC OS system (which cost an ARM and a leg - hahahahaha!) way back in 1988.
If only Acorn had had a decent marketing strategy ... :(
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!
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.
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.:)
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.