What computers did you own in the old days? Share your story!

[arthura]

Heath/Zenith H-151 kit featuring the 5Mhz 8088, two "high capacity" 320K 5.25" floppy drives, 11MB HD, amber 320x225 mono display, all assembled from a kit costing $2400 (or about $5000 pre-assembled). This was a state-of-the-art system in 1983, one of the first 16-bit PCs. I also had a Daisywriter 2000 daisywheel letter-quality printer to go with it.

 

[hunter315]

First desktop i had was a 486 @ 66MHz, i dont remember the rest of the specs but i recently stumbled across the add for it and its manual the last time i was home, it was weird. My dad had an old DG-1 that he got in the late 80s when he worked at DG, its still in the basement i believe, but its been a long time since it was used.

 

[c0oim4n]

My first computer I got for Xmas when I was 5 in the late 90s was a PII @ 300MHz, 64MB SDRAM, and a 14GB HDD. I don't remember my first video card, but I remember having a ATi ALL-IN-WONDER card later on in that PCs life. It survived up until 2 years ago when I upgraded to a temporary thing, and then a new PC (my current one) last year. I also had a tray-loading iMac G3 for the longest time....

 

[rb420]

My first pc was a 486 with a 512MB HD running windows 3.1 I forget how much RAM, but it was not much. That was a pretty good PC when my dad bought it for me.

I forget when that was, mid 90's

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

I remember I had a 486, too, also with a 512 MB HDD... seemed like a lot at that time! Had Windows 95 on it and really hated it, because by that time W2K was already out. I also had a 500 MHz Celeron rig with 3dfx Voodoo 3 16MB in it, but seeing people above with 5MHz computers suddenly makes Voodoo seem like yesterday, so I'll stop here =)

 

[Baralis]

AMD K6-2 533mhz, 64mb memory, 8mb GPU.

The thing would overheat and shut down anytime I placed a load on it for any length of time. I tried everything I could think of including removing the case and placing a box fan against the MB, but nothing helped.

 

[clarkjd]

TI 99-4A, with 16K of ram...upgraded to an Amiga 1000 with 512k. Then got a 486SX-25 from Gateway...

 

[MCFCBlue]

my first comp was a zx81 but if your talking PC wise mine was a amd k6 500 with 3d now lol, couldn't run quake 3 what so ever but could play Unreal T. happy day

 

[christop]

Commodore vic -20 then the 64 then the 128.

 

[Branden]

the frist pc i had (rather my dad bought) was a '486' (pre-pentium). think it had 66mhz cpu, 4mb ram, 100mb hdd, windows 3.11, 800x600 crt, not even cd rom.

first pc i bought was 533mhz celeron (socket 370?), 10gb hdd, 64mb ram, windows 98fe, 1024x768 13" crt. over time it got upgraded to 256mb ram, 40gb hdd, cd burner, geforce gpu.

 

[Guest]

My first semi-computer was an Intellivision II(gaming system) with an ECS computer component add on. Intellivision had 8k, and the computer component added 2k. However, you could only program basic language with the 2k on the computer component. My basic language programs would always go over 2k, and when you entered a numbered line of basic language past this, it would turn gray, indicated memory full. It had a really cool detached keyboard.

My first real home computer was an Apple //e with 128k of memory, followed by a 16bit Apple IIgs years later.

My first PC was a pentium 166, in 1996 when I finally retired my Apple IIgs.

 

[jaguarskx]

My first computer was a Commodore 64.

My first PC was a Micron Millennia with a Pentium MMX CPU. That was a piece of crap, too many issues. After that farce I decided to build my own PCs.

 

[gapamu]

i lived in the old days and there were no computers, i had to use an abacus to add up

 

[jemm]

It was 1982 when I worked with a Cobra 400 (Sycor 440, Intel 8080 processor).

 

[Espionage724]

I had this computer:
http://www.applefritter.com/files/images//hotwheelscomputer-5309_0.jpg

 

[jimmysmitty]

This type of thread seems to come up every now and then.

My first PC was many. My grandfather had a old old system, not sure of the brand, that was running a 486 if I remember correctly. Then at one of my schools we had dos based systems with 486s and another had some Apple PCs with DOS, before Apple did their own OS.

But the one I remember the most is a 95 Compaq running Windows 95. Pentium 75MHz, 16MB of RAM, a 2GB HDD (HUGE in those days but we filled it in a year) and even a CD drive, which was rare back then as they just started to become affordable.

 

[loneninja]

I had a couple old computers back in the day, but the first one I built myself allowing me to remember what was in it, had an Athlon 64 3400+ Clawhammer, 3Gb ram, 300Gb hard drive, and a Geforce 6600GT.

 

[king smp]

First computer was a
TRS-80 Color Computer
Motorola 6809e 8/16bit CPU 2.77 mhz ?
could poke/peek the CPU to run at 4 mhz
16 kilobyte ram
cassette drive (loaded programs from audio cassette)
then
TRS-80 Color Computer 2 (CoCo)
64k
5.25 floppy drive
with a dot matrix sheet printer
US Robotics Hayes 300 baud modem
I rememer getting a 1200 baud modem later
thinking how fast that was LOL

Anybody else remember
BBS's
Phreaking Sprint and MCI with wargames dialer
Captain Crunch
Thinking Zork was the greatest game ever?

 

[technetitgirl]

My very first computer (not really mine, GenRad, Acoustic and Vibrations Analysis Division) was a PDP11. I was only 18 at the time, so I'm old, but not that old. A little later a Computervision CADDs4(X) (Nat Semi). Think 6 people on one shared cpu and a 300 MB drive that weighed a ton! And this is graphics, lots and lots of graphics, not word processing. I wrote my status reports on an old and very dumb chip tester! First PC was the very well know IBM (can't remember the model name) 8080 chip based PC. Then there was Apollo (Agis OS) on a token passing ring network (which beat the pants off the difficult to install Ethernet of the day) finally Sun Spark workstations (Unix B4.2). VI anyone?

Like everyone else, I have had one great new "NOW" PC "until it isn't" after another. Never thought I would complain about Multi-core X.XGHz chip speeds and 300mbps networks after sharing ONE 300 MB drive on what was essentially a time share 486 pc. Oh, I forgot the VAX and good old VMX! CRYPTIC. 7.5 inch floppies! Mag tape back-ups, oh joy! I'm a chip designer (ASIC's & Timing Closure?) so I love it all. Thanks for the good reading and the break. Does anyone remember Dungeons and Dragons when it was played on a dumb terminal - no pictures!

The Sandy Bridge is an engineering marvel. I am in love!

 

[king smp]

"Does anyone remember Dungeons and Dragons when it was played on a dumb terminal - no pictures!"

Would you adopt me?

Seriously I do remember D&D oriented programs
that would assist you with map making and DMing the games
I even tried writing a crude one myself (PASCAL compiler on an Apple IIe LOL)

I do remember playing a primitive WW1 biplane fighter plane
one on one over a 1200 baud connection

i do remember using PEEK/POKE commands to OC a Motorola 6809E

Now I am looking to upgrade from a C2D 3ghz and HD 5670
because it isnt powerful enough LOL

You do realize one day hopefully enthusiasts will be fondly talking
about that obsolete slow 2600K they used to have

 

[Toxxyc]

My first PC was a 386. I don't remember the clock speeds or anything, but I can remember the 40MB HDD. It was immense.

After that we got a 486.

Then the Pentium 1 was at the order of the day, at 333MHz with 64MB RAM (two 32MB sticks). This PC was insane. Sink Sub Pro anyone?

After that we got a Pentium 3, which basically sucked.

Then I got a Celeron 2.1GHz with 128MB RAM later upgraded to 256MB.

It sucked, so I got a Pentium 4 3.2GHz (awesome machine). This machine had a 40GB HDD, and people were all like "holy crap, you're never going to fill 40GB in your life". It had 512MB RAM and a GeForce FX5200 AGP card (later swapped for a PCI version).

That machine packed up and stopped functioning after a shortish while, so I got another one, this time the P4 3.0GHz with Hyper Threading. This PC I used to game on with a 7600GT for a long time, only getting more RAM (up to 2GB) and a GeForce 220GT graphics card until it became too slow.

Then I got my current PC, Core 2 Quad Q8400, 3GB RAM and a GTX460 1GB. Next upgrade will probably be my last and I wish it to be a Bulldozer rig

EDIT: I do remember these old games though. Ski was played until waaaay past the little monster, Lemmings was beaten and beaten again and I loved it. More games were Pacman, Tetris and several text-based games that made very little sense for me, but I kept typing commands and looked in awe at the screen that replied. Oh, and Age of Empires 2: Gold Edition was played on the P1. Multiplayer games, super-*** framerates and all-in-all fun and more fun. Need for Speed 2 SE also rings a bell. FZR2000 cheat car anyone? On the Pacific Spirit race track? :3

 

[king smp]

You know I wonder about my ten year old daughter

she has grown up using the Wii,Xbox360,PSP 3000,DS and my system.

I wonder if she will be fondly remembering Crysis 2 as she jacks into her
neural network virtual reality system with 32 core 128bit CPU with 128gbs
of ram?

 

[jj463rd]

Not my first one but I had a Hewlett Packard HP-67 Programmable Calculator (pretty much like a computer) in 1975 I think and my friend had the earlier HP-65.They were easy and fun to program and both had motorized magnetic strip readers in them.There were also thousands of applications (great for engineering,mathematics,physics other sciences) yes even hundreds of games developed for both.There was even a large member user group with thousands of members,newsletters etc.Great thing about them was their versatility as both were small hand helds and great for mobility field and school work.Probably far more practical and useful than the early lumbering large and heavy impractical microcomputer kits of the mid 1970's.The HP-97 (I think that that was it's model number basically was a HP-67 with a very small printer built in to it.Not handheld but it was easily moved and portable.HP really had the high tech quality stuff at that time during the 1960's and 70's and quite an outstanding reputation.
Steve Wozniak of Apple Computer fame I believe even owned the HP-65 before coming out with his Apple I.From What I've read he had to sell it at the time for funds for his Apple I project I think.Plus I've read that he worked in HP's Programmable Calculator Division for a while and especially liked what he was doing there.
HP even had a programmable scientific calculator in 1967 which they sold to the scientific,engineering community.Of course I remember the punch card days (oh God) and still have a stack of them in my shed.

I had some motorized mechanical calculators from the 1940's that I found in thrift stores.They sure make a lot of noise and are extremely slow especially with long multiplications or divisions.Of course those are merely calculators and are not programmable.

 

[Toxxyc]

You know I wonder about my ten year old daughter

she has grown up using the Wii,Xbox360,PSP 3000,DS and my system.

I wonder if she will be fondly remembering Crysis 2 as she jacks into her
neural network virtual reality system with 32 core 128bit CPU with 128gbs
of ram?

You know, I think it's sad that today's kids will never play around in DOS, having to type the commands you want to execute. Remember having to type "c:://" to access the C::// drive? Then having to type "win" to get into Windows 3.1? Even as late as Windows 98, remember simply clicking "cancel" when asked for a password and if the guy who set up the PC didn't know what he did it defaulted to the Administrator account and logged on? Sigh, nostalgia...

Funny thing it, I'm not even that old. Almost 22, to be honest. And I still remember all this.

Also, claiming a 32 core 128bit CPU now is going to make you the laughing stock in a few years. Future generations will start working in terabytes of RAM, and wonder how the hell daddy and his friends came around with a maximum of 32GB to use. If there's one thing we learned it's that we cannot put numbers on technological development. Or something. Which is what Gates said not long after he built a PC with some amount of RAM (can't remember the exact amount, was something like 8MB I think) and said "humanity will never need more than that".

 

[king smp]

"Also, claiming a 32 core 128bit CPU now is going to make you the laughing stock in a few years. Future generations will start working in terabytes of RAM, and wonder how the hell daddy and his friends came around with a maximum of 32GB to use"

I can't even dream of what she will have at age 40 (Lord willing we are still here)
the 128bit CPU 32core 128gb ram with Petrabyte hard drive is really only 5-10 years away (at most)

Dont know how many people have read the cyberpunk writer William Gibson
(author of Johnny Mnemonic movie) who wrote tremonduos
books about a techno future with souls living in electronic existence on huge hard drives and living in a virtual world

Where does the arc of technological progression end?

Its growth is so exponential in nature that it is bound to result
into something almost supernatural

Wow is it late (2 AM) and I have had too many energy drinks LOL