QOTD: What Was Your First Computer?

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IBM PC Bus, ISA, EISA, math co-processor, floppy disk. So many forgotten terms, from years ago.

Many would say that we've come a long way in terms of advancement in computer technology. Others would say we haven't even started yet. At one point, we were still reading and writing data to punch cards--if you've been alive long enough to remember. Research is now being done to even move away from silicon for use in semiconductors. Imagine what people 20 years ago would say if you showed them a computer from today!

The question of the day is: What was your first computer?

Do you remember what specs it had? What kind of motherboard did it come with? How big was the hard drive? Did it even have a hard drive? Let us know!

Tuan An Nguyen
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216 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hrudy
    My first computer was a Motorola M6800 Evaluation board that I assembled myself. It connected to a teletype and used a M6821 parallel interface adaptor to talk to the tty as the 6850 serial part was not ready. It ran Mikbug monitor and you had to program in machine code.
    Reply
  • My first computer was a COSMAC Elf 1802, then a Commodore PET
    Reply
  • I started with a AT&T 8086 with (2) 5.25" floppies and 640K of ram. I remember installing our first 10mb hard drive in it a few years later.
    Reply
  • gcaughey
    I got this kit new back in 1986/7.

    SpectraVideo SV-328
    64Kb RAM 16Kb video (80Kb advertised)
    ROM slot
    SV tapedrive
    two joysticks
    A bunch of tapes and one ROM cartridge

    I still have all of it, if anyone wanted to make an offer.
    Reply
  • Dax corrin
    I had a 12 Mhz 286 with "turbo" switch, an ISA simm memory expander and it's first HDD was not even IDE, so when it failed, I had to replace both the drive and the controller as the older drive tech was no longer available. I think it was a 20 MB drive. "Wow, you'll never fill that up!!!"
    Reply
  • Onus
    Hmmm, technically I think my old SR-56 Texas Instruments programmable calculator may have been a "computer," but more consistent with the intent, I think, was my Apple ]
    Reply
  • Spanky Deluxe
    My first computer was some old Amstrad machine that was a hand-me-down. It ran the GEM operating system - I was fascinated by the paint program. What I would call my first "real" computer was a 486 DX4 100MHz, a DIY job. That was a beauty of a machine. I don't remember exactly when this was though, mid nineties. The Pentium was only just out and wasn't doing too well compared to the 486s of the time.
    Reply
  • scryer_360
    Apple Lisa. Still have it, but as you can imagine its practically worthless.

    Well, in terms of productivity anyway. Had a guy offer me a grand for it... I figure if its that much a collectors item in 2008 then its just going to go higher.
    Reply
  • mike fe
    A (don't laugh!) Sony HitBit MSX2 Computer. No Harddisk, but a nifty GUI, despite only having 256kB RAM. Without tricks you could only access 64kB (Yes, that's right KILOBYTE) though.
    Reply
  • daft
    all i can remember of it was that it was housed in a printer housing that i used as a type writer most of the time
    Reply