253 replies to this topic

[Bruno]

Actualy wanted to start a poll, but then what choises would you give ? So I started a normal thread;What was the first computer you've ever owed ? The box that got you interested ?And what is the latest one you got today ?Mine was a commodore 64 with tape deckGot a self-build K7S5A sis735, AMD 1700+ these days, (and two old P1)Bruno

[L_P]

My first was a HP 8533Z, complete with zip drive, about 5 yrs ago. I gave it to my son and he still uses it. My latest- a self built  K7S5A sis735, same as yours.   I just assembled it last Wed.

[normanlp]

My first was a Radio Shack TRS80 Model 1. It was later modified to use an IBM Selectric as a printer and again modified to run a non-Radio Shack operating system, I think it was called CPM or something like that. I used to input programs in machine language as well as Radio Shack's version of Basic. And those were "The Good Old Days"?I now have a PII running Windows 98SE with 256 M of ram, a CD burner, scanner, 2 printers with a high speed cable internet connection. I can now download almost any program I wish without it taking days to input via a keyboard.Norm

[greengeek]

486 33Mhz, 8MB RAM and 162MB hard drive.  It died of old age!I have as my fastest computer now a Celeron 1.3Ghz and eight others ranging from a 486 DX4-100 to a Compaq Celeron 633, also four old Macs (still working) and a C64 and C128, enough to keep me occupied for years.Joy

[Scot]

Great idea! The first computer I ever bought was a Tandy Radio Shack Model 4P, the portable version of the "Trash 80."The first computer I used as a daily driver was the TRS-80 Model III. The Trash-80s used an OS called TRS-DOS. It was pretty simple, but not all that different from CP/M or PC-DOS/MS-DOS.Prior to that, though, I used just about every computer available in 1982-1984 timeframe, including Commodore 64, Apple II/e, earlier Trash-80s, IBM PC, IBM PCjr, Atari, Color Computer, Kaypro, and many others. My first publishing job was for small publishing company that offered magazines specific to all these individual computers. Our company worked out of an old farm house and converted barn, and we had computers everywhere. I was just a bit late to the party to claim I was into it early enough for the Timex Sinclair, HeathKit, or any of the other very early computers.   -- Scot

[Bruno]

quote L_P:My latest- a self built K7S5A sis735, same as yours. Aren't we spoiled ?Does run great doen't it ?Bruno(the quote fiunction does not work properly in my galeon-browser)

[L_P]

onurb, on Apr 5 2003, 08:12 PM, said:

quote L_P:My latest- a self built K7S5A sis735, same as yours. Aren't we spoiled ?Does run great doen't it ?Bruno

Yep!   I'm running a AMD 1800 Palomino in mine, though.I also recently built one (my first build) with and Asus A7N8X deluxe mobo and an AMD 2100 Tbred.  Nice to able to pick your own hardware and settings.  

[Bruno]

L_P:Pick your own hardware, that's the bliss ! Plugged two HD's in mine 2x 60 Gig 7200RPM, 512 DDR, DVD, CDRW,  the works !4 month ago I got ADSL and am flying the net, brilliant !Run Mandrake 9.0 on this one. Vector linux on an old P1 and Win98SE on another P1Bruno

[L_P]

onurb, on Apr 5 2003, 08:24 PM, said:

L_P:Pick your own hardware, that's the bliss ! Plugged two HD's in mine 2x 60 Gig 7200RPM, 512 DDR, DVD, CDRW,  the works !4 month ago I got ADSL and am flying the net, brilliant !Run Mandrake 9.0 on this one. Vector linux on an old P1 and Win98SE on another P1Bruno

For me, being totaly upgradable is the bliss part, after running HP's and Dell's for 5 yrs.   I've been on DSL for about 1 1/2 yrs now, and I love it. I don't even want to think of going back to dial up.   Maybe we need a "list your pcs and specs thread"?  

[Bruno]

Paracelsus:I do remember the WANG, gosh it seems we all go way back !Scot:It looks like you've got a complete zoo there. . . . nice !Norman_lp:Radio Shack, I forgot all about them ! Bruno

[eksimba]

onurb, on Apr 5 2003, 05:48 PM, said:

What was the first computer you've ever owned ? Mine was a commodore 64 with tape deck

Mine also was a Commodore 64 with a cassette tape drive.I remember bringing home from the library a book with some simple games, whereby I could type into the computer, character by character, the code as it was printed in the book. Save it to tape, rewind, and play, hoping I had fixed all the typos. My first experience with 'programming'.

[Maxlor]

The first computer I *saw* was a WANG. **** yeah that thing was cool... Green screen that was leeter than the scrolling matrix code, and huge failure-prone floppy disks... :)Unfortunately my father very much depended on it at the time and wouldn't allow me to play around with it   The first computer I considered "mine" was a 286 with a monochrome display.I was born in 1981, so unfortunately I missed a great era in computing. Oh well. At least I got to watch the internet rise

[havnblast]

Well lets see here - I used the TRS80 first and didn't actually get my own till like 93-94 and that was the 486 33 DX 8mb RAM  120MB hard drive.  Remember the price of RAM back than - holy it was like $100.00 for 8 MB stick.  I have since parted that computer out and no longer exists.

[DannySmurf]

havnblast, on Apr 5 2003, 07:32 PM, said:

Well lets see here - I used the TRS80 first and didn't actually get my own till like 93-94 and that was the 486 33 DX 8mb RAM  120MB hard drive.  Remember the price of RAM back than - holy it was like $100.00 for 8 MB stick.  I have since parted that computer out and no longer exists.

It used to be even more expensive than that. My first IBM-compatible computer was a 386DX2 40MHz with 4MB of RAM and a 120MB hard drive. RAM at the time was $100/MB.My actual first computer was a Zenith ZX-81. The one with the membrane keys. *LOL*--Danny Smurf

[zox]

My first computer that I owned and liked was ZX81 with 1 Kb of memory, with beautiful sense touch keyboard :)Was I happy when I programmed first cowboy to go up and down in Basic, and then when I learnt how to convert Basic commands into machine language, in the same memory I managed to get cowboy to shoot at the moving targets :)I remember some time after, when my friend got Commodore 64 and "Disk Unit", couple of us went to his home and we were dropping our jaws in shock and awe :PWe were drooling how fast his "Disk Unit" was and how computers are getting off really fast.At the time I was still saving some games from one tape recorder to other, and most of the time without any cables :)Now I am patiently waiting for some miracle (say income tax) to get me off of this Duron 1.1 Ghz with Asus A7v mobo

[cybernut]

The first computer I owned was an Apple II+ that came with one48K disk drive (and, of course, no hard drive).  That was back in 1981.  I remember how excited  I was when I added a second disk drive.  THAT was power! :-)Cybernut

[Peachy]

Oooh!The first PC I ever saw was a Radio Shack TRS-80 that some kid in my grade 7 class brought to school for show-and-tell. We were all impressed. The first computer I ever used was a Commodore PET my first year in highschool. We subsequently used the Commodore Vic-20 and then the C64. During that period, my dad bought us an Apple //e at my insistence because I was intrigued by the name. The first computer I actually bought with my own money was a custom-built 386DX with 4MB RAM and a 120MB hard disk. That was almost 11 years ago. Since then I've built every PC I've ever owned. I tend to upgrade my computer every two years and so end of last year I put together an ASUS P4PE with Pentium 4 1.6A and 1GB DDR which has been overclocked to 2.13GHz from day one and has not crashed once.

[chrisclu]

My first was an IBM PC with two 5 1/4" floppy drives.  When hard drives came out I debated saving $500 by getting a 10 MB instead fo the 20MB because there was no way I'd ever even fill up the 10. (My manager talked me into the 20)Latest is a self built 1.8 gig P-4, 512 MB DDR, DVD, CDRW, 2 HDs, and 64MB DDR nVidia AGP card. (Networked with one other desktop and a laptop.)  It's funny, other than a few utilities, I don't think I have one program that would fit on that original Harddrive Chris

[benhenry]

peachy, on Apr 5 2003, 11:14 PM, said:

Oooh! ... We subsequently used the Commodore Vic-20 and then the C64...

eskimba, on Apr 5 2003, 07:36 PM, said:

Mine also was a Commodore 64 with a cassette tape drive.

That brings back some fun memories!   Remember PEEK and POKE?

[-ct-]

depends on what you consider a "computer"who here remembers "Merlin"?  ;)lotta programming in that one to get a few beeps out of it!oh in case you fergot, here's some on ebayafter that, a T/I , then a tandy 1000, then a packard bell 286 (i still have that one...)a few more in between there and nowcurrently,black Cheiftec Full tower with side window/front usb/firewire, no-name 500w psu, gigabyte ga-7ax, amd xp 2000, thermaltake volcano7 hsf, 512mb pc2100, 60 - 60 - 40 - 30 - 30 - 10 gb hard drives (WD, max, max, max, max, max) , lite-on cdrw 52x24x52, lite-on 16x dvd, aha-2940 scsi card, no-name ata133 card, creative labs sound blaster audigy mp3+ sound, no-name usb 2.0 card, no-name nic, Radeon 7500 64mb ddr vid, logitech MOMO racing wheel and wingman extreme gamepad for gaming, 2 blue 3LED fans, 2 blue 4LED fans, 4 blue CCD lights, 7 port etx. usb hub, 21" HP ergo 1600 monitor 1280x1024@85hz, ext zip100 and 250 - both SCSI, 3 piece speakers - flat panel + bass cube pics online at:http://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE055.JPGhttp://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE057.JPGhttp://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE058.JPGhttp://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE059.JPGhttp://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE060.JPGhttp://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE061.JPGhttp://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE062.JPGhttp://www.harddrive...se/IMAGE063.JPG(shoddy upload, i'll fix that later)hey, you DID ask... ;)and i need another system comparable to this, for work....

[GolfProRM]

My first system (okay, my parents first system) was a 486 SX33, 4Mb RAM, 520Mb HD...  Windows 3.11 Sad thing is that I still have this machine...  (stuck up in the corner of my closet somewhere)...I've also got an Apple IIGs laying around somewhere...I bought a Micron PIII 600 a couple years ago (crappy computer, great service), but got rid of that in favor of my new Athlon XP2000+, 512 DDR PC-2700, 80GB HD, 52X CD-RW, GeForce4 Ti4200 (awesome card)...Running cable internet (don't know what I'd do without it)..

[slowpoke]

Thanks ComputerBob for mentioning the TI99.  I was beginning to think I was the only one old enough to remember this one. I also had one of those, along with a book of programs that you typed onto the tape drive to set up your programs.  Most of them did not work until you worked out the errors, but was a lot of fun!!!  My next system was a Commodore 128.  That one had two 5" floppy drives.  What power and speed!!I currently have two systems.  One is a Packard Bell with W95 that my wife uses primarily to keep records on her geneology.  The other is a self built AMD K-62 with 2 hard drives(13 gb and 6 gb), a cd drive and a cd-rw drive, with w98SE.  Although now a couple of years old, I have decided to stick with it for a while.