What was your first computer ?

[epp_b]

Yeee-HAAAAAW! :PWelcome to the forums freeway

Edited February 7, 2005 by epp_b

[ross549]

Welcome, freeway!Sounds like some classic stuff. Unfortunately, it was a bit before I got into computing....

[eaklor]

My First computer I owned was an Osborne. It was portable, sort of, although you had to have arms of steel to move it around. Osborne 1 Introduced: April 1981 Price: US $1,795 Weight: 24.5 pounds CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 4.0 MHz RAM: 64K RAM Display: built-in 5" monitor 53 X 24 text Ports: parallel / IEEE-488 modem / serial port Storage: dual 5-1/4 inch, 91K drives OS: CP/MNow I have 3, the main one I use was a special build by Compaq. Presario 8000, Intel Pentium 4, 2 ghz, 1 gig Ram Edited June 7, 2005 by eaklor

[broadkipa]

oops double post, sorry

Edited June 7, 2005 by broadkipa

[broadkipa]

Sitting reading the posts this morning reminded me of my old Atari computer and it's membrane keyboard. In the magazines of the time they would print listings of programes, the idea being that you typed them in and ran the program. Now some of these listings where huge, three or four pages of text to type in and it took ages. I remember a pal of mine came round one day with this massive listing that he wanted to try, the game sounded good so we set to it. taking turns we spent about 3 to 4 hours at this but got there in the end. we ran the game and up on the screen came the fantastic graphics we where waiting to see and then...........Black screen, what happened, I will tell you what happened, my wife in her wisdom had pulled the plug out to put the hoover on, all that typing lost, 4 hours wasted, I'll tell you, people today don't know there born..

[usasma]

My first computer was a Radio Shack console that I bought in 1986. But, prior to that I led a nice childhood. Dad was employed at RCA - and at that time they were trying to develop computers. So I got experience with memory (even using super-conducting materials) and hard drives that were as big as a desk! I also worked at Digital Equipment Corp assembling PDP-11's from the ground up.My current system is a P4 3.0 gHz 800 mHz busAsus P4P800 SE mobo1 gB of PC 2700 RAMZalman Power supply (? 450 watt)ThermalRight SP-94 CPU cooler2 Western Digital Raptors 36 an 72 gB)an nVidia based vid card (I think it's a 5700 Ultra)a 19" LCD monitorand an old, but trustworthy, full steel Addtronics tower caseand, a whole bunch of other goodies that every geek would want!

[Guest LilBambi]

Wonderful to see this thread still rockin'! It's great to see where folks have come from and where they are now.

[Shamrock]

Well, for me, it was the famed TI 99/4A, 16 or 64K RAM (not sure which), tape drive - gave me my first experience programming. Got to mess with sprites even :)But now, same ol' story as the rest... AMD Sempron 1.75GHz, 1GB RAM, 160 GB HDD. Humungous difference. On a fist time basis, I was introduced to the PDP 11 and a teletype in about 1979 which ran at 120 baud and was the loudest machinery I had yet heard that wasn't coming apart at the seams. :)OT - first internet experience. When I was at the wee l'il Univeristy of Prince Edward Island in 1983, a professor there was conducting collaberative research via honest to goodness email (gasp) with a colleague in Australia through something called MapleNet. Cool thread. Gald it got bumped back to the fore.

[greengeek]

Every time this thread gets bumped up I have to get my C64 out and see if it's still working!

[DarkSerge]

My first computer was a 386. It had Windows 3.1, 4 MB of RAM, and a 96 MB hard drive. I taught myself how to use DOS on that computer, because it was so slow, I got tired of using Windows so I learned how to do all my file management and such through DOS commands. I didn't come with a sound card, but I managed to find one and install it, and even was able to play and record sounds through DOS.

[winston]

My first computer was a Compaq Presario 5000Intel PIII 66764Mb ram13Gb hddand it was a high end machine in its era....!

[CBS]

My first computer was an original Compaq portable. I carried it around and was the only one in the office who wanted to use it. It belonged to the company not me. They used a VAX 11780 as I remember. I had a VT100 terminal in my office and modified a serial cable, changed the pin-outs, so I could use the Compaq with the terminal as a larger monitor. People thought I was crazy. Then we got some Wells-American computers and pretty soon people were borrowing my copy of Sidekick to install on their machines. I eventually bought a Wells-American and built my first 486 box in 1991. Replaced the Mobo for a 200MMX and then got a Dell because I was too lazy to build another one at the time. This box I built with a Pentium 4 2.2 Gig on a ASUS Mobo. Replaced the Mobo after the audio section wasn't working right and the Powersupply needed changing anyway. I have 2 Gigs of memory now and don't need any more speed.

[bobsch]

The first computer I used was an IBM 704 in 1957. It filled a large room and was vacuum tube based. I submitted programs in boxes of manually punched cards. The computer wasn't very well protected from rogue programs. Once when I went to pick up my output, on wide fan-fold paper, the clerk looked at the name on my badge and said, "Oh, you're the one." That meant that my program had crashed the computer.Later I learned Fortran at a different company and my crashes were eliminated.The first computer I owned was an S100 system with a Z80 microprocessor and two 8-inch floppy disks. I can't remember how much memory it had -- that was in 1979. I assembled most of the circuit boards from kits, and I wrote the monitor software -- equivalent to the BIOS -- myself and burned it into a EPROM. I used a converted 12-inch TV as a monitor. Those were the days!!!My second owned computer was an IBM PC, purchased in 1984 at an IBM store. It was a bare bones system without floppy or hard drives or monitor, but it came with diagnostic sofware on a cassette! I fitted it with 3rd party devices: monitor, floppy drives, graphic card and eventually a 5 MB hard drive and controller.My main computer now is Pentium 4 3.06 GHz, with 2 GB memory, 800 GB distributed over three hard drives, DVD writers and all kinds of gadgets.Since I retired, I've taken on the job of network administrator and computer repairman and advisor for a 5 computer network in my home.

[Manitoban]

I wrote my first computer program on a Packard Bell 250 in 1963. I demonstrated an aircraft interception. Input all the courses and speeds at the keyboard, and got the results as a typeout. All text mode, of course, using a Flexowriter with a paper tape reader for input and output. Later I did my mortgage on the same machine. Fun!!!!Bill

[greengeek]

Looks like I missed out on some fun machines by starting with computers later in life.

[blizzard89]

Zeos 386 with 4 megs memory and a 85MB hard drive running Windows 3.0 Paid way to much money for it then but we all had to start somewhere.

[daveydoom]

486 DX 40 with 8 Mb RAM

[Angelo]

wow long time back but, as I remind it was aHewlett Packard 486 MMX with Microsoft Windows 3.1Back then this was state of the art so it is pritty fun to see how much thingshave developed over the last couple of year's. I also had a Matrix Printer, man... that was awesome ^^

[striker]

You needed ear protection covers when using that printer.

[RonCam]

First computer, used mostly for word processing:TRS-80 Model I, Exatron Stringy-floppy, TRS-232 simulated RS-232 port from cassette output, serial handshake implemented with machine-language driver feeding cassette input, Xerox Diabolo 1740 (serial model), BASIC language word processing software.First laptop:TRS-80 Model 100, with SuperROM and memory expansion.First IBM-PC compatible:PC-XT clone, 20MEG drive, built-in "Turbo" overclocking option, NEC-V20 CPU upgrade, 2MEG LIM-EMS memory, to permit running Software Carousel.WordPerfect's 1640/1740 driver gave such nice text output with a carbon film cartridge in the daisy wheel, that people asked if I had a laser. In fact, the quality was better than the first lasers (the toner was shiny on these) and I was able to make carbon copies on onion-skin paper.

Edited November 11, 2007 by RonCam

[Urmas]

HP-87.

[Citadel80]

My first computer was a TRS-80 Model I (affectionately called Trash 80). My dad bought it for me in 1979 as a college graduation present. It had 4k RAM, a black & white monitor, a keyboard and a Radio Shack tape recorder to install programs. I typed in programs from magazines and then saved them via the tape recorder.In 1982 I bought a Radio Shack Color Computer. It also had 4 K RAM and a 6809Eprocessor. It was a computer and chiclet keyboard combined with a slot on the right side that accepted cartridges with programs. Later I bought another keyboard and installed it and eventually upgraded the RAM to 64 K. Upgrading the RAM was the tricky part because you bought the RAM and then they gave you instructions on how to solder wires to the RAM chips and then to the motherboard. I had a color portable tv as a monitor but I then bought a green screen monitor and had to follow more soldering instructions. I also bought a one-sided 4" floppy drive - floppies held 180 K of information. If you wanted to use the second side of the floppy you had to cut a notch in the floppy and flip the floppy to the other side. Eventually I bought a double-side floppy disk. I used that computer from 1982 - 1990 and I must have put close to $2000 in accessories to get it to run the way I wanted. Initial cost of the COCO was $399. Man, those were the days!!

[kgwagner]

My first computer(s) weren't what you'd call "personal" computers. They were embedded systems. Started with the 4004, and by the time I'd left that company we were using Z-80s.My first "personal" computer was a hand-built unit I made using an 8080, an 8155 PIO chip, 2K of RAM, a 6 digit 7 segment LED display, a hex keypad, and all the associated glue logic you needed back then. Spent about a 100 years wire-wrapping that stuff up on a breadboard. Ugly little rascal - and fragile as a baby bird <grin>Next system was a Heath H-8. Basically a formal production version of what I'd already built, but it gave me a bus to use for expansion and was enclosed in a case that made the thing more robust. I played with that for maybe 6 months before getting an Altair 8800. This was arguably a step down from the H-8, but it had the "standard" S-100 bus for which numerous people were providing aftermarket cards.Not too long after that, Commodore came out with the C-64, and I had to have one. That was a lot more computer than the Altair, with a much smaller footprint. Made the wife happier, as we were living in an apartment that was getting overrun with terminals, etc. <grin>In 1981, IBM came out with the PC, and I've used that design ever since. Started with a Compaq portable, and went forward from there. In the immortal words of the Grateful Dead "Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been."

[Guest LilBambi]

Wonderful to see this thread revived! It's great to see so many of us have been in computers a very long time!

[Guest LilBambi]

Well, maybe it wasn't revived, but maybe we can revive it again. What was your first computer? Here's the link to my first computer entry in this topic.After 24 hours this thread was hopping back when Bruno first posted it April 5th 2003:

This is fun ! Starting this thread really seems to have hit a cord. ( 46 replies, 329 views in 24 hrs ) Don't we all just love to talk about our "toys" and the good old day's ? It's a joy to read all those reactions and a perfect way getting to know the people on this forum. It's clear to me that Scot managed to bundle an exceptional resource of knowledgable people. Scot: Kudos and thanks to make us all feel at home here on your site. And thanks to all of you who participated and made this thread such fun to read ! Keep posting your adventures with old/new computers. Bruno Amsterdam

Let's keep Bruno's thread alive! I bet with so many new users since this topic was started 5 1/2 yrs ago, I bet we could revive it again! Help keep Bruno's topic going!

[Cluttermagnet]

Amazing how many single- digit posters are in this thread. This is probably about the most universal topic in the entire Forums. Very interesting. I noticed that a large number of posters were single digits, i.e. they didn't stick around the Forums very long. A number of them show 1 post- or 2 or 3.I had a chuckle to realize that a lot of folks mark their 'beginnings' in terms of their earliest hand held calculator. Mine would have been the famous Heathkit IC-2001 four function that I soldered together. Then I got a fancy, fancy Kingspoint SC-70 scientific with beaucoup functions on it. My engineering education was on the cusp of the slide rule to calculator changeover, so I learned to use both. We students had a 'benchmark' for calculators. A 'calculator race', as it were. We'd hit the function buttons simultaneously on the calculation

69!

(sixty nine factorial). Turns out that 70 factorial is 'too large', producing an error display because the exponent exceeds ten to the hundredth power. Some of those older scientific calculators would need several seconds to crunch the numbers. :hysterical:So we engineering students were some of the earliest to produce 'benchmarks'. Edited October 12, 2008 by Cluttermagnet

[mlangdn]

My first computer was an IBM 486 DX 33mhz with 4 mb of memory and a 250 mb hard drive. It ran Windows 3.11, and I forget the DOS version. It booted to DOS, and then you had to type "win" at the prompt to get 3.11 up and running.It had no cd drive, and no modem, but did have both a 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 floppy drives. Oh yea, it was given to me at work because it was obsolete. I think it was 1992.I bought a cd drive, and an ISA modem, and took it to Staples to get them installed. Cost me 30 bucks, and the tech still could not get the modem to work. I watched the installation and vowed then that never again would I ever spend money on something so simple. I called tech support from the manual for the modem, and had it working in about two minutes. This thing was called a desktop, and they weren't kidding! It took up a lot of space and you could use the top for holding lots of stuff. I built my next two computers myself. The first an upgrade to 100mhz using a PNY quick chip that also required a bios flash. That was a bit daunting knowing I could fry the daggone thing! The second was an 800mhz AMD with 250mb of memory and a 13 gig hard drive. TNT2 video card. I thought I was blazing!Now I have an Acer 4400+ 64x2 with 2 gigs of ram with lots of other goodies. I bought this one just to have a legal copy of windows. I never even use Windows. I run Slackware exclusively anymore, with the always experiment of different distros.

[securitybreach]

Back in 1985, my mom bought me a Tandy 1000 for like $2500 USD from RadioShack. This thing was a "powerhouse" with all these features:

 

Intel 8086 4.77 MHz Processor

128K Ram 640K MAX

2-5.25 floppy drives

Tandy 16 color CGA Video Chip Set

25 Watt Powesupply

DeskMate 1.0/MSDOS 2.11

No mouse/ Tab Interface

 

I had to look up the specs since its been awhile but I wonder if I could run linux on this thing. I think I might buy one off ebay and try it out. It would be fun to play with it anyway. Here is a pic I found off the net:

 

 

I forgot to list my latest machines. I have detailed specs on all my machines in my profile2 desktop and 2 laptops) but my most powerful is a Quad Core 6700 @ 2.20 ghz overclocked to 2.9ghz, 4gb ram, and a 1.5 TB harddrive. Big difference from back in the day. HeheheThanks

[Urmas]

A 'calculator race', as it were. We'd hit the function buttons simultaneously on the calculation

69!

(sixty nine factorial).

You too, huh? (I do remember that Sharps were notoriously slow...)

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Back in the early 80s, I had an Commodore SX-64 briefcase computer. It was pretty cool. It had 64K RAM, one 5 1/4" floppy disk drive, a cartridge slot, a 300 Baud modem, and a 5" color monitor.

 

 

In the early 90s, I had a DX-66 Intel 486 PC. It had 8M RAM, a 3.5" floppy, a 500M hard drive and no Internet access. I used it to play games with, mostly.

 

In 2000, I inherited from my brother a Pentium I 90Mhz system that I would consider my first "modern" system. It had 90M RAM, a 2Gig hard drive, and a 56K modem. It was the first computer that I ever used to access the modern World Wide Web. I had a helluva lot of fun with this little computer. Wish I still had it, actually.

 

Ah... the memories.