Your very first....... Computer.

[Fire$torm]

This thread is for anyone wanting to show their age :P

My first system was an IBM "True Blue" given as a gift (hand-me-down) when I start at DeVry.

CPU: Intel 8086@4.77Mhz
RAM: 512KB
Drives: x2 5.25" 360KB Floppy Disk Drive
Monitor: 13" monochrome "Green Screen"

First Upgrade: Seagate ST-250R (RLL) 40MB HDD (Price including ISA interface card: ~$275.00)

[Bok]

1979 - Commodore VIC-20 with 3.5k Ram, no hard drive and not even a tape drive at first. Bought an 8k Ram upgrade for 90 pounds (~$130) after a few months and got a tape drive...(got tired of typing in programs!)

Superseded this with an Atari 600XL the next year.

[DrPop]

When I was 5 years old, my Dad brought home our first computer when he and my Grandpa bought a new one for their office; so we inherited the first computer the Smith family ever bought. ;)
CPU: 80286. 6 or 8MHz, I can't remember which now.
HDD:10MB I believe my grandpa paid around $3K for this HDD alone! Circa 1984 or close...I don't know the purchase date. Since I was 5, that means we got that first computer sometime in 1986.
Memory: I remember Dad upgrading it to 512K RAM! :cool:
Monitor: RGB The thing was giant for such a small viewable screen size. :P
Favorite games: Sopwith, JumpJoe, and Round 42. :D

[Teratoma]

1985 or 86.... a Franklin ACE 2100, which is an Apple IIe clone. Apple sued Franklin for copyright infringement and won but somehow Franklin kept making clones. Don't know the full story, but it was kind of a landmark case.

1.02 MHz CPU, 128K RAM, 5 1/4 floppy drive....and a joystick! (most important feature)

http://oldcomputers.net/ace2100.html

[joker]

A Commodore 64 baby! Even had dual 5.25" floppy drives! Made me very popular with the other 2 kids in my entire school that had one. I could copy stuff on the fly. :D And I was sneaky too. Would buy the single sided double density disc's at half the price, then use a hole punch to make a second slot and that would make it double sided!

[Mumps]

An Atari 800. On sale with the bonus 16K RAM cartridge. (Total of 32K RAM.) Only $1,080.

Got the 300 baud Acoustic Coupler modem with it and a 40 column thermal printer. It's a good thing it hooked up to a TV. I couldn't afford any more. :)

That's when I had to buy my first dishwasher too.

[DrPop]

That's when I had to buy my first dishwasher too.

Hehehehehehe :D =)):P

[John P. Myers]

This thread is for anyone wanting to show their age :P

My first system was an IBM "True Blue" given as a gift (hand-me-down) when I start at DeVry.

CPU: Intel 8086@4.77Mhz
RAM: 512KB
Drives: x2 5.25" 360KB Floppy Disk Drive
Monitor: 13" monochrome "Green Screen"

First Upgrade: Seagate ST-250R (RLL) 40MB HDD (Price including ISA interface card: ~$275.00)

I had the same exact computer, but to show my age, we got it brand new in 1981 lol
my dad worked for IBM so we got a discount
only difference between yours and mine was i had 640kB RAM, 13" 4-color monitor (640x320 res) and a 10MB hard drive. I also had the 8087 math coprocessor chip in it until my dad gave it away to my uncle. bye bye FP performance :/

[joker]

Its all about the dishwashers. :p

[Slicker]

The first computer I bought was a CoreData (made by Smith Corona) in 1986.
Intel 8086
704K RAM - could use 704K in text mode (with QEMM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMM)) or 640K if in graphics mode with 64K for shared video RAM
Dual full height 5 1/2 360K floppy drives
20MB full height HDD
12" green monitor
150W UPS (I was living in the Caribbean and the power spikes and outages were ridiculous)
Cost: $5000

[Crazybob's Son]

I know our family's first computer was an IBM 486DX/2 but I have no clue on the specs or cost. Dad will have to chime in there.

My personal first computer was actually a gift from my parents after my d-bag (keepin pg there) roommate freshman year was letting me share his computer and then once something went wrong immediately blamed me and pw protected everything and always locked his computer (what I wouldn't give to have had ophcrack back then...). It was a Compaq (have no clue on the model) but 800mhz Pentium 3, 128mb SD RAM (which I quickly upgraded and continued to do so until I ended up with 768Mb), originally 40GB HD but HD crapped out and got a 80GB), added a 128Mb ATI 9600 All-In-Wonder (eventually replaced with a 256mb Geforce FX 5700), originally 150w power supply (stupid compaq) that fried out when adding a couple case fans (stupid awake on network connection bios setting).

I used to play Counter-Strike and get the same if not better FPS than guys in my CS Clan that had P4's with 512mb RAM and an ok video card. That was one of the things that made me happiest about this PC.

This computer was still up and running prior to my father purchasing an Atom board and needing a case to put it. I had a picture on the old forums of the Atom but not here with me to post now.

[Clank [MM]]

PLEASE, Commodore, Vic - 20, Atari 400, Heathkit, programs were on tape. Who has me beat?

[Mr. Hankey]

I am right in there with Patrick, I had and Apple ][+, and we used a tape drive (well a cassette recorder actually) with that until we upgraded to 5.25 floppies

[Crazybob]

The IBM Jason was speaking of cost about $2,700, but came with a daisy wheel printer. Was able to upgrade it from the DX2/50 to a DX2/66 MHZ system. Don't remember the original RAM configuration, but it is still in the closet and I can pull up the upgraded Windows 95 whenever I want.;)

[Shadow]

PLEASE, Commodore, Vic - 20, Atari 400, Heathkit, programs were on tape. Who has me beat?

You can't beat that. :D I'm tied with you there. Heathkit do-it-yourself kits were awesome back then. And the Vic 20, makes me miss Zork. I do NOT miss having to buy gaming magazines and type in page after page of numbers to play a game though. After hours of all that typing, just to find out there was 1 number somewhere in that whole mess that wasn't right :eek:...yeah, those were the days. :p

[Cappy]

lol still have it in the basement,,, Aplle II c lol.... still have the monitor and all :P

prolly dont work,, basement kinda damp ..... but the printer and all is dpwn there..

big boxs of paper with perferated sides and punch holes so the feeder could move the paper lol... the printer was 3 times bigger then the computer :P

[Bok]

You can't beat that. :D I'm tied with you there. Heathkit do-it-yourself kits were awesome back then. And the Vic 20, makes me miss Zork. I do NOT miss having to buy gaming magazines and type in page after page of numbers to play a game though. After hours of all that typing, just to find out there was 1 number somewhere in that whole mess that wasn't right :eek:...yeah, those were the days. :p

No kidding, I typed in tons of those programs back in the day, including one in machine code! IIRC, though that may have been on the Atari XL

[trigggl]

PLEASE, Commodore, Vic - 20, Atari 400, Heathkit, programs were on tape. Who has me beat?

I wanted a Vic-20, but we couldn't afford it. I eventually did get an Atari 400, but after it was old and obsolete. I knew enough 'Basic' to put a bunch of random squares or circles on the screen.

My first real computer was a 486 a friend put together for me. $200 for 8 Megs of Ram. That was in '94.

[-GER-]

Atari 130XE, an Atari with 128k ram and a dedicated graphic + sound chip. Learned 6502, basic and a handful of languages that don't exist anymore :p

It needed a cassette recorder to save/load programs which failed half the time.

I miss that old boy, had a lot of fun with it :D

[Bryan]

My 1st machine was an IMSAI 8080 that I bought for Christmas in 1975. A couple of years later I "upgraded" to a Vic 20 :)

[Fire$torm]

Bumping for the heck of it.

[joker]

Well Bump you too!

[Shadowlurker]

First one in the family was a V20, first one I bought for myself was a 286, 12.5Mhz with 1Mb of ram and a 40Mb HDD. Cost more than 3K.

[joker]

First one in the family was a V20, first one I bought for myself was a 286, 12.5Mhz with 1Mb of ram and a 40Mb HDD. Cost more than 3K.

I have to ask, did it have a turbo button? My first 286 did. Boosted it all the way up to 25MHz.

[Steve Bohlen]

1979 - Commodore VIC-20 with 3.5k Ram, no hard drive and not even a tape drive at first. Bought an 8k Ram upgrade for 90 pounds (~$130) after a few months and got a tape drive...(got tired of typing in programs!)

Superseded this with an Atari 600XL the next year.

Same here, Bok. The VIC-20. What memories of buying some magazines ('Basic Magazine' I think was one of them) and typing in games from print to screen. Sometimes those games only consisted of lines bouncing around the screen. But, still...it was way cool.

And I wonder why I'm attracted to tech so much for fun and career.

It was all because of that VIC-20.

I followed that up with an Atari 800. Never used that as much as the VIC-20 tho.

[dan]

My first was a TI 99A. Even programed it in assembly.

Dan

[valyn42]

The first one I remember getting my hands on was Dad's Osborne 1 that he brought home from work.. Ran CP/M! Even had a seperate 12" monochrome monitor we could plug in while we were at home. This is what the old acoustic modem plugged into! \m/

http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html

My older brother soon after got an Atari 400, and we were off to the races!

Val

[Steve Bohlen]

The first one I remember getting my hands on was Dad's Osborne 1 that he brought home from work.. Ran CP/M! Even had a seperate 12" monochrome monitor we could plug in while we were at home. This is what the old acoustic modem plugged into! \m/

http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html

My older brother soon after got an Atari 400, and we were off to the races!

Val

That is so awesome. Wish I had had some exposure to that one.

[joker]

Osborne 1

Used to play games on one of those that loosely resembled Donkey Kong and Pacman way back in the day.

[-GER-]

If we don't count calculators :D TI 99 then upgraded to Atari 128 WooHooo!