OT: The things you find when you move...

[GeoffS]

The invoice for my first computer (March 21, 1991) :

Midtower Case: $89.00
200w PSU: $75.00
PCB Motherboard 80286 12MHz: $148.00
Memory 1MBx9-80 Toshiba SIP: 2x$80 = $160
WD RLL Controller: $109.00
101 key keyboard: $55.00
I/O Card (2xSerial, 1xParallel, 1xgame) $25.00
Trident VGA 1Mb vid card: $113.00
4x256-70 NMB 1Mb: $80.00
Toshiba 1.2Mb 5.25": $89.00
Mitsubishi 3.5" 1.44Mb: $89.00
Mitsubishi 42Mb (63Mb RLL) 26ms hard drive: $329.00
Viewsonic 14" VGA 1024x769: $579.00
GVC 2400 baud internal modem: $119.00

Later upgraded the modem to a Boca 14400 fax modem for $295.00

After taxes... ~$2700 :shocked:

 

[BadThad]

It's amazing how high the prices were! I remember how expensive 14" CRT monitors, 1MB video cards and RAM were....OUCH!

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Oh yes, my first gfx card had 512 KB of RAM but cost 349 DM back then, about 450 $ I'd say today. :beer:

 

[JonB]

RLL hard drives. Those were the "HOT" ticket for a year or so (instead of MFM)
Did you run software to change the interleaving to an optimum level? (Spinrite)
Sounds a lot like my first 286 computer, then the big bucks on the 486 computer two years later.
Do you remember if you setup your "extra memory" as Extended or Expanded?

 

[GeoffS]

lol... yeah I used SpinRite! And for the life of me I can't remember how I had the "extra memory" set up... was there a driver called 286emm or something like that in the config sys?

 

[networkman]

Sounds like JonB and I both hail from the same era.

Edit: Thinking of emm386.exe are we?

 

[TAandy]

Lots of empty bottles?

 

[RaySun2Be]

Do you remember if you setup your "extra memory" as Extended or Expanded?

I remember that when the 1MB memory 1st came out, most of our programs couldn't make use of it, so most of the time we created a RAM drive (can't remember the program we used, it was slick though) to help speed up our DBASE compiles/processing. Hehe.

I also remember the bank I worked for was offering employees the purchasing of an IBM XT with 20M HD. I lady I worked with bought one and financed it for 3 years, XT, software, and printer for $3,500. A year later, the dang things were worth $300. Glad I didn't buy one.

 

[GeoffS]

Originally posted by: TAandy
Lots of empty bottles?

I'm working on emptying them as fast as I can... of course that's impacting other aspects of the move....

I think I moved from the 286 to the 486 also... seem to recall it was one of the crippled 486s... and a 15" screen! Wow... that 1" made such a difference! lol...

 

[JonB]

My 286 and then 486 were the last Intel chips I used at home. I never owned a 386 or any form of Pentium. My wife had a Pentium 75 Dell laptop. I don't count that.

Ray, the hot mod for those old IBM XTs was to replace the crystal and jump it from 4.77mhz to 6mhz or sometimes 8mhz. Speed demons. Then you had to pay huge bucks to put in the math coprocessor (287 chip). Ahhh, the good old days. I don't miss 'em.

 

[GeoffS]

My very first AMD chip was the 80287 coprocessor! Paid $99 for it

Never did the crystal mod though...

 

[RaySun2Be]

Then you had to pay huge bucks to put in the math coprocessor (287 chip). Ahhh, the good old days. I don't miss 'em.

And don't forget having to set the IRQ for each card by either jumpers or switch on the card itself. I don't miss 'em either.

 

[petrusbroder]

Oh, Team mates, you make me all remember the hard times. :brokenheart:
I purchased my first PC in 1988, a 286-speed demon running first @ 8 MHz, then modified to run @ 12MHz. My firs HDD controller was MFF (I still have it), my first graphics card was a Hercules EGA, 16 colors @ 640 x 400, and the RAM --- a whopping 1 MB, set up as expanded memory. I have a sheet of paper where I wrote down all the IRQ numbers, memory settings, etc.
I still have Spinrite (versions 1.1 - 6.1), DOS 2.1 to 6.0, Windows 2.1 to XP Pro, PC-tools (which later morphed into Norton Utilities (IIRC)).
My oldest comp still running is my IBM XT with 10 MB HDD, 640 KB RAM, an 10Mbit Ethernet card and the original CGA ... . My second eldest is a Tandy 1400 Personal Computer Lap Top.
We had so much fun with those comps, and so much work. Both my wife and I wrote our PhD-theses using WordPerfect 4.1 and 5.1 - do you remember all those plastic keyboard templates you could use to remember that shift-F7 was "print" and F10 was "save".

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: petrusbroder
Oh, Team mates, you make me all remember the hard times. :brokenheart:
I purchased my first PC in 1988, a 286-speed demon running first @ 8 MHz, then modified to run @ 12MHz. My firs HDD controller was MFF (I still have it), my first graphics card was a Hercules EGA, 16 colors @ 640 x 400, and the RAM --- a whopping 1 MB, set up as expanded memory. I have a sheet of paper where I wrote down all the IRQ numbers, memory settings, etc.
I still have Spinrite (versions 1.1 - 6.1), DOS 2.1 to 6.0, Windows 2.1 to XP Pro, PC-tools (which later morphed into Norton Utilities (IIRC)).
My oldest comp still running is my IBM XT with 10 MB HDD, 640 KB RAM, an 10Mbit Ethernet card and the original CGA ... . My second eldest is a Tandy 1400 Personal Computer Lap Top.
We had so much fun with those comps, and so much work. Both my wife and I wrote our PhD-theses using WordPerfect 4.1 and 5.1 - do you remember all those plastic keyboard templates you could use to remember that shift-F7 was "print" and F10 was "save".

OMG I miss PC Tools. It has the most beautiful hex editor I've ever seen. And WordPerfect 5.1 . Man, I miss those programs. I remember buying shareware on 5.25" disks and playing games on my Tandy 1000 SL/2.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: petrusbroder
My oldest comp still running is my IBM XT with 10 MB HDD, 640 KB RAM, an 10Mbit Ethernet card and the original CGA ...

Wow, what OS do you run on it, and are you able to run a web browser on it with the network connection? I won't bother looking like a silly idiot and asking if you run a DC client on it, but that question does tempt me...

My first was an IBM PS/1 that was given to me in the mid-90's by some neighbors who felt that it had sat in their closet more than long enough. It had the integrated 13" (or was it 14"?) screen with VGA (so you could do 640x480 in 16 color or 320x240 in 256 color), 1MB of RAM, a 30MB hard disk, a 1.44MB floppy, IBM DOS 4.0 (which I upgraded to MS DOS 6.22 with Windows 3.1), and a 2400bps modem that I never used. It has long since passed on (or rather, the hard disk has) and been disposed of.

 

[JonB]

petrusbroder, did you use the 12 F-Key template or the 10 F-Key template? (101 key vs. 84 key keyboards)

I used to teach Word Perfect 5.1 DOS on IBM PS/1's with dual 720KB 3.5" floppy drives (no hard drive). Remember the hassles of 720K vs 1.44M floppy disks?

DOS and WP.exe were on the A: drive and the Dictionary was on the B: drive. There wasn't much room for document files.

 

[RaySun2Be]

Remember the hassles of 720K vs 1.44M floppy disks?

Heck, I can remember when Multimate (word processor) came out on like 30 51/4" floppies. :Q Great fun on an IBM PC with no HD. :roll:

 

[Wiz]

Actually I started out playing Adventure on some kind of PDP 1170 or some such at a university in the 70's. I became an Adventure Grand Master. I got my map of the maze of twisty little passages laminated & carry it in my wallet to this day

For personal computers, I started out with an IBM 8088. 4.7mhz WOW!!!

I later found that there was a TURBO model - so I traded in the old 8088 & got the new 8088.

When you pressed the TURBO button it went all the way up to 10 MHZ!!!
The mobo had a bunch of empty memory sockets, so I did a little research and found that I could increase the memory from 512K up to 1MEG. So I went off to the chip shop & bought a bunch of ram chips, came home & put them in. Then I was running 640K base with 384K Extended. WooHoo - DOS was a happy little OS.

Then along came Apogee & I had to upgrade to an 80286.
I also paid about $100 for an 80287 chip. I added ram & went fromj EGA up to VGA graphics.

I skipped the 386, preferring to hang onto my 286 as long as possible. It would play DOOM & things like that so it was good enough for a while.

Then the 486 came along, I had to have one. The new game Quake was rumored and I wanted to try it out. I got qtest and a 486 and was very content. For a while...

When the real Quake came out I just had to have a Pentium - so I went up to a P90.
Nice upgrade from a 486.
From there I jumped up to the P166 then the P266 with MMX.
Finally that wasn't enough so I had to get a P2.
I upgraded over and over, P2 up to about 350mhz then a P3 300 OC'd to 450.
That rig stayed on for quite a while, until I finally couldn't stand it any longer & upgraded through the P3 1.26ghz.

It was at this point that I saw the AMD 1700+ for the powerhouse that it was.
I eventually built 4 or 5 of those rigs, two for myself & a few for friends.
I still have two of them running as well as a P3 1.26ghz w/ 512 cache.

Then I wanted a rig that would do some video ripping & burning - so of course I got another Pentium - A Precott 3.0 @ 3.5ghz does nicely for that kind of work.

That's where my fleet stands today. I definitely have been upgrading less often in these later years, but the urge is still there... Every time I hear of some faster more powerful rig...

 

[petrusbroder]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan

Originally posted by: petrusbroder
My oldest comp still running is my IBM XT with 10 MB HDD, 640 KB RAM, an 10Mbit Ethernet card and the original CGA ...

Wow, what OS do you run on it, and are you able to run a web browser on it with the network connection? I won't bother looking like a silly idiot and asking if you run a DC client on it, but that question does tempt me...
snippet

I run - sometimes - DOS 3.1 with a very early version of the Pegasus-text-browser. Mostly (when it is doing it's job) it runs Linux Red Hat (smallest possible install) and takes care of my ventilation, heating, heat-pump, lighting and such. And no, it does not run any DC-client anymore. The reason for this that the math-coprocessor has broken down and had to be removed - so all crunching takes like for ever (I tried DPAD ...) and slows down everything else. In Linux there are text browsers around but I do not run any internet stuff in that installation - the comp is isolated from the 'net so.

 

[ProviaFan]

Wow, I didn't know Linux could even run on a 286! (is that what was in the XT?) It sounds like you have an impressive setup for home automation.

 

[petrusbroder]

Originally posted by: JonB
petrusbroder, did you use the 12 F-Key template or the 10 F-Key template? (101 key vs. 84 key keyboards)

I used to teach Word Perfect 5.1 DOS on IBM PS/1's with dual 720KB 3.5" floppy drives (no hard drive). Remember the hassles of 720K vs 1.44M floppy disks?

DOS and WP.exe were on the A: drive and the Dictionary was on the B: drive. There wasn't much room for document files.

I used the 101-keyboard template on the desktop comp. The 84-key template I cut up and use it for my Tandy-laptop, which has two 720 K floppies. There is about 340 KB space for docs - which is plenty in WP 5.1!

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I remember having a 386, and then my friend's mom bought an actual Pentium. Oh man. Playing games on that sucker was a dream!! LOL Damn, those were good times. I remember diong BBSs on a 4800 bps modem. Upgrading to 9600, and then to 14.4k. I couldn't even read & keep up with the download on the screen. It was amazing. Porn (CGA graphics still, and then later EGA mind you) was never the same.

 

[petrusbroder]

Hmmmm, ProviaFan, it is an 8086 (the processor before 286)! and the Linux-version is compiled by a real wizard for this processor ... has it's own kernel etc. I don't know if it would run on any other PC - unless it is by IBM. OTOH: as long as you have a good compiler you can generate Linux for any processor - even if it is slow. It is faster than DOS 3.1 though, and that is why I use it. It is also great for automation and control.

 

[JonB]

petrusbroder, it might be hard to find, but if you can locate an old NEC V30 CPU, it is a drop in replacement for the 8086 and will make a noticeable speed improvement.

http://www.cpu-collection.de/?l0=co&l1=NEC&l2=V30

I have a co-worker who just might have one laying around. I'll check with him.

 

[Shame]

I'll give you $2,700.00 for that system. Paypal ok?