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Your first computer system?

meksta

Senior member
ok so I am got bored and started to wikipedia.

The first IBM PC with the Intel 8088 cpu running at a whopping 4.77 Mhz was released on Aug 11, 1982. No harddrives, floppies that held 180KB. The only thing that hasn't changed is probably the keyboard lol.

Here are some notable systems in history:

1977: Apple ][
1980: VIC 20
1981: IBM PC with DOS 1.0
1982: Commodore 64 (tape players!)
1984: Apple Macintosh (the classic box)
1985: Commodore Amiga (waaay ahead of its time)
.....
1992: PC that ran Windows 3.1
1995: PC that ran Windows 95
2000: PC that ran Windows XP/2000

 
My first was actually a Ti-99/4A. My second was a 386 SX16 with 2 megs of RAM, 80meg drive and 9" viewable 16-color monitor.
 
Originally posted by: Slugbait
My first was actually a Ti-99/4A. My second was a 386 SX16 with 2 megs of RAM, 80meg drive and 9" viewable 16-color monitor.
My second computer was a TI 99/4a. My first was a RadioShack TRS-80. Both had 8088 processors, the predecessor to the 086.😉

edit: So that means you need to add another section to your poll.
 
The Ti99/4 was the first PC that I owned. 1979.

I was using DEC's PDP8 back in the mid-70's, and an early Olivetti "mini-computer" in 1971.

I was impressed by the first IBM PC, in 1981, because it was solidly constructed and didn't have wires and cables hanging from the back like my Apple II did. Also, the separate keyboard seemed the way to go.
 
The first PC that I acutally owned was this laptop running windows XP. However, I'd been using my dad's computer which ran everything from DOS although it did have windows something or other on.
 
The first PC I ever owned was an IBM 286/AT. I believe it had 2MB of RAM and a 20MB hard drive in it, also had a 1.2MB 5 1/4" floppy drive, after that came an NEC Powermate 386/DX20 with 1MB RAM. Learnt a lot playing around with DOS back then.
 
The first computer that I could afford was a Pentium 100 and 16MB RAM. That hunk of junk was so crappy that I had to tilt it sideways or kick it to get it to work.
 
Timex Sinclair with 4K of memory. Hooked up to B&W TV. Had a system which allowed you to write code to audio cassette. Saved up my money and bought a 16K upgrade.

 
The first PC I owned was a radio shack TRS-80 somewhere around '82-'84.
No hard drive, no Floppy drive, those were $400 at the time I think and the computer itself was $799 brand new.
16K memory, thats it. Every program loaded through tape drive. Took like an hour to load 😀
 
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III with 64kRAM memory and Dual Floppies. I still have it and believe it or not, it still runs great. Using G-Basic is the bomb! After the grey monster, I have had everthing from an 80C186 (It actually has both the Intel and AMD logo stamped on the top of the chip) with a math Co-processor onboard (wow) and 1MB of SIPP memory, to several 286's, a 386SX, AMD 386/40 and a couple of 486 DX4/100Mhz Systems. Damn I feel old...
 
first was trs-80 with 4k, I upgraded that to 16K, then quickly got a c-64

I have at home an IBM 5100 which is really the first IBM PC from the late 70's, but it was a tank, had a keyboard and 5" screen built in. It had basic and APL built in but was so expensive really didnt sell all that well as it cost $9000-10000
 
Started with A Commodore Vic-20 w/ tape drive
Upgraded to a C-64 with 1541 Flopply drive (that drive had it's own cpu?!?)
Moved to Amiga 500
Then Amiga 2000
Then Commodore went out of business & i got stuck in MS hell after that.

I learned Basic on a TRS-80, & played around with the Atari 800 & Atari ST's

 
the Commodore floppy drives were considered "smart". Had its own cpu, memory and software controlling it....and had a price tag of about $400.
 
I had a roommate in college that owned a TRS-80 Model 1 with a casette drive instead of a floppy. That was the first PC that I had total access to, and I might as well have owned it. The first one that I actually bought was an XT clone from Crazy Bobs Computer Warehouse. I bought it at their grand opening with 256K of RAM and monochrome graphics adapter. About a week later, I splurged on a full 640K. Man, what a screamer it was then! I think that I finally upgraded it to CGA graphics about six months later.
 
I grew up on an Apple Macintosh, which I started using when I was 3. It's still around in a closet collecting dust - as is the external hard drive (which I think is 128KB or something ridiculous), secondary external disk drive, dot matrix printer and external modem. I'll be inheriting it when my parents move at the end of the month.

It still works and has not been converted into a fish tank, so hopefully I can find room to set it up and relive the glory days!

Cap'n Magneto, Dark Castle, Dungeon of Doom, Ultima, Deja Vu ... those games are classics. 😀
 
My (well it belonged to the whole family) first comp ever was a Compaq Presario running win98, AMD K-6, 64MB ram (i think), 7gig hdd. bought it in 99. I was 7 years old I think. I'm 14 now.

I guess the first one that ever belonged to me was a Gateway, P4 1.4Ghz, 60Gig HDD, 128MB ram, Ati Radeon 7000, 16" CRT, running windows ME 🙁🙁🙁, and back then it cost like 3k.
 
My first was the old IBM PC - two 5.25-in floppy drives, and a monochrome (green text) monitor. It was late 1981, and three were delivered to my company. Of course, they went to the CEO and the two senior VPs. I was lucky to work for one of the VPs. He called me to his office and showed me the boxes. He said I could take it - he didn't have time for it.

So, a new world opened up for me, and it was good. The company even sent me to school at Computerland to learn BASIC programming. I remember my first experience with a Word Processor - Volkswriter!

Life was good then. 🙂

Sonn after, we got our first home computer - an Atari 800.
 
Wheres the TRS-80 model III or IV

1. TRS 80 M3 16k w/ Tapes Also W00T!
2. PC-XT with 5.25 floppy
3. 286-8Mhz 20MB HDD
4. 386-DX40 30MB HDD
5. 486-SX25
6. 486-DX2/66 (CPU Only Upgrade To 5)
7. 486-DX4/100
8. K6-2/333
9. K6-2/380 (CPU Only Upgrade)
10. Pentium Celeron 300A
11. Pentium II SL2W8 @ 550MHz
12. Dual Celeron 500
13. Pentium !!! 500Mhz
14. Pentium !!! 850Mhz
15. Pentium !!! 1GHz
16. Dual Pentium !!! 1.26Ghz (Current Tape Server)
17. Pentium 4 2.8 (Parent Desktop)
18. AMD X2 3800 s939 (Current Desktop)
19. Pentium M 1.7 (My Laptop 1)
20. Penitum M 1.6 (Wife Laptop 2)
21. Pentium 4 2.8 (Current File Server)
 
The first computer I used was my friends Tandy dual floppy machine, I don't remember the model, but I remember playing all the old Sierra games 🙂
I remember playing around with some old terminal machines in school, but they were older than dust and most of them didn't even work. They were probably donated to the school at the time.

The first computer that I bought by myself was a 386 sx16 (turbo power! lol).. it came with 1meg of ram (30 pin simms), an Oak 512k vid card, and the box said a 100meg hard drive, but when I turned it on, it actually had a 130meg hard drive. It had MS Dos 4.01 with it (very crappy) but I upgraded to 5 when I went to university. My friends were saying that I'd never use all the space.. heh my how times have changed. I bought a 14" SVGA monitor with it at the time. It still works but it's at home gathering dust.
 
My first computer was an Apple II+ purchased in 1979. It had 48KB RAM, a 5.25" floppy, and onboard BASIC in ROM. I wrote many little programs on that computer. One day I finally learned how to actually save those programs to floppy, LOL.

In 1985 I got to use a 512 KB Macintosh connected to an Apple LaserWriter printer. MacPaint and MacWrite absolutely blew me away, especially with the laser printer. 8ppm seemed REALLY fast back then, compared to my ImageWriter dot matrix printer at home!

In 1987 I got to use a Mactinosh II (first color Mac with a bunch of expansion slots and drive bays, much like a PC) it had a 16" CRT running at 1024x768 driven by a huge RADIUS video card that proably cost more than my car. I think that computer had 4 or 8 MB RAM, A LOT for its time. Connected this was a flatbed scanner that required 3 passes (Red, Green Blue) to get a complete scan. Pretty amazing stuff to me at the time, considering that my home Apple II was "souped up" with 128 KB and dual 5.25" floppies by that time, LOL.
 
A Heath-Kit with the 8088 processor, 1 x 5 1/4" floppy and, 2 x 3 1/2" floppies. 13" green monochrome monitor. Course the first machine I learned programming on was a teletype connected to a time shared mainframe with 1" perforated paper tape reader/printer. And thats the way we liked it!
 
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