My First PC....

[pmistry 0]

Ah yeah nostalgic PC hardware:

 

Intel 486 DX2-66MHz on an ALI Green Motherboard

8 MB 72-pin RAM

512 MB Fujitsu Hard Disk, no DMA support I believe.

Vesa Bus I/O Controller, with 2 serial, 1 parallel, 1 game, 1 floppy and 2 IDE.

2x "Genoa Systems" CD ROM drive, hooked up via a proprietary CD-ROM controller running on the ISA bus, Windows 95 could never detect the damn thing and was stuck running in MS DOS Drive compatability mode.

ATI VGA Stereo F/X, this long ass ISA card was so long that Voodoo5 cards are small compared to it. This was a combined 8-bit Soundblaster compatible and 1 MB VGA card. It also had a bus port for my mouse.

Zoltrix (remmber Zoltrix?) 14.4k modem.

A couple of 5 watt speakers.

Honeywell 101-key keyboard, this thing was so tough and well built, it was a dream to use.

TTX 14" Monitor.

Ran MS-DOS 6.22, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, never got Windows 95 running that well on it, same for OS/2 Warp 3.0.

 

 

 

 

[jmmijo 1]

Nice classic retro box there

 

Now if we're talking PC which really means Personal Computer not just an acronym for IBM and compatible boxes, then my first was the CBM Vic 20 followed closely by the C64 and a 1541 Disc Drive.

 

Specs for the Vic 20, I can't really remember, I think it was either 8 or 16k and I didn't have a tape drive for it, just bought a few carts like Mutant Camels for one

 

Specs for the C64, well 64K of ram, BASIC onboard, 3 voice, monophonic SID onboard, built-in kayboard, pretty functional I must say. The floppy drive had a storage capacity of 170K per side, it was a single sided drive but you could take a paper punch and notch the flip-side of the blank disk

 

It was painfully slow to load over the serial bus for sure, at least until the Fastload carts showed up....

[theefool 0]

My first? Timex Sinclair 1000. It came in a kit, where you had to solder all the circuits together. My dad put it together, being the electrical engineer in the family. This was late '78? '79? Finally upgraded to 1K. 2nd computer was the timex sincalir 2068. 3rd computer was an old Leading Edge x8088 (Note: This was not an IBM PC Compatible, it was a clone). This was the time I learned Basic, Basica, and GW-Basic. Also learned Quick-basic thru the first iteration of visual basic. All this pre-windows era.

 

Ahh, yes, I still remember the virus scanners. Mcafee was the best. Never had a virus. Just thought it was cool to run the program through all my 5.12" disks...(single sided, single density)

 

The Leading Edge computer was, I think 640k (though I still argue it was 720k). 1.75Mhz, upgraded with a math-coprocessor (wow did that help with mathematical equations!), started off with one 5.25" drive, then a 2nd, then upgraded one drive to a 3.5" drive.

 

Remember flipping the 5.25" disks over, and using a handy device to notch the disks, so you can use the other side.

 

Anyway, I've used other system, the Tandy, C64, Apple IIE, porting programs (with disk access) from Apple IIE to IBM pc....ahhh those were the days....

 

Perhaps this is all the reasons I still prefer using the command prompt instead of using point and click.

[jmmijo 1]

Yes, CLI is very handy and powerful.

 

I cut my teeth on both the trash 80 model I's and II's using CP/M back in the high school in the mid to late 70's myself

 

I also had a chance to mess about with both an Osborne and Kaypro portable machine....

[theefool 0]

I'd say, you are a bit older than I was back then. But, I do remember the trash 80's....and remember when SEARS started selling the IBM PS2s...

[theefool 0]

But, back in those old days...nothing beat the Amigas.....

[Wilhelmus 1]

My first pc was one of first IBM's Aptiva series, do not remember exactly, but something like this:

* Cyrix cpu (486).

* 640 MB HDD.

* Windows 95.

 

[ross_aveling 0]

Originally posted by jmmijo:

Quote:

Now if we're talking PC which really means Personal Computer not just an acronym for IBM and compatible boxes, then my first was the CBM Vic 20 followed closely by the C64 and a 1541 Disc Drive.

Exactly the same here, the Vic 20 and C64 were fantastic computers. Always wanted one of the new fancy Amigas though; I envyed my best friend for his A500 something chronic. Instead, we jumped straight to our first 'proper' PC, the Amstrad PC1640.

 

With an 8086 4.77MHz (IIRC) CPU, 20Mb 'winchester' disk drive and EGA graphics it was the mutt's nuts (and also quite cheap for a PC in those days). Along with WordPerfect 5.1 and Lotus 1-2-3 it got me through school... plus the odd game of Crystal Caves!

 

I miss those days .

[tsonta101 0]

An old Hyundai Super 16TE for me, that is 8bit 8088 cpu (10Mhz, yeah!!!), 640k of ram, EGA (16 color) graphics at 320x240 and color 14' monitor, sound courtesy of soundblaster 1 (16 similtaneous voices), seagate 40mb hdd, 5.25 and 3.5 low density floppy (360k and 720k respectively). Software-side, there was MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.0, with Wordperfect some drawing apps, MS Basic 3, Pascal and C.

 

That was a killer machine at the time, *awesome* graphics, huge hdd and a price tag of iirc, around €1400..... that was a nice time, where you didn't upgrade every 3months or so......

[Philipp 6]

My first computer was the C64 with datasette (tape drive) and later with 1541 disk drive. The next one was the Amiga 500 before I finally switched to an IBM compatible PC.

 

This was an AT with Intel 80286 12MHz processor, 1MB ram, 20MB HDD, 5.25 disk drive, EGA video card and monitor. I replaced two months later the video card and monitor with a VGA video card/Multisync monitor and bought another few months later an Adlib sound card.

 

[AdamH 0]

I remember having a 386/16 with a (then) massive 4MB of RAM. So we put in 20MB of RAM (unheard of!)- made a 16MB RAM drive and ran everything from RAM - now that was a quick PC!

[jmmijo 1]

So tell us Philip, just how many modems did you have in that IBM box or did you just get a rack of USR v.Everythings and used some kind of color BBS app ?!?

[Philipp 6]

None. I actually bought my first modem years later

[jmmijo 1]

Originally posted by Philipp:

Quote:

None. I actually bought my first modem years later

 

Man you missed some fun times back then, I remember setting up my C64 with a cheap ass Taihaho 300 baud Pulse Dial modem back in the day and running either Color BBS or something very like that app that supported ANSI graphics. It was very fun indeed

[AndyFair 0]

Aaahhhhh, the good old days! We really are a bunch of old fogeys, aren't we?

 

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, with the 16k RAM pack, which was liable to fall off just as you were about to finish typing in your program...

 

Then upgraded to a Sinclair Spectrum (Manic Miner rocked!), then a C64. I have fond memories of the C64 - spent far too much time programming (in assembler, not BASIC), writing games (didn't get published though). I had all of the weird and wonderful programs that the 64 seemed to gather about it, including the one that made the 1541 disk drive play "Daisy, Daisy" by banging its heads against the stops...

 

Then upgraded to an Amiga, but didn't really get back into computing until my postgrad degree, when I got a 486-DX2 (and laughed at friends who only had vanilla 486-DX's). That was really the start of the slippery slope, and I've had a succession of bought, upgraded and self-built PCs ever since - and I've got 5 in my home today, performing various tasks!

[iamroot 0]

Wow. You guys used all these old-school hardware. i never had the chance. My 1st computer was a 133 Mhz Intel with Win 3.1.

 

[casinochik 0]

My first pc was a Packard Bell. A whopping 75mhz - such speed !!! Don't remember the specs on it. The modem was only 14.4k. Had gotten my IBM Aptiva by the time we were getting on the internet, but got a faster modem in the PB to try to get hubby online with his own (my old Packard Bell) and burned out the processor. He was adamant that he could find a way to connect without timing out all the time. Very stubborn!! I tried to tell him it wasn't going to work that it was just too slow.