Who remembers their first computer?

[09philj]

Always fun to have a trip down memory lane!

WARNING: This thread will show your age...

Anyway, my first PC I always will remember fondly, it was an Intel Pentium Processor (Ran at 133mhz if I recall!) with the very fancy sounding MMX Technology. It started life with 16mb of RAM, later upgraded to 32MB, and a 4GB hard drive.

It was from an popular PC retailer in the UK at the time, Tiny PC, here's a photo of a PC that looks pretty much exactly like it;

Ditto. I had a few different CDs: Reader Rabbit, Letters and Numbers, and Tonka Construction 2. I believe it was also on this PC that I played a PC port of Sonic 3D Blast.

 

[Veldel]

I dont remeber its name but it had no net and it had this battle chess game i loved it was so brutal with pieces getting taken they killed eachother in animations.

Also had a screensaver of fish eating eachother

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I loved my first computer, it was an Apple eII.

It's how I learned DOS commands and patience since playing chess on it took foreeeeeeeeever. I remember going to a PC that had a mouse and I didn't know what to do with it since I was so comfy with my DOS.

But yeah, I had some good games to play on it too since my dad got some from his friends on those huge floppy drives.

Good times, man.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I dont remember the details.

Other that it ran on Windows 98, and really had trouble running Skool Daze's remake Klass of '99.
Might've happend that it didn't live long, but memories are really vague on it.

 

[FileTrekker]

Ditto. I had a few different CDs: Reader Rabbit, Letters and Numbers, and Tonka Construction 2. I believe it was also on this PC that I played a PC port of Sonic 3D Blast.

Hah! Reader Rabbit! I had forgotten all about that.

I remember having a few other Edutainment type games, Space Station Simulator and stuff like that. The Windows 95 version of Oregon Trail, that was good.

 

[Lodgem]

TI-994/a

I should probably post an image, but that would probably require creating an account on imgur and tracking down a photo. That sounds too much like work

My Dad brought one home when I was a small child. We didn't have a disk drive, but used cartridges and tapes.

We had a number of cartridges - I remember games such as Hunt the Wumpus (a graphical version), Parsec and Return to Pirate isle. We also had a number of other Scott Adams adventure games.

Dad also bought a large book of source code for games in TI Basic which I spent a lot of time coping into the computer to store on tape. We also had a number of smaller books of game code written for other dialects of Basic, so I had to work out what it was doing and how to translate it into TI Basic.

I don't know why Dad decided to buy that computer, but he set me on course for my future career when he did. Some very fond memories.

 

[Strazdas]

Coming out of the Soviet Union, computers were scarce when i was growing up. however after seeing my friends dad having one i was dead set on getting one. So i got a used Pentium I 100MHz computer in 2000 and used it for 4 years, at which point i got a newer one and that one went to my cousin. I still got it somewhere and it still works, though it cant really do anything other than be a retro gaming station for DOS games really.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

My first computer was an Intel 80286. I believe it was a hand me down and it was slow, but it could run Dune 2 so that was cool.

snip

That was my family's second computer, and ours looked basically like that too. IIRC, Intel were making a huge thing about MMX at the time (To the point of releasing a demo CD of games that would apparently run better with MMX). I can still remember playing Command & Conquer for the first time. The FMV video blew my mind.

 

[Yopaz]

Oh wow, the Turbo button!

I seem to remember having a button like that, but I never understood what it was for?

I was like, 8 at the time though so, y'know.

The turbo button is actually quite fascinating. As the computers grew really powerful (like having clock speed of several MHZ) and so the old software couldn't really keep up and would run too quickly to be able to use it properly. This was a huge problems in certain games that would move at speeds that made it impossible to play them. So they figured that in order to do this they would implement a button that would control the clock speed of the CPU. When the turbo button was activated your CPU would run at a normal speed (so kinda misleading), but if you turned it off you would underclock your CPU to such a degree to make use of the old software. Edit: I see someone beat me to this explanation. Sorry about that.

OT: I really don't much about my first computer. It was running Windows 3.1 and I remember spending a lot of time in DOS to open games. It was a simple time.

 

[RicoADF]

I had something that looked similar to that as well, I recall the system specs quite easily as they only just met Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun's specs, suffice to say my gaming was not very good back then:
CPU: Pentium 166 MHz
RAM: 32 MB RAM
GPU: SVGA 2 MiB video card (I think)
OS: Windows 95
HDD: 2GB
Drive: 8x CD-ROM

All my thumb drives are larger than this thing's HDD and my phone is literally 10x faster.....

 

[votemarvel]

My first PC was a HP Brio BA600. It was a great little machine but boy did I get taken for a ride on the price.

Looking back I don't think walking into the shop and saying "I want a computer" was the best thing to do.

 

[Saulkar]

My first (family) computer was a Windows 98 machine. 450MHZ Pentium 2, 64 MB of ram, a 20GB harddrive, 4x Diskdrive, and a 2MB software MB videocard. The videocard actually used the CPU as the GPU with a 2MB chip right next to it on the motherboard so that it did not use the system RAM. We later got a 40GB Harddrive and a 32MB videocard of some make that finally allowed me to run pre 2000 games at 30-60 FPS vs the 6-10 I used to run them at.

My first ever personal computer was a 2006 Acer laptop. Intel Dual core 1.6GHZ, 120GB harddrive, 2GB of Ram, Windows XP, and an ATI 1100 mobile or something, listed as having 256MB of video RAM but only had 128. It was upgraded for free after I sent it off for repairs, same video card but the proper amount of video RAM.

My first desktop PC was total trash because I was stupid in 2008. I thought it had a 4GB videocard (because that is how I measured gaming performance at the time) but it was a built-in Geforce 7600 that used the system memory, which was 4 gigs. It had an Intel Core Duo 2.2GHZ, 500GB harddrive, 4GB of RAM. In the end, the harddrive is the only thing I kept as I built my own PC from scratch after that.

Windows Vista - then 7
2x Geforce GTX 9800 GX2 - Got both of them used for the price of 400 CAD but they could not SLI so I later got a 285 2GB card which gave better 3D modeling performance anyways.
12GB DDR2 1333MHZ RAM
Intel i7 940
3 x 500GB harddrive plus 500GB external drive

 

[SniperTB]

PC 01. (1988-1993) Atari PC3:
CPU: Intel 8088 (4,77 MHz)
RAM: 640 kByte
GFX: Onboard EGA-Karte
Sound: PC-Speaker
HDD: 30 MByte
Monitor: 13" EGA
Diskette: 5,25" 360 KByte Toshiba

First Laptop: Toshiba T3200

First Macintosh: Macintosh SE/30

PC 02. (1993):
CPU: Intel 286 (8/16 MHz)
RAM: 16 MByte 40-PIN-EDO
GFX: Trident TVGA9000
Sound: PC-Speaker
HDD: 120 MByte IBM
Monitor: 15" VGA
Diskette: 5,25" 1,2 MByte IBM, 3,5" 1,44 MByte TEAC

PC 03. (1994):
CPU: Intel 386 (16 MHz)
RAM: 32 MByte 40-PIN-EDO
GFX: Trident TVGA9000
Sound: AdLib Soundkarte
HDD: 640 MByte IBM
Monitor: 15" VGA
Diskette: 3,5" 1,44 MByte TEAC

PC 04. (1995):
CPU: AMD 486DX2 (80 MHz)
RAM: 64 MByte 72-PIN-EDO
GFX: ATI 3D Rage
Sound: SoundBlaster Pro
HDD: 800 MByte Western Digital
Monitor: 15" VGA
Diskette: 3,5" 1,44 MByte TEAC
CD-ROM: 4x Toshiba
(1996) GPU: ATI Rage Fury Pro

PC 05. (1997):
CPU: Intel Pentium (133 MHz)
RAM: 64 MByte SDRAM-PC100
GFX: ATI Rage Fury Pro
Sound: SoundBlaster Pro
HDD: 8 GByte Maxtor
Monitor: 17" Siemens
Diskette: 3,5" 1,44 MByte TEAC
CD-ROM: 24x AOPEN

PC 06. (2000):
CPU: AMD Duron (700 MHz)
RAM: 256 MByte SDRAM-PC133
GFX: Riva TNT M64 (Elsa Erazor III LT)
Sound: SoundBlaster PCI 128
HDD: 20 GByte Maxtor | Monitor: 17" AOC
Diskette: 3,5" 1,44 MByte TEAC
CD-RW: 8x4x24x AOPEN
MB: GigaByte 7IXE (VIA KT133)
(2000) GPU: GeForce 2 MX200

PC 07. (2001):
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1533 MHz)
RAM: 512 MByte SDRAM-PC133
GFX: ATI Radeon 7500
Sound: SoundBlaster PCI 128
HDD: 120 GByte Maxtor
Monitor: 17" AOC
Diskette: 3,5" 1,44 MByte TEAC
CD-RW: 24x16x40x AOPEN
MB: Shuttle AK32 (VIA KT133)
(2002) GPU: Sapphire Radeon 9000 PRO
(2003) GPU: Connect3D Radeon 9500 PRO

PC 08. (2004):
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (1995 MHz)
RAM: 1536 MByte DDR-PC266
GFX: Hercules Radeon 9700 PRO
Sound: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
HDD: 2x120 GByte Maxtor
Monitor: 19" Iiyama
CD-RW: 40x32x48 AOPEN
MB: Chaintech Apogee 7VJL (VIA KT333)
(2006) + LG DVD-RAM, GPU: Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO AGP

PC 09. (2008):
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9950 BE (2600 MHz)
RAM: 4x2 GByte DDR2-PC1066
GFX: PowerColor Radeon HD4870 1G
Sound: SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
HDD: 1x160 GByte Maxtor, 2x120 GByte Maxtor, 1x80 GByte Maxtor, 1x1TB Seagate
Monitor: ASUS VW222U
DVD-RAM: LG GH-22LS
MB: GigaByte GA-MA790GP-DS4H (AMD 790GX)
(2009) CPU: Phenom II X4 955 BE, HDD: + WD Caviar Green 1TB

PC 10. (2011):
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (3200 MHz)
RAM: 4x2 GByte DDR2-PC1066
GFX: MSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC
Sound: SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
HDD: 1 TB Seagate, 1 TB Western Digital, 2 TB Samsung
Monitor: ASUS VW222U
DVD-RAM: LG GH-22LS
MB: GigaByte GA-MA790GP-DS4H (AMD 790GX)
(2013) CPU: Intel Core i7 2700k, RAM: 4x4 GByte DDR3-1600, MB: ASUS P8P67 REV 3.1

PC 11. (2015):
CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k
RAM: 4x8 GByte DDR3-1600
MB: MSI Z97 Gaming 7
GFX: MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G
HDD: 1 TB Seagate, 1 TB Western Digital, 2 TB Samsung, 4 TB WD
Monitor: 2 x ASUS VW222
DVD-RAM: LG GH-22LS

 

[Citizentropy]

Compaq Presario from Radio Shack on June 5, 1998. I remember firing up Dark Forces (Star Wars); it was such a glorious time to be alive.

 

[Twinrehz]

My first computer (as in the first one that I myself bought and owned) was an iMac G5 in 2005. Heavily influenced by my brother who's a graphical designer (among a few other things) and mac fanatic, I made it my first computer. I didn't buy a computer for playing games (although the reason for buying it at all escapes me), but it ended its days being used for playing World of Warcraft.

Before this, though, my family had had several computers, running all the way from Windows 3.1, up until Windows XP (later also Vista, 7, 8, and now 10). Not very good computers, they suffered from having too little RAM and no discreet GPU. So not much for gaming, but hell if we didn't try! It refused me to play Halo though, 16MB of shared video memory wasn't enough to run it, apparently! In those days, consoles were my go-to for games, but I was a nintendo-guy until they shat out Wii and I thought fuck it, I ain't buying that! Interstingly though, both my sister and my eldest brother, both of which had never bought a game console in their life, got one.

Anyway, getting off track. My glorious iMac G5, which I bought just before they switched over to Intel, after being urged to do that as well by my eldest brother, sported a single core G5 PPC CPU running on amazing 1.9GHz, and 1GB of memory, which I later upgraded to 2,5GB. The poor thing was unable to run 720p video (unless it was in an mp4 container, which was rather unusual, as .mkv was more common), it was delivered with a game called Marble Blast Gold. And I did indeed play the shit out of that game. Good times, good times...

It was the only mac I ever bought, as it's considerably cheaper to build my own PC, and more versatile for my own use.

Now I'm rocking a rig with the following specs:

CPU: i5-3570K @ 3.5GHz (K, for overclocking potential)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z77
Memory: 16GB Crucial BallistiX RAM
Storage: 120GB Samsung Evo 840 SSD main drive, 2x HDD @ 2TB + 1x HDD @ 1TB
Soundcard: SoundBlaster X Soundcard (for no good reason)
GPU: EVGA GTX 770 Superclocked with 2GB Memory (slated for upgrade once 1070 hits the market and I can justify the price tag)
PSU: EVGA 850W Gold Rated PSU
Case: BitFenix Shinobi XL, because I like smooth, simplistic design, and nothing says smooth and simplistic like a giant black box
(I'll spare you the tale of each fan and their life stories)
Screen: BenQ GL2450HM, 24" fairly standard screen; been wanting to replace it, but I'm not sure with what. I'd prefer a 16:10 computer screen, but they're hilariously expensive compared to similar 16:9 screens (I find the 16:10 format much more pleasing to watch); also a secondary monitor which I "stole" from work (I got two, they were being trashed anyway)
Keyboard: Corsair K70 RGB Cherry MX Red keyboard
Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Core
OS: Windows 7, considering upgrading it to Windows 10

This is (obviously) the computer I use the most, by far. Ample storage, graphical capabilities and processing power, it's my battle station for fighting whatever it is that catches my fancy, be it the french in Europa Universalis and Civilization V, or anything that wants to fight me in Dark Souls (which is pretty much everything). With no less than 7 fans (6 of them Noctua, in an attempt to keep the noise down), this huge case is a definitive overkill for my use. There's room for 7 HDDs, 3 optical drives (yeah, I'm one of those that insist on having one, despite hardly ever using it), graphics cards twice the length of what exists today, and 2x 360mm water cooling radiators (I don't use watercooling, btw), I'm barely using this case to its full potential. I've got a Corsair H100i for processor cooling, the GPU is aircooled (there's a fan in the bottom of the case to provide air for it), three fans in the front, two fans for the CPU cooler, and one fan in the rear that was installed because it was actually necessary for proper air flow inside the case (temps dropped with nearly 10 centigrades inside the case after I installed it), it might sound like a noisy case, but it truly isn't. The noisiest thing in the case when idling is the GPU fan that I can't tune below 40% anyway, which kinda annoys me; everything else is nearly dead silent, as evidenced by switching off all other fans in the case to see which ones is making the most noise and not noticing any audible difference. I'm using fan control for what its worth (automatic profiles, cba to adjust them manually on the fly if I don't have to), even the CPU barely crawls above 50 centigrades under load (haven't tested with any benchmarking program).

All in all, I must say I'm very satisfied with this build; it has served me well, and I've spent considerable hours maintaining it, and it is running stable. Occasionally freaks out with some weird bugs, but then what rig doesn't. As far as heritage goes, it's the 3rd generation rig (continuously been building and upgrading since 2011).

That's my main rig, but of course it's not the only one I got!

Laptop specs:
Dell Inspiron 7537
CPU: Intel Core i7-4500U
Memory: 8GB (dunno what brand)
GPU: GTX 750M
Storage: 512GB Samsung Evo 850 SSD (previously a 1TB mechanical drive, now serving as an external drive)

My battle station away from my battle station, I got this one because I wanted a relatively portable medium to play some simple games on; it was never intended for massive performance, but I still wanted something capable of running some games without chugging at the first frame. CPU is kinda subpar, seeing it's actually an ultrabook processor, but it's proven quite capable nonetheless. I don't put too much expectations in it; the 15" screen is too small anyway for anything demanding (be it battlefield or deus ex), its purpose is a travelling companion with limited gaming capabilities, enough if I want to play something, and not so gigantic that it takes too much space in a bag or anything.

Moving on, private server:
CPU: Intel Core i3-4160
Motherboard: Asus H81M-E (iirc)
Memory: 8GB low-profile (don't recall brand)
GPU: None (built-in graphics)
Storage: 120GB Kingston SSDNow
PSU: Fractal Design Integra M 450W
Case: BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX

Built first and foremost as a minecraft server, this battle station will probably see some extension in its use, once I figure out what I want it to do, and how to build it. A fairly young computer, I put it together a little over a year ago, then had to take it offline due to some issues with the PSU (it kept killing the fuse), I recently got the funds to buy a new one for it, and gonna get it running again as soon as possible.

The small size was intended, wanting to make it easy to move, place and use; it's a headless server with remote desktop enabled for remote login when necessary. Not intended to be very powerful, there was a lot of consideration around what CPU to get for it. Sporting a CM Evo 212 to at least keep it cool, it makes a soft wooshing noise when running (which in my opinion is still too loud!!), which might be reduced once I adjust fan controls some more.

I love building computers, and to some extent I enjoy troubleshooting my own devices; but like most techies, I don't like having to fix computers that I don't have executive control over, or whose specs or use I'm unfamiliar with. I also feel messing with other people's computers is almost like invading their private life, even if they asked me to fix their computer. From experience, my universal solution to any computer problem is reinstall windows. Very simplistic, but when the problem is unspecified and vague (the computer is acting weird), I find troubleshooting to be trying my patience.
Messing around with computers for over a decade, and having to get shit to work as intended because there is no alternative has left me with some useful experience.