Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
invictius

List every main computer you've ever owned, as well any stories/memories about them

Recommended Posts

Commodore 64 in '97 or 98, got it from a flea market... for something like $500 Australian which obviously was a huge ripoff, but my parents were buying it for me and I was a noob. We got heaps of ripped games on 5 1/4 disks with the scene intros and everything, also there was a brilliant game coded in basic about playing the stock market, it was incredible that it wasn't in machine code.

A good 6 months after this I got an xt laptop with sealed lead acid battery for $50. I'm nostalgic as all hell about works for dos because they did all the graphics for the tutorials in ascii art!!

In mid 98 came a 286 desktop. At this stage in my life I was finding lots of decent computers and monitors for $2 at the local auction house. Scored myself an upgrade from a b and w monitor to a colour one that way! It was an olivetti 286 so when I sold it to my friend, he'd have to take all the ram out of the motherboard and rest both parts on towels as there was too much static for it to operate - he didn't have the case you see.

I went dooming on a 386 dx 40 with 16mb ram also. Later came a cyrix 586, I'm really glad my dad paid extra for a cd-rom.

With this machine I got on the internet which changed my life. I feel like I was ahead of my time - barely a few years after the internet became even close to mainstream, I was organising meeting girls from icq every other day, and I wanted to be online 24/7 - which caused a big enough argument with my family (who are paranoid about leaving computers on, modems on) to get me kicked out.

I've left out a pentium 2-166 (when my grandmother died, my grandfather came to live with us and basically said "how much do you need for a new computer") - celeron 466, amd duron 900, athlon 2800, p4 3ghz, q8200, i7-870, i5-4690k, which takes it up to the present day.

I'm very keen to hear others' strong memories that revolve around getting and upgrading their computers.

Share this post


Link to post

You must be a decade off with your dates or something, unless you were exclusively a retrocomputing enthusiast even in the late 90s O_o

Now, if I were to list my "main" computers (those bought personally or by my parents, and which I used everyday during a particular period), then the list would be surprisingly short. I have a lot of experimental/self-assembled "beater" boxes which outnumber my "main" computers even by 4:1, plus retrocomputing collectibles...maybe I'll list them in (some) detail in a next post. The thing is, you tend to lose count after a while.

Share this post


Link to post

My first was a TI-99/4a that was given to me as a gift, and which I still have to this day. It's what first got me interested in programming.

Next was a Compaq Presario 954 CDS. It had a 480 DX4 @ 100MHz, 8 megs ram (later upgraded to 48), and a 536mb hard drive.

After that, I got a generic Pentium 120MHz machine with 64 megs of ram. I don't remember much of the original specs past that. But, I do remember upgrading the shit out of it, painting it black, and putting an acrylic window on top with a green glowing fan. It's also still downstairs and still functional.

Then came a Toshiba Satellite laptop with a Pentium 3. 512mb RAM, and a 30gb hard drive. It was basically an early graduation present that I received in 2002 for college. This was the first computer I owned with a 3d accelerator card (GeForce 2 Go).

Then came my Alienware desktop in 2003, which I kept upgrading for years afterwards. What stared as a Pentium 4 eventually became a Core2Quad machine.

Around this time I also bought an old Pentium 3 server from work. It became my file server.

In 2005 I got an Alienware laptop. Way too big. But the 1920x1200 display was nice, as was the ability to keep food warm by placing it next to the exhaust.

After that came a System 76 laptop that wasn't for games, but for work. Unfortunately I broke the power port on it and was forced to use one of my many netbooks for a while.

Then a few years ago I built not one, but three new computers. First was a new server for home. Then I made a simple cheap desktop for my bedroom, where I could use it for videos and web surfing. It's in storage now, but is still useable. Lastly I rebuilt my desktop to what I use today. Core i7, 8gb ram, about 2.5tb HD space, and dual monitors (2048x1152 and 1920x1080).

Not long after that, I bought a new Toshiba laptop off my friend. Bare bones (Core i3, Intel graphics), but I intended to use it mainly for work. Now that I no longer work, it's more like the thing I keep at the coffee table instead of keeping books or magazines there.

My next computer will likely be an Amiga.

Share this post


Link to post

My dad was used to be part of a cabling crew who provided networking to hospitals and other large government buildings and such. He was always getting second hand computers for free/cheap, so we always had 2 pc's at any time.

I specifically remember a gateway PC being the first family computer, while I was in my formative years. It ran Doom with no trouble most of the time, I loved using that thing. I was also the one who 'destroyed' it, I thought it would be a good idea to 'organize' the files, so I moved everything all around and fucked up all the directories so bad that the OS was hardly functional when I was done with it..

Before I fucked that one up, my dad brought home a free computer running windows 3.1, and the computer (not the monitor) only displayed black and white shades. I thought it would be cool to play Doom in black and white, but I couldn't even get it to run wolf3D. I enjoyed messing with it, but we didn't keep it for long.

After that my dad got a hewlett packard PC with Win98, and around the same time I was also getting to the age where I mostly understood how computers work, so I was loving it. That's the same PC where I found Doom Connector.

I've had 2 PCs since then, one with XP and my current one (about 5 yrs old) with win7. It can't run Doom 3 reliably, which means its probably about time to upgrade.. Darn money being all elusive.

Share this post


Link to post

My first computer was some Gateway computer with Windows 98 on it. Used it to play hours of Frogger, Dark Forces II, and Galactic Battlegrounds. I usually played them while doing Homework, turning the screen on and off and not using any sound in order to hide the fact that I was playing games. At the time I didn't own GB, but found out that the game would continue to play even after the CD was removed from the computer if the game was still open. So after returning the game to the library, I would leave GB running on the computer for days on end so I wouldn't have to shut it off and get the CD to start it up again. The method only seemed to work for GB, though. As for specs, damn weak, with only about 2 gb or so of memory. No internet either, as it had some unworkable Netscape browser of old. Interestingly enough, the computer had a usuable IPX connection thing for game that required that. Only computer I've ever had that did that. Now days the computer sits in my basement, periodically used for older programs I still use.

After that briefly had my mom's old work computer, a Dell I think with Windows 98. It had more space, better RAM, Internet, better hardware (I can't recall any specifics). Best thing I did on it was beat Chasm: The Rift on it, and get through a chunk of Final Doom. I wanted to beat the whole game, but the computer suffered a fatal crash when my Dad tried to use it for something.

After that an HP PC with XP Professional on it. I think it had like 2 gigs of RAM and hardware that allowed Doom 3 on lowest settings to play sluggishly but beatable. Again, no real specific info. Beat LEGO Star Wars II on it. Spent hours with DOS games in DOS box (Like PowerSlave and Op: Body Count) and did a shit load of (awful) Jedi Outcast mods. I also joined a Jedi Outcast clan during this time, Iron Knights of the Black Realm, but fell out because soon after the game stopped working on the computer (Only on that computer. I still have the disc and it works fine). Unfortunately, my work and passion for JO died, as did my clan membership. THe thing is, the community was already in a downward spiral, and I'm pretty sure IKBR is toast now days anyways. Computer is shot, last time I loaded it up I discovered that the desktop was suddenly host to a gratuitous amount of furry porn. Fucked if I know why.

Had some HP computer with Vista on it later. Used that forever too, did Doom mods on that, mostly Realm 667 DECOARTE stuff and a little mapping. Computer also got shot, but I saved the maxed out hard drive.

Currently running some Acer computer that's a total boss, but I'm being a lot more conservative with the space and usage.

Share this post


Link to post

First computer: Windows 95-
First computer I had used personally, but only to play some sharewares including Doom and Jetpack. Not much to say except when booting off the computer, the orange text saying it's safe to turn off the computer.

Second computer: Windows 98
This one I was fairly happy to be on, first time I played internet games like Runescape (but I didn't get into it back then..), and played almost any given time, especially when I got Starcraft 1 and Heroes of Might and Magic 3.. Oh god the no lifing I did on those 2 games.

3rd: Window XP
The computer that was officially my own and not shared like the other 2. Not much changed, but Runescape (2) was a game I latched onto for a while. Also the time I got Ultimate Doom, Final, and 2; into editing. But theres some memories that seem to be aloof of me right now on that.

4th: Windows Vista 1
After both of my xp and sis xp dying, we both got Acer's, but not much change except getting into Steam Games and playing MMO Requiem: Bloodymare (now Requiem: some other name).. Not much change really.

5th: Windows Vista 2 / 7==Current
Sold my old comp to a friend after getting this one, one of the first few computers where Quad Core was public and not as expensive at 2.2ghz. This I really delved into gaming, Black and White 2, Dungeon Keeper 2, Elders Scrolls Oblivion, Skyrim, Diablo 3, entire cluster fuck that take too long to sort. Minecraft, Terraria, Borderlands 2... Yeah, whole lotta everything. This comp also had it's Hardrive fail, graphics card fry, and replaced power supply, beefy SOB.

6th computer: Win 7// WIP.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Demonsword/saved/DxVD4D
My first custom computer. Already ordered everything but the Processor, need to scrounge up 50$ to get it. Won the RAM in a contest, and the main hard drive for Christmas. No stories to tell as it does not fully exist.

Share this post


Link to post

Amstrad CPC, Amiga 500, 486DX/33, p120, AMD K6, and then it starts to get confusing because I ended up using Unix rackmount server (with pentium II, ECC RAM and SCSI drive) as my desktop because it was the only thing handy when my K6 blew up. I kind of lost track of which desktops I used after that. It was pointless to care anyway... all boring Intel hardware, just something to run OpenBSD and X for workstation environment. Eventually I started using IBM Thinkpad laptops instead of desktop machines. Went through a lot of those, most of them were basically free (stuff people were getting rid of because not fast enough for latest Windows OS or whatever).

I dunno what my next machine will be, but I really miss the Amiga days. I don't like modern hardware, and I don't like modern OS. They're not really fun to deal with, and I'd rather only interact with them at work. At home I'd rather use nice old simple machine. Something I don't have to fuck around with updating all the time, that boots up and shuts down instantly, and without tons of bloated crap. About the only decent OS project today is TempleOS, but it allegedly doesn't even work on bare metal anymore (have to run it in VM, so what's the point...) Might as well just use old, simple architecture...

Share this post


Link to post

tl;dr: I haven't owned many computers.

In the 90's, I had a bunch of Windows 95 and 98 desktops given to me whenever a friend's family bought a new one. They weren't gamers, and the most powerful of their donated systems struggled with running Doom fullscreen. It was nice to have free word processors though.

I was born in 1982 but was a late bloomer with PC gaming and PC enthusiasm, and my first proper gaming system I bought in 2003. It had an Athlon XP 3200, 512MB of RAM, Geforce FX5600, Win XP Home. Nothing remarkable even by 2003 standards, but it was pretty awesome and inspired me to learn more about PCs, and I upgraded the graphics card to a 6800GT around the time that Doom 3 came out.

Various upgrades followed. More RAM, Athlon 64, even more RAM, bigger hard drive, 7800GTX, 7800GTX SLI, more hard drive(s), Athlon 64 X2, 8800GT. Stopped buying PC hardware for a few years because I couldn't afford it. Bought a GTX 650 a couple of years ago as a cheap replacement for my dead 8800GT.

Right now I have this, except I've added more RAM and hard drive space since posting. Oh, and I use Windows 7.

If games consoles count, then I've had few of those. Pong console that I can't remember the name of, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, NES, Master System, Game Boy, Game Gear, Mega Drive [Genesis], SNES, Mega CD, 32X, Atari Jaguar, Playstation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360. Was briefly tempted to buy a PS4 or Xbox One instead of a new PC, but then I came to my senses.

Share this post


Link to post

calculator, abacus, something windows 95, something windows 98, something windows 2000, gameboy color, playstation 2, gameboy adance, something windows xp, playstation 3, something windows 7.

that basically spans my childhood to present-day.

Share this post


Link to post

Because I'm too lazy to go into full description, and in order:

White Compaq desktop PC with Win 98 SE in 2000

Silver HP laptop with Win XP in 2004

Silver HP desktop PC with Win XP MCE in 2005 or 6

Black Acer desktop PC with Win 7 in 2009 or 8

Black Acer laptop with Win 7 in 2010

Black Andromeda X51 Alienware desktop PC with Win 8 in 2014

Currently I'm only using the Alienware desktop PC and Acer laptop.

Share this post


Link to post

In order of purchase from oldest to newest:

- a Win95 desktop PC
- a Win2000 desktop PC
- a WinXP desktop PC
- an Acer laptop with Vista
- an Asus laptop with Win7 (current)

My fondest memories, I'd say, are from the WinXP PC era - discovering Doom, playing RollerCoaster Tycoon with my brother and whatnot.

Share this post


Link to post
Guest DILDOMASTER666

My first PC that I officially had that I can remember was a Windows 95 laptop running a 100MHz Pentium with either 8 or 16MB of RAM; I seem to recall it being the most similar to the Toshiba Satellite 205CDS:



I distinctly recall it having 16MB of RAM, but it was otherwise identical to a stock 205CDS running Windows 95. One of my earliest memories was sitting in front of my dad's 18 inch CRT playing Doom using that laptop, and it is one of my fondest memories.

My next computer that I can recall was a Power Mac 7x00-series desktop, most similar to my recollection to this one:



This PC is memorable to me because it was one of the first computers I ever used to make maps for Doom. I had mapped on my Windows 95 laptop prior using DOS versions of DEU, but I did most of my editing and playing of Doom during the late nineties on this machine. I saw it as a quantifiable upgrade from my laptop at the time, but comparing them now, I'd have preferred my Windows 95 machine, despite the absolute hardware upgrade.

My next computer was an entirely custom build, and I only barely recall its specs -- the only things I can remember for sure is that I used Windows ME on it, so it must have been at some time during late 2000, and it had an 8GB hard drive. I don't remember anything huge about this PC except for it being my first experience with ZDoom 1.23 and Splinter Cell, a game that I love to this day. I had a brief stint with Mandrake Linux 8 and Win98SE dual-boot on that machine, so it's also notable as my very first experience with Linux ever.

That PC was soon replaced with a Compaq Presario 1719UK:



(At least, this is the closest model that I can remember being the most similar to what I had.)

This Presario had a 3GHz Pentium CPU of socket-type 939 and came stock with 512MB of DDR2, though I don't recall what speed of DDR2 my motherboard supported or what I had or really any of my other specs besides my graphics card. I began with a GeForce 3 Ti200, and quickly moved to a 6600GT pretty rapidly following that. This PC represented my first experience with Morrowind, JDoom, Dark Forces.

Following the above PC, I moved to a custom build containing an Athlon II X2 at 2.6GHz and used an 8600GTS with 2GB of RAM. I stayed with this build from around 2008 to 2011, which was when I joined the Navy.

My current build is based on a CyberPowerPC build and contains an overclocked i5-3450 at 3.7GHz, 32GB of DDR3/1333, and an overclocked EVGA GTX 980 at 1440MHz with 4GB of VRAM, and dual 1TB 7200RPM hard drives along with a 128GB SSD.

Share this post


Link to post

Oh man I can barley even remember what models I had, let alone its specs, The first one I remember using was my father's windows 98 (I think) when I was around 3 years old, I used to spend hours fooling around with his computer, I vaguely remember the wall paper it used which I think was a road with stormy clouds and there might have been a thunderbolt.


The next one was windows xp, that was also my fathers, not much really to talk about this one.

Then when I was 8 years old we got this laptop which I think was manufactured by Compaq. I overheated because I used to leave it on all night so that when I woke up in the morning I could use it a heat source lol.

Right now I am currently using an acer Aspire E1-522-5885 which is pretty mediocre

AMD Quad-core proxcessor A4-5000
AMD Radeon HD 8330
6GB DDR L Memory
750 GB HDD

Share this post


Link to post
Maes said:

You must be a decade off with your dates or something, unless you were exclusively a retrocomputing enthusiast even in the late 90s O_o

Now, if I were to list my "main" computers (those bought personally or by my parents, and which I used everyday during a particular period), then the list would be surprisingly short. I have a lot of experimental/self-assembled "beater" boxes which outnumber my "main" computers even by 4:1, plus retrocomputing collectibles...maybe I'll list them in (some) detail in a next post. The thing is, you tend to lose count after a while.


What happened is I very quickly acquired a large amount of increasingly decent systems at a time when the pentium 200 was kicking about. When you're that far behind in hardware you tend to treat things like Johnny Castaway and a cd-rom drive as a big deal (ide interface for the majority of their lifetime... wasn't that a long-time standard!)

Share this post


Link to post

Some old monochrome Toshiba DOS laptop, when I was very little (1992+?). It wasn't mine, obviously, but I was watching my sister play some games on it.

A 386 desktop computer with Windows 3.1 and DOS. Used to watch and play Wolf3D and Supaplex on it, with PC sound. While on Windows I was mostly, as a child, playing with Paintbrush.

A 486 computer after it, similar purpose, I think it was also used for games like Doom and Dark Forces. First time I had Sound Blaster.

A black-and-white Mitac laptop, same purpose as the computer above.

A Pentium 200 MHz computer running Windows 3.1/95/98. First computer I consciously used and I learned to tinker, and then to connect to the Internet and download Doom stuff. Also used to play other classics, such as Blizzard games, Quake and so on.

Pentium II 450 MHz, it lived on for about 15 years until it died abruptly (after I forgot its lid open for awhile). Had a shitty Ensoniq Soundscape card, the MIDIs were always problematic. Generally an OK computer.

Intel Celeron 2.6 GHz. It's 10 years old and I still have it. It runs Windows XP and Xubuntu. Nowadays I mostly use it for storage on the network, since it has a 500 GHz drive in it.

Apple white MacBook (Intel Core 2 Duo), early 2008. Quite a sturdy laptop I might say. It was disappointingly slow when bought, but fortunately I was able to install 4GB RAM on it, making it a lot more responsive. Nowadays it only runs OS X Snow Leopard fast enough, and that operating system is very outdated and few interesting apps can be relied to work on it. I had juggled a lot with OS installs, trying Windows 7, Windows XP, reinstalling OS X etc., mostly due to the stupidly low hard disk space (130GB).

Intel Core 2 Quad, bought from 2011, I still use it. It runs Windows 8.1 and is okay, but suffers from Windows rot (creeping slowness and Explorer hanging when doing certain things).

MacBook Pro Retina mid-2012 (Intel Core i7). Probably thanks to having a SSD, it's a beast of a computer. Its weak spot seems to be about drawing (the OS animates quite jerkily when resizing windows), but the working performance is pretty great. It's my reliable friend helping me in many situations. I presented my master thesis with it! Currently it only runs OS X 10.9 Mavericks, as I'm reluctant to upgrade to Yosemite unless required by the available software. Other than apparently wasting more CPU power, Windows 8.1 runs terrific on it.

Share this post


Link to post

When I was a kid, my parents had no interest in computers; thus they never bought one. However, every now and then, we would get some obsolete fire-hazard of a PC, that would normally be thrown away. Usually, these came from various sources. A relative wanted to get rid of it; it was going to be thrown away at my parent's places of work.

My aunt, eventually gave me an old but decent laptop that I used to play shareware of Doom, and Civilization II. It was an old Panasonic Laptop, that used a roller-ball for a mouse. It was probably my first, PC, that I really got some mileage out of. the other crap-pcs I had would stop working, shortly after entering my house.

My first "real" PC ownership was in 2003, when I saved up money for it, by working at a truck loading warehouse. That job was really tough, and it took me a while to save up the funds for it. It was an entry-level Compaq. I got a lot of mileage out of that PC. It was also the first PC I had upgraded, by installing more RAM and a GPU.

The second PC I bought was another entry-level Dell in 2007. I had also upgraded that PC, and played a lot of Fallout 3 and Rome:Total War on it. This was also the first PC, I used my flat-screen TV as a monitor for.

The third PC was one that I built myself from scratch in 2012, and the one I'm currently using. It is a gaming PC, and I'm enjoying Skyrim with a ton of mods on it right now, with it. I still need to buy a better fan for the processor, so I could then upgrade the GPU, in order to play games with next gen graphics. But currently for my intents and purposes, its perfectly sufficient; its more than enough for the games I play. What I should get however, is an SSD. I still run everything off of a regular Hard drive. I'm still using Windows 7 on it as well. I don't think I want to upgrade to 8; I don't like it so much.

Share this post


Link to post
Guest DILDOMASTER666
Kontra Kommando said:

The third PC was one that I built myself from scratch in 2012, and the one I'm currently using. It is a gaming PC, and I'm enjoying Skyrim with a ton of mods on it right now, with it. I still need to buy a better fan for the processor, so I could then upgrade the GPU, in order to play games with next gen graphics. But currently for my intents and purposes, its perfectly sufficient; its more than enough for the games I play. What I should get however, is an SSD. I still run everything off of a regular Hard drive. I'm still using Windows 7 on it as well. I don't think I want to upgrade to 8; I don't like it so much.


I still run 99% of my stuff on regular hard drives and I have to disagree with the sentiment; the performance of an SSD completely did not justify spending $100 for 128GB in my case. That's not to say it won't be eventually worth it though; I'd worry more about your graphics card than getting an SSD, if performance is your worry.

Share this post


Link to post

First computer I purchased (and still own) was a Tandy MC-10, way back in 1984. There was never much software for them, so once I'd got tired of type-in program listings I wrote a small symbolic debugger in BASIC and spent much of my time outputting blocks of ROM code to a cheap pen-based printer/plotter that I'd modified to work with the computer. Back then I didn't mind doing hardware hacks, especially if it meant saving money.

Next up was a second-hand Commodore 64 with a faulty RAM chip, had a stuck bit at 256 byte intervals. Instead of desoldering and replacing chips (there's 8 of them) until I found the dud, I wrote a very small memory test program which displayed the bitmask of faulty RAM addresses on-screen, determining which chip to replace was then a matter of checking a schematic diagram to see what's connected to the affected data port pin. Got a lot of mileage out of that computer, but it had to go so I could afford its replacement.

At $3,000 the mighty Amiga 1000 with 1081 monitor is the most expensive computer I've purchased for personal use. I later added an A1060 Sidecar with 40MB hard drive (another $1,400) in order to run a bit of PC software and an 8Meg RAM expansion module (around $700) in order to run larger programs. Unfortunately, I couldn't have the RAM module and Sidecar plugged in at the same time.

Upgrading to an Amiga 2000 got around the expansion port bottleneck, provided somewhere to mount a CD-Rom drive and introduced me to 32bit CPU accelerator cards in the form of a slightly overclocked MicroBotics VXL-30 with 2Meg of 32bit RAM. That allowed me to play Frontier (my favourite space sim) with all detail settings ticked but no jerky animation, though the extra processing power wasn't without its drawbacks, enemy spacecraft became harder to hit so I'd often fall-back to the old 68000 CPU in order to go bounty hunting and boost my combat rating.

An Amiga 1200 was next, which meant moving the CD-Rom drive to a SCSI box and using a software-based degrader in order to run some older games. The mainboard was eventually re-housed in a modified full tower case, along with a new 40Mhz `030 accelerator (which turned out to have an overclocked 25Mhz CPU), a keyboard adapter and an IDE-Fix adapter which allowed me to switch from SCSI to IDE drives. One thing I lost with that upgrade was somewhere to plug in a PC emulator card.

My first Intel box as main computer was a Pentium 120-based system I built from parts that were surplus to requirements at work and hooked up to an old NEC MultiSync monitor that came with one of the Amigas. Since then it's been a matter of upgrading bits and pieces to arrive at my current setup, with the progression being something like AMD-K6-233 -> Celeron 800 -> P4 2.8GHz -> Athlon 64 X2 5200, which by now is probably overdue for an upgrade.

Share this post


Link to post

The first family computer was a Commodore PC with a 133 MHz Pentium, running Windows 95 (multimedia!). This computer was awesome. I have fond memories of playing shareware Doom, doing some very early level editing, recording stupid sound files, drawing crap in MS Paint, writing random crap in Notepad, and writing crappy school papers in Microsoft Works.

The second family computer was a Celeron 300 MHz. This computer was a flaky piece of junk (probably mainly because it came with Windows 98), but in terms of hardware, it was a HUGE upgrade. I did most of my Doom mapping on that computer, including Vrack 2 (if I remember correctly, building nodes took a minute towards the end of the development). I also spent many hundreds of hours making MIDIs. Sharing the computer itself wasn't that much of a problem, I think, but there were constant arguments about turning off the damned internet so that someone else could use the phone.

My first own computer -- this must have been in 2001? -- had an Athlon Thunderbird 1400 MHz with 512 MB RAM, a GeForce 2 TI 64MB, and a huge CRT monitor that weighed as much as a small person and supported 1600x1200 resolution. I spent a fortune on it (equivalent to about 2000 EUR or USD). The extra RAM was a great investment (256 MB was more normal at the time). The only problem with this computer was that the CPU fan was INCREDIBLY LOUD. Headphones and a shut door (for the other people living in the house) were the only option. Eventually the monitor broke, and the hard drive broke too. I kept this computer until after I moved out (in 2004).

In 2006, I got a new computer with an Athlon 64 3700+ CPU and 1 GB memory. I never liked it. The first problem was that the Radeon graphics card just never worked properly; I had to install a cheap replacement. Even later, it made too much noise (though not as much as my previous computer), and I think it kept having problems with sporadic freezing too. In 2007, I got an HP laptop that worked much more solidly. It's a bit underpowered, but still runs just fine.

Since 2009, my main computer has been a shitty Acer laptop that was crap even when I bought it. I like it less than the HP laptop, but it's vaguely more powerful. I should get something better, but I'm a cheap bastard and I think I might just stick with it until it breaks (I don't do any serious gaming that requires much in the way of performance).

I use a work laptop most of the time anyway, and that's usually a pretty decent model (the one I have now has a SSD + 16 GB RAM), but it's not my property, so I don't know if I would call it my main computer.

Share this post


Link to post
GreyGhost said:

At $3,000 the mighty Amiga 1000 with 1081 monitor is the most expensive computer I've purchased for personal use. I later added an A1060 Sidecar with 40MB hard drive (another $1,400) in order to run a bit of PC software and an 8Meg RAM expansion module (around $700) in order to run larger programs. Unfortunately, I couldn't have the RAM module and Sidecar plugged in at the same time.


That sounds like crappy design. Couldn't they have a pass-through bus or something to allow chaining multiple expansions?

I bought this GVP HD8+ for my A500:
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=1194
It costed like $450 (USD) in 1992 and included 2 MB extra RAM in addition to the SCSI controller and 40 MB HD. I'm pretty sure they also gave me Kickstart 2 and WB 2.04 upgrade kit. Anyway it was a nice upgrade. The only downside was it took up a bit more space on my small desk. Oh, and they released A600 not long after, so I could have bought one of those with HD for only a bit more than what I paid...

I would really like to find A2000 with 68030 accelerator and 286 or
386 bridgeboard someday. That could be my main computer for rest of my life!

*Edit*
Oh wow, I didn't even know this existed:
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=332
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=68
So yeah, I'd settle even for an A500 with GVP A530 and that bridgeboard as my main computer.

Share this post


Link to post

Pre 1991

C64 - abiding memories of playing Fairlight

BBC B Micro - games on tape! This was kept in my room, since there was a desk built into the bed, and so I would often be woken up early in the morning by the sound of the joystick clicking as my Dad played Elite.

1991

a 286 - first PC, the first thing we ran on setting it up was Keen 4 - I was giddy! My mother had forbidden consoles, but for some reason this okay. The game I played the most though was probably Wing Commander - I remember being blown away when I first saw the animation sequences.

1994

a 486 - DOOM! But also loads of great DOS games. My dad had programmed a simple menu system, with all the games sorted by genre - I think he still has a backup copy of this.

1997/8 - 2001

a couple of self-assembled Pentiums (built with my dad in my early teens) running Win98 - we had these on a LAN at the kitchen table, and would regularly DM using ZDoom.

2001

a Dell Pentium 4, running Windows XP - this was my work/DOOM computer for years - it's still going and runs fine, so long as I don't go online, but it's built like a tank and weighs a ton - I'm not sure what to do with it.

2008

a Dell Celeron, a newer work/DOOM computer - this was a cheap replacement for the XP machine. It had some mechanical problems, and after I fixed those the hard drive died, so it's currently out of action.

Now

I currently run a couple of self assembled i7s, one micro ATX in a fanless chassis for media, one mini ITX for work/DOOM. Also two Raspberry Pis for playing music around the flat.

Share this post


Link to post
hex11 said:

That sounds like crappy design. Couldn't they have a pass-through bus or something to allow chaining multiple expansions?

The RAM module did have a pass-through, but in a lot A1000's the chips driving the expansion port didn't like chained devices, unfortunately mine had those chips. More robust replacements were made available but I never managed to acquire a set.

The GVP HD8+ is a very nice controller, provided you're not unfortunate enough to buy one that uses their proprietary 32pin SIMM modules which are almost impossible to find nowadays. Their A530 is also nice but also requires proprietary SIMM modules, without which it's only about 40% faster than a stock A500!

Share this post


Link to post
Fisk said:

I'd worry more about your graphics card than getting an SSD, if performance is your worry.

I dunno, the boost in general system performance makes them worth every penny imo. I could never go back to booting from a mechanical drive.

Share this post


Link to post

Somehow I forgot to mention the computer I used to make that and this post. An old Mac Book with OSX 10.5.8 on it. I can't upgrade because after I took the laptop to get a battery problem fixed, the App Store mysteriously disappeared. I think this is because the guy I sent it to gave me Microsoft Office for Free, although I'm not entirely sure how it correlates with the App Store. He also usually puts a massive library of iTunes music on any other computer we send him. I'd love to update though some day, so I can upgrade Google Chrome and run Steam again on this thing, as well as install the latest Flash Player. Granted, I need to buy a newer Mac Book anyways for school, so doing anything with this one may just be pointless.

Share this post


Link to post

IBM Aptiva. At this time in Canada I remember it retailed $3500 roughly. Windows 95 was the powerhouse, until 98 arrived.

Beautiful morning, excitement in the air. One of the main thoughts I remember was not dealing with those blasted floppies anymore. Although the install took two and a half hours, at the very end I was greeted by a lovely message indicating I had to upgrade from I think it was 2MB RAM at that time, which costed as much as a mortgage. Then all the hopes died off until said upgrade happened.

Of all the systems, for some reason the 775 sockets hold mosts memory. Especially the K7-SEM board I had from Asus. Dear Christ what a nightmare. Mixed in with the Hercules GPU, it was a recipe for shit. Didn't do any better once the A8-ANE came out. (think it was labeled the A8-ANE or A8E-N or something of the sort).

Happiest build even to this day was probably the time when HL2 was about to drop and with the emotion of approaching Armageddon, everyone HAD. No, NEEDED to jump onboard with those new ATi X800s. Had the x800 GTO Firehawk, firebird or as such. Partnered with the new Athlon x2 64, it was truly a pleasure filled tank.

Coming to more recent memories I personally feel atleast from AMD the Phenom chips even to this day are the best. Quicker, efficient. It truly barely has ANY comparison with the newer 8-cores. I wish I had more to do with Intel and nVidia other than a Pentium III and a eVGA 7600 GT that melted during Doom 3 (Ironic, much?)

Would love to get a hold of an older card, it's the size of our modern GPUs now that had roughly I think 8-bit or 16-bit graphics, only going by the name of "I've got a ticket to ride." - If anyone remembers?

Share this post


Link to post

My first computer was some packet pc from 1996 with windows 95. It served me up to year 2000

After that I have built all my pcs:
first 2000-2006
second 2006-2011
third 2011-present

Share this post


Link to post
Guest DILDOMASTER666
Radon said:

No, NEEDED to jump onboard with those new ATi X800s


I used a GeForce 8600GTS around that time period and I found it to be the superior card tbh, comparing with my buddy at the time who had similar specs but had an X800 GT or someodd

DoomUK said:

I dunno, the boost in general system performance makes them worth every penny imo. I could never go back to booting from a mechanical drive.


I found my SSD to be utterly worthless for system performance. I briefly used Windows 7 Ultimate booting from my SSD and found that while my boot-up times were noticeably faster, the lack of general system performance upgrade and the fact that I rarely reboot my machine and don't mind my already relatively-quick startup times made me regret my purchase.

The only thing positive I can really say about my experience with SSDs is that Battlefield 4 loaded in about 25 seconds or so compared to the usual 40 seconds plus.

Share this post


Link to post

1984 - Vic 20

Then I went through:

1987 - Commodore C16
1989 - C64
1991 - Amiga 500
1994 - Amiga 1200
2000 - Windows PC Pentium 133 upgrading to P200
2001(ish) - Some Frankenstein ATI 9600 GPU AMD CPU thingy that kept mutating...
2006 - Dell M1710 gaming laptop. At the time of purchase it was the most powerful 'laptop' in the world. It was a beast! I had that until about 6 months ago.

Now I have:

Windows 7, Intel i7 4770k, GTX 780 in a lovely Bitfenix Ghost case. I will probably have this for the 10 years or so...



Like a few have mentioned, I really miss the Amiga days. I had relative power and lots of simplicity. No bloatware allowed! Of course your first machine is your first love so my favourite has to be my beloved Vic. It's just great that these days I can have my two favourite things together. Doom on the Vic 20 FTW!

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×