Your computers over the years

[Nick R]

List what you've had. If you built it, list it. Show us your progress over the years

First computer (Given to me by parents when they bought a new one
)

AMD Athlon XP +2700 (Always run at +1500 speeds though)
MSI (Via Chipset) Motherboard. Piece of junk
512MB DDR
Radeon 9600SE
Maxtor 160GB IDE

the motherboard and power supply failed, the +5V and -5V connections to the motherboard were melted and charred (no idea). Doesn't even count, the power supply was [censored] and so was the motherboard.

Built one out of stuff we had lying around

Intel Pentium II 450Mhz (Slot 1)
512MB SDR SDRAM
Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 Motherboard (Socket 370 + Slot 1 mobo)
Vistiontek Radeon 9600SE 128MB
Maxtor 160GB
Windows XP
Antec SmartPower 350W PSU
Wasn't the fastest, but it did the job. The only parts that really drove me nuts were anything that involved zipping/unzipping files. Took bloody forever.

upgraded processor with a Intel Pentium III 600Mhz (Socket 370), and then to a Pentium III 866. Keep in mind, this was back in like 2006, 2007 lol. The computer actually ran great for most everything.

Finally got a hold of a new motherboard, and went to

AMD Athlon XP +2700 (2.13Ghz)
1GB DDR SDRAM
ECS K7S5A (SiS 735) Motherboard
Visiontek Radeon 9600SE
WD 160GB HDD (Maxtor died)

My parents bough a new computer after about a year and a half of this system. So I then received and upgraded a bit when I got it,

Gateway 832GM (BTX case and mobo)
Intel D915GSE Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 630 (3Ghz, HTT)
2GB DDR SDRAM
BFG Geforce 6600GT
WD 250GB SATA HDD
Kingwin ABT-450MM PSU
Sound Blaster Live!

Had it for about a year, then upgraded to a Sapphire Radeon HD 2600XT Graphics card.

Then, for christmas of 2008 I received a new system from my parents.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 (OC'ed to 3.4Ghz)
GIGABYTE EP43-DS3L Mobo
4GB Patriot DDR2-800
PowerColor Radeon 4670 (1GB)
WD 640GB SATA HDD
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Sound Blaster Audigy SE Sound Card

Had that computer for 2 years, upgrading to a XFX Radeon 5770 a year and a half later, as well as a Antec Neo Eco 400C Power Supply (The Kingwin was going).

Then this past christmas (They agreed every 2 years to allow me to upgrade)

I got my current system
AMD Phenom II X4 965BE (OC 3.75Ghz)
8GB Corsair DDR3-1333
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 Mobo
Kept the Radeon 5770
kept the Antec Neo Eco 400C
Kept the WD 640GB HDD
Corsair H50 Water Cooling Kit
Samsung Blu-Ray/DVD-RW Combo Drive
Antec Three Hundred Case

A few months later, I purchased an XFX 650W Modular PSU, and an additional XFX Radeon 5770, as well as some new fans. So I have two Radeon 5770s in Crossfire now. I also upgraded with a n Intel X-25V 40GB SSD. About 2 months ago I picked up a Samsung Spinpoint 500GB 5400RPM Drive for additional storage. (The original WD Harddrive has over 20,600 hours on it)

I still have the original Pentium III system running and the Athlon XP System (with a few new parts) running Folding@home (Athlon XP) and a minecraft server (on the Pentium III).

I got a Gateway NV53A24U (Athlon II P320, 4GB, 320GB) laptop last summer from my grandparents as a graduation present. Well, my cat spilled a glass of water on that this past April. Luckily, they had gotten the Black Tie protection on it, so I got it replaced by BBY with my current Lenovo Z565, with AMD Phenom II N660 (3Ghz Dual Core), 3GB (no need to upgrade), 32GB.

I'm a computer geek. I built all of the systems above myself.


Besides my car, the only thing I really spend any kind of money on these days is my computer. I also currently have a Logitech Illuminated Wired Keyboard, Razer Deathadder mouse, LG IPS236V Monitor, Logitech G930 Headset, and Harman/Kardon Soundsticks III speakers.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Far too many computers here to list, and they have mostly been made from parts, then cannibalized to make other computers, etc.

First 'real' family computer was a 386SX built inside an old IBM AT case. A 20 megabyte hard drive (megs, not gigs!), 2mb of system RAM, a high-density 5.25" floppy drive, a Thunderboard sound card, and a 1200 baud modem. The video card in that thing was about a foot long and had an entire daughterboard covered with RAM chips to bring it up to 512k.

First retail-purchased family computer was an IBM PS/2 ValuePoint with a 486SX-16, 4mb of RAM, and a 40mb hard drive. Then came a Create Labs Soundblaster & CD-ROM upgrade kit, then a blazing 63mhz Intel Pentium OverDrive processor.

First retail-purchased PC I bought for myself was an IBM Aptiva with a 200mhz AMD K6-2, 32mb of RAM for about $1600 which is insane when I think about it nowadays. More insanity: 17" monitor, $450. 12mb Voodoo2, $400. HP 2x CD-RW, $425. Another 32mb of RAM: $120. I'm probably still paying for that stuff on a VISA card somewhere.

Current fleet of about 11 computers is too long and boring to list.

 

[123Saab]

I bought a new mac every 2years since 1984.

Also about 4 different Asus laptops over time, for games mostly.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

The first one I had at home was a company supplied IBM 5100 with 16K memory and BASIC (I think it was designated as a B1). At about 50 pounds it was considered portable, although I'd call it more like self contained. That must have been around 1975 or 1976.

The next one was a TRS-80 model II around 1980 or so. After that proabably a Compaq Portable III in the late 1980's Then in the early 90's it was an IBM Thinkpad, mid-90's was a couple of HP's (I don't remember the models). Then there were a couple of Dell workstations in the early-mid 2000's.

My current system is a Windows 7 Dell XPS with mirrored 1T drives, 8GB of RAM and dual monitors, and (I think) an Intel 3.00 GHz processor. I also have a Dell Inspiron laptop that I used to take with me when we traveled. Now when we travel I leave technology at home, and I haven't booted the laptop up in at least a year or more.

As long as it runs SQL, my testing VM's and my programming applications it's all I need.

 

[440Magnum]

My first computer was an Osborne 1, circa 1981. Google it

Z-80 processor, and 64k of ram. WooHoo!

I didn't actually buy another computer for home until the mid 1990s (Mac laptop). College and then work supplied all the computers I needed until that point. Since then I've had iMacs (grey CRT and then white flat-panel- skipped the "MacStalk" version) at home, a mix of PCs, MacBooks, and even a few mainframes (until ~2000) at work. The mainframes are now Linux server farms.

 

[Hokiefyd]

First computer I remember using was a 386. Then we got a 486 in 1991. That was hot stuff.

My first computer that I owned was a Dell OptiPlex GXpro. It had a Pentium Pro 180 MHz processor, with the option for a second processor to be installed on a card. It had a weird type of RAM (EDO/ECC) and it came with 32 MB as I recall, and I upgraded that to 64 MB. This was a very nice case; everything was modular. The expansion cards installed on a cradle that plugged into the motherboard. The PSU and drive cages swung out of the way on hinges. Really neat machine. I got it when I went off to college, and ran Windows NT 4.0 on it.

After realizing I couldn't upgrade that case any further due to the proprietary and customized nature of everything, I bought a Dell Dimension GX620 with a Pentium 4 as I recall. I think it had 256 or 512 MB of RAM. That computer served me for a while, but there was little expandability due to the smaller form factor, and that was still back when you used expansion cards for a lot of things like graphics, modem, even ethernet.

So I replaced that with our current Dell Dimension E521, back in 2005. Very good for its day, and still serviceable now. AMD Athlon 62 X2 3800+ "Windsor" processor, 2 GB of RAM upgraded to 4 GB, onboard nVidia graphics upgraded to nVidia 8400GS, etc. Also our first flat screen; it's a Dell 19" LCD. I'm contemplating what to do with this one at the moment; the BTX motherboard severely limits expandability.

In 2006 or so, we went mobile, with the purchase of a Compaq Presario C300 laptop. Bought that on a Black Friday sale for 400 bucks. It has, I think, a Celeron D processor and I've maxed the RAM out at 2 GB. This laptop has aged well, though I don't use it all that often. I do use it when I go out of town and for various things around the house.

Then we acquired a Dell Inspiron mini 1010 a few years ago. My wife just had to have it for Christmas one year. We got the pink one, for the breast cancer donation deal they had. This is an Intel Atom processor, with 1 GB of RAM, though I understand that I can double the RAM. This is by far the slowest machine, even on regular ol' Windows XP.

All three of the computers are running Windows XP; the Dell Dimension and Compaq laptop have the Media Center Edition, while the netbook uses the basic XP. I am planning on upgrading at least the desktop to Windows 7 soon.

 

[mahansm]

First computer at home was ATT 6300; 8086 at 6 MHz, 640K, 20 MB, and about 600x400 14" monochrome screen. 2400 baud modem. It ran some flavor of ATT modified DOS.

Current machine is AMD pPhenom II quad core 920 at 2.8 GHz on ASUS motherboard, 4x 1 TByte drives in RAID 10, 27" 1080P monitor, 8 GByte RAM, etc..
cable modem. 2TByte external backup drive. Win 7 pro.

There are also 3 working laptops around; overkill since there are only the two of us living there.

 

[Nick R]

Oh I forgot my first laptop. It was back in 2007 or so. At school, I found an ancient Mac Powerbook 1400cs. 133Mhz CPU, Floppy drive, and Mac OS 7. I used it for word processing for school for around 5 months.

 

[OVERKILL]

In a somewhat odd order:

-Mac PLUS
-Other Mac's (one with a portrait screen)
-Hewitt Rand 8088 (first PC, still have it) 640K of RAM and a 20MB hard drive, YEAH BABY! Used "software overclocking" to bump it to 12Mhz.
-IBM 386 33Mhz of raw power
-IBM "Imagination Station" 486SX/25. Eventually got the Overdrive (had the math copro socket) for it, 48MB of RAM, 1.6GB WD hard drive (upgraded obviously) Cirrus Logic on-board graphics and a 14" monitor. I installed NT5 on it (before it became Win2K).
-Texas Instruments SX/25 Notebook. Came with 4MB of RAM. Bough the "push in chips" memory upgrade to bump it up to 6MB! Had a 120MB hard drive. This was my first "laptop".
-Toshiba Satellite 330CDT Notebook. Pentiumm 266, upgraded to 96MB of RAM, 4GB Hard Drive and one of the first TFT displays. This was 1998.
-PII 450 on an ASUS board
-PIII 666 (7) on an ABIT board
-PIII 800 (slot 1) on an ABIT board, BX Chipset, GeForce 2 GTS Pro video, 768MB of RAM.
-P4 1.6Ghz (A) on an ABIT TH7II-RAID
-P4 2.4Ghz on the same board
-Mac Powerbook G3
-P4 3.0Ghz on an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe (overclocking fun with this one)
-P4 "Dual core" at 3.2Ghz, ASUS board
-Core2Quad Q6600 on an ASUS Maximus Formula, flashed to a Rampage Formula. This one was run at 3.6Ghz. 8GB of RAM, ASUS NVidia 8800GTS video
-Core i5 750 @ 4Ghz on water. 8GB of RAM, RAID 10, ASUS P7P55D-E, ASUS Radeon 5870. (Current rig)
-IBM ThinkPad T-42P
-ASUS A7S 17" Notebook
-HP DV-series 15.4" (CoreDuo)

 

[Quattro Pete]

Oh wow... going down memory lane. I like it, but I probably don't remember a lot of the details anymore...

1985: Atari 800XL, 1.78 MHz CPU, 64KB RAM, tape recorder used as mass storage (almost made me pull all my hair out!), later bought an external 5.25" floppy drive.

1990: Commodore Amiga 500, 7.1 MHz CPU (Motorola 68000), 512KB RAM (later expanded to 1MB), 3.5" floppy drive built-in.

1997: Quantex something PC, 233 MHz Pentium II CPU, 32MB RAM, Windows 95.

2003: Dell Inspiron 1100, Intel Celeron 2GHz CPU (later upgraded to Pentium IV 2.6GHz, 400FSB), 256MB RAM (later upgraded to 1GB), Windows XP.

2008: Dell Vostro 200, Intel Core2Duo E8200 2.66GHz, 3GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, Windows 7 (my current main home PC).

2008: MSI Wind, Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, Windows XP (my current netbook).

2009: Dell Studio Slim, Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4550, Windows 7 (my current HTPC).


Not counting all the work laptops that I've gone through over the years...

 

[Win]

1979? Atari 400 with dual 6502's and 16K RAM. Still have this machine with all the accessories.

1980-81? The Osborne portable, used a Z80 iirc. Still have this machine, bumped into it in my warehouse of junk a few weeks ago.

1984 ish a TRS 80 Model IV, Z80 cpu, 128K RAM, dual disk drives, and a 5MB winchester hard drive. Still have this guy, also.

First "PC" was '93 or '94 and I don't recall if it was an 80286/12 or an 80386SX-33.

Dozens of PC's since then. I don't even bother to recycle parts from them any more. I just wipe the hard drives and drop them off at the local charity outlet.

Been through Atari Basic, CP/M, TRS-DOS, PC-DOS, OS/2 and now just windows for convenience.

Most of my current pc fleet are these mini things that use atom processors and hang on the back of a monitor.

 

[apwillard1986]

-Mattel Aquarius (I miss those chiclet keys!)

-Commodore 128

-Amiga 500 (incredible machine)

-Beige Box generic 100 mhz pentium. Slowly upgraded with various parts until all that remained that was original was the AT case... (My first Linux system)
-Gateway Celeron slim line
-P4 homebuilt
-iBook G4
-iMac intel
-macbook pro
-macbook
-Dell Mini 9 running ubuntu
-Gateway Windows 7 on sale laptop...

There where others but mostly just cheap beige box systems. Some of those machines really were something special. Especially the 80s and early 90s. Cool thread and a neat trip down memory lane. What about some of those old periphrales... My first printer was an Epson LQ-2500 dad bought from his office as surplus. It was so old the Amiga driver for it was labeled "Epson OLD." It was so noisey my parents wouldn't let me print my homework past 830pm...

 

[PandaBear]

386 SX 16Mhz with 1MB of RAM and 40MB HD
486 DX 100Mhz with 16MB of RAM and 200MB HD
Pentium MMX 166Mhz with 128MB of RAM and 500MB HD
Celeron A 450Mhz with 512MB of RAM and 20GB HD
Athlon XP 1.4Ghz with 1.5GB of RAM and 80GB HD (still my main machine)

then there's a bunch of boring stuff I build/bought for my parents and wife:

Pentium M laptop 1.3Ghz with 1GB of RAM and 120GB HD
Core 2 Duo laptop 2.4Ghz with 2GB of RAM and 80GB HD

Pentium III 1Ghz with 512MB of RAM and 40GB HD
Pentium IV 3Ghz with 2GB of RAM and 200GB HD

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL

-IBM "Imagination Station" 486SX/25. Eventually got the Overdrive (had the math copro socket) for it, 48MB of RAM, 1.6GB WD hard drive (upgraded obviously) Cirrus Logic on-board graphics and a 14" monitor. I installed NT5 on it (before it became Win2K).


Ouch, that thing running Win2k must be painful.

 

[cchase]

First computer for me was a PC XT. I don't remember the hard drive capacity but I think it was only about 5-10 MB. The hard drive didn't work within a year or so and so we had to use the dual 5.25" floppy drives and the 128KB or so of memory I recall it having to run DOS and any other software.

Fun computer.

We followed that with a PC Brand (our first of a string of computers made by companies that no longer exist) with a 100MB hard drive, 386 processor, and 4MB of RAM.

Following that was our first Pentium computer, a Micron (another defunct brand) with a Pentium 1 133MHz, 1.2GB hard drive, and 16MB of RAM which we later upgraded to 32MB. Our first internet-ready computer with a 28.8 kbps modem. Also our first computer with a CD drive. Only threw that computer out a year ago, used to love using it even up until then for posterities sake. That was a very well-built, both in design and engineering, computer, as all 90's and prior computers were...

Now running a Lenovo T510, although ironically I am using my old Dell Inspiron 5150 currently.

 

[AandPDan]

OK, I'm old.

1980 Timex Sinclair
1981 TRS-80 Color Computer
1986 - 1987 Epson Equity 2+ 80286, 2mb of ram (add-in board)and a 20mb hard drive ($2000 plus when new!)
1987 Epson Equity 1+, 8088. 640kb.
1992 - Generic 80486 32mb.
1995 - Pentium upgrade for above (Win95 upgrade too). 64mb
1998 - IBM 385XD laptop (Win98)96mb
1999 - Home Build, KX7-333, AMD Athlon 2700+ (PCLinux)1gb
2006 - Lenovo R51 (WinXP)768mb
2011 - Lenovo IdeaCentre K330 (Windows7)6gb.

I'm still running the '92 computer and everything after.

I also prefer the command line to a GUI.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL

-IBM "Imagination Station" 486SX/25. Eventually got the Overdrive (had the math copro socket) for it, 48MB of RAM, 1.6GB WD hard drive (upgraded obviously) Cirrus Logic on-board graphics and a 14" monitor. I installed NT5 on it (before it became Win2K).


Ouch, that thing running Win2k must be painful.


It was actually faster than Windows 98 on it, LOL!

 

[lyle]

I've had so many over the decades, but the first was an Apple IIC, and the first IBM compatible was an IBM PC-XT with the 8" floppies. Since then, I've built or bought literally dozens of systems for personal use, mostly Intel based, but there have been a half-dozen AMD machines through the years.

 

[zyxelenator]

my first own PC was Pentium 100 with 24 megs of ram and 60 MB hard drive, in older case, that my Father brought from US.After 600 MB hard drive.
Then I bought and built my first PC: AMD K6-2 500 MHz ended up with 384 or 512 MB ram, not sure. Then AMD Athlon 1GHz 1 Gig of ram, hard 20 gig, now much bigger, my mom still using it. Then laptop which I also gave to my mom. It is Dell with P3 700 mhz and 256 MB ram. Then I build AMD 64 3200+(Socket 754 when they just came out) and 1,5 Gigs of ram, Fist It had 2X 200Gig Hard Drives, then 76 Gig 10k rpm SATA Raptor was added. Right now not sure, my sister is using it. Then or same time couple builds with my dad. Athlon 1600+ with 1.5 Gigs Ram and 120G and 320G hard drives, AMD 64 3200+ with 2 Gigs of RAM. 320 G + 160 G Hards. Used it for couple years after my Dad bought new Dual core AMD, and Later iMac. Most recent build just for fun and some use was blade server(used to be a part of cluster for some big company) 2 AMD Opteron 1,4 CPU (I have 2 2.2GHz, but it need bios flush, and board in not supported anymore) 6 gigs of ECC REG RAM, 60 gig hard. Then I just bought ACER Laptop with Pentium 2.0 GHZ Duo core and 3 Gigs of Ram. All PCs starting from first AMD 64 were used Windows and Linux dual boot or just Linux.

 

[GMFan]

Desktops:

1996 - Gateway 2000. Pentium 100mhz, 8mb ram, 1.2gb HD. Ram eventually upgraded to 72mb. (No failures - Retired in 2003)

1999 - No-name computer from local computer shop. 766mhz Celeron, 20GB, 128MB Ram (No failures - Retired in 2003)

2003 - Custom built computer - 2.2GHz AMD XP 2800+,1GB ram, 80 + 160GB HD. (Had to RMA motherboard - Currently out of service...possible failed ethernet port on motherboard. I still plan to fix this computer and get it running again)

2003 - HP Desktop 2GHz? AMD XP 2400+, 512MB RAM, 80GB ran 24/7 (Failures during service required new HD (160GB), DVD-RW and Power Supply) (Retired in 2010 after 2nd power supply failed and possibly took out the motherboard in the process (cheap chinese power supplies!)

2010 - HP Slimline AMD XII, 3GB RAM, 640GB HD. (In service)


Laptops:

~2000 - HP ze4200 1.8GHZ AMD, 512MB RAM, 30GB HD, 15" (Retired in 2005..has bad video card)

2005 - HP dv6000 AMD Athlon XP 2800+, 1GB RAM, 80GB, 15 widescreen (Required repair on hinges and cooling fan under warranty - Retired in 2009...this was my college PC.)

2011 (My current daily machine) - Lenovo G460, Intel i5 2.67GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, 14" screen and acer 19" LCD monitor.


All of the above ran 24/7 during their life up until about 2009. The latest machines are set to sleep or are shut down at night. Reason being that computers can start up much quicker these days rather than waiting for 10 minutes



Work computer:

Office: Dell Optiplex 760, Intel Core2 Duo, 2GB RAM, Win XP, 80GB HD...(2) 19" widescreen LCD monitors

When I'm in the field: Dell Vostro 3700, Intel i5, 3GB RAM, 250GB HD, 17" monitor


Of all those machines the HP from 2003 was the biggest workhorse....I replaced many components in that machine over the 7 years of 24/7 running...not too bad. I can't really bash HP, they've been pretty good to me. I'm LOVING my new Lenovo however.

I still HAVE all of the machines listed above except the Gateway 2000. They either are too slow to use or have busted components. I plan on getting the custom 2003 machine back online when I get the time...it's still set up at one of the desks in our house. I have pride in that one since I built it myself.


I don't get how some folks kills computers within 2-3 years...in my experience they will go on and on for years as long as you replace the occasional failed component and clean the inside of the case from time to time. Then again I'm not a computer gamer. A simple reformat and fresh windows makes them run like new.



Edit: Oh yea...I also had an IBM pentium 133GHz around the time of the Gateway 2000 handed down third of fourth hand from some guy for free. I use to play StarCraft on it...the IBM was way faster than the Gateway...33Mhz made all the difference back then!