What was your first computer?

[Techno_Reverend]

 

 

Phenom II 790FX PC and has a 7850 in it now.

[CommanderAlex]

First CPU: AMD A8-5500

First GPU: AMD R9 270X from XFX (CDFC model)

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

i think 486 had 8mb ram and was either 33 or 66MHz. no dedicated GPU but it did have a sound blaster and deluxe cd rom upgrade

[ArcThanatos]

386 DX 40 Mhz

(had to research the Trident, forgot what model... I found it, you ready for this monster, the 1080 titan killer!!!)

Trident 8992 Rev A3 TVGA8900D 512KB 16-Bit ISA

 

aaah those where the wacky wheel days!!

[bossman1]

All you guys had it so good. I remember the old days with magentic tape, then floppies.

Dinosaur tech

 

Selectron tubes (1946)

In 1946 RCA began developing the Selectron tube—an early form of random access storage that was never produced in a commercially viable form. The original Selectron tube measured 10 inches and could store 4096 bits but was expensive to build and therefore replaced in the market by the widely available core memory.

 

Magnetic tape (1951-present)

Introduced in the 1950s, magnetic tape revolutionalized the broadcast and recording industries. Made of magnetizable coating on a long, thin strip of plastic, magnetic tapes allowed unmatched amounts of data to be created, stored and rapidly accessed. Magnetic tape was the most popular means of storing data until the mid 1980s, since a single roll could store 1TB, or as much data as 10,000 punch cards.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crabchick/2779425680/

 

 

Compact cassette (1970s-1980s)

The Compact Cassette was introduced by Philips in 1963 as a type of magnetic tape, although it didn’t gain popularity until the 1970s. A typical 90-minute cassette could store close to 700kB to 1MB of data per side of the tape. Compact Cassettes were used to store data in a few computers and remained popular until the late 1980s.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulforsdick/396667264/

 

Magnetic drum (1950s-1960s)

Magnetic drums were commonly used in computers as the main working memory, giving computers the name “drum machines” from the 1950s to 1960s. These drums were 16 inches long and spun at a rate of 12,500 revolutions per minute. One of IBM’s earliest computers, the IBM 650, was one of the first computers to utilize a magnetic drum. It was used to supply the IBM 650 with 10,000 characters of main memory.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/350435387/

 

Floppy disk (1969-present)

The first floppy disk was introduced in 1969 and was a read-only 8 inch disk capable of storing 80kB of data. In 1973, a disk of the same size was created with a storage capacity of 256kB and the ability to write new data. Since then, floppy disks have been created smaller but with more data storage. The average capacity of a floppy disk is around 1.44MB.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/5760002079/

 

 

Hard drive (1956-present)

The first hard drive, unveiled by IBM in 1956, was a revolution in data storage, capable of reserving up to 4.4MB. The 305 RAMAC stored its data on 50 24 inch magnetic disks. Since the introduction of the 305 RAMAC, hard drives have been under constant improvement. The first hard disk drive stored roughly 120,000 times more data than IBM’s RAMAC at 500GB. Today, hard drives are smaller, cheaper, faster and can store more data.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkn/5472536812/

 

LaserDisc (1958-2000s)

LaserDisc technology was pioneered in 1958, although it wasn’t available on the market until 1978. This type of disc is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It is not possible to store typical hard drive data on these discs, but it is feasible to store video and image data with greater quality than VHS tapes.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/command-tab/131740111/

 

Compact disc (1979-present)

Originating from the LaserDisc, the compact disc (CD) is smaller and stores less data. CDs were developed by SONY and Philips in 1979 and arrived at market in 1982. They were originally created exclusively to store sound recordings but have evolved to encompass data storage. Today, a standard CD can store 700MB of data.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustpuppy/4805018/

[porina]

First CPU: Intel 486DX2/66 - Yup, 66 MHz of powah!

First "GPU": if we call that something with useful 3D capabilities, it would be the original 3DFX. Can't remember much about it, but it ran separately from the (2D) video card, and you had a VGA passthrough on it. I got it so I could play FFVIII in 640x480 glory, not the 320x240 that CPU rendering mode offered.

[ArcThanatos]

1 minute ago, SCHISCHKA said:

i think 486 had 8mb ram and was either 33 or 66MHz. no dedicated GPU but it did have a sound blaster and deluxe cd rom upgrade

pffft I done better... 2Mb 32 pin RAM. no sound XD, sound was for chumps! lol

[ArcThanatos]

1 minute ago, porina said:

First CPU: Intel 486DX2/66 - Yup, 66 MHz of powah!

First "GPU": if we call that something with useful 3D capabilities, it would be the original 3DFX. Can't remember much about it, but it ran separately from the (2D) video card, and you had a VGA passthrough on it. I got it so I could play FFVIII in 640x480 glory, not the 320x240 that CPU rendering mode offered.

remember installing win 3.1 on 5 1/4. took my PC 2 hrs. something like 10 disc's. that massive 20mb OS lol

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

1 minute ago, bossman1 said:

Selectron tubes (1946)

 

do you really remember computer tech from the 40s? a relative of mine operated a computer during the war that was used to perform calculations for artillery. its all rotted away, remains now are just some conduit pipes sticking out of a concrete bunker. Any idea what computers they would have used on ~1930s British disappearing guns?

[porina]

1 minute ago, ArcThanatos said:

remember installing win 3.1 on 5 1/4. took my PC 2 hrs. something like 10 disc's. that massive 20mb OS lol

Nice to know I'm not the only *cough* older person around here. The first PC I used was a 386SX16 and 40MB HD. It was my brothers. I didn't know what I was doing and properly messed up Windows on it, so I thought I'd reinstall... it didn't go well. We went both ways though. One 5.25" floppy drive and one 3.5" one!

[Mira Yurizaki]

The first computer in my name had an Intel Celeron running at 600MHz and some integrated GPU. It could run Half-Life at like 30FPS.

 

The first gaming purpose built computer had a Athlon XP 2500+ and a GeForce FX 5600.

 

The first computer that I built myself had an Athlon X2 3800+ with a GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB.

 

I think the very first computer I used was probably an IBM 5150 or close to it at a school.

[bossman1]

IBM and Ford and GM helped Hitler in the war. Did you know that fact?

A quick google found this IBM's technology helped facilitate Nazi genocide through generation and tabulation of punch cards based upon national census data.

[ArcThanatos]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

Nice to know I'm not the only *cough* older person around here. The first PC I used was a 386SX16 and 40MB HD. It was my brothers. I didn't know what I was doing and properly messed up Windows on it, so I thought I'd reinstall... it didn't go well. We went both ways though. One 5.25" floppy drive and one 3.5" one!

im 27 mate haha, I'm not old, just yrs haven't been kind! XD. yeah I had 2 210Mb (WD) and a Maxtor 80mb. a 4x ROM, 1 floppy and a 5 1/4. I remember the 386 SX haha,

actually I have a MX200 at home I just remembered. I should do it up and post it up here! haha I would love to OC a old ass cpu  , mate how awesome would that be getting some old shit and doing old school overclocking. break out that led pencil!

[it_dont_work]

The first that was actually mine was a Pentium II 233 with mmx! and  2mb trident 3d card.  Family had a commodore and some Packard Bell thing as well.

[laquine]

First ever CPU and GPU for me would be a pentium 4 and BFG 8400 GS. Ran FSX like a champ.... well back in the day it felt like that.

[porina]

14 minutes ago, ArcThanatos said:

im 27 mate haha, I'm not old, just yrs haven't been kind! XD. yeah I had 2 210Mb (WD) and a Maxtor 80mb. a 4x ROM, 1 floppy and a 5 1/4. I remember the 386 SX haha,

actually I have a MX200 at home I just remembered. I should do it up and post it up here! haha I would love to OC a old ass cpu  , mate how awesome would that be getting some old shit and doing old school overclocking. break out that led pencil!

I may have made bad assumptions... if you had a 386 new at the time, you might have been installing playing Solitaire before you could walk  

[kelvinhall05]

4 hours ago, MrDynamicMan said:

if laptops count sandy bridge i3 and ayymd discrete something. (i was 10, ok?!)

You thought your first laptop was bad.

Mine had a Ivy Bridge Celeron 1007U, whatever iGPU was on it, and 4gb of RAM...

[ArcThanatos]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

I may have made bad assumptions... if you had a 386 new at the time, you might have been installing playing Solitaire before you could walk  

I was in yr 3, so I would of been 9ish I think when I did my first build. but the computers and parts were all 2nd hand, my dad got them from his work as they were going to ditch them so we got a bunch of PC's and I started building..... nostalgia kicking in fo some old pc parts!!!

[Arc_Jester]

Single core Celeron @ 2.2 GHZ from the early 2000s and an Intel GMA.

[thefrecklepuny]

8086 with 640k RAM!!!

[Marinatall_Ironside]

First CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K

First GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB FTW ACX 2.0+

 

Gonna be upgrading the GPU now that I'm playing at 1440p and would like to turn up dem graphics settings.

 

Give you an idea, The Witcher 3 had to have all of the settings turned all the way down to hit high FPS numbers in 1440p with the GTX 960.

[Bleedingyamato]

10 hours ago, TetraSky said:

CPU : Pentium 3 733Mhz

GPU : NVIDIA GeForce 256

 

Because THIS was my first PC.

It was garbage. Had to ship it back for repair maybe 5 times in the first year. We upgraded the RAM to 192(then 256 and then 512 near the end)and the OS to Windows XP when it came out.

May I ask your age please?   (Serious question not being mean I promise.)

 

You could pm me if you'd rather not say publicly.  Or if you don't want to tell me that's ok too.

 

6 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

The first computer in my name had an Intel Celeron running at 600MHz and some integrated GPU. It could run Half-Life at like 30FPS.

 

The first gaming purpose built computer had a Athlon XP 2500+ and a GeForce FX 5600.

 

The first computer that I built myself had an Athlon X2 3800+ with a GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB.

 

I think the very first computer I used was probably an IBM 5150 or close to it at a school.

Same question: I'm curious about your age in relation to the first computers you owned and used.  Again a pm would be ok if saying here is not preferable to you. Also again if you don't want to tell me that's ok.  

[pinksnowmanshandle]

Desktop ?

Welll then this I suppose,

(i3 6100)

 

I don't have a GPU yet but it will probably be a RX 460.

[Noyu]

Laptop: 5.5 years old now wee

CPU: Intel Core i5-2410M 2.30 GHz (up to 2.90 GHz)

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT525M

 

PC: RIP 2017, upgraded to current build

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.20 GHz (OC'd to 4.20 GHz)

GPU: SAPPHIRE NITRO RADEON R9 380 4GB

 

we had a Pentium 4 back in the day, but that wasn't really "mine"

[divito]

My first, I couldn't tell you. My dad worked for Digital (DEC) and we had a few computers when I was little, running DOS and the like. The next tower we had was a Digital with a Pentium Pro 200MHz CPU.

After getting obsessed with Counter-Strike, the first computer I actually paid for was a:

Pentium 4 - 1.7GHz

GeForce 2 MX 64MB
512MB RAM
60GB Hard Drive

Then I was down the rabbit hole into building my computers, doing the cold cathode tube thing, overclocking and nerding it out in my youth.