First Computer You've Owned?

[C-Man]

A Gateway PC!
I wouldn't suggest a Gateway as a first computer even to Satan himself.

I'd suggest a Mac.

:3

 

[HonestTruth]

I bought one in 2001 from a guy who had a storefront company in which he sold PCs made up of parts from other computers. Having no knowledge of the stuff, I bought it thinking the guy was honest and had a good reputation. Later on I learned he pilfered software from Microsoft and undoubtedly did the same for computer parts. The PC broke down several times and I thought this was the norm. I reported him to the Microsoft but don't know if they took any action against the crook.

Wish I had known more about PCs back then - it would have saved me considerable amounts of $.

 

[Trackball]

I built my first computer in 1997. I was poor but I have worked in the computer center and was able to buy components at a low price.
It was a very advanced model at the time. It had a sound card and video-accelerator Voodoo2.
Six months later, I sold it to a rich man (by Russian standards of those years).
Profit.

 

[Yoseft]

A Packard Bell with a screaming 14,400 modem to go to BBS's.

 

[beaverpond]

Lets see, first computer that we ever had was a Windows 2000, then Windows XP, big mistake was making the jump to Windows Vista. All of these were on Compaq and all of them varied between 20gb to 40gb hard drives.

Then when I bought the one I have now, I went with the HP Pavilion dv6 with a 250gb hard drive and a 500gb external hard drive which has been wiped and restarted once. I have been using this laptop for business use and put it through its paces compared to anything I have ever done before. It also has the AMD Turion Dual Ultra Core Processor at 2.5 Ghz with 4gb of RAM and 128 bit OS on Windows 7.

I customized this laptop through HP and when I did, I paid less than $800 for it. I was amazed considering I paid $1100 for the Compaq with Vista. I bought this in 2010.

 

[canisee]

Funny with Microsoft.

Vista and the 1st Windows 8 with no start button.

Sometimes they get the what were they thinking award.
By the way, I type this on an HP laptop Windows 7 64 bit system.

I love this clip.
Bill Gates, Windows 98, Blue Screen of Death - YouTube

 

[jdi12]

The very first computer I owned was a 386 I think. Slow indeed by today's standards.

 

[MJ Bond]

Oh man, I remember this. I didn't use a computer much until I was 17. It was an 100Mhz 500MB hard drive "calculator" lol with I can't remember how much RAM. Probably 64MB if that. Then later I upgraded to a 200MHz and thought I was awesome. Yet even back then they probably had 1.6 or 1.8Ghz single processors. Nowadays, I still don't have anywhere near the best, but it's still good enough for gaming. Quad core 2.8Ghz AMD 920, with 6Gb of DDR2 800Mhz ram. The ram's kinda old but by Windows 7's standards, it's the best part of my PC. Got an Ati Radeon HD 4800 series video card, so still not bad. This computer plays the kinds of games that I like. And I don't play anything new so it works for me.

 

[Sabertooth]

My first programmable computer was a TRS-80 Pocket Computer.

My first desktop computer was the Commodore SX-64.

 

[jamesrwright3]

The Amiga was an awesome computer. So much better then the 64. I thought serious about moving to LA and getting involved in Computer graphics for making movies. It turned out there was a lot of work there.

The first computer I used was in collage and the computer was the size of a room. We punched holes in a card to run them into the computer. Back then a computer bug was a real bug caught in a relay circuit. I took a survey course and we had to run our field data into the computer. I messed up because I sighted on a water tower that was WAY to far away. So I stood outside of the room and had people give their results to me. They were very happy to talk to me so they could verify that their results were in the same ball park as the other people. So I averaged the numbers, turned that in and I got an A on that project

I had a C64 as well and was jealous of the Amiga and it's 4096 colors

 

[HauntedByYou]

First family computer i was about 18. My mom got my dad a computer for Christmas. It was an Acer. This was back in the AOL days when you still only got so many hours a month before they went unlimited.
My first computer was on i built when i was taking classes for computers in my early/mid 20s. Since i had learned how to load Windows and didn't share the computer i experimented so much i had to reinstall Windows weekly hahaha.

 

[Habbit Animal]

Gateway.

Worst company on the face of the planet. They sold defective units that had bad processors. Then they'd immediately try to upgrade the customer the first call they made to TS. This then voided the warranty on the machine if someone actually did upgrade. And so as to get the company off being responsible for selling that customer a defective computer.

It took years but they sent me a new PC and I sent them back their piece of garbage.

I wouldn't give a gateway computer to the worst enemy of my enemy.

What is the first computer you've owned? Whether it was a family computer or your own, it doesn't matter so much.

My family's first computer that I remember was a 386 at a screamin' 40 mhz, We had Windows 3.1 and MS Dos.

Now before I was born my family had a Macintosh Plus. It had a Black & White screen and 1 MB of RAM.

How about you guys?

 

[vja4Him]

My first computer experience was with a Teletype in the 70s. The first computer I bought for myself was a Mac SE/SuperDrive in 1990 (not the SE/30, which I now own four or five), which only had 1 MB of RAM, but two Floppy Drives, and a HUGE 20 MB HD! I upgraded the HD to 360 MB, which I never filled up. Still have that beast. I took an SE/30 Logic Board and stuck it in the SE/SuperDrive, which works just fine, and I can install up to 128 MB of RAM, which I have done with several SE/30s.

I have lots of old Macs in my computer collection, most still work. My second new computer was the Blue & White Mini Tower, 350 MHz, with a whopping 6GB HD! I think it came stock with only 250MB of RAM, which I upgraded to 1GB. Had nothing but problems. I should have purchased the Three-Year Extended Apple Warranty so I could either get it fixed or replaced. I really like that beast.

I'm a Mac Addict, and now have a dead MacPro desktop, which I killed when I tried cleaning with alcohol and Q-tips. Now I need to find a good used Logic Board .....

 

[saffron park]

I saved up (IIRC) $400 with cans and bottles, and my parents paid for the other half. I think I was eight. I can still remember how it smells.

 

[beaverpond]

I just got a new HP ProBook with Windows 7 Professional. I didn't even know you could still buy Windows 7, took some digging but they are out there. It has the manufacturers warrantee and a three year extended accidental damage and spill damage warrantee as well. This one has a 500gb hard drive, intel i5 processor which operates at 2.6 ghz, 4 usb ports, and the list goes on.

My daughters cat fried my last laptop by digging his claws through the keyboard, the thing literally went up in smoke shortly thereafter.

 

[look4hope]

A compaq. Wow...seems for ever ago. (2001)

 

[beaverpond]

My wife still has her Compaq from '05, thank goodness too. Hard to run a business without a computer now-a-days.

 

[look4hope]

Beaverpond, wow!
I'm glad hers still works well. Mine didn't last more than 4 years
And I must agree, a computer is a must for a business nowadays.

 

[beaverpond]

I think next year will be the year I get her a new one if it does not die before then. Reason being is that while I was using it, two of the usb ports quit working, three keys keep popping off and I have to gingerly pop them back into place, and the battery could only hold a charge for 10 minutes. I just do not see the point in dropping a ton of money into that beast if I don't have to.

 

[J.B.]

The first computer I ever used, and became acquainted with pretty shortly, was the Windows '95. I remember the days of dial-up, the America Online (AOL) internet service, and all of the slow connections of the internet and the slow loading times of old games. I didn't even create my own email address or join a message board until around 2006. I went through the Windows '98 for a time, although in 2003 or 2004, I got the Windows XP on a newer computer, and I used that until 2010. Now, I use a recent model Mac OS X desktop computer, although my family mostly uses laptops.