I don't exacly know what computer it was - but first time using a computer was in 1993, at a computer lab in a local school. I believe it was either a 386-DX40 or a 486DX-33. It was running DOS and windows 3.11 for workgorups. It was such an important experience for me that I requested I be moved there in middleschool, as my previous school did not have a computer lab. When I was enrolled there I also got my first PC - a 133Mhz 586 witch I was just learning how to use.

I remember one day in middleschool I was messing around in the (empty) computer lab, starting up Notron Commander and looking at system info. Some of the PCs were 40MHz 386's, others were 33 or 66 MHz 486-DX's. Later on the school upgraded half of the 486 machines with 100MHz DX4's and 8MB of ram, and the 386's with the leftover parts from the older 486 machines, so the whole lab had 486 PCs (despite them being obsolete at that point) apart from the server witch was a 60MHz pentium.

All computers had a 14" color monitor, and had one of these two cases:

Older 386 and ISA only 33MHz 486 PCs came in these, or something very very close to it:

Newer 486's (66 and later 100Mhz) came in this model case:

Aaah, memories. We used to spend hours playing Doom, Heretic or Descent. Descent ran like ass tough. I remember only using the limited number of DX4-100 PCs for descent, and even with 3-4 people it still lagged like crazy.

Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-06, 16:45:

Older 386 and ISA only 33MHz 486 PCs came in these, or something very very close to it:
s-l500.png

Got one in that style that has a 286 engraved case badge. I don't even remember though if it had a 286 board in when I got it or had been upgraded. I would imagine it was a late 286. Ima go look at my attachments, see if it was on a pic a while back and the badge shows up.

Ah there it is, top right, can just about tell it says 286 since you know that's what you're looking for...
download/file.php?id=148009

The first I used was at my babysitter's apartment. Her older daughter allowed me to try a sports game. I was 6 or so… probably around 94. It was some kind of winter sports game and i remember having to press the keys in rythme to accelerate. It was definitely on DOS.

My parents bought a computer in 98.
Packard Bell Multimedia 350.
PII 350. 64Mb SDR. 3D Rage Pro. DVD Player. Aureal Vortex (1 ?). Modem and dialup internet. ~8GB HDD. W98 first edition.

My first own computer was... a Pocket PC. HP Jornada545. That I still own and still runs. Probably in 99 because I remember being anxious about Y2K bug. I was ~12 and saved pocket money a few years to buy it.

First online game was Diablo at my cousin's place.

First own PC was a pair of NEC PCs. One for my brother and one for me. Old business machines bought from my mom's work. One was PIII 500 the other a Celeron 300A. I still have both CPU (but not the systems). I still run the Celeron overclocked at 450.

We had 512k DSL around this time and had a connection sharing setup with my brother to play HL Deathmatch online.

First "new" PC was an Athlon64 3000+ s939. K8N-Neo2 Platinum. Radeon 9600XT on XP. Probably around 2004.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-10-06, 17:17:

Got one in that style that has a 286 engraved case badge. I don't even remember though if it had a 286 board in when I got it or […]
Show full quote

Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-06, 16:45:

Older 386 and ISA only 33MHz 486 PCs came in these, or something very very close to it:
s-l500.png

Got one in that style that has a 286 engraved case badge. I don't even remember though if it had a 286 board in when I got it or had been upgraded. I would imagine it was a late 286. Ima go look at my attachments, see if it was on a pic a while back and the badge shows up.

Ah there it is, top right, can just about tell it says 286 since you know that's what you're looking for...
download/file.php?id=148009

I have a couple myself. Not that exact model mind you, but similar, horizontal not vertical front "grill" lines, with a front keyboard connector. I rescued them from a school back in 2009-2010 or so. One housed a 16mhz 286 and the other a (dead) 33mhz 486 dx. I restored the 286, took apart the 486 and put it in storage.

Glad to see this thread gets resurrected. 😸

The first computer in my family was a Taiwanese Apple IIe clone that looked very much like an IBM PC/XT. I've been trying quite hard to find its make and model after I get into retro computing but info is really scarce. I Googled all models on Wikipedia with no matching result; the most similar model was a "Digitronix Sherry PC" shown on this Attack of the CLONES page.

• Purchased in the first half of 1984, later than Apple IIe but earlier than PC/AT.
• Beige-grey color scheme with big red power switch near the rear end of right hand side, very unlike Apple but similar to PC.
• Independent, separated keyboard with IBM Model F/XT layout, with two visible differences: 1) red LEDs on Caps Lock and Num Lock; pressing the keys would produce a high-pitched beep, and 2) riser feet were spring-loaded and those springs were very strong; as a kid they struck my fingers a few times with painful results.
• Had one 5.25" floppy disk drive integrated to the chassis (just another similarity to PC rather than Apple); no other form of storage (HDD, tape, or cartridge) but had a joystick with two buttons.
• Green phosphor monochrome monitor, probably 12".
• The startup message was "COMPUTER" instead of "Apple ][".
• Could input lower-case letters with Caps Lock inactive (evidence of being a IIe clone); the default state of Caps Lock was active, though.
• Had BASIC ROM: if no floppy was inserted, the computer could still be used for BASIC programming.
• Seller bundled (pirated) disks of Apple DOS 3.3 (which confused me when I used MS-DOS the first time -- same version number!), Pac-Man, County Fair, Seafox, Speedway Classic, Bug Attack (first time heard The Ants Go Marching), and Lode Runner.

In 1990 I got my first x86: Datatech/DTK 386.

• Intel 80386DX-20
• 1MB RAM (4x256KB SIPP memory); upgraded to 4x1MB in 1992
• 40MB HDD, probably Seagate ST-157A (I remember the curved shell and a black, rectangular front panel, as well as the exact same startup self-test noise)
• Two 5.25" 1.2MB FDD; later replaced one with 3.5" 1.44MB
• Unknown brand monochrome video adapter with 12" monochrome monitor (yellow phosphor); upgraded to ET4000/w32 and 14" VGA monitor in 1992
• No sound card; added SBPro2 (CT1600) in 1992
• No CD-ROM; added CR-521/523 (gotta check the model number again) in 1993 (was kind of a poor deal as double-speed CR-562/563 was hitting the market)
• Epson LQ-500 dot-matrix printer
• Legal copy of bundled MS-DOS 3.3, upgraded twice later (5.0 and 6.20)

Now the CPU, floppy drives, CR-521/523, LQ-500, and MS-DOS 6.20 are kept in storage; SBPro2 is still working on my Asus TXP4 + Pentium-MMX 233.

Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-06, 20:01:

I have a couple myself. Not that exact model mind you, but similar, horizontal not vertical front "grill" lines, with a front keyboard connector. I rescued them from a school back in 2009-2010 or so. One housed a 16mhz 286 and the other a (dead) 33mhz 486 dx. I restored the 286, took apart the 486 and put it in storage.

This was actually unexpected, I just dug another one similar out today ... frommm... theeee.... grrraaaavvveee.... Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Another memory I had was at high school at lunchtime the library had two computers with win95 I believe. They were booked in slots and encarta 98 mind maze was always popular. I also remember the 3dfx blue box 3500 with the eyes on the display table as soon as you walk in with other on display books. Looking back at that memory, someone knew about good hardware.

I guess first would be Ti-99 4/A

My dad bought one in 79 ... I was born in 80.

Used it alot up until maybe 88 or 89... when it kinda lost its usefulness I guess. I have it still in my home office closet.

Then PC wise, it was A Leading Edge 8088 / 20mb system... I used this system at times well into the mid 90s when our Zeos 486 dx33 system was in use.

BBS's were my main thing back then... miss those days!

I built my first PC some time around late 93 or early 94 (probably 93). It had a 486DX25 and a Tseng ET4000. Can't remember the rest of the specs, but I do know I used MSDOS 6.2 and Win 3.11. It wasn't high spec even then, but it was the best I could afford as a student with no income 😀 Probably why I like the 486 even today as my favourite retro PC (although that build has a Cyrix 5x86 these days)

First time I used a computer was in 1996 or 1997 when I went to school, there was a computer class into which it was sometimes possible to go after-hours (and I had many every day 🤣) but I am not sure what the machines were but all of them ran win95 and some even could do 3D. Next school year was in a different school which had one Nokia Data 386SX that ran DOS+Norton Command and Win 3.1 which teachers used to make and print documents and other kids often played Keen, Prehistork and a handful of other games. A year or two later the school got 3 extra computers that were some multi hundred MHz celerons that ran Win98SE and even had dial-up internet capability but they were never given any games, only Office and other productivity software.

My very own computer happened in about 2004 or 5, when I traded a bunch of stuff for someone's old *black* Pentium1 AT tower. The case I still have but much of insides are long gone... It had Biostar TVX8500 (I think it was that) motherboard with vanilla P166, 32MB RAM, 1GB HDD, Yamaha YMF719 sound card and ATI Mach64CT. Duke3D and Doom got a lot of playtime on it along with a number of other DOS games and I learned programming on it too when I finally discovered what QBASIC.EXE is 🤣

This thread made me realize that there are a lot of computing experiences that I forgot about. I tend to think back at the computers we had at home, but I haven't thought about the school experiences in years. I was a 90s kid and "computers in the classroom" was a big deal at the time. I remember being in grade six when we got one in our classroom and it was the first time that many of us got to use a PC with digital sound that could play videos or use CDs. It was also really fun to have been a kid when the Internet was just becoming available to the public. I kind of forgot how fun it was when these things got started.

My first computer was a Dick Smith Super-80, a Z80-based kit computer. Eventually I had 3 or 4 of them. All since sold off.

Next, a Kaypro II - when it suffered an intermittent fault I figured out the problem but accidentally made a mistake and blew it up. Scrapped.

Next, a Dick Smith VZ-200 computer with most of the expansion options, including a disk drive. Still works, last time I tried it. Want to get rid of it.

Next, a Hanimex Pencil II. Never used it much. Worked last time I tried it several years ago. Want to get rid of it.

My first PC - Epson EL2 (286-based). This was a good computer, but eventually no use any more due to newer technology. Scrapped.

Next PC, my brother's first computer (386-based), 25MHz. Still working.

Next, another 386 PC, 16MHz. This was working until recently, I had a senior's moment and accidentally killed it. Scrapped.

Next, a K6-2 PC with Windows 95. It eventually died the usual motherboard death and was scrapped. The disk image was saved at the time, and recently resurrected onto different hardware successfully.

After that, a succession of old computers from my ex-workplace, plus a few "dumpster" finds. Some died and were scrapped while many others still function well.

4 "high-end" desktops over the years as well. 2 died and were scrapped, while the other 2 (win10-based) still work.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-10-06, 21:05:

Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-06, 20:01:

I have a couple myself. Not that exact model mind you, but similar, horizontal not vertical front "grill" lines, with a front keyboard connector. I rescued them from a school back in 2009-2010 or so. One housed a 16mhz 286 and the other a (dead) 33mhz 486 dx. I restored the 286, took apart the 486 and put it in storage.

This was actually unexpected, I just dug another one similar out today ... frommm... theeee.... grrraaaavvveee.... Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

That is both really cool and really really sad. Gorgeous baby-AT cases...

They're restorable, but it will take a lot of work and patience. Some of the power supplies might be salvageable too...