Hehe I will tell you one thing. A Quantum Fireball hard drive will not sneak up on you. I think they designed the bearings extra, extra whiney. I guess in the same way Creative designed AWEs to be extra, extra echoey.

Edit: that brings up a point. Do you think Creative engineers that designed the AWE32 were genetically engineered in test tubes and raised in cavernous, underground, concrete tunnels with only hard surfaces and nothing to break up sound waves? Hmmm, I think I am onto them.

The truth comes out!

I have a sled-ful of old 7200 RPM IDE drives. They all seem to produce an unbelievable amount of noise. I like the Maxtor single platter 40 GB drives, just because they seem simple enough to maybe be reliable.

My First first computer (personal PC)
Pentium III 866MHz + Intel 810 chipset/Compaq Deskpro EN
512MB 133MHz SDRAM
40GB Maxtor HDD
48x CDROM
FDD 1.44MB
Windows XP SP2
TNT2 Pro 16MB
ATi TV Tuner (IDK model)
AC'97 Sound

Pretty beat up, considering where it's been for 7 years.




My "first" computer (my grandma's old IBM, that was replaced in favor to a Dell Optiplex 760)
386DX-16 /w coprocessor
4MB RAM + 4MB on Expansion board
8514/a
120MB HD
1.44MB FD
Windows 3.1 + DOS 6.2

EDIT: Decided to add another treasure I dug outta the garage: me and my dad's old P4 gaming machine

2.66GHz Pentium 4 Prescott
MSI PM8Vsomething
2GB DDR 400
80GB Seagate SATA HDD (dead... 😢 )
Random CD/DVD drives
Radeon 8500 all-in-one 64MB AGP
I don't know what else to add, I remember it running XP then Win 7 starter. I really have a nostalgia boner for this fucker, being the first PC me and my dad collectively built (he paid, I picked parts, and now that I think about it, why didn't I choose an Athlon 64?)

armankordi wrote:

My "first" computer (my grandma's old IBM, that was replaced in favor to a Dell Optiplex 760) 386DX-16 /w coprocessor 4MB RAM + […]
Show full quote

My "first" computer (my grandma's old IBM, that was replaced in favor to a Dell Optiplex 760)
386DX-16 /w coprocessor
4MB RAM + 4MB on Expansion board
8514/a
120MB HD
1.44MB FD
Windows 3.1 + DOS 6.2

this one is the most interesting out of the lot for me. It looks to be in amazing condition! Very nice. I have been looking for one of those for a while now...it was the first computer that I played Kings/Space Quest 1, 2 and 3 on, but it was too expensive for my family to own one, but my friend had one and we played old Sierra games on it for hours on end. One of my Model M clicky keyboard would match up great with one of those 🤣 It's great that it includes the coprocessor...was that an option for those or did it come with it I wonder?

retrofanatic wrote:

this one is the most interesting out of the lot for me. It looks to be in amazing condition! Very nice. I have been looking for one of those for a while now...it was the first computer that I played Kings/Space Quest 1, 2 and 3 on, but it was too expensive for my family to own one, but my friend had one and we played old Sierra games on it for hours on end. One of my Model M clicky keyboard would match up great with one of those 🤣 It's great that it includes the coprocessor...was that an option for those or did it come with it I wonder?

She bought it new with the coprocessor sometime 1989, then the FDD died in '96, so it got replaced. The monitor and keyboard are SOMEWHERE (hopefully not at the dump)
And you should've seen the thing before I cleaned it up. Smudges everywhere.

P.S: Thanks for the compliment 😊 I tend to keep my vintage PC's clean inside and out.

I bought my first computer second hand off my brother - an IBM Aptiva 486 or so. Didn't get techie on it so don't remember much, but it did have a 1mb NumberNine video card - I know because I tried to upgrade it to 2mb. Didn't keep the rig very long since I got hit by the PC bug in a big way went all in on a full fledged P200mmx that had just hit the market.

Technically though, my first computer was one of those vintage cassette tape deck driven things you had to hook up to a TV set, and came with a really small/hard to use pressure push keyboard. I salvaged it from work after the guys decided they'd never need it. It sat in my closet for years - I tried to hook it up once but never got it running; missing a cable I think. Not sure what happened to it.

The first PC I owned was a Laser Turbo XT. It was a whopping 10 MHz with a 40MB RLL HDD, and dual 5.25 DD drives. I upgraded it from CGA to an 8 bit VGA card, and added an og Sound Blaster 1.0. It had just enough power to play Ultima VI and Monkey Island, albeit, slowly.

Fond memories of it, but I got rid of it yeas ago when the hard drive failed. I'd buy it again if I could find it.

laxdragon wrote:

http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w515/laxdragon42/1988searssm02_zpse0a544c5.jpg […]
Show full quote

Original documentation is nice to have.

For a recently purchased laptop, I saved screencaps of the manufacturer's page and the retailer's, as well as the promotional vids. Stuck them all in a folder called "baby pics" and squirreled it away with the drivers and tech PDFs.

Nice posts! Real classics there! I believe I remember another old computer from my childhood. It was one of the hand-me-downs from my dad. It was one of these 1997 Compaq Presario "space shuttle shaped mini tower" PCs and I think it might have had a K6 processor in it. I remembered it when I found a similar Compaq with the same exact case back at the electronic recycling center I volunteer at. That one I brought home that day is a Pentium MMX 166 Presario 4505. I remember the Compaq my family had was later given to a friend after my dad installed a fresh copy of Windows 95 on it so she could have a PC to learn typing, email, and general pc use. That was back around 2001 or so. Despite their reputation, I actually like Compaq computers. They have attractive stylish heavy duty steel cases, good reliability, but are largely unupgradable compared to similar machines of the same era. Though that does not matter much now, just install Windows 95 instead of their preinstalled Windows 98 and you have a good and fast retro gaming PC!

First computer (1994-2012)

Hsing Tech M912 v1.7 486 Motherboard (died mid 2012)
230W AT PSU (died mid 2012)
AMD AM486 DX4-120 120MHz CPU
Sound Blaster Vibra 16xv PnP ISA Sound Card (shorted)
S3 Trio64 VLB Video Card
Unknown ISA I/O Card (Winbond chips)
Some sort of case with an Apple Quadra 650 bezel on the front (still have this case and bezel)
Fujitsu 1.2GB HDD (Logic board died)
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
5.25" 1.2MB Floppy Drive (who knows where that is)
24MB SIMM-72 Memory (still have)
Lite-On DVD Burner (installed in 2012)
Western Digital 80GB HDD (bad sectors formed in 2012)
AT-style keyboard (fried)
IBM Mouse with a PS/2 to Serial adapter (quit working or the adapter quit)
Quad-Speed CD-ROM (upgraded and was never seen again)
Corsair 520W ATX PSU with an ATX to AT adapter (still have the PSU, but IDK where the adapter is)
Shuttle HOT-443 Motherboard with an AMD 5x86-P75 133MHz CPU (met or exceeded the Intel Pentium 75) - shorted ISA slot, but still have the processor
nVidia GeForce4 MX 4000 PCI Video Card (still have)
Belkin USB 2.0 Card (still have)
ESS Maestro-2 ES1968S PCI Sound Card (still have)
MS-DOS 7.10 to Windows 98SE
IBM 15" Monitor

Second PC (1999-2009)
DFI P5BV3+ Rev. B+ Super Socket 7 Motherboard
AMD K6-2/300 Processor (Pentium MMX-based) - shorted
96MB RAM (upgraded to 576MB RAM)
Western Digital 6.4GB HDD (smoked)
Maxtor 80GB HDD (bad sectors)
Western Digital 250GB HDD (bad sectors)
Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse (USB to PS/2 adapter in place)
AT-style keyboard (died in 2012)
250W AT PSU
Some AT Case
SiS 305 PCI Video Card (bad capacitors)
nVidia GeForce4 MX 4000 PCI Video Card (still have)
3Com FastLink III ISA Ethernet 10-BaseT (somewhere)
RealTek 10-BaseT PCI Ethernet Card (somewhere)
Lite-On 48X CD-ROM (Broke)
Gigabyte 52x CD-ROM (still have)
MS-DOS to Windows XP and Puppy Linux
IBM 15" CRT Monitor

Third PC (2004-2007)
Some board with an AMD Athlon 900MHz CPU (not Slot 1)
512MB SD-RAM
Western Digital 13.5GB HDD (died)
DVD/CD-RW Combo (broke)
Belkin USB 2.0 Card (still have)
RealTek 10-BaseT Ethernet card
ATX Case with a broken restart button
Some ATX PSU
Diamond Multimedia AGP Graphics 64MB Card (upgraded to the graphics card below)
nVidia GeForce4 MX 4000 PCI Video card 128MB (still have)
Windows 2000 to Windows XP
HP DeskJet 3740 Printer (broke in 2010)
Mitsubishi 20" Monitor

Forth PC (2004-2010)
AMD Athlon XP 1700+
ASUS A7N8X Motherboard
2GB DDR Memory
20GB Maxtor Drive (broke)
HP PSC 750 (still have)
Windows XP to Winbloat Vista; Ubuntu to OpenSUSE Linux

Fifth PC (2007-Present)
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
ASUS K8N-E Motherboard
512MB DDR Memory
nVidia GeForce4 MX 4000 PCI Video Card (still have)
DVD/CD-RW Combo drive (broke)
Siig PCI IDE Adapter card (broke)
Western Digital 80GB HDD (broke in 2012)
Maxtor 160GB HDD (bad sectors in 2009)
HP DVD Burner (broke a CD and quit working in 2010)
ASUS AM2+ Motherboard (replaced the old ASUS K8N-E board, memory, and processor); Front USB quit working
AMD Athlon X2 64 Dual-Core Processor 4000+ 2.1GHz per core (4.2GHz) - present
nVidia GeForce 8500GT (suffered a GPU failure)
Seagate 1TB SATA HDD (still works)
2x LG DVD Burners (SATA)
Hitachi 60GB HDD (from my old Xbox 360 that suffered a GPU issue, but the hard drive still works <-- transferred everything from the old drive to my working Xbox 360)
Acer AL1917W Flat Panel Monitor (buzzes, but still works)
ECS nForce6m-a motherboard
4GB DDR2-800 Memory
nVidia GeForce 8400GS Graphics Card
Windows XP to Windows 8.1 Professional
Logitech Mouse (Dell OEM)
Logitech Keyboard
ASUS PCI-Ex Wireless Card
Vizio 26" LCD LED HDTV as my monitor
Yamaha A-1000 Stereo Reciever as my speakers (Bose Speakers)

Sixth PC (2007-Present)
Compaq Presario C700 Laptop
Intel CoreDuo 1.4GHz processor
120GB Hitachi Drive (went bad)
60GB Hitachi Drive (in my current desktop)
16GB SanDisc Flash Drive (cloned the 60GB HDD)
2GB DDR2 memory
Winbloat Vista (virus crashed the hard drive)
Ubuntu Server with Lubuntu interface
HP PSC 750
HP DeskJet F4135 AiO Printer
HP Photosmart A616 Photo Printer
IBM 15" CRT Monitor (laptop screen is broken)
No battery (cells are shot)

Seventh PC (2008-Present)
Dell Inspiron 1525
Intel Single Core Processor 1.7GHz
160GB HDD (went majorly bad)
Battery won't charge anymore
bad keyboard (have to push the keys in f***ing hard)
Western Digital 320GB HDD
Winbloat Vista Basic to Windows 7 Professional

Eighth PC (2012-Present)
ASUS X54C Laptop
Intel CoreDuo 1.7GHz Processor
6GB DDR3 Memory (2GB onboard, 4GB addon)
Intel HD Graphics
320GB Hard Drive
Built-in Webcam
RealTek HD Audio
HDMI with Audio
SuperSpeed USB 3.0
Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 Professional and Kubuntu 14.04

Ninth PC (2012-Presnet)
Abit AB-TX5 Motherboard (eBay)
256MB SD-RAM (maximum)
AMD K6-2/300 (came with board)
Maxtor 200GB HDD
nVidia GeForce4 MX 4000 PCI Video Card
Sound Blaster Vibra 16xv PnP ISA Sound Card (eBay)
Acer AL1917W Flat Panel Monitor
Belkin USB 2.0 Card
MS-DOS 7.10; Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (first part of the hard drive); Windows XP Professional SP3 (last part of the hard drive)
RealTek RTL8137 FastEthernet PCI Card
GE Keyboard with power buttons
Logitech Optical USB mouse connected to a homemade USB to PS/2 Adapter
Roland MT-32 Synthesizer connected to the sound card
Microsoft PS/2 Mouse (ball got stuck)
Lite-On DVD Burner
Gigabyte 52x CD-ROM
3.5" Floppy drive (pulled from an old Dell PowerEdge Server)

Tenth PC (2014-Present)
Raspberry Pi Model B+ with 512MB RAM (256MB Graphics Memory)
Arm v7 700MHz CPU (overclocked to 1000MHz)
8GB MicroSDHC with OpenELEC v4.2.1 (XBMC-based OS)
32GB MicroSDHC with movies and TV shows (some movies)
32GB SanDisc Flash Drive with the rest of the movies
Logitech Cordless Desktop (Mouse and Keyboard) with a 25MHz frequency (no wireless internet interference)

For my Raspberry Pi box, I might install the 60GB Hitachi Drive in place of the two memory cards after I test and format the drive in my desktop.

First Computer: (memory foggy)

Dell Dimension (no idea about the model)
CPU= Pentium 3 Katmai, (don't know about FSB, or MHz)
RAM= One stick...of something....probably 128 or 256 MB worth, there were 4 slots, 'twas a shame it died before I knew how to upgrade it
HDD= about 12-15 GB
Standard Floppy Drive of the era
DVD Drive
GPU= AGP Nvidia TNT2, 32MB?
Sound= Turtle Beach...something
"56k" Modem
DVD Decoder Card

Second Computer

Compaq (really HP at this point) Presario something something number
CPU= Sempron, 1.8GHz
RAM= 256MB DDR 3200, gradually I upgraded it to about 2.5GB
HDD=80GB "Barracuda"
DVD/CDRW "Combo" drive
Sound= Some integrated shit
GPU= ATI something 200 something, integrated
Modem, it had one, took it out due to being kinda useless in 2005

Those were the only computers that were bought for me by my parents (the first one was more for my father, because he needed a home computer, and my room had space). Since about 2007 or 8 I've been using computers that I've fixed up, usually old Pentium 3s or Pentium 4 stuff that I salvaged during bulk pickup days (Dad was serious when he said that he wasn't getting me anymore) At my lowest...point I had to use an old laptop from 1998 running Windows 2000 on a 4GB Hard Drive, one USB port, and 256 MB of RAM. I don't list all the other ones that I've used, because I honestly don't remember all their specs and they are not all that important, however the salvaged ones that I are my favorites are a Dell L800r that has a modified Pentium 3-S and an HP xw6200 workstation that has 2 Xeons in it, not that big of a deal, but its the only computer I have that has 2 cpus, so I get a small kick out of it.

Compaq Presario 510CDS with a factory upgraded CPU, bought precisely on the last day of 1994. The default was a 486SX-33 but I insisted on a 486 DX2-66MHz, and glad I did since that allowed me to play a ton of games that would not have run properly on the slower SX.

Specs:
- Custom Compaq motherboard (VLSI chipset)
- 486DX2-66MHz
- 4MB RAM (later 8MB and finally 16MB)
- Built-in Cirrus Logic CL-GD5424 with 512KB (non-upgradeable 😠 )
- Built-in ESS AudioDrive ES488
- 270MB Quantum Maverick HDD
- 3,5" 1,44MB floppy drive
- 2x Mitsumi CD-ROM drive
- PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard
- Built-in Stereo speakers
- Built-in 14" monitor

This is the actual PC:

This picture is from around 1998 taken with one of the first cheap (and crappy) digital cameras. Unfortunately that PC is long gone since it had a few problems and at the time I didn't think it was important to keep it 😢 It's the thing I threw away that I regret the most. Fortunately I kept its CPU, RAM and keyboard, so I can still assemble a PC that has parts of my original one 😀