brassicGamer wrote:

I.e. NOT the oldest item you own.

That tends to be the same thing as I never really get rid of things 🙁

Anyway, the "surviving" (not completely devoid of function) oldest things I had for a long time are a couple of very stained broken keyed mechanical keyboards.

My Teac 1.2MB 5.25" floppy drive. It was part of my first ever PC from 1992, still part of my 386SX rig and still working. The mobo (Hedeka 386SX) and VGA card (Oak 067 512KB) from this first PC are also still around, and also part of that 386SX build, but they were on storage until a few years back. But the drive was always part of a primary or secondary (or even tertiary) PC during all these years and have always been active.

The oldest PC hardware that I own and bought with my own money is still my very first PC. I bought it in late 1993 (I have older parts but, those were given to me over the years)
It's a Cyrix 486DLC-40 based PC. I even still have my original 14" monitor, keyboard, mouse and "fliptop" PC case.
However, I recently bought an older Cirrus Logic ISA graphics card, which dates back to 1992.

Philips P2814 keyboard since 1991. Still in use.

My old dell PS/2 keyboard from the XP era. All my vintage stuff I bought or found in the dump.

I still have the first PC I could call my own from the year 2000, with the monitor and speakers. Only the HDD and CD-ROM drive have been replaced and the originals lost.

Wow - good question. Stuff circulates... If we mean PC as in IBM AKA Wintel then I /think/ it must be the full tower case on the right. Originally a 386, then many incarnations into finally a P1 music box. The sheet-metal 'gooong' as you pull the wrap-around off that one is full of memories that go way back.

If we mean Personal Computer, then I guess my surviving Amiga floppies. Workbench 1.3 etc. Oh! and the '86 Toshiba 1080 monitor, still in regular use.

The motherboard, CPU, graphic card and ram from my first bought-new 1997 PC; Micron P200/MME: Intel AN430TX, P200mmx, Diamond 3d2000-turbo/4mb, and 2 sticks of 16mb edo ram. I also kept the front bezel from the case which I was always fond of and still am. All the other components died: PSU, FDD, CDR and the 2.1 WD had too.

The motherboard is still in operation in a P233 build with essentially the same specs as original - with more ram and a Voodoo 1 that I bought not long after getting the Micron - and that Voodoo card is the second longest owned item I have; 1998 to now.

SoundBlaster 16 ASP CT2230

It's the only remaining piece of the very first PC that I hand-built for myself: an AMD 486/DX4-120. Sadly, the rest of that PC is long gone. However, I still use it in a P200 MMX system.

Recently found something that shouldn't have survived, but somehow did - my old Seagate ST3491A hard drive that I bought for my P100 back in 1995:

It's the only piece of PC hardware left from that time, everything else is long gone. I did a quick power up test and it still runs (it's empty though).

My other long-lived survivor is my GUS ACE sound card:

I bought it new back in 1996 (upgraded the on board memory to 1mb a few weeks later) and has been installed in several PCs since then. Currently is in my P166MMX build and still works as good as it did back then 😀

Probably my Compaq 171FS CRT monitor that came with one of the earliest PCs I remember using (~1997/98), a Pentium-based Compaq Deskpro from the late 90s. Me and my parents used that thing for many years on many different systems, from that Compaq Deskpro to an Athlon XP 3200+-based HP Pavilion. As far as I know, it still works. Nice, sharp image 😀

pewpewpew wrote:

If we mean Personal Computer, then I guess my surviving Amiga floppies. Workbench 1.3 etc. Oh! and the '86 Toshiba 1080 monitor, still in regular use.

Nice cases! The Amiga stuff counts - I presume you did gaming on it 😎

KT7AGuy wrote:

SoundBlaster 16 ASP CT2230

It's the only remaining piece of the very first PC that I hand-built for myself: an AMD 486/DX4-120. Sadly, the rest of that PC is long gone. However, I still use it in a P200 MMX system.

That would have been about 1995 then? My first hand-built system was the same spec. I think anyone with an ISA Sound card they have owned since buying it new gets points - they were VERY obsolete about a decade ago (I got rid of about 5 of the things).

Gravis Gamepad Pro. Midtown Madness was such a blast with that controller! Still looks brand new and feels like a brand new controller even. I have all of the Slot 1 processor's from my family's various systems and some chunks of ram as well. ATI Rage All-in-wonder cards, 3 of them and a TNT2 m64. Maybe getting my dad's original 25mhz 486 Thinkpad from his buddy 😀 that would be the oldest.

I presume home computers in general would fit this category. In my case it would be the 1541 floppy drive for the C64 my sister got back in -85. I had the machine too until a few years ago when I decided to swap it for a better unit with less video noise and less wear and tear. Still have the original cardboard and styrofoam for the system though.

My oldest Hardware was a Pentium 75 system, with SB16 and 15" Monitor.

The Boards still runs but HDD and Monitor have died and replaced.

The SB16 now works in an Pentium 200 system.

The Pentium 75 got a SB2.0 soundcard i get as a gift.

But i would say the SB16 is the Hardware i own (and use) longest time

I still have my very first computer (a Pentium II 350MHz) and never tossed out the parts I later upgraded, so I think I've owned that computer for 18 years now? Last time I tried it still worked, though that was several years ago (I still used it to download photo's from my old mobile, it's program wouldn't work with XP or something)

LOVE the matching cases pewpewpew! You just need the desktop version if there is one? How did you manage to get them?

Oldest hardware I own is the Osborne 486
Osbone 486 DX2 66 VL-Bus (My 1st PC ever)
But that's was the family PC so would be a bit of hardware for that. 16MB stick of ram or 1GB HDD were early upgrades but not sure if they were gifts or not?
My 1st proper paycheck went towards a Iomega ZipCD CD-RW, Still have it in the garage in an old PC. Doesn't work great but I spent so much on it

Surprisingly I still have most of the guts from my original 486, including the PKM 0031y mainboard (with original cache and RAM), ATi Graphics Ultra, SB 2.0, PTI-217 multi I/O and maxiswitch keyboard. I sold the case when I moved, I tossed the original Maxtor 7213AT drive (still working), and my Sony CPD-1393 Trinitron display bit the dust and was tossed. Very sad. Thankfully I still have a picture of it in pristine condition.