My Packard Bell Chrom@ laptop. Pentium 3, Yamaha soud chip with full DOS support, 256 MB of RAM... a very good machine, with an excellent keyboard.

Very rare, and very precious to me.
But I've got dogs and they leave dog hair in keyboards and such over time. Even I leave hair.
So I rarely use it.

Besides, I have a desktop system that occupies the same role. And since it's a desktop, the dog hair is not a problem. 😜

kolderman wrote on 2021-08-03, 19:34:

Of ones in active use (not storage), I don't have one. I literally rotate from one to another day after day, oldest to newest - that way I get to use all of them equally

I tend to do the same, but my rotation cycles are a lot longer: I will usually have one system in a semi-permanent setup on my retro desk for several years at a time. So, to answer the question, my socket 3 AMD x5 has seen the least use. I think the last time I had it up and running was maybe 2014-15. My justification for even keeping it is that it houses my S3 Virge + Voodoo 1 that I've had since 1998. Part of the problem might be that I have it in a junk AT case. That issue may be remedied soon though!

My G3 iMac, simply can't find anything useful to do with it. Support (as in access to old updates) and software availability is nigh on non-existent from what I can tell (running Jaguar) unless I'm looking in all the wrong places (quite probably tbh). Most action its got of late is getting dusted occasionally. Might at some point install a Linux distro so it will at least have a reasonable set of tools so I can compile my own stuff on it.

Probably my Apple Powermac G4. It works just fine, but i've almost zero need/interest in it. I even have the matching display.
Seconded only by the G5 Quad, they both work fine but are really to old to be of any use, and not old enough to be any fun.

My least used is a tie between three....

- Mac SE FDHD - No Network card, so it's a royal PITA getting software on it. Plus I have four 486 systems that all run a Mac Emulator that's just about as fiddly, but at least I can download the SIT Files directly to those systems, rather than window shop E-bay for some ultra rare hard to get PDS expansion card that costs $240.00 and means I need to break out my hibatchi-skewer CRT discharge stick to install.

- NEC Ready 9522 - Let's see, a rare LPX tower Pentium 100 with 128MB of RAM (but subpar video and audio) gets eaten alive by a far more beat up Versa P/75 laptop....heck, my M75 486 DX4 eats this thing alive performance wise in a lot of things somehow - and the Versa have 40MB of RAM, not 128MB. Heh, oh well. Also, I just don't have a lot of passion for Pentiums and up....I feel like that's when the PC industry started to get boring for me.

- Dell Dimension 3000 P4 - I picked this up as a TV gaming rig only for me to immediatley after realize I could do the same with my second Linux system and run anything and everything I want....or better yet, throw the Retro Computers through a composite converter. Actually, If I found a quarter-height 5.25", I could narrow down to two - the Tandy and the Versas - and leave those plugged into the AV switch to the CRT TV, with the Monitors still attached for when I want a full computer experience.

I'll probably be selling those eventually. TBH, I'm more interested in laptops these days because they are portable and I don't need to always be at a desk to use one. Plus I'm kind of enjoying the whole "vice grip garage"-like approach I've been taking lately......

"A guy's gonna do the right thing and, well....put this ol' laptop on the internet and download all 2.6GB worth of data needed to make it a fully functional device. It's not been used since 1994, it's been in someone's junk drawer ever since, she's got some weight reduction around the PCMCIA slots....anyway, let's check in the bag and see if there are any spare parts.....well, there's a batt'ry, and another batt'ry.......I think I'll zap em' with my lightning block over here....."

Yah, I keep favoring the laptops and portables, keep putting my back out so don't wanna be humping system units around, so 80:20 the laptops get picked for a sesh. Something out of the Armada 1750, Thinkpad 385D, Contura 4/25, Sharp PC4600, Pentium-M twins, or DOSbox on 2 near-moderns or a netbook.

creepingnet wrote on 2021-08-05, 03:07:

"A guy's gonna do the right thing and, well....put this ol' laptop on the internet and download all 2.6GB worth of data needed to make it a fully functional device. It's not been used since 1994, it's been in someone's junk drawer ever since, she's got some weight reduction around the PCMCIA slots....anyway, let's check in the bag and see if there are any spare parts.....well, there's a batt'ry, and another batt'ry.......I think I'll zap em' with my lightning block over here....."

Lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice one

I have two old-hardware systems.

One is at least plugged in and connected-up, but the last few years has literally been turned one three or four times a year at most, mainly to amaze myself that yes I finally got this hardware to play together and it really is the box I always wanted for those games. Can play anything old I would want to play, old id Software, Blizzard, Redline Racer, some DOS games. Athlon XP, Voodoo5, Aureal Vortex, Yamaha YMF, Santa Cruz, possibly a PCX2. 98. Runs dosbox too.

The other one is behind two desks, in the corner, and wrapped in clingfilm to keep the spiders out. It has the only case I have that can take full length cards - some gamers case from about 2000. I can't be sure what hardware is inside now - probably a PA-2013, something not Intel or AMD for cpu, no idea of graphics, probably a GUS and the innovation card from fagear. Kid myself I'll set it up some time, vary the configuration according to what I want to play and all that, but I'm not sure that will ever happen.

To be honest I don't use my main PC (Ryzen 7) all that much, sometimes doesn't get turned on all week thanks to my ipad. And my second PC (some crappy i5) likewise.

In working condition, I have an Apple iMac G4 Pixar lamp style one that is in that middle age where it's too slow to be usable for anything modern but it's just not exciting enough for period stuff either for me. Also an Amstrad PPC1640 portable which has a awful LCD and no hard drive, just dual floppy and I just don't like using it haha - it's nice to look at though, just as the iMac is! 😀

I also have a couple old Core2Duo age half built HP office machines that are extremely boring in my opinion - anything designed in the Windows Vista/7 era is just dull - they are just in a pile under stuff never to be used again!

My most used retro machine is a relatively recent acquisition - IBM PS/2 Model 70 - can't get enough of that of late!

Poor PPC1640 🙁 Don't know if this would be something you'd be interested in, to get a better display out of it, those LCDs are pretty faded these days... HOMEDADE CGA There was someone on hackaday did a display transplant on it's PPC512 sibling also, more suggestions in comments.... https://hackaday.com/2020/12/28/think-your-la … y-an-msdos-one/

Yeah I feel bad for it 😀 I have seen that and am rather tempted - a bit of a facelift might make me like it again!

All of them. I just don't have enough time to play with older computers anymore.

My ROM 3 Apple IIGS

Goly Gosh! I found a Mac SE having a lay down in a large plastic storage box at the bottom of a pile of x86 and ACORN stuff out in the garage.

I lied. I have an orignal iMac that I can't use because of the lack of space.
Never used by its previous owner, or by its previous-previous owner.
You could say it's good as new.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-08-09, 06:42:

I lied. I have an orignal iMac that I can't use because of the lack of space.
Never used by its previous owner, or by its previous-previous owner.
You could say it's good as new.

So you are the third owner who never uses it?
Be sure to sell or gift it to someone who won't break the combo 😁

Sure thing ! 😁

Anything that isn't my Cyrix 6x86 MII just sits idle. It slows down to early DOS and handles late DOS / early Win95 with style. I have DOS emulators on there doing SMS, NES, Atari 2600, C64 so all of that stuff has gone into storage.

Cyrix Instead indeed.

badmojo wrote on 2021-08-09, 08:27:

Anything that isn't my Cyrix 6x86 MII just sits idle. It slows down to early DOS and handles late DOS / early Win95 with style. I have DOS emulators on there doing SMS, NES, Atari 2600, C64 so all of that stuff has gone into storage.

Cyrix Instead indeed.

I swear my friend's 166MMX system with 32megs, a PCchips 430tx board and a Trio64+ that he bought in 1997 is the system I am the most fond of. I don't know if it's either the sentimental value, the craptastic frame rate I get with the Monster 3D or perhaps even the yellowed front panel plastic, but whenever it gets turned on I know I'm in for a ride with this box of fun. Running old emulators like Genecyst, surfing old sites and playing early accelerated games under DOS/win95 is just 'exciting...'

My Pentium II and Pentium 4. Why? Just not a very interesting era of computing (to me that is). Towards the late 90's, early 2000's I just lost touch with hardware and the whole 3d accelerator business just wasn't that interesting to me. I was also in my mid 20's, going into the workforce, so I lost touch with games etc as well around that time, doing mostly business software programming. My era of computing is 1985 to 1995, i.e. 286, 386 and 486 VLB.