4 ms·

My first "prebuilt" PC was from Gateway, sometime in the late '90s -- it was a Pentium 166, back when that was considered a pretty big deal, and it had the very

My first "prebuilt" PC was from Gateway, sometime in the late '90s -- it was a Pentium 166, back when that was considered a pretty big deal, and it had the very first 3dfx graphics card in it (which was also a pretty big deal then). I'm not sure there was anything particularly special about it, but it seemed well-built. It's interesting that this is the first time I remember hearing of Hammond, though. Back in the day his co-founder Ted Waitt was the one in the public eye. Wikipedia describes Waitt as "an American billionaire philanthropist who was a co-founder of Gateway, Inc.," and Waitt still lives in Southern California; from appearances, Hammond moved back to Iowa and started a custom car repair business. It's hard not to wonder if he got written out of Gateway's fortune as well as their public history.

SandB0x 11y ago
I had exactly the same. With MMX!
codezero 11y ago
Ditto. Mine was a 486 DX/33 with a 512K Western Digital video card and 500Mb hard drive. Around 1991.
- balls187 11y ago
  That math-co processor made all the difference in games.
beachstartup 11y ago
first prebuilt pc was a gw2k p120 when i was in middle school. also the first computer i installed linux on - slackware. we started on macs but they had gone downhill by then. this was way before the era of cheap multi function routers. it lasted me/my family 10 years (performing various server-ish functions including firewall/router, print server, file server, etc.) and taught me the skills i use every day to make a living. i believe it was still working just fine when we recycled it, it was just too power hungry compared to newer machines.
- jon-wood 11y ago
  That takes me back. I learnt Unix, networking, and software development setting up ever more complex (and in retrospect unnecessary) services for the family home network. At one point I was even selling web hosting to a few people off our home connection. That experience is led to me being where I am now, and I'm eternely grateful to my parents for supporting me in doing a bunch of stuff they really had no idea about.
- ckozlowski 11y ago
  >this was way before the era of cheap multi function routers. Indeed! One of the first things I did with mine was turn it into a sort of router. I was taking a Cisco class in high school where we were learning networking. Realized I could connect the two PCs in our house together to share the same dial-up connection, and so I walked out of school with some donated Cat5, crimpers, and a pair of 3Com NICs. Microsoft ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) did the rest. The only issue it created was that, in the process of explaining to my parents that my PC had to be turned on in order for theirs to reach the net, they continued to ask for years if my PC was on, long after we had a router. I still get a question occasionally like "my tablet isn't working, does your father's PC need to be on?" Heh. Good times. =)
dexterdog 11y ago
3dfx was the first tech stock I went all in on. Lost a ton on it. I've been gun shy ever since.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Crazy how this went on. Nvidia started with a failed product in the business while 3dfx was the prodigal son. The 'deluxe' product strategy didn't sustain, 3dfx couldn't pull an Apple I guess. ps: some facts I didn't understand before http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386110 http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386110 , sad end anyway.
  - zerohp 11y ago
    In my opinion, Nvidia took over the market because they picked up the pieces from SGI when the company failed. SGI had all of the engineering talent to make a world class 3D chip for PC gaming but SGI management was too busy clinging to the dying unix workstation market.
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      And that's probably why they failed at first (NV1 chipset). They came with advanced Mathematics (quadratic patches) and CAD use cases which didn't align with the video game market at the time. It's funny because 10 years earlier, TDI released the 3D software package Explore with the same idea, bringing advanced mathematical geometry (full Nurbs), again far too early for the market. They ended up swallowed by Alias|Wavefront.
      - narrator 11y ago
        Video games have become such a huge phenomenon. I think they're even bigger than movies. Nobody saw that coming. They though it was all about business use cases. Tiny tiny market in comparison. Now with "deep learning" there may be a serious use case for huge clusters of GPU machines.
test_plan 11y ago
I still have my 1989 motherboard-- 386, 1 megabyte of RAM, 80MB hard drive... I remember booting it up for the first time and DOS reporting only 640K of memory and calling them up to wonder where the rest of it went. They were very nice about explaining it to me over the phone. (...hah, I still have the letter confirming my order. "We welcome you as a Gateway 2000 customer and have a good day!" Nostalgia2k for the cow boxes!)
- yuhong 11y ago
  The OS/2 2.0 fiasco is one of my favorite topics BTW.
- lotharbot 11y ago
  My dad bought a 386 DX-20, 4 MB of RAM, 80 MB hard drive, from the original "Computers from Iowa?" ad in PC Magazine. I finally sent it to the recyclers about a year and a half ago. (The only old computer I kept was a TRS-80 model 1 level 2.) Gateway 2000 was such a great company in that era.
ckozlowski 11y ago
I'll jump in here too. First was a Gateway, Pentium II 400Mhz, slot 1. I tried to save a bit of cash by downgrading the memory from 128MB to 96MB, which I regretted in retrospect. But I took the option to add both a 16MB STB RivaTNT (2D and OpenGL) and a 8MB 3Dfx Voodoo2. Now I could do both OpenGL and Glide! w00t! And what was whacky at the time, an LS-120 drive, which read both 3.5in floppies and a 3.5in 120MB disk. For my friend and I who both had one, it was a great way to share files. (Our cable modems an the first CD-Rs would pretty much make this obsolete a year later though.) Sound was via a SoundBlaster "Live!". Gosh, I was thrilled. I'd saved a long while for it, and boy it delivered. I really got my IT career started while learning on that box. I was amazed at how long that PC lasted. It used the Intel 440BX chipset, which meant I could later upgrade that 400MHz PII to a 800MHz PIII Coppermine. Videocard was upgrade to a Voodoo5. The card just barely fit. =P I later filled it with some more hard drives and a DVD reader. I get strangely teary-eyed when I think back to those days of Win98 and Descent, connecting to the internet and really getting to know how the insides worked. We've much better devices now, but I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for that Gateway PC. Thanks Mr. Hammond. Godspeed. =)
- de_Selby 11y ago
  Your post has brought back so many memories - the slot 1 connector, the LS-120s, the 440BX chipset.. but what especially the voodoo 5! I laugh every time I think of that card.
balls187 11y ago
> and it had the very first 3dfx graphics card in it (which was also a pretty big deal then) This was actually a very big deal then.

SandB0x 11y ago

I had exactly the same. With MMX!

codezero 11y ago

Ditto. Mine was a 486 DX/33 with a 512K Western Digital video card and 500Mb hard drive. Around 1991.

balls187 11y ago
That math-co processor made all the difference in games.

beachstartup 11y ago

first prebuilt pc was a gw2k p120 when i was in middle school. also the first computer i installed linux on - slackware. we started on macs but they had gone downhill by then. this was way before the era of cheap multi function routers. it lasted me/my family 10 years (performing various server-ish functions including firewall/router, print server, file server, etc.) and taught me the skills i use every day to make a living. i believe it was still working just fine when we recycled it, it was just too power hungry compared to newer machines.

jon-wood 11y ago
That takes me back. I learnt Unix, networking, and software development setting up ever more complex (and in retrospect unnecessary) services for the family home network. At one point I was even selling web hosting to a few people off our home connection. That experience is led to me being where I am now, and I'm eternely grateful to my parents for supporting me in doing a bunch of stuff they really had no idea about.
ckozlowski 11y ago
>this was way before the era of cheap multi function routers. Indeed! One of the first things I did with mine was turn it into a sort of router. I was taking a Cisco class in high school where we were learning networking. Realized I could connect the two PCs in our house together to share the same dial-up connection, and so I walked out of school with some donated Cat5, crimpers, and a pair of 3Com NICs. Microsoft ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) did the rest. The only issue it created was that, in the process of explaining to my parents that my PC had to be turned on in order for theirs to reach the net, they continued to ask for years if my PC was on, long after we had a router. I still get a question occasionally like "my tablet isn't working, does your father's PC need to be on?" Heh. Good times. =)

dexterdog 11y ago

3dfx was the first tech stock I went all in on. Lost a ton on it. I've been gun shy ever since.

agumonkey 11y ago
Crazy how this went on. Nvidia started with a failed product in the business while 3dfx was the prodigal son. The 'deluxe' product strategy didn't sustain, 3dfx couldn't pull an Apple I guess. ps: some facts I didn't understand before http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386110 http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386110 , sad end anyway.
- zerohp 11y ago
  In my opinion, Nvidia took over the market because they picked up the pieces from SGI when the company failed. SGI had all of the engineering talent to make a world class 3D chip for PC gaming but SGI management was too busy clinging to the dying unix workstation market.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    And that's probably why they failed at first (NV1 chipset). They came with advanced Mathematics (quadratic patches) and CAD use cases which didn't align with the video game market at the time. It's funny because 10 years earlier, TDI released the 3D software package Explore with the same idea, bringing advanced mathematical geometry (full Nurbs), again far too early for the market. They ended up swallowed by Alias|Wavefront.
    - narrator 11y ago
      Video games have become such a huge phenomenon. I think they're even bigger than movies. Nobody saw that coming. They though it was all about business use cases. Tiny tiny market in comparison. Now with "deep learning" there may be a serious use case for huge clusters of GPU machines.

test_plan 11y ago

I still have my 1989 motherboard-- 386, 1 megabyte of RAM, 80MB hard drive... I remember booting it up for the first time and DOS reporting only 640K of memory and calling them up to wonder where the rest of it went. They were very nice about explaining it to me over the phone. (...hah, I still have the letter confirming my order. "We welcome you as a Gateway 2000 customer and have a good day!" Nostalgia2k for the cow boxes!)

yuhong 11y ago
The OS/2 2.0 fiasco is one of my favorite topics BTW.
lotharbot 11y ago
My dad bought a 386 DX-20, 4 MB of RAM, 80 MB hard drive, from the original "Computers from Iowa?" ad in PC Magazine. I finally sent it to the recyclers about a year and a half ago. (The only old computer I kept was a TRS-80 model 1 level 2.) Gateway 2000 was such a great company in that era.

ckozlowski 11y ago

I'll jump in here too. First was a Gateway, Pentium II 400Mhz, slot 1. I tried to save a bit of cash by downgrading the memory from 128MB to 96MB, which I regretted in retrospect. But I took the option to add both a 16MB STB RivaTNT (2D and OpenGL) and a 8MB 3Dfx Voodoo2. Now I could do both OpenGL and Glide! w00t! And what was whacky at the time, an LS-120 drive, which read both 3.5in floppies and a 3.5in 120MB disk. For my friend and I who both had one, it was a great way to share files. (Our cable modems an the first CD-Rs would pretty much make this obsolete a year later though.) Sound was via a SoundBlaster "Live!". Gosh, I was thrilled. I'd saved a long while for it, and boy it delivered. I really got my IT career started while learning on that box. I was amazed at how long that PC lasted. It used the Intel 440BX chipset, which meant I could later upgrade that 400MHz PII to a 800MHz PIII Coppermine. Videocard was upgrade to a Voodoo5. The card just barely fit. =P I later filled it with some more hard drives and a DVD reader. I get strangely teary-eyed when I think back to those days of Win98 and Descent, connecting to the internet and really getting to know how the insides worked. We've much better devices now, but I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for that Gateway PC. Thanks Mr. Hammond. Godspeed. =)

de_Selby 11y ago
Your post has brought back so many memories - the slot 1 connector, the LS-120s, the 440BX chipset.. but what especially the voodoo 5! I laugh every time I think of that card.

balls187 11y ago

> and it had the very first 3dfx graphics card in it (which was also a pretty big deal then) This was actually a very big deal then.