4 ms·

Still reading the article, but early on it says: "Also, is it weird that I still remember the specs of my first computer, 22 years later?" My first computer w

Still reading the article, but early on it says: "Also, is it weird that I still remember the specs of my first computer, 22 years later?" My first computer was a TRS-80 Model 1, 1.78 Mz Z80 with 16 KB RAM. That was 48 years ago. Is it weird that I remember that?

bobsterlobster 9mo ago
Nah, I think it's awesome. Great computer by the way. With all that raw power I bet you were doing tons of computering.
xxs 9mo ago
22 years back is still this century, nothing weird about. As for remembering stuff 6502/48KB RAM (along with call -151) seems boring, I guess.
- iso1631 9mo ago
  Interestingly I can't remember any specs since about 22 years ago. First modern PC (dos/win3.1) I had a 12mhz 286, 1 meg of ram, AT keyboard, 40MB hard drive. This progressed via a 486/sx33/4m/170mb and at one point a pentium2 600 with (eventually) 96mb of ram, 2g hard drive, then a p3 of some sort, but after that it's just "whatever".
1123581321 9mo ago
They stick with you. I remember our first family computer well (an Acer 486 with 40MB drive and 32MB RAM.) Same for my first computer I built myself out of a TigerDirect order. Made a few mistakes there (K6 generation.) Having these computers was such a change in our lives that they should be somewhat indelible memories.
- xxs 9mo ago
  >an Acer 486 with 40MB drive and 32MB RAM. 32MB ram <-- no way. 4 and 8MB were the standard (8MB being grand), you could find 16MB on some Pentiums. So 40MB drive and 32MB RAM is an exceptionally unlikely combo. 32MB become norm around Pentium MMX and K6(-2).
  - Kye 9mo ago
    It could have been bought old and upgraded. Not everyone had the luxury of a brand new first computer.
    - xxs 9mo ago
      Possibly, but even mother boards supporting 32MB would be rare. Perhaps on "DX3"? As for a new computer and price - it was like $1000 to get AMD 486DX2-80 with 4MB RAM in '95...
      - pixl97 9mo ago
        So this depends if it was a 72 pin DIMM board. I don't think you could get there (easily?) on a 30 pin board, but 72 may have had native support for 64 out of the box.
      - snerbles 9mo ago
        I upgraded a ~1992 Dell 486 DX2 to 36MB (original 4MB + 32MB...or was it a pair of 16MB sticks? hard to remember) around 1997 or so.
  - 1123581321 9mo ago
    Haha, I wondered if someone would complain about 32MB. We had the board maxed out. My grandfather’s computer before ours. A few months after taking possession, I upgraded the disk to a luxurious 400MB.
    - Kye 9mo ago
      The classic NAND-me-down. My first personal computer was a "broken" 486 system I got for $25 at a yard sale. All it needed was a hard drive.
  - netule 9mo ago
    We had a 386 DX with 32MB of RAM. I don’t think it was that uncommon. DOOM still didn’t run super smoothly, though.
- crumpled 9mo ago
  TigerDirect? Wow. How did I forget the first place I used and instantly maxxed a credit card? I would look through that catalog right now if I had it.
  - Kye 9mo ago
    Internet Archive has three: https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-pc-price-blitz-catalog-nov-1997 https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-pc-price-blitz-cata... https://archive.org/details/tigerdirect-v15i5a https://archive.org/details/tigerdirect-v15i5a https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-web-safe https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-web-safe
rglullis 9mo ago
Mine was an Intel 386 DX 40MHZ with 2MB RAM and 80MB HD, bought in late 1993.
heywire 9mo ago
IBM PC XT 5150 4.77MHz, 640KB, no, not weird at all :)
- drivers99 9mo ago
  The 5150 was just an "IBM PC" not an XT, but still... I think we're talking about the same thing. I still have mine! 4.77 MHz 8088, 8087 math coprocessor, CGA graphics card, 5.25" floppy (360K, double-sided, double-density), 20 MB Seagate hard drive (I believe the motherboard has newer ROM chips to support that), AST SixPakPlus expansion card to bring it up to 640 KB RAM and a Parallel Port, a Serial Port, a Game Port, and a Real Time Clock (so you don't have to type in the date and time every bootup.) At one point I had a Sound Blaster as well, which was nice. The floppy drive and the hard drive each have their own controller cards so there's almost no more room for expansion! The motherboard also has the keyboard and cassette (!!!) port. I get an error code about the cassette port so I doubt it would work but I never had the equipment to try it out anyway.
justin66 9mo ago
There is no reason you would have forgotten.
SanjayMehta 9mo ago
ZX-81 with 1Kb RAM
WillAdams 9mo ago
Radio Shack PC-1 w/ the printer and cassette tape player --- really should have waited until the Model 100 was available....
godzillabrennus 9mo ago
I documented all of my early computers throughout early college, and I'm glad I did. I remember the first computers well, but without those notes, I wouldn't remember the first ten in so much detail. My first computer that was not a family computer was: UMAX 233mhz Pentium 2, 64Mb Ram, 8Gb HDD (was crushed when sat on by sibling)
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
zabzonk 9mo ago
My Dad had one of them. The first machine I actually purchased myself was a Dragon 32 (6809 processor, 32k RAM) sometime around 1981 - i can remember everything about it, including all the terrible cassette games I bought for it and the money I spent on ROM cartridges (word processor, assembler/debugger). These days I can't even remember what's in my Steam library.
aidenn0 9mo ago
36 years ago: A Wyse branded AT clone 12.5MHz 286 with 1MB of ram, a 10MB hard drive and a Hercules graphics card (it was a decommissioned CAD machine from my dad's work).
consp 9mo ago
First PC: 8088 with 640K, then a 286 with 2MB! The memory! First own "PC": Atari ST 1040e, 1MB, with supercharger to run DOS and a 30MB hard disk the size of a regular PC. Donation from a family member.
- tracker1 9mo ago
  First family PC was a used IBM PC XT, 8088 w/ 640kb ram and a cga card with an amber monochrome monitor attached. I remember getting a 14.4 modem on it, and it would freeze, had to force it to 9600bps. Then managed to wranle a 486sx w/ 4mb ram and an EGA card and display. First decent computer I built was an AMD 5x86 133mhz with the larger cache module and a whopping 64mb ram that I'd traded for some ANSi work. The irony is for some things it ran circles around the Pentiums that friends had, for others it just slogged. Ran OS/2 warp like a beast though. Ever since then, I've mostly maxed out the ram in my systems... I wend from 128gb down to 96GB for my AM5 build though since the most I've ever used is around 75gb, and I wanted to stick to a single pair at a higher speed.
ikidd 9mo ago
I was late to the party with an Apple IIe. I've never managed to catch up since.
arkensaw 9mo ago
Amstrad 2286 PC, 4Mb RAM, 40Mb hard drive, 3.5" floppy. 40 Megabytes. I have photos that size these days.
doodlebugging 9mo ago
I still have my Mac 128k with external disk drive and printer. Bought new in Jan 1985 or late Dec 1984. I paid the exorbitant price to upgrade it to 512k during the first year I owned it. I think the RAM needed to be desoldered and new chips soldered in place so it needed to be returned to the store where I bought it. Shout out to the author of the blog for writing an engaging post that accurately the MS experience. For me, switching is still a work in progress since I am the family troubleshooter and there are lots of things to mess with. It will happen because so far, the ones I have switched have no complaints.

bobsterlobster 9mo ago

Nah, I think it's awesome. Great computer by the way. With all that raw power I bet you were doing tons of computering.

xxs 9mo ago

22 years back is still this century, nothing weird about. As for remembering stuff 6502/48KB RAM (along with call -151) seems boring, I guess.

iso1631 9mo ago
Interestingly I can't remember any specs since about 22 years ago. First modern PC (dos/win3.1) I had a 12mhz 286, 1 meg of ram, AT keyboard, 40MB hard drive. This progressed via a 486/sx33/4m/170mb and at one point a pentium2 600 with (eventually) 96mb of ram, 2g hard drive, then a p3 of some sort, but after that it's just "whatever".

1123581321 9mo ago

They stick with you. I remember our first family computer well (an Acer 486 with 40MB drive and 32MB RAM.) Same for my first computer I built myself out of a TigerDirect order. Made a few mistakes there (K6 generation.) Having these computers was such a change in our lives that they should be somewhat indelible memories.

xxs 9mo ago
>an Acer 486 with 40MB drive and 32MB RAM. 32MB ram <-- no way. 4 and 8MB were the standard (8MB being grand), you could find 16MB on some Pentiums. So 40MB drive and 32MB RAM is an exceptionally unlikely combo. 32MB become norm around Pentium MMX and K6(-2).
- Kye 9mo ago
  It could have been bought old and upgraded. Not everyone had the luxury of a brand new first computer.
  - xxs 9mo ago
    Possibly, but even mother boards supporting 32MB would be rare. Perhaps on "DX3"? As for a new computer and price - it was like $1000 to get AMD 486DX2-80 with 4MB RAM in '95...
    - pixl97 9mo ago
      So this depends if it was a 72 pin DIMM board. I don't think you could get there (easily?) on a 30 pin board, but 72 may have had native support for 64 out of the box.
    - snerbles 9mo ago
      I upgraded a ~1992 Dell 486 DX2 to 36MB (original 4MB + 32MB...or was it a pair of 16MB sticks? hard to remember) around 1997 or so.
- 1123581321 9mo ago
  Haha, I wondered if someone would complain about 32MB. We had the board maxed out. My grandfather’s computer before ours. A few months after taking possession, I upgraded the disk to a luxurious 400MB.
  - Kye 9mo ago
    The classic NAND-me-down. My first personal computer was a "broken" 486 system I got for $25 at a yard sale. All it needed was a hard drive.
- netule 9mo ago
  We had a 386 DX with 32MB of RAM. I don’t think it was that uncommon. DOOM still didn’t run super smoothly, though.
crumpled 9mo ago
TigerDirect? Wow. How did I forget the first place I used and instantly maxxed a credit card? I would look through that catalog right now if I had it.
- Kye 9mo ago
  Internet Archive has three: https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-pc-price-blitz-catalog-nov-1997 https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-pc-price-blitz-cata... https://archive.org/details/tigerdirect-v15i5a https://archive.org/details/tigerdirect-v15i5a https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-web-safe https://archive.org/details/tiger-direct-web-safe

rglullis 9mo ago

Mine was an Intel 386 DX 40MHZ with 2MB RAM and 80MB HD, bought in late 1993.

heywire 9mo ago

IBM PC XT 5150 4.77MHz, 640KB, no, not weird at all :)

drivers99 9mo ago
The 5150 was just an "IBM PC" not an XT, but still... I think we're talking about the same thing. I still have mine! 4.77 MHz 8088, 8087 math coprocessor, CGA graphics card, 5.25" floppy (360K, double-sided, double-density), 20 MB Seagate hard drive (I believe the motherboard has newer ROM chips to support that), AST SixPakPlus expansion card to bring it up to 640 KB RAM and a Parallel Port, a Serial Port, a Game Port, and a Real Time Clock (so you don't have to type in the date and time every bootup.) At one point I had a Sound Blaster as well, which was nice. The floppy drive and the hard drive each have their own controller cards so there's almost no more room for expansion! The motherboard also has the keyboard and cassette (!!!) port. I get an error code about the cassette port so I doubt it would work but I never had the equipment to try it out anyway.

justin66 9mo ago

There is no reason you would have forgotten.

SanjayMehta 9mo ago

ZX-81 with 1Kb RAM

WillAdams 9mo ago

Radio Shack PC-1 w/ the printer and cassette tape player --- really should have waited until the Model 100 was available....

godzillabrennus 9mo ago

I documented all of my early computers throughout early college, and I'm glad I did. I remember the first computers well, but without those notes, I wouldn't remember the first ten in so much detail. My first computer that was not a family computer was: UMAX 233mhz Pentium 2, 64Mb Ram, 8Gb HDD (was crushed when sat on by sibling)

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

zabzonk 9mo ago

My Dad had one of them. The first machine I actually purchased myself was a Dragon 32 (6809 processor, 32k RAM) sometime around 1981 - i can remember everything about it, including all the terrible cassette games I bought for it and the money I spent on ROM cartridges (word processor, assembler/debugger). These days I can't even remember what's in my Steam library.

aidenn0 9mo ago

36 years ago: A Wyse branded AT clone 12.5MHz 286 with 1MB of ram, a 10MB hard drive and a Hercules graphics card (it was a decommissioned CAD machine from my dad's work).

consp 9mo ago

First PC: 8088 with 640K, then a 286 with 2MB! The memory! First own "PC": Atari ST 1040e, 1MB, with supercharger to run DOS and a 30MB hard disk the size of a regular PC. Donation from a family member.

tracker1 9mo ago
First family PC was a used IBM PC XT, 8088 w/ 640kb ram and a cga card with an amber monochrome monitor attached. I remember getting a 14.4 modem on it, and it would freeze, had to force it to 9600bps. Then managed to wranle a 486sx w/ 4mb ram and an EGA card and display. First decent computer I built was an AMD 5x86 133mhz with the larger cache module and a whopping 64mb ram that I'd traded for some ANSi work. The irony is for some things it ran circles around the Pentiums that friends had, for others it just slogged. Ran OS/2 warp like a beast though. Ever since then, I've mostly maxed out the ram in my systems... I wend from 128gb down to 96GB for my AM5 build though since the most I've ever used is around 75gb, and I wanted to stick to a single pair at a higher speed.

ikidd 9mo ago

I was late to the party with an Apple IIe. I've never managed to catch up since.

arkensaw 9mo ago

Amstrad 2286 PC, 4Mb RAM, 40Mb hard drive, 3.5" floppy. 40 Megabytes. I have photos that size these days.

doodlebugging 9mo ago

I still have my Mac 128k with external disk drive and printer. Bought new in Jan 1985 or late Dec 1984. I paid the exorbitant price to upgrade it to 512k during the first year I owned it. I think the RAM needed to be desoldered and new chips soldered in place so it needed to be returned to the store where I bought it. Shout out to the author of the blog for writing an engaging post that accurately the MS experience. For me, switching is still a work in progress since I am the family troubleshooter and there are lots of things to mess with. It will happen because so far, the ones I have switched have no complaints.