First Desktop

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#1 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:29 pm

Just like we had a "First ThinkPad" thread, I felt like having a first desktop thread.

My first computer ever was a circa 1994 IBM PS/ValuePoint. It had wither 4 or 8mb RAM, a 486DX, a small hard drive, 240mb I think, a really junky video card and before I got a 4x CD-ROM for it, the computer had a 5.25" floppy drive as well as a 3.5".

#2 Post by **jdhurst** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:52 pm

My first desktop was the IBM PC 5150 (PC 1) with 8088 CPU. It was the last 16K box in Canada when I bought it in 1982. Monochrome monitor. No diskette drive for about 30 days. Then one disk, then 64K of ram, then two disks, then 512Kb of ram, then a Baby Blue card with a Z80 CPU that could (and did) run CP/M. Somewhere in there a manual 300 Baud Mini Modem. That machine was also very pricey back then. Except for about 3 months, I have never had a computer of any kind that wasn't connected by modem or better to the outside world. This machine ran DOS 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, and 3.1

I got an IBM PS/2 30-286 in 1988 that ran DOS 4.0 / 4.1. It had a 30Mb hard drive and a colour VGA monitor. It also ran Windows 1 but that wasn't a very workable product. I preferred the DOS 4 shell at the time. I got an HP 500 DeskJet Printer that I used until 2002.

I got a IBM PC 300 80486DX2 in 1994 with 64Mb of ram and a huge 512Mb hard drive (biggest PC hard drive you could get at the time). It ran Windows 3.1, Netscape 0.96 and had a 28.8Kb modem. I have had Internet and Internet email since then. In fact, the "bookmark" file I use as my local home page was originally created back then and morphed into Explorer with a Front Page Express.

That machine got an Intel P75 upgrade with Interposer and Windows 95 over time, and I switched to Explorer at Explorer 3 or 4.

I got an IBM PC 300PL PIII 500Mhz machine with 448Mb of ram and (at first) a 13Gb hard drive in 1999. It came with Windows NT4 SP4 and had a 56Kb modem, but I also got broadband in 1999. IBM sold it with a free upgrade to Windows 2000, and I loaded W2K the day I got the CD from IBM. That machine lasted to the end of 2002 and is still in the basement. That was my first VMware machine (VMware Version 1).

I got my IBM NetVista A30 at the beginning of 2003 with Windows XP Pro, 768Mb of ram and a 40Gb main drive. It was purchased to run alpha versions of VMware Version 4. It now has an 80Gb second drive for storage.

I got broadband in 1999 as I noted and had a router shortly afterward that allowed me to connect any given laptop at the same time. The ISP (Rogers in Canada) did not support routers at the time. I had them royally upset when I blacked them out by not allowing outside entry. They could see my modem but not my PC. I am a homeowner and I pay my bill, so they could only sit there and seethe. They have gotten over it.

Before 1989 with company A, I had a DOS based Toshiba Laptop that did yoeman service including working in England with a special BT modem.

In 1994 with company B, I had a ThinkPad 365 (?) with Windows 3.1, ThinkPad 380 with Windows 95, and ThinkPad 600 with Windows 95. In 1998, I got a Toshiba Libretto 50 with Windows 95 that travelled internationally with me. 2 pounds.

In 2000 with company C, I had a 240 and 240X with Windows 2000, X22 with Windows XP Pro.

In 2002 on my own, I had an A22e, T23, T30 and now T41. The A22e was Windows 2000, the rest were all Windows XP Pro.

I have been around

... JD Hurst

leoblob · #3 Post by **leoblob** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:44 pm

First "desktop" was a KayPro 2x (actually a "luggable," in the terminology of the day). 4MHz Z-80A processor running CP/M, two 390K floppies, built-in 9" monochrome CRT, external 1200 baud modem (no Internet in '83, but plenty of bulletin boards). Used this computer till '93.

Next, a Gateway 486sx33...

Next, an IBM PC350-P90, bought new in Aug '95, with a P90 processor, 16MB RAM, 850MB HDD, no sound, no optical drive. Eventually updated to a P240MMX ("WinIDT" chip), 128MB RAM, 8.4GB HDD, Matrox G200 video, PCI-to-USB 2.0 card, CD ROM, sound. This was my "daily driver" until the summer of 2003.

I now have 4 desktops... on which I operate a small business. My most recent computer (just got this week!) is an IBM PC300GL. Came with no processor, memory, video, hard drive, nor optical. Now has PIII 733, 512MB, 40GB, CD ROM and a Matrox video card. Nice to have an IBM desktop again!

Except for the Thinkpad 360 which runs PC-DOS 6.3, all my other computers run WIN98SE. It does what I need, and frankly, I'm hesitant to upgrade to 2000 or XP due to fear of the unknown.

#4 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:23 pm

Windows XP is a pretty good OS, given the computer it's run on is a Pentium II 350 or better. I actually reccomend XP over 2000 because I've used both and XP boots up faster and Microsoft has not been in the process of dropping support for XP like they have been with 2000.

The PC300 with the PIII could probably run XP flawlessly, but I'd keep Win 98 on everything else. The only reason I'd put 98SE on the 300 is because all the opther computers have 98SE.

slagmi · #5 Post by **slagmi** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:43 am

TRS-80 Model 3 -- Z-80A 2MhZ cpu & 16K RAM -- and that was a lot of RAM!

Good old casette tape for storage (people that claim how relatively cheap storage is today don't seem to remember that far back!) ...Though there's now streamload which is free...well, nevermind. www.streamload.com

Even found a photo for ya: http://www.trs-80.com/images/computer-model3x300.gif

gazingwa · #6 Post by **gazingwa** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:50 pm

IBM PS/2 Model 30-286
286 10mhz
4mb (4x1mb 30pin simms)
20mb Seagate ST05X HD (later added a 50mb HardCard Plus for a total of 70mb)
Internal HD 3.5" floppy
External Low Density 5.25" floppy (connected via isa slot)
12" VGA
24Pin PS/2 Proprinter
2400baud modem

Running DOS 4 when I got it, dos 5 and win 3.1 at the end of its life
Even later on it was resurected with a 486 motherboard upgrade
Yes, some company made a board for the PS/2 30

#7 Post by **thePCxp** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:56 am

My first desktop was an eMachines eIower 366i2 with Windows 98 that I got in 1999(This was also my first computer).
My first IBM(and IBM desktop) was an NetVista A22p(2292-21U) that I got in 2002. It has Windows XP Home Edition, 40GB HD, 128MB(I going to upgrade the memory), Intel Pentium 4 1.60GHz, CD-RW, and an IBM E74 17" inch CRT monitor(6332-0HN).

mpcook · #8 Post by **mpcook** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:38 am

IBM PC 5150. Came with 8088 4.77mhz processor. It came with 64K ram, I eventually upgraded to 640K ram. It came with one single sided 5 1/4" floppy, later upgraded to a double sided 5 1/4" and a 720K 3 1/2". Had a CGA (color graphics card). Eventually added a 10MEG hard drive on a card, then upgraded to a 20MEG drive. It sits in my garage, has Windows 3.0 loaded on it. Last time I booted it (over 10 years ago) it could crawl but not run Windows 3.0.

#9 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:44 pm

Wow, and to think that my eight year old PalmPilot Professional (which I still use on a daily basis) has more computing power than that.

For reference, Palm Pilot Pro has a 16mhz Motorola CPU, 1mb RAM and Palm OS 2.0 Pro.

#10 Post by **daeojkim** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 2:17 pm

hausman · #11 Post by **hausman** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:43 pm

jdhurst wrote:My first desktop was the IBM PC 5150 (PC 1) with 8088 CPU. It was the last 16K box in Canada when I bought it in 1982. Monochrome monitor. No diskette drive for about 30 days. Then one disk, then 64K of ram, then two disks, then 512Kb of ram, then a Baby Blue card with a Z80 CPU that could (and did) run CP/M. Somewhere in there a manual 300 Baud Mini Modem. That machine was also very pricey back then. Except for about 3 months, I have never had a computer of any kind that wasn't connected by modem or better to the outside world. This machine ran DOS 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, and 3.1

You too

I had a PC1 at work, but when I bought one for myself they were clearing them out for the revision with 64KB on the mobo. The system I bought (from Compucentre on Yonge St IIRC) had 1 single-sided floppy and cost ~CA$3200 (including a mono board and a clone monitor by Amdek.) There was a guy just north of Toronto who sold OEM 2D Tandem floppies for less than what IBM charged for the 1D model. I bought a couple of those and privately sold the floppy that came with the PC. I also upgrade RAM to 512KB using a QuadRAM expansion board.

A few months later the XT came out. In those days there was so much demand for IBM PCs that retail customers often had to wait for supplies to arrive. I managed to sell the PC1 to a desperate small business user for more than I'd paid for it (but less than the cost including the floppies and memory upgrade) and used the proceeds to buy an XT. The list price of that was ~$CA7500 for the system unit alone. Those were 1983 dollars too, which was more than half the cost of a decent new car.

#12 Post by **jdhurst** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:59 pm

I got my PC1 from Compucentre as well - yes, they were in the Toronto Eaton Centre back then. They are still alive as Metafore, and I still deal with them. I have purchased all but one of my computers from them over time. The one I did not purchase from them was the PS/2 30-286 because Eaton's were selling them for a song in 1988. ... JD Hurst

#13 Post by **K. Eng** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:40 pm

My parents had an old 8086 computer from 1985 or so, but I don't think we used it for much.

The first useful computer I worked with was a Gateway 4DX-33V that my dad purchased in 1993. It had a 33 MHz 486DX, 8MB RAM (huge amount at the time), 250MB disk, CD-ROM, Aztech sound card, and Windows 3.1.

I used it for word processing (MS Word 6.0) and games. Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, and other such titles. It also had Microsoft Encarta installed on it, which was pretty cool in the days before the Internet made CD-ROM encyclopedias obsolete.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the video card was on a VL Local Bus and that the ATI video chip had 1MB of memory! That sure made X-Wing a very smooth experience!

a31pguy · #14 Post by **a31pguy** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:16 pm

Timex/Sinclair Z-80. Analog Tape drive for loading programs onto. Disk drive? Ha! None. 4k of memory. First learned how to program in BASIC and assembly language from BYTE magazine articles. First program? Space Invaders.

JHEM · #15 Post by **JHEM** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 5:18 pm

JEEZE! I'm amazed there's another Sinclair user on here. Definitely showing our age.

I built the kit version to hone my soldering skills and took great delight that it actually worked the first time. Mine was sort of unique in my UG because I had purchased mine in London, so it didn't say Timex on it.

My first scientific calculator in grad school was another Sinclair kit, the little white one with the blue display, followed by the Sinclair progammable calculator kit. Still got them both!

Regards,

James

GoEatFood · #16 Post by **GoEatFood** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 7:05 pm

the first computer I ever used was a old old computer at my parents company... 512 hardrive the size of a CD Drive Old Orange looking screen with green type just super old computer in general...didn't even have windows...my first actual system was a crappy compaq that crashed about every week.

edit : oh, if you consider the original nintendo a computer system then that was my first ever computer. I started playing it when I was about 5...I'm now 20. crazy when I think about it...nothing new to most of you older folk.

a31pguy · #17 Post by **a31pguy** » Tue May 17, 2005 8:15 pm

My first scientific calculator in grad school was another Sinclair kit, the little white one with the blue display, followed by the Sinclair progammable calculator kit. Still got them both!

Man - you had money. My dad first taught me how to do calculations on a slide-ruler. First calculator was a Texas Instruments - non programmable. FORTRAN was pretty much what I used to do matrix calculations. Loved multi-dimensional arrays!

Today - some of these HP calculators are just amazing.

I'm thinking we are starting to sound like our parents at this point - "Shoes? You had shoes? When I was young - we have to talk 100 miles in the snow in our barefeet!"...

wingman · #18 Post by **wingman** » Tue May 17, 2005 10:58 pm

While not my first computer, I have a sinlair, in the box, in my basement. Have the expansion memory pack, manuals, some instruction guides, along with well, everything; even the invoice. I have been temped to hook it up, but never really had a reason or anything. Good machines though.

wolfman · #19 Post by **wolfman** » Wed May 18, 2005 9:56 pm

Tandy 1000 RL was my first computer. Dos 3.3 running Deskmate GUI environment (in ROM!). 8086 processor, 512k of ram, 3.5 inch 720k low density floppy disk drive. No hard disk with the unit although I added a 40 meg drive for 2/3 of the original cost of the computer.

Came complete with a 16 color CGA monitor. Those were the days...cruising around on Delphi BBS at 2400 baud...

aceo07 · #20 Post by **aceo07** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:49 am

IBM PS/2
Intel 386 20mhz
2MB RAM or was it 4MB?

It was my first computer. Great memories.

Website · #21 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:00 am

Commodore 64...oh, the hours I wasted playing Wizard and Lode Runner!

bhtooefr · #22 Post by **bhtooefr** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:39 pm

Depends on how you define desktop, and whether it's IBM-only, or anything.

First computer that was not designed for mobile computing: Apple //c Revision 0
First desktop, non-IBM, non-PC: Hacker //e (think a non-enhanced Apple ][e clone)
First PC desktop (an IBM, too!): IBM PS/1, forget the type-model. 386SX (IIRC, around 16MHz), 1MB RAM, 40MB HDD

#23 Post by **schen** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:13 pm

My first college job had me doing punch cards for a professor on an IBM Mainframe at Texas A&M University in 1980. Then...

* My first real job I worked on both a IBM XT and AT (with a HUGE 60Mb HDD)
* 1st Teaching job PS/2 Model 25
* 2nd Teaching job PS/2 Model 50
* My first real personal machine was a TI 99/4A then a Timex Sinclair (my brother worked for both firms successively around the time).
* Then a series of home built machines (386SX16, 486DX33, PIII/733) interspered with an IBM Aptiva S9C (P233 the monitor of which I still use).
* At this point, things get interesting since I decided to dabble in PS/2 use and collecting: Model 70 Server, 95 Server, Model 25, P70 & P75 Luggables (which IBM sold as a "portable server" for $20,000)!
* Then a whole series of ThinkPads starting with the 701C which led me to this forum.

sunkssss · #24 Post by **sunkssss** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:34 pm

let's see.....my first computer was an old packard bell pc. i think it had windows 95 on it, but i was only 8 or 9 so i only vaguely remember this thing. i don't really remember what i did on it.....but since then i like to think i've advanced some ways.

christopher_wolf · #25 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:08 pm

My first desktops consisted of an Apple IIc and a 16MHz IBM PC II (I think that is what it was called)

#26 Post by **schen** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:28 pm

Oh, I forgot to mention I also owned the really strange PS/2 Model 95xx (can't remember) that was a "green machine". Supposedly, it used parts developed for early ThinkPads and indeed all the internal drives were of the laptop variety and it even had a built-in PCMCIA card reader. Connected to it was a really cool 10.4" LCD monitor and an interesting keyboard that had a built in trackpoint as well as detachable keypad. Also, the keys were of the notebook computer type as well. It was made in the early 90's waaayyy before the Sony's, NECs and everyone else that tried the "small-footprint" quiet machines. The spec was 486SLC2/50 maxing out the RAM at about 64Mb. It was a VERY cool machine. I wish I still had it

#27 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:38 pm

That reminds me of a computer I owned for a short while, a PS/2 E. It was very small, had four PCMCIA slots (two in the front, two in the back), a 486SL and a few other things. The hard drive was a 2.5" laptop IDE hard drive and the floppy drive was also the same as what a laptop would use. The computer was small, looked almost like a small pizza box infact, and had a green stripe running across. I wish I still had that computer, it was one of the coolest desktops I ever had. However, mine wasn't quite as nice as yours schen, mine maxed out at 16mb RAM.

#28 Post by **schen** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:58 am

You are probably right and my memory is bad. It probably did max out a 16mb and that was probably the main reason I got rid of it. Although I remember getting Win95 to run on it (just not very well). We probably had the same model. I think it had a fold-down door in the front that hid the slots and drive. I think the monitor and trackpoint KB (the first tp KB that I owned) was what made it really cool. Unbelievably, I got 2 of those things from some surplus place in Ohio for $6 apiece!

#29 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:13 am

Sounds like we did have the same computer. I had got mine at Goodwill in 2001 for $2 and had Windows for Workgroups 3.11 running like a charm on it.

I didn't have the cool trackpoint keyboard and LCD monitor though. Instead I had a 14" IBM CRT of the same vintage and a Model M keyboard, both of which were from a previous computer of mine since I got the PS/2 E without any accessories.

I also remember at one point removing the PCMCIA slots (all four are on an ISA card that can be removed) and replaced put a SoundBlaster AWE32 in it's place and used the IDE controller built onto the sound card as well as an old desktop power supply and a long IDE cable to build the worlds most ghetto external hard drive setup since there were no power connectors nor areas with sufficient space inside the computer itself.

#30 Post by **schen** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:59 pm

I took my PC Card Readers out and put in an ethernet card with the intention of putting it in the kitchen to use a a net terminal. We were living in a rental in Chicago at the time and working in IT at a University, so I had a Server/Client rig running to teach myself Novell. I had ethernet running all over the house and was also playing with wireless since they started getting reasonable about that time. Unfortunatley, my wife thought that the PS/2 E took up too much space and so I scrapped that idea and replaced it with a Monorail (much smaller footprint, but not as cool and certainly not Big Blue)!

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