[DosFreak]

12 years

Been using TRS80,C64's,Mac's since before I was 10 but that was school and relatives stuff the below are what I personally owned:

1990-94
Packard Bell 286-12mhz (parents)
Mobo: Unknown
Memory: 1meg
Video: 256k
HD: 40m
OS: MSDOS 4.0-6.22
Modem: 2400b

95-98
486DX4/100 (parents)
Mobo: ?? Gonna have to go look
Memory: 12mb starting-32mb
Video: Cirrus Logic 2mb!
HD: 540mb Seagate, 850mb Maxtor
OS: DOS 6.22-Windows 95-95b-98-98SE-NT4
Modem: 14.4-33.6

99-2000
K63-400
Mobo:Soyo SY5EMA+
Memory: 128mb
Video: TNT1-G400
HD: 20gb Maxtor
OS: 98SE/NT4/Windows 2000


2000-2001
P3-550
Mobo:Abit BE6
Memory: 256mb
Video: G400-Geforce 2 GTS
HD: Forgot what I had at the time. Probly 20gb Maxtor
OS: Windows 2000

2001-2002
Dual P31ghz
Mobo:Abit VP6
Memory: 512mb
Video: Geforce 2 GTS-Geforce 3
HD: Couple a 40gb IBM'S/60GB
OS: Windows 2000

XP 2000+
Memory: 512mb
Video: Geforce 3 Ti500
HD: 60gb/80gb's
OS: Windows 2000/XP/98SE/NT4

[sapiens74]

6 years.

[Brian Frank]

About 3 years...I think, maybe 4.

[RandyC]

14 Years

1988
1 + 2 Amstrad 1640 & BBC B Micro (had both around the same time one was my dads the BBC was my own)

1990
3 Atari ST 1024

1992
4 IBM/Ambra 386sx25

1995
5 Gateway P5-75

1997
6 Homebuilt K6-200

1998
7 Homebuilt K62-350 upgraded to 550

2001
8 Homebuilt Athlon 900 (see specs below)

Carl

[Bursar]

Depends on if you're classing computers as computers or PCs. If it's anything, then it's over 20 years, starting with ZX81s and Spectrums, moving through Commodore machines, upto PCs.

If it's just PCs, then around 12 years or so.

Man, I feel old now

[AndyFair]

Quote:

Depends on if you're classing computers as computers or PCs. If it's anything, then it's over 20 years, starting with ZX81s and Spectrums, moving through Commodore machines, upto PCs.

If it's just PCs, then around 12 years or so.

Man, I feel old now

Same here - got a ZX81 in 1982, moved on to a Spectrum (both the ZX81 and the Spectrum were sold by Timex in the US I think), then C64, then Amiga, then PC.
My first PC was 1992 (a 486-DX2 with a massive 120Mb hard drive and 8Mb RAM!)
Have lost count of the number of times I've upgraded PCs since then!!

AndyF

[BanditXL]

Well if you count the computers my dad bought then this would be the list:

1985-1994 Sony msx 2 with 128kb vram and 256k ram

1994-1995 80286
1995-1997 80486 dx-2 50@66 mhz with 24 mb ram and 514 mb hdd (my first own computer)
1997-2001 Pentium II 350 with 64 mb ram and 6 gb hdd. This one I gradually upgraded. To a AMD 1200 in summer 2001 (see current sys specs)
2002 AMD duron 900 256 mb ram geforce 2mx. There is a story for this one. The mobo of my amd 1200 went up in flames. I can still see the bleu sparc of the short circuit running through my computer. Luckly I still had waranty, but the damn thing was in the repair shop for quit some time. In the meen time I needed a computer so I comined the bits and pieces I had left from my upgraded pentium II with a newly bought mobo+proc. My sister is currently ussing it and it comes in handy when friends come arround .

[Sampson]

First PC - 1986 Zenith Heathkit. Began with CP/M system 1984

[CUViper]

My first was a Commodore 64 - I was only like 6 or 7 then though, so I only knew enough to get my games running... something like "load whatever,8,1"... Come to think of it, I still have that beast around somewhere; I wonder if it still works?

[Dirty Harry]

Staeted with an 8088 back in 1987 or -88 if I recall correctly. It's so long ago ... 15 years. Did my first (Pascal ??) programming in 1983 on a thingy that didn't even have a monitor, the output device was the printer

H.

[Davros]

18 years.

First was a Timex Sinclair 1000. Anybody remeber that p.o.s.?
Then Apples up to Commodore 64, a Tandy, then a used 486, then Packard Bell, then built my own for 4 years now. I may have missed one or 2 in there.

[Dragon-Lord]

starting in 1980 with the Apple II, that would make it 22 years.

oiy

[tsr]

18 years

1984 : Thomson MO5 with 1MHz Motorola 6809E and 48 ko ram
my first pc : 1992 with a 486 sx25 4mo ram

[Avalanche]

15 years

1987 - Tandy 1000TX 80286, a screamin' 8Mhz in standard mode, boosted to a whoppin' 12Mhz in TURBO!!

After 4 years I upgraded it with hard drive controller, and added a 15Mb Seagate hard drive that literally sounded like a refrigerator compressor, before that all it had was a 720Kb 3.5" floppy drive.

It ran DOS 2.0

I still have it in my closet, and it still runs.


1993 - NEC 386sx (can't remember the Mhz, but I think it was 25Mhz)

I didn't have this one as long, it kinda crapped out on me, the mobo went flaky, and NEC wouldn't warranty it, so except for the monitor, the thing went the way of the do-do.

It ran DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1


1995 - First computer I built myself, Cyrix P150+ MMX 133Mhz (what can I say, I didn't have much money) and a 1.2Gb hard drive (I thought I would never run out of space! HAHA!)

This system ran HOT! I had a proper HSF on it, but the CPU still ran hot enough to bake the ZIF socket and cause it to crack from the heat, the lugs to mount the HSF got so brittle from the heat, they literally fell off in my fingers. Despite that, the thing ran quite well, and I never had any serious problems (once I found a new way to secure the HSF, that is, bread ties anyone? :D)

After a couple years I upgraded the hard drive to an 8.4Gb, which is still running like a charm in my mom's system as her main drive.

This system ran several OS's over it's incarnation, starting with Win95, then Win95osr2, and finally win98.


1998 - My first AMD system, AMD K6-2 400Mhz.

This was the point I started becoming brand concious as far as the components of my computers. I bought what I found to be the best super-7 board, made by Asus. Great system all around. I gave it to my mom last year when I built my newest computer.

This puppy did, and still does run Win98SE


2001 - Basically the system I have now, Athlon 1.2Ghz (hmm exactly 100X faster in Mhz tham my first computer :)).

I bought myself a copy of Win2k, and I loved it, I will never go back to any 9x OS myself. Now I'm running WinXP Pro, and after it's set up to look like Win2k Pro, with all the eye candy and crap turned off, I like it. I love that it boots in a quarter the time 2000 does.

Sorry if this was a bit long winded, but it's fun to reminisce about such things, especially when you've had computers as long as I have.

[clutch]

I had a TRS80 (Trash80) back when I was 12 or 13, and learned BASIC. I have been using/owning computers of various types since. I would have to say about 18 years.

[CyberGenX]

16 Years

1: Can't remember the name, Some computer that you had to plug into a TV for a display and use BASIC to actually run or do anything.

2: 1987 Tandy 1000HX, no hard disk, (1) 3.5 floppy, DOS 2.0 embedded on the ROM, 512K RAM, 3 color monitor. Only thing i used it for was to play Roger Wilco: Space Quest II.



I am on my 47th computer now. I upgrade every 6-8 months.

[Alien]

[EddiE314]

i'd say around 1986-87, for God's sake, i was only 6yrs old. lol, mine was a Tandy 1000 too, gotta love DeskMate.

[FrogMaster]

Hey, a quarter of a century :p
Mid-seventies:
- Various Motorola breadboards with 6809 as far as I remember. Dual led display and Hex keyboard with one serial interface and some relays to talk to the outside world.
Very early eighties:
- Apple 3 with two single-sided floppies and 5 megabytes HD (a great computer with a very good OS, brilliant Pascal USCD, and lot of expansion slots)
Early eighties:
- IBM PC 8088 clone with floppy, 640 k memory and 10 megs hd (real pos)
Mid-eighties:
-Amstrad CPC 64, CPC 128 (very good Basic and CPM implementation)then 8086 pc clone (my first 20 megs hd, it was a huuuuge disk at that time)

Then upgrade every year or twice a year, all versions of DOS, Windows 286, Windows 3.1, 95, 98, NT4, 2000... all processors 8086, 286, 386, 486, a bunch of cyrix and amd 486s and 586s, various flavors of PIIs and Celerons, PIII, Athlon XP...

Time runs fast
8)