Your Computer(s)

[Joshua Howard]

I've got three unfinished/incomplete systems, An Athlon X2 5400+ (1-2 years old), and my most cherished computer, an Athlon XP 2400+ (Est. 7 Years old, bought around 2002/2003 and heavily upgraded). The latter of the two saw the many glorious days I spent playing Empire Earth all night long over a 56K Connection, Bridge Commander, and various renditions of SimCity; fond memories.

I've got plans to finish my new cutting edge gaming system, but right now it's just a case and motherboard in the closet... waiting for funding.

How far back does your oldest operational computer date? What kind of action has your computer or collection of computers seen over the years?

Unfortunately the data on my hard drives only dates back to 2006, due to reformatting without backing things up. Even so, I've got around 50,000 random files saved, including lots of interesting things spanning the last 3 years.

 

[archeryguy1701]

My oldest computer is from the end of 2006... a laptop that the school gave me for a scholarship. Kind of a lousy computer, but it serves its purposes.

However, my pride and joy is my "Green Beast" from Alienware. Bought it two Augusts ago. Nvidia GeForce9600GT video card, 4GB RAM, AMD Athalon 64x Dual Core 5200+ 2.7Ghz processor. Bought it for gaming, and it was the biggest thing i've ever bought for myself so far.

 

[Mr. B]

I have a home built desktop that has evolved over the years. It's an aging socket 939 system (AMD 4400+) but I bought a nVidia GTX 260 to hold me over for a while. I have a reserve desktop system built from old parts and I'll be turning it into a NAS after my next power supply.

I currently have five laptops in my possession: Three Sony VAIOs, a TR3AP, C1MVP (ca. 2002) and a QR20 (ca. 1999) as well as two ThinkPads, a T41 and X41.

I've sold two older VAIOs in the past couple years (my first laptops). All the one's I've bought over the years have been second-hand. With a powerful desktop, I've never had a need for a high performance portable. I use my desktop for gaming and media storage. My laptops are more like toys I've used for notetaking at school.

I haven't heavily documented my desktop evolution but there is a pictorial of my computer desk history on my website.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

My sole computer is an HP M8330 with an AMD Phenom X4 Quad-Core with 6GB of RAM and an 512MB ATI Radeon 4850.

 

[Kestra]

I have a whole collection of dead and mostly-dead computers which have been left behind in the wake of my technological destruction.

 

[Amaris]

I've got three unfinished/incomplete systems, An Athlon X2 5400+ (1-2 years old), and my most cherished computer, an Athlon XP 2400+ (Est. 7 Years old, bought around 2002/2003 and heavily upgraded). The latter of the two saw the many glorious days I spent playing Empire Earth all night long over a 56K Connection, Bridge Commander, and various renditions of SimCity; fond memories.

I've got plans to finish my new cutting edge gaming system, but right now it's just a case and motherboard in the closet... waiting for funding.

How far back does your oldest operational computer date? What kind of action has your computer or collection of computers seen over the years?

Unfortunately the data on my hard drives only dates back to 2006, due to reformatting without backing things up. Even so, I've got around 50,000 random files saved, including lots of interesting things spanning the last 3 years.

I have a still working Compaq Portable computer.
For those who have never heard of it:

http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html

Now hopefully Santaman will post in this thread. His computer collection is one you do not wish to miss him talk about!

J.

 

[Shaw]

This is my list of systems (that I can recall off hand)... all from the 20th century!

• PowerBook G3 Wallstreet (Mac OS X v10.2.8, G4/500, 512 MB, 40 & 20 GB hard drives, CDRW)
• PowerBook G3 Wallstreet (Rhapsody 5.6, G3/300, 384 MB, 40 GB hard drive)
• PowerBook G3 Lombard (Mac OS X v10.3.9, G3/400, 512 MB, 120 GB hard drive)
• PowerBook G3 Pismo (Mac OS X v10.4.11, G3/400, 1 GB, 40 GB hard drive)
• PowerBook 3400c (Mac OS 8.6, PPC603e/200, 80 MB, 12 GB hard drive)
• PowerBook Duo 2300c (Mac OS 8.6, PPC603e/100, 56 MB, 2 GB hard drive)
• Power Mac 8600 (Rhapsody 5.6, PPC604eV/300, 512 MB, 10 GB hard drive)
• Power Mac 8600 (Mac OS 8.6, G3/450, 256 MB, 10 GB hard drive)
• Power Mac G4 Sawtooth (Mac OS X v10.3.9, G4/1.2, 1 GB, 400, 60 & 30 GB hard drives, DVD-ROM)
• Power Mac G3 Mini Tower (Mac OS X v10.3.9, G4/533, 512 MB, 80 & 40 GB hard drives, CD-ROM & DVD-ROM)
• Quadra 950 (Mac OS 8.1, PPC601/66, 136 MB, 400 MB & 9 GB
• Quadra 700 (A/UX 3.0.1, MC68040/25, 24 MB, 500 MB)
• SGI Indigo 2 IMPACT (IRIX 6.5, MIPS R10000/175, 128 MB, 10 GB)
• SGI Indy (IRIX 6.2, MIPS R4600sc/175, 128 MB, 9 GB)
• SGI IRIS Indigo (IRIX 5.3, MIPS R3000/33, 96 MB, 9 GB)
• Sun SPARCclassic (Solaris 7, microSPARC/50, 48 MB, 1 GB)
• Sun SPARCstation 10 (OPENSTEP 4.2, SuperSPARC/50, 128 MB, 4 GB)
• IBM ThinkPad 760ED (OPENSTEP 4.2 & Rhapsody 5.1, Pentium/133, 80 MB, 6 GB)

And in storage...

• Macintosh IIcx
• Macintosh IIci
• Macintosh IIsi
• Macintosh IIvx
• Macintosh LCIII
• PowerMacintosh 7100
• PowerMacintosh 8100
• PowerMacintosh 7500
• PowerMacintosh 8500
• PowerBook Duo 280
• PowerBook G4 (parts system)
• PowerBook G4 (parts system)
• PowerComputing PowerTower Pro
• SGI IRIS Indigo
• Sun SPARCclassic

Fortunately all those systems cost me next to nothing and I have tons of software that works great on them.

 

[Finn]

I have a custom built desktop computer built for early last year that doesn't get used much these days. I use my Acer laptop these days

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I've got three unfinished/incomplete systems, An Athlon X2 5400+ (1-2 years old), and my most cherished computer, an Athlon XP 2400+ (Est. 7 Years old, bought around 2002/2003 and heavily upgraded). The latter of the two saw the many glorious days I spent playing Empire Earth all night long over a 56K Connection, Bridge Commander, and various renditions of SimCity; fond memories.

I've got plans to finish my new cutting edge gaming system, but right now it's just a case and motherboard in the closet... waiting for funding.

How far back does your oldest operational computer date? What kind of action has your computer or collection of computers seen over the years?

Unfortunately the data on my hard drives only dates back to 2006, due to reformatting without backing things up. Even so, I've got around 50,000 random files saved, including lots of interesting things spanning the last 3 years.

I have a still working Compaq Portable computer.
For those who have never heard of it:

http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html

Now hopefully Santaman will post in this thread. His computer collection is one you do not wish to miss him talk about!

J.

Holy shit! I have the exact same thing. 584KB RAM, 10MB hard drive. The stupid keyboard cable is always spontaneously disconnecting from inside the keyboard, too.

I set it up on a table and have it play chess against itself. People think it's awesome. I even got it online once, installing a packet driver and hooking up a 33.6 modem. It was kind of ridiculous, just a "can I really do this?" sort of thing. It worked, it was just slow as shit and basically useless.

 

[jamestyler]

My current laptop is a year old and it's black. Thats as far as I could tell you. When my backup laptop got to around 5 I tore it apart for o particular reason :/

I still have two old computers sating back to when a gig hardrive was impressive for a home computer and refused to throw out an old Amstrad 464.. I still I still have discs for it with short stories I wrote as a child.

 

[RAMA]

I have 4...well 5 computers if you count my stepdaughters brand new laptop: just got one backup computer unhooked when I moved. It has a 350mhz chip in it and 450mb of RAM or so. I put it together from about 5 different old computers. One is in need of a new motherboard, though I doubt I will ever get back to working on it. There's my current computer which is what I am using right now:

BTW, the 350mhz pc actually ran well with XP on it!

 

[LeahBoBo]

I have 2 laptops. Both are Toshiba. One is about 3 years old, the other I just bought a few months ago. The new one has a dual processor, 3 Gig of RAM and a 250 Gig hard drive. I also use a 500 Gig external hard drive with it. I hate running out of disk space.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

iMac Core 2 Duo (2006)

 

[Jadzia]

How far back does your oldest operational computer date? What kind of action has your computer or collection of computers seen over the years.

My oldest operational computer is a ZX spectrum, which was the family computer dating from a couple a years before I was born. This served us until we got our first PC in 1997, over 10 years later. I used it solely for computer games when I was younger, but in later years I taught myself the rudiments of computer programming with it. It hasn't really seen much use over the past ten years though.

As a child I had always had a passing interest in understanding the world around me, but when I saw the spectrum producing simulations of things eg, calculated predictions, trajectories, etc. I realised that hidden within there was the power to replicate the processes of reality, via some degree of abstraction and modeling.

It gave me deeper insight into the world around me, and I saw the computer as a way to cut beneath the superficial reality to explore those dynamical systems which we tend to be ignorant of but which nevertheless govern us. This in turn gave me an interest in mathematics, which up until that point (throughout school) I'd found a dull and tedious subject.

 

[judge alba]

got an old machine from 2003 it's a cybercom single processor type thingy 1.3hz i think.
its been update by adding a better graphics card oh and adding 2 GB of ram in it. it's got two hard drives the main one is a 40gb whilst the second one is a 200gb.
have to use it for my main internet stuff as my other one a advent vista dual core thingy 2.6 hz or something dosent seem to like the net no idea why so i've given up on it mind you that was bought in 2007

thats not to mention the two laptops and a mini laptop in storage

 

[ITL]

I only have one machine - an old Socket-A Athalon setup with 1GB of DDR 1 memory. It recently started to crash all the time. Long story short, it needed a new motherboard. Lucky that the shop had ONE Socket A board left...

So I had to re-install XP just in order to get the damn thing running, but now my software is all messed up so I'm currently taking a break from backing my stuff up on an external drive before a reformat and re-install...then, I have a couple of days of software installation/configuring to look forward to.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I still have my old BBC Model B which we've had since about 1984 (I think). It still works. It had a cassette deck only, which we later upgraded to a single deck 5.25" floopy disk drive (it was 40/80 track switchable, which didn't really work much). I used it for games and for starting some basic BASIC programming - at the time, limited only to some graphics demos and sound and music demos. (I did impress my friends with it, though - my masterwork was a Christmas scene back in 1992.) We also added a few ROMS including Wordwise (from Watford Electronics) which was a not too bad word processor.

I remember purchasing a second-hand BBC Model B+ several years later too, together with a dual 5.25" disk drive. Playing enhanced games on it like "Exile" was incredible. It too is gathering dust somewhere, but still works.

Our first family PC was a 486DX33, 8Mb of RAM and 210Mb hard disk, 1Mb video card which was apparently SVGA compliant. MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 on board. Used for games but later also for word processing. Had some fond memories of getting X-Wing, Frontier and SimCity 2000 to run under different boot-up systems. Got it in late 1993, upgraded it to include a sound card (Sound Blaster AWE32, which breathed new life into pretty much everything ) and a CD-ROM drive. Used up until 1999. Eventually upgraded to Windows 95, and given away to some other people.

In 1999, I got my first computer of my own, a Pentium II 350MHz, with 128Mb RAM, 8Gb hard disk, onboard video RAM of (I think) 8Mb, onboard sound chip, DVD-ROM player, Windows 98 (1st edition). Mostly for University, word processing, Powerpoint presentations, and later for poster design and artwork for my various Uni societies. And of course games. And, later, once I connected it to the Internet, mash-up MP3s. That took up a lot of space on my hard drive, sadly.
It's still in my room at my parents' home, but is hardly ever used.

I then got a laptop in 2003, Pentium 4 Mobile processor, 3.06GHz (extremely hot to touch ), 512Mb RAM, 80Gb hard disk, CD writer but DVD-ROM player, onboard Realtek sound, ATi Radeon Mobility video with 64Mb. Windows XP Professional. Perfect for taking with me wherever I went for my jobs, stayed with me for a long time. Needed two major repairs: the first 2 weeks after purchase when the RAM modules stopped working, the second 15 months later when one of the fans broke down causing power cut-offs. Played some decent games too - it could manage as much as KotOR and X2: The Threat. Eventually got a wireless network card for it in 2006. Another source for my growing mashup collection. Eventually died on me in the middle of July 2008, one week after I bought my last PC.

In late 2005 I then purchased (from my own money ) a desktop PC: Athlon FX57 processor, 2Gb RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX card, four hard disks (three of them 200Gb, one 150Gb), CD writer and DVD-ROM player, Audigy sound card, and Windows XP. It handled X3 Reunion and Civ 4 very well indeed. It's got a BIOS fault at the mo and after much fiddling I ended up erasing my boot drive, but apart from that it's nice but heavy and noisy. I might upgrade it somewhat if I have the time and knowhow.

Then last year I purchased the laptop I'm using now: an Acer Aspire 8920, Intel Core2Duo T9300, Nvidia GeForce 9500GS, two hard disks both at about 250Gb (both somehow managing to run out of space ), 4Gb RAM, DVD writer, Windows Vista Home Premium (but hoping to go for 7 if it's any good). Can play all the games my desktop can play and then some, but will no doubt faint at the likes of Crysis. Lots of add-ons including an external hard disk for backups, and mobile broadband dongle. This computer, as well as the other PCs, contains my oldest PC data, dating back to about 1996 with my old school documents and projects. With 15 and a half months on its clock, it hasn't broken down yet.

 

[Holdfast]

How do you people remember this stuff? Or do you keep a file somewhere to keep track?

All I know is that my laptop is a few years old now and a Sony Vaio. I can't remember any of the tech details about it and certainly can't remember the spec of my previous computers any more.

 

[Amaris]

Holy shit! I have the exact same thing. 584KB RAM, 10MB hard drive. The stupid keyboard cable is always spontaneously disconnecting from inside the keyboard, too.

I set it up on a table and have it play chess against itself. People think it's awesome. I even got it online once, installing a packet driver and hooking up a 33.6 modem. It was kind of ridiculous, just a "can I really do this?" sort of thing. It worked, it was just slow as shit and basically useless.

You got it online? Awesome!
Now I'm going to have to try that experiment just to see what will happen. I have an old Lasat modem around here somewhere, I'll make this puppy run.

J.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

How do you people remember this stuff? Or do you keep a file somewhere to keep track?

Party trick.