How much did you pay for your first computer?

[Diatribal Deity]

To be perfectly honest my first computer purchase was probably a VIC-20. But the first full featured computer (CPU, monitor, etc...) I bought was an IBM Aptiva "stealth" in the mid '90s. Cost: $2700. Since, I've resorted to the frankenstein approach and bought a few laptops but never spent close to what I did on that splurge.

So what was your first?

[JSoup]

I still actively use my first PC, an HP Pavilion that I got at Costco for $450 in late 2002.

[j_factor]

My first several computers were all free hand-me-downs. At one point I had three computers, all ridiculously outdated. Actually, my current PC, which I built last year, is the first real computer that I ever paid for.

[izarate]

Mine was a Lanix 486DX2 with *gasp* 4MB of RAM and a 150MB HD. I think it was $1400 or something like that.

[Steve W]

I bought my own computer in 1995 or 1996 at Computer City. I'd had computers before, but they were given to me or hand-me-downs. At the time I was considering a PC because of all the games available for it, and I told that to my best friend who worked tech support. He basically told me he'd come over and punch me in the face if I bought a PC. He insisted I look at Macintoshes first, so I did. I ended up going with a Mac clone, a Power Computing 100, for $1499. I eventually upgraded the memory and installed a second drive and with the addition of a 24-bit Nubus video card also a second monitor. It served me well for two or three years until I decided to upgrade at the spur of the moment, when a guy at Fry's Electronics offered me another Mac clone, a UMAX C500, for $500 as a floor model. So I handed it down to my father, since he was interested in this wacky 'information superhighway' thing all the kids were talking about. And so it continued serving a noble purpose until my father's death in January of 2000.

[retroman]

The first full package pc i bought with my own money was a emachine back in 98 or 99. My first pc was a Atari 800 as a kid.

[PentiumMMX]

My first PC I paid for was my custom (Built out of assorted used parts I had gathered. A Frankenstein PC, in a sense). The only thing I paid for was the 56K modem for it (Cost me $30); everything else that went into it had been given to me previously by my great uncle.

[ScourDX]

The first PC I got cost about $2200+ with taxes. It was a clone PC with Pentium II MMX, 64MB of ram & 8GB HD space.

[skaar]

I have no idea what was paid for my first computer, an Apple IIe. It was killed when the floppy drives were knocked off the desk and they tore something off the motherboard.

My next computer was an IBM XT, 4.77mhz. I learned the wonders of DOS 3.1 and later 4.0, and upgraded it from 384k to 640k. I later installed a 10MB HD in it and it was pretty sweet.

In the 486 days I inherited a Turbo XT (10mhz!) with a 20GB and 5 1/4 AND 3 1/2 inch drives (double density, not High Density) that held me through until the Pentium Era.

Then, my mom dropped $7000 on an AST P90 w/4MB ram, a 1MB onboard cirrus logic, onboard SB16 clone and two PCI slots (and 4 ISA) - it came with Windows 3.11 and a 4x CDROM, 14.4 USR modem and a 17" CRT + HP Laserjet 4L laser printer. I still own that printer and it still works.

The AST was upgraded to 8MB of RAM ($500, a summer's salary) an AWE32 Sound Card ($359) an 8x CDROM ($199) a USR DSVD 33.6 modem (allowed voice and data on the same phone line, excellent for C&C and Warcraft modem games, I convinced three other friends to shell out $500 each for them) and a 2MB Diamond Stealth 3D 2000.

It was pimp. And I couldn't tell you how many systems I've gone through since them - these days I can barely remember what CPU or motherboard I've got in a tower. But that system I knew inside and out. It was BADASS.

[Berserker]

The first computer I paid for is the one I'm using right now - $450 of carefully-selected parts, with other non-essential components salvaged from machines nobody else wanted.

It's about four years old now. It runs every game I've ever thrown at it, acceptably, and I still use it every day. No problems yet.

[Gameguy]

In the 486 days I inherited a Turbo XT (10mhz!) with a 20GB and 5 1/4 AND 3 1/2 inch drives (double density, not High Density) that held me through until the Pentium Era.

You had a 20GB hard drive in the 486 days? The first computer we had was from 1997 and it had a 1.2GB hard drive. We still have the computer though it doesn't get used so often anymore, it had a Pentium 166MHz, 16MB RAM, 3 1/2" floppy drive with 12X CD-ROM drive. I've upgraded the RAM since then but that's pretty much it. It still runs well. I didn't buy it as it was the family's computer and I was a kid so I don't know what it cost, but it was expensive.

[Game Freak]

My family's first computer, a 1997 Pentium MMX CTX computer, cost roughly 200 dollars. It's listed as over 1000, but somehow they got an insane discount o_O

MY first computer, a 2006 Acer Aspire AM3100-U3201A, cost $600

[SPAZ-12]

Built my own first computer from parts about 4-5 years ago. I think that it cost about $2500 for all of the parts, with small upgrades over the years bringing the total to somewhere around $3000. I built it with the intention of playing games on it, which I did, until I pretty much stopped playing computer games altogether.

It still, of course, runs nice and quickly, or it would if it were working right now. I'm pretty sure that my RAM is fried (at least I hope that's the problem, else it's probably my mobo); I need to get some more air moving through that case, as it runs pretty hot right now.

[Pantechnicon]

My first computer ever was a Timex-Sinclair 1000 with a 16KB expansion pack. That was a Christmas present in 1982. Total cost was $150. Looking back I'm impressed that my non-techie parents had the foresight to spring for the extra RAM.

My first computer purchase as an adult with my own monies was for a Tandy 1000 RSX-HD. A 386-25 with 1MB of RAM and a 50MB HDD. The whole package (computer, monitor, printer) was around $1500. This was mid-1992.

[kedawa]

I think my parents spent over $1000 on my Amiga 500 back in 1989.

[Flack]

According to this page the TRS-80 Model III sold for $699 with a cassette tape recorder and no floppy drives, which is the model my family had.

When I got my C64 they were selling for $200; I got mine for $100 because it had no sound (I got it fixed a few days later). That was just for the 64. I paid $180 for a floppy drive and I think we paid another $100 for my crappy printer.

The first computer I bought with my own money was a PC clone I put together for about $600, and I think a friend gave me either the RAM or the hard drive for free. About half of the $600 was the monitor.

[aaron7]

Nothing! Well, nothing at first.

We always had a PC in the house since I was born but MY first PC was in 1994.

I was 10 years old and my dad had just built a new system for my aunt. He gave me all her old parts and said to play with them.

Well, I spent some time working on that box (Tandy Sensation 486DX-33, 8mb RAM, 210mb WD Caviar) and eventually got it working!

I saved up my allowance and bought more RAM and a 486DX2-66 CPU for it and borrowed a friend's Windows 95.

I was the coolest kid around for having a PC in my room! haha

I used it for playing mostly old DOS games (duh) and eventually got into making maps for Duke3d. Had some good ones too... but all were lost at some point. Tried making some maps again last year and boy was I lost lol

[dayzed4life]

my very very first computer was free, i was poor, i dont remember wha tyoe it was besides it was a tandy and had windows 3 on it i believe

[LaughingMAN.S9]

not me really, i was in the 5th grade but im gonna count it anyway since im the one who chose it and made parents pay for it.


it was a packard bell, 200 mhz intel pentium 1 (or 2?) with mmx. 32mb of ram and a 4 gig hd, also came with windows 95!!!! yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!



grand total? $4,000 plus tax

i dont even think sears sells computers, but i swear to god, im 90 percent sure thats where we purchased it
2nd computer i ever bought was like 5 years later, one that i had custom built by best buy instead of doing it myself, this was my gaming rig, so it came out to about the same price, $3800

lol jesus christ, and this was in 1995, and people today wanna cry about apples prices

[scooterb23]

I think we got our TI 99/4A for around $250 or so back in about 1982.