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Thread: How much did you pay for your first computer?

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    Strawberry (Level 2) Diatribal Deity's Avatar
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    Default How much did you pay for your first computer?

    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?

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

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    Kirby (Level 13) j_factor's Avatar
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    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 At one point I had three computers, all ridiculously outdated.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.

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    Peach (Level 3) izarate's Avatar
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    Mine was a Lanix 486DX2 with *gasp* 4MB of RAM and a 150MB HD. I think it was $1400 or something like that.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Steve W's Avatar
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    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.

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    Pear (Level 6) retroman's Avatar
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    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.

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    Pear (Level 6) PentiumMMX's Avatar
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    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.

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    Apple (Level 5) ScourDX's Avatar
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    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.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) skaar's Avatar
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    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.
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    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.

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    Quote Originally Posted by skaar View Post
    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.

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    The first computer I ever used was a VIC-20, which my dad had bought for my brother. He always claims it was $800 at the time for the entire package. I inherited it when my brother got a C64... and I inherited the C64 when my brother got an Amiga.

    Pretty much my first 10 computers were hand-me-downs that I never personally paid for. When I started buying my own computers, which I generally assemble myself, I've had a general rule of spending around $500, though I always retain some parts of the previous system (monitor, mouse, keyboard, drives, etc).

    --Zero

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    Kirby (Level 13) Push Upstairs's Avatar
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    I have no idea how much my first computer cost. It was a home built that I pieced together a few years ago with parts bought from Newegg. Probably $500-600, but it recently got a new case.

    All the previous computers I've ever used, stretching back to the late 80's, were bought by my parents. So, those were "free".

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    My *first* computer was an Atari 65XE -- it cost $150, but it was bought as a gift so it doesn't really count.

    The first computer I paid for was a Packard Bell P133 with an amazing 8MB of RAM and 1.2GB hard drive. With a 14" monitor it cost me $2200. I remember looking at Pentium Pro-based PCs also, but they were way more expensive (a PPro200 with 24M of RAM and 2GB hard drive was nearly $4000). I worked a lot of hours to pay for it (back in high school, working part time) and the other things I eventually bought (28.8 modem, anyone? )

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    With half of the money from my paper route and the other half from my grandma as a gift, I paid almost three grand for my Power Mac 7100 in '94. It came with a whopping 700 MB HD and 66 MHz of power! Somehow, I ended up getting my money's worth, as it lasted all throughout high school and most of college.

    While I no longer use Macs and generally loath Apple products, I'll always look back fondly at that system.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) Game Freak's Avatar
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    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

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    Cherry (Level 1) SPAZ-12's Avatar
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    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.

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    Crono (Level 14) Pantechnicon's Avatar
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    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.
    Last edited by Pantechnicon; 11-19-2009 at 06:00 PM.

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    ServBot (Level 11) kedawa's Avatar
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    I think my parents spent over $1000 on my Amiga 500 back in 1989.

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    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.

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