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

  1. #21
    ServBot (Level 11) tom's Avatar
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    I was late where computers are concerned.
    I bought a brand new Atari 130 XE for DM299 (approx $600?) from a department store in Germany, which had it on offer for one week in 1985. I thought that's all you need. Doh.
    Week later I purchased a XC11 and a 1050, a Sanyo monitor, and a Seikosha printer (which plugged directly in). So on top of the XE price, another DM 1000.

    Year later I purchased a C64 and a 1541, both for something like GBP 500.

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    Banana (Level 7) Atarileaf's Avatar
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    Ok not counting the Atari 800XL and Tandy Color Computers I had, my first PC was in 1993 or 94, don't remember.

    IIRC, it was

    486DX2/50Mhz
    4 meg ram
    200 meg harddrive (I think)
    1 meg Cirrus Logic Video card
    Soundblaster 16
    Dos and Windows 3.1
    14" svga monitor
    $2400 (I think)

    Yikes, glad prices have gone way down and performance has gone way up.
    Last edited by Atarileaf; 11-25-2009 at 07:47 AM.

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    I do not really know the specs on it, by my parents got their first computer back when I was like 4 years old, cost them around 2500$ was a custom built pre-386 IBM PC. DOS was my friend and has helped me throughout the years. And then he got Windows 1.01 when it came out. Had that for the longest time, then in the skt 7 days, he bought a AMD K6 300mhz (when it was new) OC'd to 450mhz, 6mb Voodoo rush video card, 8GB hdd, 128mb ram, USR 56k modem, 17" Viewsonic CRT and a 2X ACER CD BURNER (was one of the few people I knew at the time who had one).
    MY first computer I purchased (built myself), was a AMD K6 450 OC'd to 550, 256MB ram, 20GB hdd, 12x cd burner, Voodoo3 3500TV, 56K modem, Linksys 10/100NIC, Microsoft Forcefeedback joystick. Cost me around 750$ at the time. A friend of the family had his own computer business.
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    Cherry (Level 1) CX2K's Avatar
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    Let's see....

    Bought the TRS-80 Model 1 for $150 from my old high school when they upgraded to Apple 2e's. No storage device of any kind. Had to re-type the programs I wrote each time I wanted to show them to someone. "Hang on for 15 minutes, this is cool".

    After that, I went for an Atari 800XL, 1050 drive, Commodore 1702 monitor, and a box of floppy disks. I don't remember indivdual prices but I think it was about $1000 for everything.

    John

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) Nonplus's Avatar
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    My first laptop cost around $2200 dollars new, a shitty compaq back in the early nineties, but I got it as a present in '97. It lasted me until '02, when it drank itself to death.
    Too much diet coke.
    The last computer I bought was five hundred off of ebay a couple of weeks ago. 300 gigs, 4 gigs of ram, 2Ghz in processor, 2 MP webcam built in, built-in microphone, 17-inch screen, 9-cell battery, 7-cell battery (I assume the extra battery was a mistake on the part of the seller), Microsoft Office, DVD burner, and Windows Vista. I'm probably going to install opensuse in the next couple of days.

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    My first computer was a horrible E Machines desktop that was bought for me by my dad. I still have it since it was my first computer and I appreciated the gift. It cost about $700 and that was back in like late 1998. I don't remember the speed of the CPU but I do know it was a really slow Intel Celeron which I eventually upgraded to a faster Pentium 2. Other than that it had 32mb of RAM (since upgraded to 128mb), a 3gb hard drive and an integrated ATI 3D Rage 2 Pro for the graphics card.

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    ServBot (Level 11) aaron7's Avatar
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    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
    Last edited by aaron7; 12-02-2009 at 06:32 AM.

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    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

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    The family got a c64 around '85 or so, so probably around $299. The first computer I bought with my own money was an HP Pentium 1 (with built-in 14.4k modem!). Bought it when I graduated from college and got a job. I honestly don't remember the price, but I want to say around $1000. I splurged and went into debt for a GIANT 17 inch monitor, which was about $600 - quite a chunk of change at the time given my low salary, but so worth it for Magic Carpet and Mechwarrior 2.
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    My first computer was an IBM XT clone that I had thru the college I flunked out of, they got that back.... The very first computer I bought for myself was a 386/25 with 2 megs of ram (8 * 256k 30 pin SIMMS), VGA card, 5.25 and 3.5 floppy, and an 80 meg hdd (when a 40 was the norm), SVGA monitor..... custom built pc from a mom and pop shop.... $1,500, at the time it was more expensive then my car. I customized and went for the extra meg of ram and the bigger hdd instead of the more popular 386/33. A 486 was the high end at the time. I added a sound blaster pro, a 387 math co processor, and several modem incarnations, started with a 2400 baud from the old XT, then got a 28.8, then a 33.6, I don't think I got a 56k with that pc. I think I eventually added another 4 meg 72 pin SIMM to bring it up to 6 megs, very unstable after that with 9 ram chips on the board. Also had a star mitronics 9 pin dot matrix printer from the XT, then upgraded the a 24 pin..... That box went thru many, many mods.
    I'm just trying to keep from losing my mind!

  11. #31
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    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
    Last edited by LaughingMAN.S9; 01-03-2010 at 12:57 AM.
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    Ladd Spencer (Level 17)
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    I think we got our TI 99/4A for around $250 or so back in about 1982.
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    Cherry (Level 1) Flippy8490's Avatar
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    Ah, my first computer. I loved that piece of junk. It was a hand-me-down 1998 gateway desktop with a 12gig HD if I'm remembering correctly. It wasn't until around 2003 that I was able to actually buy something decent.

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    Key (Level 9) RJ's Avatar
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    Whatever a brand new storebought Atari 800XL cost in Summer/Fall 1984, thats when I got it for my 13th birthday. I recall it had the "Official computer of the 1984 LA olympics" or something like that on the box.
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    In August 2003 I bought my first computer, a E Machines with 100 GB hard drive, 512mb ram, 2.53 GHz Pentium 4, and a dvd copier for around $900.

  16. #36
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    My first computer my mom purchased for me in 1995. It was a Compaq Presario 75mHz Intel Pentium w/ 8mb ram and a 1.2gb Hard drive, and it came with the brand new Windows 95! it was about $4,000 out the door with a monitor and printer.

    My friend down the street made me want to get a computer, I used to watch him play Warcraft II for hours. The first 2 games I left the store with were Warcraft II, a Joystick and Tie Fighter!

    I am happy to say my friend with the 486 and Windows 3.1 was very jealous!

    Ill never forget the one line he said when i showed him it. "28.8 baud modem? Holy ****!!! thats FAST!"

    Lol i miss AOL 2.5

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    well the A500 was a present, the 386 and 486 were hand me downs, but I bought this myself:



    150$. was a p100 w/ 64mb ram and a 3gig HD. Played a ton of old games on it.

    then it died and i got a 10$ 90mhz digital off ebay and put the ram from the monorail in it and that became a 128mb, 4gig beast. Ran D2 like a CHAMP!

    lol
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  18. #38
    ServBot (Level 11) tom's Avatar
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    ah, PCs...fond memories.
    After A8, C128, Apple ][, Amiga I purchased my first PC finally in 1991, which was a Olivetti 286; that machine didn't work properly, but asap I managed to trade it in for a HP Vectra 386 (paid some extra of course), 16 MHz. Maxed out the RAM (up to 16MB I think?). RAM was more pricey than the whole PC. In 93 I purchased my first 'single' speed CD-Rom. As it was an internal CD-Rom and my Vectra didn't have the space, I taped that thing to the desk, with the leads going into the back of the PC. CD-Roms back then still needed a huge expansion card. Also managed to add a VESA card soon afterwards, wow high-res screen, the games looked amazing.


    The PC ran Kings Quest games and Return to Zork, so I was happy.
    Last edited by tom; 01-13-2010 at 02:32 AM.

  19. #39
    Insert Coin (Level 0) Mr. Flibble's Avatar
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    I've never owned a computer, I just borrow my friends computers or use the one at work. Right now I use Ubik's Asus netbook. For a small computer it sure can hold a lot of Penguin pr0n!

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) Ravenswood's Avatar
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    My first computer was a freebie from my aunt, who bought it from some really obscure PC maufacturer in Arizona. It didn't have a lot of resources (9 GB hard drive and 32 MB of RAM), but it was good for using an outdated version of AOL and running old shareware DOOM demos.

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