Weekend Open Forum: What CPU powered your first computer?

That was my first computer also, before moving along to the Commodore 64.

First real x86 PC I had thought had a 1Ghz Celeron CPU, 128Mb of RAM, and onboard GFX back in 2000 if memory serves.
My very 1st PC as a complete unit, screen, keyboard & CPU was... an Apple IIe which I still have, all boxed up and in storage. I'm told it's worth some money these days but I won't sell it, I'll leave it to my kids to do what they want with it.
 
Ditto, albeit I had the 48kB RAM version
Almost the same again in the Tatung Einstein TC01 a few years later (that's progress for you)
First true PC was a P90 that I overclocked to 100
A P90? Hell! That brings back memories. I'd completely forgotten about them.
 
It was a Pentium 60 or 66 MHz in 1996, don't remember how much RAM, running version A Win 95 (limited to 2 GB Hard drive). You had to load Dos 6.22, then DOS CD driver, edit Config.Sys and AutoExec.Bat to recognize driver and CD drive, (if you wanted to use both both com ports) then you cuold load Win 95 from CD. A lot of work!
I still have that machine under the bench in my shop. I don't think there is one original part in that old white box.The mainboard was later swapped for one with a built-in SCSI controller and it still boots with Win 2000 Pro. Takes quite a while, though!
 
The first computer that I built myself was a Pentium 133 with 1Gb hard drive, and perhaps 16Mb RAM. It was built specifically for playing Wing Commander 3.

Prior to that, I was lucky enough to have parents who provided us kids with access to the following machines:

Exidy Sorcerer (via **** Smith Electronics)
Apple //e
IBM XT 8086 clone
IBM AT 80286 clone
486DX-33
 
It just says Computer in the title, Not PC.
I think the term 'personal computer' captures more than just the x86 IBM clones, in fact it could be argued that something more like the Commodore PET, which started the mass-produced 'home computer' was, if not the great-grandaddy, then the grandaddy of the PC.
 
1st PC that my family had (bought by my parents) was the ColecoVision Adam: daisy wheel printer, cassette drive, OS was more similar to the Apple II's OS, & a cartridge slot for ColecoVision games. That was back when a local library had them available to check out.

2nd PC that my family had: IBM 486. Don't remember the exact stats, but I remember updating it with a video card so that it could handle 16-bit (!!) colors, & with the right boot disk it could access the full 4MB (!!!) to run X-Wing & TIE Fighter.

1st PC that I actually bought (back in '98): AMD K6 prebuilt from Best Buy. Can't remember all of its stats, but IIRC it had a 32GB HDD & a 300MHz K6 (which I later replaced with a 500MHz K6-2, good old Socket 7...). That one also started out on Windows 98.

2nd PC of mine: another AMD prebuilt (an eMachines, if you can believe it), IIRC it had the AMD Athlon XP 3200+ & Windows XP. I believe IIRC that it originally had 512MB of DDR RAM (as I'd heard that XP ran slow on only 256MB). Over time I upgraded the video card (that might have been the Radeon X1050 that it had at the end), ended up with 2 HDDs, & 1536MB of RAM.

3rd (& current) PC of mine: my first custom-built machine. Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, initially had two 1TB HDDs but later added a 250GB SSD as the primary (keeping the 2 HDDs for storage). GPU was originally the Radeon HD 6450 (cheap GPU since my wife doesn't game), which I first upgraded to the R9 270X & then later to the current R9 380. CPU was originally a Phenom II X4 980, & later was replaced by an FX-8320.
 
1st pc (1998, retired): intel pentium 166mhz
2nd pc (2003, retired): intel celeron 1.6ghz
3rd pc sets (2010+, all in good condition): intel i3-530 (main) / pentium g630 (backup rig) / pentium g2030 (upgraded to i3-3240, media rig)
4th pc (2013+): i3-3570k (game rig)

I am not buying a new pc or pc parts in the foreseeable future. my last pc parts purchased were two gtx 960 (asus strix and evga, 2 years ago), one 500GB Samsung 850 evo SSD (dec 2016), and two WD Blue HDDs (6 months ago) .
 
My first PC was a 8088 - 4.77Mhz- An upgrade to my ZX spectrum Plus....
my second was 286,jumped the 386 straight to a 486.. my first home build, for M1 tank Platoon - Microprose Ah those where the days 500 page manuals, DOS.....
 
1984 - First Personal Computer - Commodore 64 (MOS Technology 6510) ~1 MHz
1990 - First PC Clone - 80486SX2 50 MHz - OC'ed to 66 MHz
1998 - First home made PC - Pentium II 233 MHz OC'ed to 283 MHz
 
1. Commodore 64 MOS 6510 at 1 Mhz
2. Commodore 128 MOS 8502 at 2 MHz
3. Intel 8088 at 10 Mhz
4. Intel 286 at 10 Mhz
5. AMD 386 at 40 Mhz
6. AMD 486 DX4 120 Mhz
7. Intel Pentium Pro 200 Mhz
8. AMD Athlon 700 Mhz

It gets a little fuzzy after that
 
1st PC that I actually bought (back in '98): AMD K6 prebuilt from Best Buy. Can't remember all of its stats, but IIRC it had a 32GB HDD & a 300MHz K6 (which I later replaced with a 500MHz K6-2, good old Socket 7...). That one also started out on Windows 98.

2nd PC of mine: another AMD prebuilt (an eMachines, if you can believe it), IIRC it had the AMD Athlon XP 3200+ & Windows XP. I believe IIRC that it originally had 512MB of DDR RAM (as I'd heard that XP ran slow on only 256MB). Over time I upgraded the video card (that might have been the Radeon X1050 that it had at the end), ended up with 2 HDDs, & 1536MB of RAM.
Ah the great K6 and the XP3200+ - this path sounds so familiar to me (I'm sure I had both a 450 and a 533 K6-2) that I'm surprised not to see the i5-2500K in your 3rd machine :)
 
I want to do an outrageously all out system again that would be cooled via a phase change system outside cooling a water / antifreeze mix that would cool a peltier array that would cool a computer immersed in Novec 7000. My wife wont let me though.

You'll shoot your eye out kid!
 
AM386 DX40
Then K6-III 400
Then Athlon XP 1800 (Tbed)
Then Athlon XP 3200 (Barton)
Then Athlon X4 955BE - heavily overdue for upgrade, most probably would be ryzen...

So, am I AMD fan boy? You may think so, but I always consider myself as more toward budget-discpline guy since very beginning... LoL.

Edit: I also have hp proliant microserver gen 1st, which happened as you may guest, powered by amd turion neo n36l. Teehee...
 
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