Your computer history!

We've had a few family PCs, the first and most memorable being one that ran Windows 3.1 and which at the age of six I didn't know how to turn on, but my computers have all been laptops:

1. 1997 - NEC Versa 2400 - holy crap was this a shitbox of a thing or what. You couldn't watch animations on it because it went all blurry, it had a whole 2 GB of memory, and I think I upgraded it to 128MB of ram from the original 56. It was actually ok to begin with though, because I just used it for school, but incredibly slow, and it slowly just stopped working. Oh and it weighed nearly 3 kilograms.

2. 2001 - Acer Travelmate somethingorother - this computer was actually surprisingly good, considering it ran Windows ME. Again it was only used for school assignments and the like so I never demanded much of it other than MSN Messenger, Internet Explorer and Word. However when we got a wireless network at home I got a wireless card for it and that was the death knell for that computer. Maybe if I'd downgraded to Windows 98 it might still be working.

3. 2006 - 1st gen 13" MacBook - My sister now owns this one. It still runs perfectly, and I've never had any issues with it whatsoever. I do feel like an idiot for not upgrading the 30GB hard drive though, which at the time sounded HUGE.

4. 2009 - 2nd Gen 13" MacBook Pro - My new machine which I've only had for a couple of weeks, which still doesn't have any of my documents on it because I need to go buy a firewire cable so I can migrate everything across.

And speaking of little kids not being able to turn on computers (or otherwise in this case), my little friend Ethan, who is 2-point-5 years old if you ask him, can not only turn on his family's computer, but connect to the internet, open Skype, and select his grandfather from the contacts list. freak.
 
4. 2009 - 2nd Gen 13" MacBook Pro - My new machine which I've only had for a couple of weeks, which still doesn't have any of my documents on it because I need to go buy a firewire cable so I can migrate everything across.

You can use an Ethernet cable and the Migration Assistant (/Applications/Utilities) to do your data migration between the two Macs :)
 
You can use an Ethernet cable and the Migration Assistant (/Applications/Utilities) to do your data migration between the two Macs :)

:) I tried....left the computers connected for 36 hours....no luck! I got too impatient and my sister really needed 'her' computer so I gave up.
 
Damn, then I guess this Ethernet method really doesn't work, I had problems too with my counsin's girldfriend MacBook Pro...
 
Hah - I play with three mainframes, various aix boxes and some PCs all day long - make them white goods and I am out of a job!
 
1995-1998, 386 (it was turned on by a giant red lever at the back of the case!)
1997-2000, 486 (with turbo!)
2000 - 2005, P3 800Mhz (quite a leap!)
2005 - 2007, P4 3.0Ghz
2007 - current, E6600 @ 2.4Ghz
 
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Pentium 100Mhz. 8MB RAM.

P3 600Mhz, 128MB RAM, Riva TNT2 M64(=shit), 20GB HDD
Processor: P3-> Duron 1300 Mhz-> Athlon 2GHz -> Opteron ~2.4GHz (single core).
RAM:512-> 768-> 1024.
GPU:Radeon 7500-> Radeon 9600.
HDD:80-> 250.

F-S Pi1556 15" laptop, C2D T7200, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, GeForce Go 7600.
->2GB RAM
-> Geforce 8600M. (because 7600 died).

Core2Duo 3250 (1.8GHz), 4GB RAM, Geforce 8800, 250GB HDD.
-> added 500GB HDD.

F-S Si1520 12" laptop, C2D T5500, 2GB RAM, GMA950, 160 GB HDD.
->320GB HDD.

Last three are in use, I sold the Opteron. Pi1556 is now my dads. I'm probably upgrading to i7 this year.

edit: And then I have Intel Atom 1,6GHz mini-itx with 2GB RAM and 2x1TB HDD as a server.
 
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First contact was with my dads (by then rather old) VIC-20. I was ~five and had no idea what it did, and I think my dad wondered too. But hey, it has sexy brown keys!

First usable computer was a 66Mhz Packard Bell (naturally) which was ridicilously slow blisteringly fast. I remember playing the best game ever, Worms on it. The speakers were kind of cool. It came with a weird software that was supposed to make it easier to use by placing stuff in "your virtual house". So you clicked your way to the "your desk" if you wanted to write someting or to the library if you wanted to read something. Yes not at all confusing :lol:

Then came a 266 Mhz Compaq which like the Packard was blisteringly fast for a few hours until Intel engineers got back from lunch and released a few new processors. It had a CD-ROM that did alot of X's. Maybe 6? I don't remember.

The Compaq was a employee benefit which meant you got a new one after a while, by now the amazing technology had reached 450 Mhz! Opened it up later and found Compaq had found a way to mate a AT PSU with an ATX motherboard and that mostly everything inside was custom. To it's defense, it had lots of fancy airducts. Rage 128 graphics (?) were not all the rage.

Then I started building them myself and like anyone on a budget switched to AMD and thats how I learned to love the heatsink. Ever bigger heatsinks, noisier fans. "What do you mean it's noisy? Look at my FPS!!!1" Cant' remember specific systems anylonger, I moved the components around alot too. Got a low end Geforce, then a ATI 9500 Pro which kicked ass for a long time and then went back to the green team. Once Intel released the C2D you'd be a fool for still buying AMD and since then I've stuck with the blue team and now I've got a Core i7 920 @ 3.4 (lagom OC, I now hate noise), a P6T Deluxe v1, GTX 275, 6GB of expensive RAM and a Crucial SSD all housed in a Antec P182B that is a nightmare to work in but looks very nice after the cables are routed.

My current laptop is the only laptop I've ever owned, it's a Toshiba Satellite A200 (like most Toshibas it's made by Compal) that desperately needs a SSD. 5400 RPM drives are sloooooooooooooooooooow.
 
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Commodore Amiga 500, no harddrive, It did already have 3.5 inch floppys an extended keyboard and a mouse though

Pentium 100 mhz, not sure on any of the other specs..... it worked.....sometimes :p

Pentium celeron somethingorother.....At this point i stopped carring what it was....I new it was gonna be outdated in 3 weeks anyway

Pentium dual core 2 ghz.....again it works.....most of the time
 
1. C64
2. AMD 386SX/33 1Mb
3. AMD 486DX/66 8Mb
4. AMD K5/150 32Mb
5. 2xCeleron 300A@500 256Mb
6. AMD K7/650@800 256Mb
7. AMD AXP1800+ 512Mb
8. Pentium-M 1.6GHz 1Gb
9. Core-2 1.6GHz 1.5Gb
10. Core-2 2.0Ghz 3Gb

Various graphics cards from Trident 256kb ISAs, S3 ViRGE, Voodoo2 SLIs in the dual Celery machine, TNT2 Ultra, Geforce 256, Geforce 2GTS and a Geforce 4MX. 8,9,10 are laptops all with integrated graphics as all the games I play are circa 2001 :lol:

A pile of harddrives from the first 40Mb Seagate in that 386 to 250Gb in the newest laptop.

I used to be a big nerd, still am I suppose but don't feel the need to keep up with the latest and greatest.
 
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My desktops if I remember them correctly;

  • 1. Pentium 80Mhz, really can't recall much else of it.
    2. Pentium 3, 450Mhz, Riva TNT 16Mb
    3. Pentium 4, 2Ghz, 6600GT (I think?)
    4. AMD 3500+, 7900GT, 4GB mem (later upgraded to an AMD 4200 X2)
    5. E8400, 8800GTX, 4GB and tons of disk space is what I have now. (current)

The laptop list is a bit more fruitish;

  • 1. Dell Inspiron something old
    2. 12" iBook G3 (500 Mhz)
    3. 12" PowerBook G4 SuperDrive (1.5 Ghz)
    4. Dell Latitude T...-something
    5. 13" MacBook (C2D 2Ghz) (current)
 
there are quite a few things in here that could be put in a museum, right? :O that's just awesome!
unfortunately, i'm too young for that! I got my first own PC in 1998:

1. Pentium MMX (oh yah! feel the power!) 166MHz
2. Pentium 3 450MHz (I really don't know why they made a P3 with only 450... whatever)
3. Duron 1,2GHz
4. AthlonXP 2600+
5. Athlon64 3000+
6. Laptop: Core2Duo T7500

and, to bore you some more, the graphics belonging to listed processors:

1. ATI Rage2 / Mach64
2. Matrox Marvel G200 ==> Geforce2 MX400
3. abovementioned MX400
4. abovementioned MX400 ==> Radeon 9500pro
5. Geforce 6800GT
6. Geforce 8800M-GS

enough of that!!!

I have to say that I liked the AMD2600+ with the 9500pro by far the most of all those computers (now don't you die on because you're offended you stupid laptop!).


May I also add that, when getting the Duron I started to watch after the noise of the thing a lot! I had quite a few BRICK-like coolers in my PC and reason enough to be afraid as hell when transporting it. MX400 and R9500 were passively cooled back then (it was still possible, damn that modern rubbish). One of the reasons for me to get a laptop was also the noise...
 
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One of the reasons for me to get a laptop was also the noise...

interesting. I hear this a lot from computer minded friends of mine, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would care about a little whirring noise...

Some people have an internetgasm when they buy a PC that is completely and utterly quiet...

sure, having a completely quiet PC is cool, but is it worth much more money (passive cooling, SSD, etc)? Most of the time I'm listing to music, watching a video or playing a game, so I don't hear the "noise" anyway
 
when watching movies the "whirring" does get on my nerves quite a lot, especially if you have silent scenes in the movie. if your computer does really only emit "a little whirring noise", you're lucky I guess. Most of my friends PCs are far from that and produce something close to hairdryer noiselevels... (yes yes, a bit of an exaggeration, but you wouldn't believe how loud PCs can get).
I am not one to spend lots and lots of money so my PC is utterly quiet, but I like it to be not noticeable unless it really is completely quit around. With a laptop you don't even have to spend any money, if you buy a decent one. Plus, it brings with it all the other reasons one could want a laptop for!
 
I'm including my parent's PCs as well as they had some rather interesting ones.

1. IBM PC, Jr.
2. 486 66Mhz(?)
3. Compaq Presario with 8MB HDD :lol:
4. Some rubbish custom built computer my dad tried to run Linux Red Hat on- it didn't work
5. Some rubbish HP desktop with 256MB RAM and 1.2Ghz Celeron
6. eMachines rubbish (my first)
7. Sony Vaio rubbish 1.7GHz P4, 256MB RAM (20GB partitioned C:/ drive; 80 GB total)
8. Gateway 700GR 3.4GHz P4 HT, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 1GB BFG GTS250 OC (up from 256MB eVGA 7800GT)
9. Summer 08 MacBook- Black, 2.4GHz C2D, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD (50GB partitioned to XP Pro)
 
I CBF going through all my desktops.

My first laptop purchase:

asus-f9dc.jpg


Got it because it was the cheapest 12" I could find at the time. Pathetic battery life, and not very reliable.

Bought one of these earlier in the year since they were cheap when I was in HK to muck around with:

ASUS_eeePC_900_20G_black.jpg


Battery life not as good as I hoped on XP, but on linux its pretty good. Keyborad took experience to get used to, but not bad overall. Girls thinking its so cute is another positive as well.

And now I'm considering either:

macbook.png


or

MacBook.jpg


Dual booting with Windows 7. Updated plastic body is a little bit cheaper, but not by a whole heap since the 13" unibodies are on special at my un's apple store atm (And I'll get snow leopard update CD for free).
 
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