What was your first PC spec?

Soldato
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Computer wise an A500 for Christmas (Bat Pack so 89? I got an A1200 later, added a Blizzard 1230 IV with SCSI module and 16MB of 60ns RAM. I even managed to trial the Siamese RTG system - then the dev decided to screw me by trying to charge full whack for the software upgrade despite promising it would be no more than the price difference between what I paid pre launch and the launch price. I then ended up with an A3000 with all sorts of toys including an ariadnae, maxed chip RAM, 3.1 ROM kit, Segate HAWK SCSI drives and a Picasso II.

PC wise a 286, dual 20MB MFM HD’s and 5.25” floppy, F29 Retaliator in a CGA monitor.... first actual PC I built was a Cxrix PR166+, S3 Trio 1MB (it had socketed memory and I actually paid for the chips and fitted them to take it to 2MB?), WD Caviar 80?GB and I added a CDRW drive not long after along with a load of cheap RAM.

Dark Forces was cool and all, but when I upgraded to a 4MB S3 Virge DX and when I grabbed a cheap Orhard Righteous 3DFX at a computer fair, I suddenly began to appreciate PC gaming, quake went from being OK to OMG and Q2 was just amazing. Then came a trip to the US and some dual C300A’s@504Mhz action and it’s fair to say my love of PC hardware has kept going.
 
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First PC - 486 Dx33, 4MB RAM, 170mb hard disk, 15" monitor (cant recall the brand) and Cirrus Logic graphics card. My first upgrade was a sound blaster and CD-ROM
 
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My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 which was a Birthday present when I was a teenager.

First DOS machine was an 8086 'Laptop' from Tandy I think.

First PC was a 486 SX25 IBM from a popular High Street Retailer, it was a pricey beast.

First home built PC was a 200 Pentium clocked to 225 or so on a cheapo PC Chips Motherboard.

First home built PC I took to a LAN was a Celeron 300 clocked to 366 I think, it was unstable any higher.

Jeez, I am old............
 
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Got my first PC in late 98 or early 1999.

P2 350mhz
64 meg ram
6.4 gb HD
Voodoo 2 fx gfx card and 17" CRT with win 98


Purchased it from Comet on a store card as a late teenager.
 
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I'll exclude 'shared ownership' one I had with my sister (think was a DX33), but my first officially would have been a Pentium 75hz, 4MB Ram with maybe 480MB HDD, Trident GPU, Creative SB16 audio, and some tnk sized monitor by Phillips.
 
Soldato
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Casting my mind back...

48k Spectrum

128k Spectrum

BBC Master

386SX 25MHz, 2MB, 105MB HDD.
512kb on board Trident chip
A Tandy machine it was £899 in 1989. Interestingly, in 2019 pounds, that was £2,250! Although I didn't think about it at the time, probably about a month's income for my Dad!

Pentium 60 (with the FDIV bug) in 1994 from ESCOM (overclocked to 66MHz)
4mb Righteous Orchid 3DFX with a Matrox Mystique.
Upgraded to nVidia TNT

Rest were self builds:
Pentium 150 (overclocked to 187.5MHz on 75MHz bus)
nVidia GeForce2 MX
21" Sony Trinitron which I got 2nd hand VERY cheap. Weighed a ton but it was amazing.

Celeron 300A (overclocked to 464MHz)
nVidia GeForce Ti 4400

Athlon AXIA 1GHz (overclocked to 1.4GHz) That was a hot and powerful beast with delta fans...
ATI 9800PRO

Pentium 4 Northwood 2.8GHz (overclocked to 3.2GHz). Didn't keep this one for long.

C2D E4300 1.8GHz (overclocked to 3.2GHz)
ATI 1950PRO

... and MacBooks ever since!
 
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Soldato
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I know I had a Compaq 486 as my first PC, but the first custom one was an Athlon 1800+, 256b, which I upped to 768mb, and a GeForce something 32mb I think it was.

The next one was a 2500+, 1gb and a 9700 Pro. Was such a decent PC back then.
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
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Think it was a DX4 100 took me 2 years to save save up for it and built the entire system by hand without having a clue what I was doing apart from a old PC gamer magazine as a guide.
 
Soldato
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First computer was a ZX81 (Thanks Sir Clive for kickstarting my career and virtually the entire UK computer game industry!)
First PC was a desktop Escom Pentium 90 with 4mb EDO RAM, rubbish S3 graphics, no onboard cache. Eventually added a Matrox Millennium 2D graphics card, a 3DFX Voodoo card and an AWE32. for incredible 25fps performance in some games.
 
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ZX81, then with 16k ram pack
Vic 20
ZX Spectrum + (?) - HAd plastic keyboard rather than those rubber ones.
Amiga 500
My first PC I got from Radio Rentals of all places. Cant remember any spec other than a 1.3gb hard drive. Only bought it to play football manager on.
 

daz

daz

Soldato
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It's amazing reading some of these to think about the pace of change in PC specifications, especially in the 90s and early 00s.

You read one spec of PC, then someone else has something a year or two later and it's a massive generational change (e.g. 2D cards to first gen 3D, then to the next gen of 3D, or from each processor gen to the next...) which just doesn't seem to happen any more.
 
Soldato
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I know it was a 386, but cant remember the speed... perhaps 25Mhz?

I did upgrade to a 486 DX-2 66Mhz, mainly for Carmageddon! Carmageddon 2 then *drove* my next update too, a Slot 1 based system. Was likely a lower speed Pentium2 250Mhz or whatever it was!
 
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