What were the specs on your first computer?
- Thread starter clopper
- Start date
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I remember seeing the old clunker for the first time, I had a bunch of friends with me and suddenly we broke into song...it went like this -
Why this computer is automatic
It's systematic
It's hydromatic
Why it's grease lightning (Grease lightning)
We'll get some overhead lifters and some four barrel quads
oh yeah
(Keep talking whoa keep talking)
A fuel injection cutoff and chrome plated rods oh yeah
(I'll get the money I'll kill to get the money)
With a four speed on the floor they'll be waiting at the door
You know that ain't no shit we'll be getting lots of tit
In Grease Lightning
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go
Go grease lightning you're burning up the quarter mile
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
Go grease lightning you're coasting through the heat lap trial
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go
Purple french tail lights and thirty inch fins
oh yeah
A Palomino dashboard and duel muffler twins
oh yeah
With new pistons, plugs, and shocks I can get off my rocks
You know that I ain't bragging she's a real pussy wagon
Grease lightning
Go grease lightning you're burning up the quarter mile
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
Go grease lighting you're coasting through the heat lap trial
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning
Go grease lightning you're burning up the quarter mile
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
Go grease lighting you're coasting through the hit lap trial
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning
Lightning, lightning, lightning
Lightning, lightning, lightning
Lightning
...Something like that
Why this computer is automatic
It's systematic
It's hydromatic
Why it's grease lightning (Grease lightning)
We'll get some overhead lifters and some four barrel quads
oh yeah
(Keep talking whoa keep talking)
A fuel injection cutoff and chrome plated rods oh yeah
(I'll get the money I'll kill to get the money)
With a four speed on the floor they'll be waiting at the door
You know that ain't no shit we'll be getting lots of tit
In Grease Lightning
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go
Go grease lightning you're burning up the quarter mile
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
Go grease lightning you're coasting through the heat lap trial
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go
Purple french tail lights and thirty inch fins
oh yeah
A Palomino dashboard and duel muffler twins
oh yeah
With new pistons, plugs, and shocks I can get off my rocks
You know that I ain't bragging she's a real pussy wagon
Grease lightning
Go grease lightning you're burning up the quarter mile
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
Go grease lighting you're coasting through the heat lap trial
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning
Go grease lightning you're burning up the quarter mile
(Grease lightning go grease lightning)
Go grease lighting you're coasting through the hit lap trial
You are supreme the chicks'll cream for grease lightning
Lightning, lightning, lightning
Lightning, lightning, lightning
Lightning
...Something like that
R
Ruck
Guest
Ah jesus, that's hilarious.
My first one was a shitty HP Pavilion for like $290. Anyone ever make $1500
consistently a month with something like this?
My first one was a shitty HP Pavilion for like $290. Anyone ever make $1500
consistently a month with something like this?
gts6
Regular Member
- Aug 22, 2007
- 422
- 516
i had the ti-99/4a from texas instruments in the early 80s and the timex sinclair 1000. forget which i had first though, i think it was the ti-99/4a. having to load and run a program by connecting a standard cassette deck into the computer and hitting the "play" button and letting the tape play the bits into the computer takes a while.
MaestroDelWeb
Power Member
- Nov 5, 2007
- 745
- 1,073
My first computer was also a Commodore 64. QuantumLink was my ISP and charged $20-30 per month plus you were also charged by the minute for chat and other Plus services. After a few monthly $300+ bills I got the internet cut off. The computer cost about $1000. I had an 800 baud modem (slow as fuck compared to 56K). Every accessory weighed a million pounds, connecting everything together was a pain in the ass and I don't even think it had a hard drive, everything was run off the floppy which was 5 1/4" in those days and actually floppy.
A cute little macintosh with 2 128k floppy drives and 128k RAM back in 1988. The OS & some apps ran off of one floppy and some other apps and docs ran off of the second one. I think it cost me just under USD$5K. I bought a 50M external SCSI Lotus HD when it came out ... thought I'd never need to dump anything ever again. Later they upgraded floppy drives and disks to 1.2M. We were in heaven.
My next machine was a Mac FX in 1990. With the external monitor and some extra RAM the system cost me just under USD$6K. I think it came with a 100M internal drive with an extra drive bay, but I can't remember the size of the second HD that I installed. Since that rig had 6 expansion slots I used it for a good 3 years before upgrading again, as I recall. It was very easy to just pop the hood on it and easily add or remove components.
Since I was a music producer/engineer at the time, I used the highly-expandable Mac FX series for years with Digidesign SoundTools components, Adobe Premiere, then later ProTools. Until around '99 or so, when internal processing power finally caught up to the demands of media production, these expansion systems would usually cost around and extra 30K or so. I know this because one of my studios got vandalized and that's what my insurance paid to replace just one rig. But that's what it took to produce broadcast quality media under tight deadlines.
Ah, memories ...
Sine
My next machine was a Mac FX in 1990. With the external monitor and some extra RAM the system cost me just under USD$6K. I think it came with a 100M internal drive with an extra drive bay, but I can't remember the size of the second HD that I installed. Since that rig had 6 expansion slots I used it for a good 3 years before upgrading again, as I recall. It was very easy to just pop the hood on it and easily add or remove components.
Since I was a music producer/engineer at the time, I used the highly-expandable Mac FX series for years with Digidesign SoundTools components, Adobe Premiere, then later ProTools. Until around '99 or so, when internal processing power finally caught up to the demands of media production, these expansion systems would usually cost around and extra 30K or so. I know this because one of my studios got vandalized and that's what my insurance paid to replace just one rig. But that's what it took to produce broadcast quality media under tight deadlines.
Ah, memories ...
Sine
The thing about the Commodores for me were the monitors. I never owned one of the computers myself, but I took my uncle's off his hands just so that I could use the monitor as a near-field video display for production on my desktop, since the other computer CRT's were of such lower resolution and "pixel shape". The CRT's manufactured for computers used round pixels, whereas televisions and that Commodore monitor used square pixels ... not to mention much faster rasterization.
Both the Commodore monitor and other video monitors were connected to broadcast quality video outputs, and the Commodore performed as well as--if not better than--any newer video display I tried. I used it up until 2000 for near-field monitoring. And I stopped using it because I retired from sound-for-video production work
I don't know anything about the Commodore series of computers, but that monitor was best-in-class for many years beyond the life of the brand itself.
Best,
Sine
Both the Commodore monitor and other video monitors were connected to broadcast quality video outputs, and the Commodore performed as well as--if not better than--any newer video display I tried. I used it up until 2000 for near-field monitoring. And I stopped using it because I retired from sound-for-video production work
I don't know anything about the Commodore series of computers, but that monitor was best-in-class for many years beyond the life of the brand itself.
Best,
Sine
MaestroDelWeb
Power Member
- Nov 5, 2007
- 745
- 1,073
SCSI hard drives are still used a lot. They are faster than regular IDE drives and more reliable. It's more popular with webhosts.
Well, I mentioned it was 1988 for a reason. You also don't hear much about 128k either, unless it's about data packets or dialup transfer rates.
Since PC's became SCSI compatible only in the late 90's--almost 15 years after the protocol had been introduced for other platforms--it's not really THAT long in the scheme of things. But for a scant few years SCSI was a very late improvement over those lame PC parallel port pieces of shit ... prior to fire wire and full USB integration.
But, I guess you gotta admit, we have it pretty good these days
Best,
Sine
Ah thanks vze2yqtm, I didn't realize that. Good to know. I never bothered to use an IDE drive myself, since they were so slow and not compatible with my network.
BTW, how do you pronounce your name?
Best,
Sine
ty180sx
Junior Member
- Nov 29, 2007
- 176
- 196
My first computer was a 286 machine ( cant remember the brand start with L )
and it has a TURBO button! lol
14 kbps modem and a cga monitor,
no harddisk, no OS, 2 floppy drives, so i just play with dos games, and start the machine with MS Dos Diskette.
it cost about 2grand at that time
and it has a TURBO button! lol
14 kbps modem and a cga monitor,
no harddisk, no OS, 2 floppy drives, so i just play with dos games, and start the machine with MS Dos Diskette.
it cost about 2grand at that time
The first computer used was in 1976. We wrote the programs in Fortran, transfered them to punched cards, & had to punch in each hole ourselves.
The computer, (I don't remember what type), took up 2 huge rooms. One for input, the other for output.
We'd load our cards into a hopper, and come back 2 days later to get our printout, and our cards back from the output hopper.
If the program didn't work, or we had a punched hole in the wrong place, we'd have to repeat the whole exercise. If we were lucky, it would only be one card that we'd change. Fun times, Lol......
My first PC. - I met this guy in the supermarket. I'd never even seen him in my life before. We got talking, and he said, Oh, I've got a spare computer at home, and you can borrow it for as long as you like. We of course became great friends. It was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with 2 - 4 k Ram. Each key had 3 different modes, or functions.
I was hooked, I later started my own Computer retail business, selling computers, and installing software packages.
In 1985, I started one of the first Computer Rental businesses in Australia, called Microhire Computers, we rented out Apples. It was quite successful. I no longer work in that industry, but retrained as a librarian, (more peaceful).Lol......
The computer, (I don't remember what type), took up 2 huge rooms. One for input, the other for output.
We'd load our cards into a hopper, and come back 2 days later to get our printout, and our cards back from the output hopper.
If the program didn't work, or we had a punched hole in the wrong place, we'd have to repeat the whole exercise. If we were lucky, it would only be one card that we'd change. Fun times, Lol......
My first PC. - I met this guy in the supermarket. I'd never even seen him in my life before. We got talking, and he said, Oh, I've got a spare computer at home, and you can borrow it for as long as you like. We of course became great friends. It was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with 2 - 4 k Ram. Each key had 3 different modes, or functions.
I was hooked, I later started my own Computer retail business, selling computers, and installing software packages.
In 1985, I started one of the first Computer Rental businesses in Australia, called Microhire Computers, we rented out Apples. It was quite successful. I no longer work in that industry, but retrained as a librarian, (more peaceful).Lol......
Uptownbulker
BANNED
- Oct 21, 2007
- 682
- 516
OK, I am The Old Guy.
(Please insert jokes, guffaws, hee-haws and rotting lettuce here.)
When I first became acquainted with computers in the late eighties, everyone was playing games on them and I was in the bar business so I viewed game machines as something that you took money out of and figured that I already had enough of those! LOL!
Later, while a very late senior at my old Alma Mater in 1995, there was actually a debate as to whether or not students should be required to own a computer.
Well, along came THE BIG AUCTION SITE and I figured that I should get on so I went out and sold a perfectly good 1940 Buick and bought a box.
I do have a very strong background (FCC 1st Class with Radar and Broadcast Endorsements) in electronics going back to vacuum tube technology so I wuzn't skeered.
I grossed over 60K my first year on that site so I figgered that there might be something to those computer things.
LOL!
By the time that the processor blew up in this box, I had added an larger hard drive, maxed it to 512 and had all sorts of whistles, bells and buzzers on it.
I saved the empty case after I parted it out and am going to install something nifty inside.
I now have four boxes running at all times, have made a good living mailing and offering other internet services but have always relied on a tekkie to help me out but now my tekkie has gone off to college again so I am on my own!
Hence the Blackhat SEO thing!
WOO HOO!
My first box:
Compaq 7598:
Technical specifications
Supported Flavours
UK, IT, SP, DK, NO, SW, AE, SZ, NL
Partnumber Series 173954-xx32
Board, Form Factor Classic Microtower
Processor Type: INTEL P3- 600
Memory (SDRAM) 64 MB
Hard Drive Capacity (GB) 13 G
Optical drives DVD
Processor (CPU)
Implementation Socket 370
Clocking Options 500/533/550/600
System Bus Speed 66/100/133 MHz
Upgradable Processor Yes
Processor Upgrade Options Intel Celeron and Intel Pentium III
Chipset i810e
Cache
Internal L1 Primary Cache 32KB
L2 Cache 256KB Integrated
L3 Cache N/A
Memory
Memory Max* 512 MB*
Max DIMM Capacity 256 MB
Ram Type*** 100 MHz SDRAM, 168 pins
Memory - In Slots 64
Memory - Max No Discard 320
Memory - Max with Discard 512 MB*
Total Memory Slots, used, free 2, 1, 1
Hard Disk (minimum common specs)
Hard Disk Size 13
RPM 5400
Access Time 10.5 ms avg
Maximum Host Transfer Rate 33.0 Mb/s
UltraDMA (Ultra33) Enabled Yes
Optical Drive
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM
Optical Device Type 8x DVD
Optical Device Transfer Rate DVD:4455 KB/s to 10800 KB/s
Interface ATAPI
CD-RW
Device Recording Speed -
Device ReWrite Speed -
Device CD Read Speed -
Interface -
Multimedia Specs
Multimedia Feature Soft MPEG2
DVD Player/Navigator Compaq DVD Player/Navigator
Graphics Subsystem
Graphics Type Accelerated 3D/2D, 2X AGP
Graphics Mfg Name Intel i810e
Graphics Data Width 64-Bit
Graphics Bus Integrated
Video Memory Amount 8 MB Shared Dynamic
Video Memory Upgrades No
Refresh Rate 85 Hz
Default Resolution Standard Video Memory 800 x 600
Default Colors Standard Video Memory 16-Bit
Max Resolution 1600 x 1200
Max Colors at Max Resolution 24 Bit
Supported Compaq VGA Monitors MV520, MV720, MV920, Analog FP
Expansion
Slots
Number of PCI Slots: Total/Available Four/Three (or less with options)
Number of ISA Slots: Total/Available none
Number of PCI/ISA Combo Slots: Total/Available none
Drive Bays
3.5 inch Total/Available Three/One
5.25 inch Total/Available Two/One
3.5 inch External/Available Two/One
5.25 inch External/Available Two/One
Audio
Audio Chipset ESS Allegro with Integrated hi-fi AC'97 codec
Audio Data Width 16-Bit
DirectSound Support Multi-stream DirectSound and DirectSound 3D acceleration
3D Sound support HRTF 3-D positional audio
Sensaura CRL Positional 3D
Dolby Digital Surround Sound (AC3)
JBL 3D Virtual Theater (VMAx)
Voices 32
Soundblaster Compatability Yes
FM Synthesis Yes
User Controllable Functions Vol Up/Vol Down/Mute
External Speakers (Included with Compaq Monitor)
RMS Power: 2.5 W at 1 percent THD
Frequency Response: 84 - 18 kHz (+/- 10 dB)
Efficiency: 86.5 dB at 1 W 1M
Headphone Gain: -44 dB (12 mW/32 ohms)
S/N Ratio: 74 dB
Channel Separation: 54 dB (100 - 10 kHz)
Communications, Mice, etc
Fax Modem Installed 56K ITU V.90
Fax Software (Windows 98) RingCentral Fax
Pointing Device Scroll Mouse
Keyboard Easy Access Internet
Standard Diskette Size 3.5 inch 1.44 MB
Front I/O Interfaces:
Number of USB Connectors Two
Back I/O Interfaces
Number of USB Connectors Two
Serial RS-232C/DB9 Connector One
Parallel EPP/ECP /DB25 Connector One
MIDI/GamePort One
Number of RJ11 Phone Jacks One
Audio Line Out, Line In, Mic In
Mouse/Keyboard Ports One/One
Power and Energy Management
Sleep, instant on, Stand by mode yes, yes, yes
ACPI, PC98, Energy Star, NTSL Y2K Yes
Power Supply 145Watt
Voltage Range 180-264 or 90-132
AC Frequency (Hz) 47-63
Fluctuations 5v +/- 5 percent, 3.3v +/- 3 percent
Power during sleep mode less than 30 W
(Please insert jokes, guffaws, hee-haws and rotting lettuce here.)
When I first became acquainted with computers in the late eighties, everyone was playing games on them and I was in the bar business so I viewed game machines as something that you took money out of and figured that I already had enough of those! LOL!
Later, while a very late senior at my old Alma Mater in 1995, there was actually a debate as to whether or not students should be required to own a computer.
Well, along came THE BIG AUCTION SITE and I figured that I should get on so I went out and sold a perfectly good 1940 Buick and bought a box.
I do have a very strong background (FCC 1st Class with Radar and Broadcast Endorsements) in electronics going back to vacuum tube technology so I wuzn't skeered.
I grossed over 60K my first year on that site so I figgered that there might be something to those computer things.
LOL!
By the time that the processor blew up in this box, I had added an larger hard drive, maxed it to 512 and had all sorts of whistles, bells and buzzers on it.
I saved the empty case after I parted it out and am going to install something nifty inside.
I now have four boxes running at all times, have made a good living mailing and offering other internet services but have always relied on a tekkie to help me out but now my tekkie has gone off to college again so I am on my own!
Hence the Blackhat SEO thing!
WOO HOO!
My first box:
Compaq 7598:
Technical specifications
Supported Flavours
UK, IT, SP, DK, NO, SW, AE, SZ, NL
Partnumber Series 173954-xx32
Board, Form Factor Classic Microtower
Processor Type: INTEL P3- 600
Memory (SDRAM) 64 MB
Hard Drive Capacity (GB) 13 G
Optical drives DVD
Processor (CPU)
Implementation Socket 370
Clocking Options 500/533/550/600
System Bus Speed 66/100/133 MHz
Upgradable Processor Yes
Processor Upgrade Options Intel Celeron and Intel Pentium III
Chipset i810e
Cache
Internal L1 Primary Cache 32KB
L2 Cache 256KB Integrated
L3 Cache N/A
Memory
Memory Max* 512 MB*
Max DIMM Capacity 256 MB
Ram Type*** 100 MHz SDRAM, 168 pins
Memory - In Slots 64
Memory - Max No Discard 320
Memory - Max with Discard 512 MB*
Total Memory Slots, used, free 2, 1, 1
Hard Disk (minimum common specs)
Hard Disk Size 13
RPM 5400
Access Time 10.5 ms avg
Maximum Host Transfer Rate 33.0 Mb/s
UltraDMA (Ultra33) Enabled Yes
Optical Drive
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM
Optical Device Type 8x DVD
Optical Device Transfer Rate DVD:4455 KB/s to 10800 KB/s
Interface ATAPI
CD-RW
Device Recording Speed -
Device ReWrite Speed -
Device CD Read Speed -
Interface -
Multimedia Specs
Multimedia Feature Soft MPEG2
DVD Player/Navigator Compaq DVD Player/Navigator
Graphics Subsystem
Graphics Type Accelerated 3D/2D, 2X AGP
Graphics Mfg Name Intel i810e
Graphics Data Width 64-Bit
Graphics Bus Integrated
Video Memory Amount 8 MB Shared Dynamic
Video Memory Upgrades No
Refresh Rate 85 Hz
Default Resolution Standard Video Memory 800 x 600
Default Colors Standard Video Memory 16-Bit
Max Resolution 1600 x 1200
Max Colors at Max Resolution 24 Bit
Supported Compaq VGA Monitors MV520, MV720, MV920, Analog FP
Expansion
Slots
Number of PCI Slots: Total/Available Four/Three (or less with options)
Number of ISA Slots: Total/Available none
Number of PCI/ISA Combo Slots: Total/Available none
Drive Bays
3.5 inch Total/Available Three/One
5.25 inch Total/Available Two/One
3.5 inch External/Available Two/One
5.25 inch External/Available Two/One
Audio
Audio Chipset ESS Allegro with Integrated hi-fi AC'97 codec
Audio Data Width 16-Bit
DirectSound Support Multi-stream DirectSound and DirectSound 3D acceleration
3D Sound support HRTF 3-D positional audio
Sensaura CRL Positional 3D
Dolby Digital Surround Sound (AC3)
JBL 3D Virtual Theater (VMAx)
Voices 32
Soundblaster Compatability Yes
FM Synthesis Yes
User Controllable Functions Vol Up/Vol Down/Mute
External Speakers (Included with Compaq Monitor)
RMS Power: 2.5 W at 1 percent THD
Frequency Response: 84 - 18 kHz (+/- 10 dB)
Efficiency: 86.5 dB at 1 W 1M
Headphone Gain: -44 dB (12 mW/32 ohms)
S/N Ratio: 74 dB
Channel Separation: 54 dB (100 - 10 kHz)
Communications, Mice, etc
Fax Modem Installed 56K ITU V.90
Fax Software (Windows 98) RingCentral Fax
Pointing Device Scroll Mouse
Keyboard Easy Access Internet
Standard Diskette Size 3.5 inch 1.44 MB
Front I/O Interfaces:
Number of USB Connectors Two
Back I/O Interfaces
Number of USB Connectors Two
Serial RS-232C/DB9 Connector One
Parallel EPP/ECP /DB25 Connector One
MIDI/GamePort One
Number of RJ11 Phone Jacks One
Audio Line Out, Line In, Mic In
Mouse/Keyboard Ports One/One
Power and Energy Management
Sleep, instant on, Stand by mode yes, yes, yes
ACPI, PC98, Energy Star, NTSL Y2K Yes
Power Supply 145Watt
Voltage Range 180-264 or 90-132
AC Frequency (Hz) 47-63
Fluctuations 5v +/- 5 percent, 3.3v +/- 3 percent
Power during sleep mode less than 30 W
- Status