A Gateway 2000. We got it way back in 1995 lol.

An overpriced POS from gateway.

An Aptiva in 94. It was slow as death and cost about two grand.

well I had a commodore 64, but I dont really consider that a desktop computer so much. I guess I would have to go with an old 386 system with DOS. actuall back then it was a kick azz system. I think I still have my Windows 3.1 diskettes around somewhere.

An IBM around 97 or 98, can't remember which year but it had 256MB Ram, 20GB hard disk, a 600Mhz cpu and a 14 inch monitor. But the first computer I got was back in 1983 and it was so small you could pick it up with one hand, my hands are large. And strangely enough I bought a netbook with a 10 inch screen recently and I can also pick it up with one hand, Back To The Future?

a piece of crap

My company supplied me with a CPM based box using 8 inch single-sided floppies back in 1984 I believe. In 1985, I bought a Leading Edge Model D with an unheard of 20 Meg hard drive when everybody else though 10 was way beyond what any rational user could ever use. :)

Hi BDBS, I guess it depends on what you consider a "real" computer! Radioshack Tandy. Commodore. Apple iie. Most of my DOS applications I learned on a 386. Just amazing, when you think of where we are today :-) How about you?

I didn't get a home computer until 1999; it was an HP Pavilion.

Not sure if my Timex-Sinclair T-1000 qualifies. But my Commodore 64 should, as should my old 386. After that came a couple of Pentium I's, My current machine has more RAM than my last Pentium had in its HD!

It was a gateway and to this day I am still highly impressed with them. When I received it.. it came with so much extra stuff.. goodies .. that I bought another two years later. It did not come with even half the goodies but the quality was still very high. Then I went to dell and I am less impressed. Gateway might not have been "cool" to many people but I could not have asked for better products or the service when you contacted them.

compaq

an IBM 286 with dos 5

Well it seemed "real" at the time. A commodore VIC 20.

I forget whether I got the Vic-20 or the TS-1000 (a rebadged ZX81) first....

Acer

Gateway P90, bought it March 1995.

My first _desktop_ computer system was a used IBM. I got it from eBay for $99 including shipping. It was an older computer system but worked very well. I think it only had a 6GB hard drive which is very tiny! It had windows XP PRO on it. My very first computer was a Sony Vaio laptop with windows 98 on it. It had a tiny HD also but worked well for my needs at the time. Both the IBM and the Sony were on dial up. Even dial up seemed fast to me after using a webtv for about 5 years prior to getting my first "real computer." :-) I still have my webtv and plan to keep it online until they shut the lights out. Sorry didn't mean to go off topic. :-) I now have a newer Dell system and love it! I especially like my flat panel LCD monitor as it takes up very little space. Nothing like those big bulky CRT monitors! I also now have DSL high speed internet which makes a huge difference. :-)

I don't remember, but the first one I remember was an old school Mac.

Commodore 64 then IBM XT. And then I got a 10 mb hard drive. Never fill that up. LOL. Now I have a terabyte and a half and a couple of 200 gig drives and their all pretty full.

My very first desktop computer was a Dell from 1999. It lasted me 10 years and it still runs.

it was a compaq...from 199?? forgot the year lol but it was the 90s

vic 20 then commodore 64

An Abacus!

windows 95 it use to be my dads then he gave it to me and my lil bro when i was 7.

At home: A Pionex, Pentium 200 with 32 SDRAM memory. It was purchased in late 1997. At the office: A Compaq 2000, Pentium 166, 32 SDRAM memory. I got it as a donation in 1998.

those were the days when you had to type in your code in BASIC and when you turned off your computer you lost it all.

It was a Gateway that my wife and I bought in 1998. A whopping 6 GB HD (we upgraded it from 4 GB) with Windows 98 Gold Edition!

Well the first computer we had was a Dell. But desktop wise..an HP

The one I'm using now. My son built it - it says KTC on the front. I used a webtv for a couple of years before getting a computer.

Our first family desktop computer was IBM XP, based Intel 286. It cost to my father a price of a small car. The hard disk was 10MB and RAM was 512KB. It run DOS, of course. It was mainly used as a typewriter.

Apple one with a 4k crystal. :O)

Vic-20 with a tape drive.

Amstrad something-or-other. 60Mb hard-drive. Good enough to play Duke Nukem tho! Tho sssssllllooooowww to load. DOS For Dummies was my first computer book!

Some kind of IBM thing. Integrated screen, keyboard and CPU. Ran off multiple 5 1/4 inch floppies-one for program and one for data. Think 1980 or so.

My first computer was a Commodore PET 4032 which I bought together with accounting software in 1983. It had just 32K of RAM and a single 360K floppy drive, with DOS built into ROM and a small built-in screen. The accounts program required loading a program disk then switching between that and a data disk. A later model PET I got had twin floppies (in a large separate casing) which made things easier. Surprisingly even with this tiny amount of memory the accounting program, although basic was quite quick and efficient, even by today's standards. It produced financial accounts, and customer invoicing. Output was to an Epson dot matrix printer. The Commodore 64 was a great little machine that came soon after and plugged into a TV. I was living in South Africa at the time and using it with a modem, I even had online access to my bank account – way back in 1986! Many games too; my favorite was Sticks. As hard disks started becoming available at realistic prices, I sold and installed into customers' PCs Seagate 10Mb drives mounted on a card which slotted into the original IBM PC XT. That was in 1985/6 too. A lot's happened since...

A commodore Vic 20.

It was a generic Pentium 133. I bought it in 2000

Apple IIe

not now i dont have one yet.

The first one that actually belonged to me was some random brand with 32MB of RAM, 100MHz processor, practically no video card, and NO USB! At all. Didn't have room for a card, and didn't have drivers. One day I tried to put a burner in it but the PSU was overworked or something and the computer caught fire. Never worked again after that... But as a kid my parents had a computer that ran on DOS and only displayed four different colours.

tandy

Mine was a Commodore VIC-20. That was back about 1987. The computer wired to your TV kind of like video game systems nowadays. Games and programs could not really be purchased - they had to be programmed in. Instead of buying a disc, we bought the program and manually entered it ourselves. The average game was a puzzle style, DOS prompt, command game. You would be given a one or two sentence scenario and using one or two words only had to give a direction on what to do. We thought it was amazing when we could start getting games like Space Invaders on cartridges for the next system, which was a Commodore-64.

I wanted to get a Timex Sinclair or a TRS80 but I could not afford it. The first one I could afford was a Atari 800XL.

Holy crap dude! LOL I remember that star trek game for the trs-80!

This is my 1st.Acer, lap top.

TRS-80 CoCo, 4 k ram, tape recorder and a black and white tv ( the good ole days LOL)

Spectrum and Amstrad

im a newbie lol, i gt my first comp in bout 98/99, a p2 30mhx i think it was lol, 4mb gfx card OMGAWDDDD, haha, gd times playin doom/quake lol.

It was a Packard Bell running at 33mgz

Mine that was just my own was an older HP, the very first one my parents got had windows 3.1 ahhh the computer memories.

In the 70s, I had a Wang desktop -- but it was a dedicated word processor, not computer. Only later, the industry introduced the PC which had word and data processing facilities. My first PC was an ICL. It had word processing software for word processing requirements.

I had the loan of a gigantic 'intelligent terminal' which was a desktop device, but so heavy it required two people to lift it. But the first computer I actually owned was the BBC Model B microcomputer.

In 1988 I bought a Zenith desktop. It had two 5.25 inch disk drives and a 10 MB hard drive and ran on DOS. Hey, that was a state-of-the-art computer 20 years ago. Paid $2300 for it.