Old computers and laptops

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I have a small collection of vintage computers. I found this one in the basement of the apartment I lived in before moving to Bettendorf.

IBM PCjr. I bought the printer off of eBay.

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Apple IIe Platinum

I got this off of eBay. I like this one better because it has the 10 key pad. It has a Juki 6100 Daisywheel printer connected to it that also came from eBay. The Apple IIe in the other picture is connected to a Apple Imagewriter I dot matrix printer.

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Apple IIgs

I got this from our FreeCycle group as well. It's connected to a Juki 6200 Daisywheel printer with a cut sheet paper feeder, which just quit feeding one day.

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How about a 1997 IBM AS/400 9406-600? I also have a DEC AlphaServer A1000 that can run Linux. Both are old minicomputers. I'll post a couple photos when I have better lighting!

NorfolkSouthern
 
I am using a Currys 'Medion Microstar' tower desk pc with an AMD 'Athlon 2000' processor, from 2001. Upgraded the memory from 256Mbytes to 1GB; original DVDRom knackered up and was replaced with an LG RW dvd drive. Original Samsung CRT monitor was just too clumsy - now got a Philips LCD screen.

Until 18 months ago, I had a BBC 'Model B' from 1983. It was an 'issue 7' motherboard, 6502 processor, 32kb of ram, audio cassette drive, 5¼" floppy disk drives, 9 pin dot-matrix (Brother clone) printer, 24 pin dot-matrix Epson printer, Philips colour monitor, teletext adapter, video capture add-on, speech synthesis, and internal sideways ROM board. Because it was taking up space and as I was due to move house, it got the big heave-ho.
 
Our first PC was in 1986. It was a Samsung 286 with 12mb Ram and twin 40MB HDD a single 1.2mb 5 1/4 Floppy and a CGA monitor.

It was part business machine and dual booted SCO Xenix and Dos/Windows 2.0.

We had an Epson FX100 Dot matrix Printer.

That whole kit including Software ran to about $15K. It's primary purpose in life was to run Attache 4 under Xenix, with Windows providing Word processing through MS Word. Games of the time required an exit to Dos 3.33 and starting Power Menu for Navigation. There was a fantastic Works type package called First Choice that mum did spreadsheeting in for years and years.

The machine finally died in 1992 when our Secretary plugged a heater into the same powerboard as the computer, and those 2400watt surges killed it off.

It was replaced with a 386 DX40 with 400mb HDD, VGA graphics and a 5 1/4 and 3.5" floppy's, it also had a Canon BJ20 Bubblejet, minus the horribley expensive Cut sheet feeder. It was runing Win 3.1 on Dos 6.2 and lasted like that through until 1999. It got a CD-ROM and Soundblaster 16 upgrade in 1995 that came with all of the Microsoft Home software.

That replacement was a PII 350 with 128MB Ram a 10GB HDD 16mb Video and a DVD ROM. The DVD ROM has a Hardware DVD decoder. That one cost around $4500. That machine continued to do service for mum until the middle of last year when the HDD failed. This started out as an NT4.0 machine, with an upgrade to W2K in 2002.
 
Hotpoint95622

I have an Amstrad 1640 from around 1981 or 2 same age as my Hotpoint 18680, the washer is faster.

The Amstrad has a 20MB hard drive, think that’s one JPEG photo.
640K memory, that won’t even process an icon in window 1.1.
The original 5” floppy drive was replaced with 3” one in about 1990.
Black and white monitor. Was available with a colour CGA monitor of EGA colour, money must have been tight so had to have cheep one.
Still used occasionally for word processing and it has a very basic DTP.

Also have the original dot matrix printer which was with the 1640.
Makes a lovely sound when printing.

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I've got an Apple IIGS, and I have an all-in-one Power Mac that I sometimes use for a TV. I bought both from surplus auctions. I intended to use the Mac for an mp3 jukebox on the stereo, but I found that it doesn't have 16-bit sound. That surprised me. I also have a 486 Gateway HandBook. My normal use computer is a Compaq Presario M2000 Turion from 2005.
 
Old Computer Still In Use.....

This is not the oldest computer that I have, but it is my favorite, because it's the first brand new computer I ever bought for myself. Previously I had only purchased off lease machines. So this is a Compaq Presario 5798. I bought it in May of 2000, if memory serves. It's got a P3 600 MHz, and 256MB of memory. Runs Windows 98, and probably runs it as fast as a new computer runs Vista. My only beef is that I can't use it so often since no one seems to make AV software for Windows 98 anymore.

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My Daily Driver....

I didn't "build" this one-I'll give Dell the credit for that. I did however empty out the box and replace EVERYTHING inside. Its got an Athlon Dual Core @ 3.0GHz with 8GB Ram. It is extremely fast. The downside to it is that every other computer I use anywhere seems to crawl in comparison. Not good if patience is already something you lack a little :)

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Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't post a shot of the ol' "computer museum" I use to have downstairs.... : )

The table on the right has an original ][, ][+, Apple III, IIe with Apple tablet and duodisk, etc. SE/30 with phonenet setup in the middle, ]{C, ][C+, ][GS and ][GS Woz edition on far table. Original IBM PC, Zenith Data System, TRS-80 Mod 3 on the LH side. And a whole lot more stuck under the tables. Commodore PET on the end (tough to see). Most of this stuff is in storage now but I wasn't crazy enough to get rid of anything! I use to spend hours

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I have a Compaq Presario 500 series.It has a 600 MHZ CPU and a 15GB hard disk.It has 256 MB of RAM.We are selling the screen for it as i have a laptop and i use a wireless network from our wireless router.If we get rid of the Presario,we will have no internet.We are keeping it,but you cant use it.(DAMN!) lol
 
We've always had computers around since 1977 or so. Our first was an Apple II. Then a few years later we picked up a Apple //c, that set up cost us $3,600! But I liked the Imagewriter Printer. You could program it to return to top of page and start printing again. I used that feature to make inserts for my cassette tape boxes which had the song list on it.
Then we ended up with a Zenith Data Systems PC compatible. It came with two floppy disks, but I added a 20MB hard disk to it. Had that thing for about 5 years.
At this point I started building my own computers. I opened an account at a local PC part wholesaler and got the parts pretty cheap. I built a 386-40 (AMD CPU), 486DX-66, Pentium 100 and finally a Intel Pentium D 3.2Ghz machine with 2GB RAM.
I used to have an IBM Thinkpad as my "on the road" machine, it lasted forever! Super reliable, and later super slow. About 3 months ago I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop. Another great machine. It is really a rugged laptop.
 
My dad worked for Texas Instruments, so I had computers at a young age. My first was a TI-99, followed shortly by a TI-99A. I remember the video game graphics far outclassed Atari at the time. We had a memory expansion module, 5 1/4" floppy drive, experimental Intelli-Voice module (also had a three ring binder with all of the design specs - I was told to NEVER show that to anyone), and a video graphics module. To add peripherals, you plugged them into the side, in sequence: the memory module plugged into the computer, then the video module plugged into the memory module, then the voice module plugged into the video module, etc. This thing would stretch all the way across the table if you kept adding peripherals. We sold it at a garage sale in the mid-90s.

Next, we got a TI laptop in the late 80s, at the time this was one of the smallest and most advanced. We gave it to my cousin about 8 years ago.

My dad moved on to Compaq in the early 90s when they were at the top of their game. He informed me of various business decisions that management began making which I predicted would sink the company (and they did). My dad always said the Dilbert cartoon was exactly right, the managers there were idiots. My last Compaq was a 1999 desktop that was a POS, sad considering that five years prior Compaq was the best computer you could get.

I still have a Compaq LTE Elite prototype laptop from the mid-90s. This thing was awesome and I would still use it if the screen wasn't cracked - the bottom third doesn't work and there is no replacement since it is a prototype.
 

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