How old were you when you got your first PC?

[Feef]

First computer in my room was a 286 when I was 6, so 1993, after my dad had bought a shiny new 486. I then got that when he upgraded to a K6 200, which I got after he...etc.

I think the first I built for myself was when I was about 14, an Athlon something. Then I got a part time job in a local PC shop and lost all interest in computers.

 

[TurtleTwo]

5 - Amstrad CPC464, with colour screen

 

[Gilbert89]

It was 2000 - I will have been 7.

Hooked up to AOL Dial Up.

 

[Smok3y]

1994, I was 17

Prior to that was Amstrad 464 with poor man green screen when I was maybe 10?

 

[mrk]

Around 1997, I was in secondary school at the time and a classmate's dad was selling his HP desktop PC , not a tower but one of those sideways sitting monsters. It has a 17" screen with speakers, Pentium MMX and such. The amount of Flash games I played at Newgrounds.com and the like is unreal, also every episode of Homestar Runnuer was consumed on that thing.

A few years later around 2000 I used saved earnings from money working in my dad's shop part time to build my first PC from COMPETITOR!!!!! - Athlon 700 overclocked to I believe 950 at the time. It would have been my MSN Messenger status for months, how sad I recall the mobo was an Abit Kt&A or something. The OS was XP, the FCKGW variety

 

[Angilion]

256MB RAM was a helluva lot for 1997. Like crazy numbers and must have cost a fortune, over £500 just for the RAM probably? My first PC was also 1997 and had a faster CPU, bigger HDD but only 16MB RAM. 16-32MB was standard then.

I remember paying £104 for 4MB. And that was £104 in back then money, which would be a lot more today. I got it at a computer fair, back when such things existed. Northern Computer Fair? Maybe. My memory is vague on the details. The rather nice bottle of beer I've just drunk (Innis and Gunn Original) probably isn't helping. It was in Stoke on Trent. Years ago. A big hall full of stalls selling PC hardware.

Until the recent ridiculous hike in prices, the cost of computer hardware had dropped a lot.

 

[marc2003]

27. So glad my childhood wasn't ruined by it and I actually went outside.

 

[mrk]

27. So glad my childhood wasn't ruined by it and I actually went outside.

Thing is, back then we went outside too, it was a mix of both. Still had bikes, still had consoles, still had mucking around getting up to no good in the neighbourhood

The difference in more recent years is the exclusive nature of only being in front of a screen and talking to friends that way for many kids.

 

[zola25]

20 in 1996, purchased a surplus PC from my then employer when they upgraded. 386SX 20Mz with 6Mb RAM and a 20Mb HDD, which could be nearly doubled by using drvspace. From then on I started building and upgrading my own machines.

Prior to that had a C16, C64, Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200

 

[mrbazmondo]

19. I'd used Amigas as desktops before that, but needed something to install linux on for uni work so I could write a processor emulator. It also ran win95 in 32M without needing a page file. Everything is so bloated now.

 

[inflames]

Shared the family PC at when in young, then my dad built me a one out for second hand parts, when I was 14. Mostly for school work etc, but I mostly played commandos, command & conquer and many different first person shooters.

 

[danlightbulb]

1998 I was 18, got it for going to university. Before that had an Amiga 1200, and various consoles.

 

[the_worrier]

1999 when I was 24 and starting the second year of a second university course. Netscape Navigator rings a bell?!

 

[im4gine3]

i have ICQ notification sound stuck in my head now