NationStates Jolt Archive

...To the PC!
12 August, 1981 IBM unvelied the Home PC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/technology_ibm_pc_anniversary/img/1.jpg
At a modest price of just $1565US (around $3500 in today's money), you got yourself a top-of-the-range, state-of-the-art, killer-ap mean machine:

A stagerring 4.7Mhz processor and 16K of memory.
Disk drives were an optional extra but each 5.25inch disk could hold 160K of data.
The machines could display four different colours of graphics and 24 different colours for text. No monitor, mind you.
It also included a built-in mono speaker for music and audio.


What could you get today, for that sort of moolah?
Oh, something like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/technology_ibm_pc_anniversary/img/5.jpg
Alienware Area-51 7500:

AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling + AlienFX™ System Lighting + High-Performance Liquid Cooling
650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply with Active PFC
NVIDIA nForce™ 4 SLI Motherboard
Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
2GB DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz
1024MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GX2 video card
500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7,200 RPM with 16MB Cache
16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic
Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
1.44 MB Floppy Drive

So, yeah. A bit more than 25 years ago.


Happy birthday PC!
http://www.completecakedec.com.au/happy-birthday-25th.jpg

...To the PC!
What could you get today, for that sort of moolah?
Oh, something like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/technology_ibm_pc_anniversary/img/5.jpg
Alienware Area-51 7500:

AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling + AlienFX™ System Lighting + High-Performance Liquid Cooling
650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply with Active PFC
NVIDIA nForce™ 4 SLI Motherboard
Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
2GB DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz
1024MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GX2 video card
500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7,200 RPM with 16MB Cache
16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic
Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
1.44 MB Floppy Drive

Meh, that's nothing. My computer has stickers on it.

Wasn't it the 13th in NZ when the first PC came out? :p

Wasn't it the 13th in NZ when the first PC came out? :p
And isn't it the 11th today?

One question: Why does that Alienware nerd porn have a floppy drive?

And isn't it the 11th today?

One question: Why does that Alienware nerd porn have a floppy drive?
Maybe where you are it's the 11th, but not everywhere.
Truthfully, I was trying to get the jump on other posters.

Good question. I wonder myself as to why pcs these days still carry floppy drives.

...To the PC!
12 August, 1981 IBM unvelied the Home PC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/technology_ibm_pc_anniversary/img/1.jpg
At a modest price of just $1565US (around $3500 in today's money), you got yourself a top-of-the-range, state-of-the-art, killer-ap mean machine:

A stagerring 4.7Mhz processor and 16K of memory.
Disk drives were an optional extra but each 5.25inch disk could hold 160K of data.
The machines could display four different colours of graphics and 24 different colours for text. No monitor, mind you.
It also included a built-in mono speaker for music and audio.


What could you get today, for that sort of moolah?
Oh, something like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/technology_ibm_pc_anniversary/img/5.jpg
Alienware Area-51 7500:

AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling + AlienFX™ System Lighting + High-Performance Liquid Cooling
650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply with Active PFC
NVIDIA nForce™ 4 SLI Motherboard
Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
2GB DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz
1024MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GX2 video card
500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7,200 RPM with 16MB Cache
16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic
Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
1.44 MB Floppy Drive

So, yeah. A bit more than 25 years ago.


Happy birthday PC!
http://www.completecakedec.com.au/happy-birthday-25th.jpg
Happy Birthday PC!

Maybe where you are it's the 11th, but not everywhere.
Truthfully, I was trying to get the jump on other posters.

Good question. I wonder myself as to why pcs these days still carry floppy drives.

LOL yeah....you got the jump on me! LOL

I had a Apple II+ in '82 :)

First used a PET in '76/'77

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/commodore_pet2001_clavier-merdique.jpg

Damn, I'm only two days off from sharing the PC's birthday. That would be uber cool.

Good question. I wonder myself as to why pcs these days still carry floppy drives.
'Cause they're useful for getting round security...

Personally, I preferred the Amiga. *becomes nostalgic*

'Cause they're useful for getting round security...

Personally, I preferred the Amiga. *becomes nostalgic*
I had a ZX-Spectrum myself. Height of uber-technology

I had a ZX-Spectrum myself. Height of uber-technology
Well, if we're going back that far: I had a Vic20. I think my Dad paid £10 for it.

I had a Commodore 64, around about 1985.


http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/9316/pcsu5.png (http://imageshack.us)

And isn't it the 11th today?

One question: Why does that Alienware nerd porn have a floppy drive?

So you can test your home written o/s essily.

Well, if we're going back that far: I had a Vic20. I think my Dad paid £10 for it.
I had one of those too! Fucking useless, but the whole computer fit in the keyboard, which is a plus I guess. http://i7.tinypic.com/24etca9.jpg

What could you get today, for that sort of moolah?
Oh, something like this:
Alienware Area-51 7500:

AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling + AlienFX™ System Lighting + High-Performance Liquid Cooling
650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply with Active PFC
NVIDIA nForce™ 4 SLI Motherboard
Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
2GB DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz
1024MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GX2 video card
500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7,200 RPM with 16MB Cache
16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic
Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
1.44 MB Floppy Drive

So, yeah. A bit more than 25 years ago.


Happy birthday PC!
http://www.completecakedec.com.au/happy-birthday-25th.jpg

pfft. Alienware is overpriced. I can get the same for less and a second video card at ibuypower. :p

pc users rejoice! mac users sulk! :p

Computers give you optical cancer.

Damn, I'm only two days off from sharing the PC's birthday. That would be uber cool.

Hahaha - today is my birthday! Which makes it fitting that I got a new computer mouse... :p

Hahaha - today is my birthday! Which makes it fitting that I got a new computer mouse... :p

does that mean you have the same Birthday as Castro!

hmm how come we never see you two in the same place:eek:

...To the PC!
12 August, 1981 IBM unvelied the Home PC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/technology_ibm_pc_anniversary/img/1.jpg
At a modest price of just $1565US (around $3500 in today's money), you got yourself a top-of-the-range, state-of-the-art, killer-ap mean machine:

A stagerring 4.7Mhz processor and 16K of memory.
Disk drives were an optional extra but each 5.25inch disk could hold 160K of data.
The machines could display four different colours of graphics and 24 different colours for text. No monitor, mind you.
It also included a built-in mono speaker for music and audio.


What could you get today, for that sort of moolah?
Oh, something like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/technology_ibm_pc_anniversary/img/5.jpg
Alienware Area-51 7500:

AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling + AlienFX™ System Lighting + High-Performance Liquid Cooling
650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply with Active PFC
NVIDIA nForce™ 4 SLI Motherboard
Intel Core™ 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB
2GB DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz
1024MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GX2 video card
500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7,200 RPM with 16MB Cache
16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic
Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
1.44 MB Floppy Drive

So, yeah. A bit more than 25 years ago.


Happy birthday PC!
http://www.completecakedec.com.au/happy-birthday-25th.jpg
Buy me one, you demented rodent! :D

My first PC was an old secondhand one of these I got in 1988, when I was 6. I used it as a calculator in junior high, it has Microsoft BASIC on a cassette.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/tuebor/aquarius0lx.jpg

I had a...something. I don't remember what it was, since I was all of three at the time, but I do know it ran DOS 4.0 on it. I think it had a 16 MhZ processor, a full megabyte of disk space, and 40Kb of RAM. Not exactly an Alienware quality gaming machine.

does that mean you have the same Birthday as Castro!

hmm how come we never see you two in the same place:eek:

You never see me with Fidel Castro because he's cooling his heels in jail after doubling as the shoe-bombing nutjob otherwise known as Richard Reed. :p

My first PC was an old secondhand one of these I got in 1988, when I was 6. I used it as a calculator in junior high, it has Microsoft BASIC on a cassette.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/tuebor/aquarius0lx.jpg

Fantastic!!!! I've used/seen most types of computers but never recall that one!

Aquarius? I just googled that up....made by Mattel...

Stats -

Model: 5931
Announced: 1982
Released: June 1983
Discontinued: October 1983
How many sold: 8000(?) in US and Australia
Price : US $160
CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 3.5 MHz
RAM: 4K RAM, 20K max
Display: Built-in TV modulator
40 X 24 text
80 X 72 graphics, 16 colors
Expansion: expansion connector
Ports: TV modulator
Cartridge/expansion
printer, tape recorder
Storage: cassette recorder
OS: Microsoft-Aquarius BASIC 1.0

Thanks for posting that pic! Learn something everyday!

Beautiful... beautiful...*wipes tear froms eye*first computer I had was in 2000 I think.


O/S: Windows 98
ram: 34 MBs
Memory: 4 gb...


Best computer ever:p Only cost two and a half grand:D