My dad bought our first PC in 1986. It was an IBM. I remember it being a DOS based system. We had to “park the heads” before we turned the computer off. Internet was not a thing. He also bought Microsoft Word which came in a folder of floppy discs.
Dad also bought 13k of Microsoft stock in 1987. LOL.
RashestHippo on
Out of all that the Altec Lansing speakers hit me right in the nostalgia. Had ACS45.1 as my first setup
Inukchook on
Our family’s first computer (and only my parents bought us ) was a 486 2500$ can
My parents had to borrow the money from my older brother. Wild times
lart2150 on
fancy pants over here with a 17″ monitor. I think I had either a 12 or 15″ monitor in the mid 90’s
Lowfuji on
The Pentium 90 computer cost my dad $3000, his entire TV fund he’d been saving. A few months later, I think the P 100(?) came out and our computer was already outdated.
Paganigsegg on
My parents got a complete dog shit, base model, garbage Compaq PC in the year 2000, with a monitor and cheap speakers. It was $1200, which is $2162.55 in today’s money. In 2024, $1200 alone gets you a very nice office PC setup, and $2162 gets you an upper mid-tier gaming PC, a nice IPS monitor and a good set of speakers.
Living_Lie_8773 on
Had a dell dimension 2400 tower that came with monitor speakers and mouse and keyboard paid almost same price for it
DarthWoo on
1.6GB? I was juggling two 250MB drives on a hand me down PC at around that time. (My first new PC for when I went off to uni had 10GB.)
AnotherDrunkCanadian on
Our first family computer was an ‘8088’ which cost about 8000 Canadian in 1986 or so. Completely DOS based, everything came with the enormous floppy disks. Fun times
fej057 on
i got a gateway around the same time with a 2gb hard drive. i couldn’t tell you how many people were convinced i’d be set life with that much storage. i went away to college the next year and filled it right up with mp3’s.
cwthree on
1996 was 28 years ago?
_(cries in old)_
OkAbbreviations3078 on
Remember my parents buying a Tandy 1000 back in the late 80s and playing space quest 2.
“Insert disk 2”
“Insert disk 3”
Good times.
Big_Pea_8234 on
Crazy how that computer is probably as powerful as the original Iphone, if that.
throw123454321purple on
Wow, I’d forgotten about Caviar drives.
euph_22 on
Why in tarnation would you need 1.6 gb?
Iamstillhere44 on
In 1995, I opened a personal loan from my credit union when I was 20 to buy my first computer for $2,200. That was a lot of money back then.
brianthesmith on
That seems about right, paid $3000ish in 1998 for a pentium 2 monitor and printer from Best Buy
Next-Project-1450 on
Takes me back seeing that.
My first computers were Ataris in the 80s, but when I made the leap to PC in the early 90s my first was a P100 system. Looking at the spec of that now, along with the price, makes me smile and wince at the same time.
In the UK, we had a budget computer builder called Tiny Computers. They were quite big at the time and had high street stores all over. It was they who inadvertently got me into building my own.
One time, my then Tiny Pentium – and I think it was a P150 by then – stopped working. No power at all. So I opened it and thought ‘Jeez, there’s not much in here’. I can’t remember what logic I used now, but I guessed the PSU was the culprit (other people had complained about them). I contacted Tiny who were happy to sell me a replacement PSU, but the price was very high.
When I measured up, I realised Tiny was using cheap miniature/cut down Chinese import PSUs. I found that I could buy them myself for somewhat less, but with import costs – but still for a lot more than standard ATX PSUs in all the magazines back then. Of course, at the time, I had no idea what to do with them, but I was into electronics, and I thought ‘how hard could it be?’ Then I realised that the size had nothing to do with the connectors (this was the learning curve at the time, you understand).
Tiny cases were standard tower units, and the compartment for the PSU would take a standard ATX with ease. So I bought one, fitted it (easily), and it fixed my issue straight away. Mind you, Tiny cases were also potential death traps, because they cut costs on those, too, and every metal edge was like a razor blade – I cut myself brushing against one several times.
I was smug for a year or two, but then I wanted to upgrade. This time, I went for a complete build of my own.
And I’ve been doing it ever since.
TheKramer89 on
Fuckin’ noobs are gonna get so pwned…
JohnStern42 on
God damn I forgot how crazy expensive PCs were in the 90s
Excel_Ents on
Altec Lansing Speakers with Sub, Nice !
Direct-Money-4206 on
My first pc was a Pentium 1 with 133mhz. Lol
fraudulenturinetest on
That Ensoniq soundcard was awesome.
variousshits on
Fuck i thought 28 as like something in the mid 80s not 1996 
SinoSoul on
DAMN, you were one of those rich guys with the 28.8 and the altec lansing sub. Jealous.
xaphod2 on
I remember how fast my friend’s dad’s 486 DX2/66 was compared to our 386 SX it was mindblowing. The pentium here was an equal jump over the 486… and the P120 was not an early pentium…
Traherne on
My first PC was about the same price (with a 14″ monitor). I think it had 8MB RAM and a 200MB hard drive.
-d4v3- on
Speakers are nice !
fyxxer32 on
WD 1.6 GB ! No WAY you’re gonna fill that up!
slaeryx on
What? No Voodoo card?
LivingGhost371 on
Back in the day computers were improving so fast you typicall got a new one every other year too.
TemoSahn on
A subwoofer for a computer in 1996? I bet Carmen Sandiego never sounded better
Eric848448 on
Am I reading that right? $260 for a 17” screen? That seems way too low.
bmault on
I took out a loan for 2k in 1997 to buy a dell. I was fresh out of college and need something
No-Addendum-4501 on
If you include inflation, and consider processing power and memory (or maybe just sheer silicon), it seems like Moore’s Law is probably close to applying.
43 Comments
Around $5,219.67 in 2024 US buckaroonies
That was a fuck ton of money in 1996.
My dad bought our first PC in 1986. It was an IBM. I remember it being a DOS based system. We had to “park the heads” before we turned the computer off. Internet was not a thing. He also bought Microsoft Word which came in a folder of floppy discs.
Dad also bought 13k of Microsoft stock in 1987. LOL.
Out of all that the Altec Lansing speakers hit me right in the nostalgia. Had ACS45.1 as my first setup
Our family’s first computer (and only my parents bought us ) was a 486 2500$ can
My parents had to borrow the money from my older brother. Wild times
fancy pants over here with a 17″ monitor. I think I had either a 12 or 15″ monitor in the mid 90’s
The Pentium 90 computer cost my dad $3000, his entire TV fund he’d been saving. A few months later, I think the P 100(?) came out and our computer was already outdated.
My parents got a complete dog shit, base model, garbage Compaq PC in the year 2000, with a monitor and cheap speakers. It was $1200, which is $2162.55 in today’s money. In 2024, $1200 alone gets you a very nice office PC setup, and $2162 gets you an upper mid-tier gaming PC, a nice IPS monitor and a good set of speakers.
Had a dell dimension 2400 tower that came with monitor speakers and mouse and keyboard paid almost same price for it
1.6GB? I was juggling two 250MB drives on a hand me down PC at around that time. (My first new PC for when I went off to uni had 10GB.)
Our first family computer was an ‘8088’ which cost about 8000 Canadian in 1986 or so. Completely DOS based, everything came with the enormous floppy disks. Fun times
i got a gateway around the same time with a 2gb hard drive. i couldn’t tell you how many people were convinced i’d be set life with that much storage. i went away to college the next year and filled it right up with mp3’s.
1996 was 28 years ago?
_(cries in old)_
Remember my parents buying a Tandy 1000 back in the late 80s and playing space quest 2.
“Insert disk 2”
“Insert disk 3”
Good times.
Crazy how that computer is probably as powerful as the original Iphone, if that.
Wow, I’d forgotten about Caviar drives.
Why in tarnation would you need 1.6 gb?
In 1995, I opened a personal loan from my credit union when I was 20 to buy my first computer for $2,200. That was a lot of money back then.
That seems about right, paid $3000ish in 1998 for a pentium 2 monitor and printer from Best Buy
Takes me back seeing that.
My first computers were Ataris in the 80s, but when I made the leap to PC in the early 90s my first was a P100 system. Looking at the spec of that now, along with the price, makes me smile and wince at the same time.
In the UK, we had a budget computer builder called Tiny Computers. They were quite big at the time and had high street stores all over. It was they who inadvertently got me into building my own.
One time, my then Tiny Pentium – and I think it was a P150 by then – stopped working. No power at all. So I opened it and thought ‘Jeez, there’s not much in here’. I can’t remember what logic I used now, but I guessed the PSU was the culprit (other people had complained about them). I contacted Tiny who were happy to sell me a replacement PSU, but the price was very high.
When I measured up, I realised Tiny was using cheap miniature/cut down Chinese import PSUs. I found that I could buy them myself for somewhat less, but with import costs – but still for a lot more than standard ATX PSUs in all the magazines back then. Of course, at the time, I had no idea what to do with them, but I was into electronics, and I thought ‘how hard could it be?’ Then I realised that the size had nothing to do with the connectors (this was the learning curve at the time, you understand).
Tiny cases were standard tower units, and the compartment for the PSU would take a standard ATX with ease. So I bought one, fitted it (easily), and it fixed my issue straight away. Mind you, Tiny cases were also potential death traps, because they cut costs on those, too, and every metal edge was like a razor blade – I cut myself brushing against one several times.
I was smug for a year or two, but then I wanted to upgrade. This time, I went for a complete build of my own.
And I’ve been doing it ever since.
Fuckin’ noobs are gonna get so pwned…
God damn I forgot how crazy expensive PCs were in the 90s
Altec Lansing Speakers with Sub, Nice !
My first pc was a Pentium 1 with 133mhz. Lol
That Ensoniq soundcard was awesome.
Fuck i thought 28 as like something in the mid 80s not 1996 
DAMN, you were one of those rich guys with the 28.8 and the altec lansing sub. Jealous.
I remember how fast my friend’s dad’s 486 DX2/66 was compared to our 386 SX it was mindblowing. The pentium here was an equal jump over the 486… and the P120 was not an early pentium…
My first PC was about the same price (with a 14″ monitor). I think it had 8MB RAM and a 200MB hard drive.
Speakers are nice !
WD 1.6 GB ! No WAY you’re gonna fill that up!
What? No Voodoo card?
Back in the day computers were improving so fast you typicall got a new one every other year too.
A subwoofer for a computer in 1996? I bet Carmen Sandiego never sounded better
Am I reading that right? $260 for a 17” screen? That seems way too low.
I took out a loan for 2k in 1997 to buy a dell. I was fresh out of college and need something
If you include inflation, and consider processing power and memory (or maybe just sheer silicon), it seems like Moore’s Law is probably close to applying.
https://images.app.goo.gl/NBZHnb2E9b3UGTLS8
“The hard disk you have been waiting for!” 10MB, $3398
(1980s)
Is that 260 for labour? An experienced tech could assemble that in an hour, tops.
Wow!
Flash specs.
lol at blurring order number
One hell of a beast for the time, though higher end parts would add another grand do that !
Could only afford Fedex Economy huh?
IBM XT clone in 1985. $3,000. 🚀