Your vintage hardware

Panda · 2015-11-05 19:45:07

Thought it might be fun to see if others are as sentimental as I.

What was your first computer? Have some vintage hardware still lying around and collecting dust, that you've held onto despite it's presence jeopardizing your marriage?

Post it here!

We're in the process of a move and have already shuffled these items off to storage but here are a couple pics from the web of the old machines (which for whatever reason) I've held onto.

http://i.imgur.com/AJtqx9tt.jpg
Texas Instruments T99/4a: My first computer, I've also got the voice synthesizer module, old handset modem, cassette drive and a dozen or so cartridge games. 'Parsec' and 'Munchman' were among my favorites.

http://imgur.com/yGpugSJ
Packard Bell 486: Without a doubt, the biggest Piece of Sh%t since the advent of the semiconductor. Came with Win95, although Windows 3.0 would've been more appropriate for it's specs. Why I've kept it for so long is beyond me.. I just enjoy aggravating my Wife!

g33zr · 2015-11-05 20:02:17

Apple IIc

Irulan · 2015-11-05 20:06:47

Timex Sinclair
Sharp Scientific Computer EL-5500II
-H

Panda · 2015-11-05 20:12:33

@g33zr, I wanted a IIc in the worst way!

@hinto, interesting.. I've never heard of a Timex Sinclair before.

Irulan · 2015-11-05 20:15:56

1982 (freshman year in highschool) I got really strange looks (in my small-town highschool) solving systems of equations with determinants using the Sinclair and BASIC.
I even had to hook it up to a black and white tv for the monitor.
-H

Panda · 2015-11-05 20:36:37

@hinto, 3.25 MHz and 2KB of memory? That's crazy!

hinto wrote:

1982 (freshman year in highschool) I got really strange looks (in my small-town highschool) solving systems of equations with determinants using the Sinclair and BASIC.

If we had only attended the same school, I could have deflected all those comments and pointed toward you and said 'no, that's a geek'.

glittersloth · 2015-11-05 22:00:33

Do old Western Electric and Mullard tubes count? ... and no, this question wasn't directed at the ponymod. 8o

Panda · 2015-11-05 22:21:59

^ Originally I was going to post an image of my Abacus but reconsidered so as not to date myself too accurately.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-11-05 22:29:03

glittersloth wrote:

old Western Electric and Mullard tubes

Mmmm... 300B

I love the sound of second harmonic distortion

@eight.bit.al posted some interesting photos in the #! forums:
http://alanger.net/set/index.html

pvsage · 2015-11-05 22:40:08

@glittersloth: I actually have a couple Mullard tubes - a matched pair of 6AM5/4063 output pentodes from the WWII era that are about as common as clarts and don't contribute much to tone, but they're Mullards.

glittersloth · 2015-11-05 22:59:39

^ Mine are Mullard GZ34/5AR4 (1950s matte metal base) variant, which go for quite a bit on eBay, I'm told. They just sit around doing nothing nowadays after I sold off my headphone (moved to custom molded in-ears) and amp collection. Waiting for one of those "new-money" audiophools to make me an offer I can't refuse.

Irulan · 2015-11-05 23:02:42

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dun … rk_Machine
^ This was my inspiration to go down the path that I am on.
-Hinto

Nili · 2015-11-06 01:17:53

HP Vectra from 2001
128MB RAM, 599 MHz, 16GB HDD

I used this one for almost 5 years back in 00's.

g33zr · 2015-11-06 02:41:43

@ Panda: I could have sold my Apple IIc a couple of years ago. I had everything packed in the original boxes with documentation, software, etc. The Mrs. (aka "she who must be obeyed") said if I wasn't going to use it, then get rid of it!

hhh · 2015-11-06 02:43:29

There's a penis joke in there somewhere.

Temetka · 2015-11-06 04:51:04

In the great tech purge of 2009 I got rid of 95% of my unused computer gear. I filled about about 5 trashcan's full of tech and just tossed it all. It felt so good. All I have now are laptops. I have a D630, a D820, an X61T, a Precision M400, a T410 and HP Tablet PC and a DV600T I just picked up.

I'm starting to feel cramped. Most of those are headed to e-bay very soon I think. I made a promise to myself that I would never have closets full of gear again. I'm tempted to pick up an X301 though. Such a sexy laptop.

Last edited by Temetka (2015-11-06 04:51:40)

ohnonot · 2015-11-06 07:08:25

my brother had a sinclair zx spectrum, with what we called a chewing gum keyboard

i remember playing games on it. "worse things happen at sea", boulderdash...

i also remember playing pinball on my father's black/white apple (not green/black!) as often as he would allow it.

my own... just some old laptops, the first some toshiba with a 800x600 screen... long since discarded...

nobody0 · 2015-11-06 08:32:25

The first one I owned, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektronika_MK-52
The second, Atari 600XL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family
The third, a 286 box put together with friends. It cost a lot and had 8MB memory, I think. Something like this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mksB3v3ciq0

pvsage · 2015-11-06 09:24:56

glittersloth wrote:

^ Mine are Mullard GZ34/5AR4 (1950s matte metal base) variant, which go for quite a bit on eBay, I'm told. They just sit around doing nothing nowadays after I sold off my headphone (moved to custom molded in-ears) and amp collection. Waiting for one of those "new-money" audiophools to make me an offer I can't refuse.

People pay good money for simple rectifier valves?? Those contribute even less to tone; they may contribute a bit of "sag" that is perceptible to the guitarist (sag is not desirable in any other application AFAIK) but if the audience can't hear it...besides, there are lots of other rectifiers with similar Vd/I characteristics as the 5AR4, and this is what contributes to the mythical sag.

I think the only valves I have that might be worth anything now are some metal can GE 6SJ7s, which are probably best known from the early 7ender 5C1 Champ. (That amp, with its grid-leak bias, was a case study in bean-counting and cost-cutting; the same preamp valve can deliver similar distortion ("tone") and lower noise with cathode bias, but it would have cost the manufacturer an extra resistor and capacitor, which would have added pennies to the production cost.)

Last edited by pvsage (2015-11-06 09:27:01)

glittersloth · 2015-11-06 09:56:30

pvsage wrote:

People pay good money for simple rectifier valves?? Those contribute even less to tone; they may contribute a bit of "sag" that is perceptible to the guitarist (sag is not desirable in any other application AFAIK) but if the audience can't hear it...besides, there are lots of other rectifiers with similar Vd/I characteristics as the 5AR4, and this is what contributes to the mythical sag.

If eBay is to be believed, apparently they do. I don't think the people that pay for these things put them in guitar amps though. Listening folk want a different kind of distortion in their sound (que long list of audiophile weasel-words), I suppose. I can't speak for the tone myself as I've never heard em. Got em free from some old singh dude who was giving away stuff. All I've ever had in my lone headphone amp were rather ordinary 12AX7A and EL84 Sovteks.

Last edited by glittersloth (2015-11-06 09:57:42)

#1 2015-11-05 19:45:07

Your vintage hardware

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