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My First Computer

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ibgator

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Mar 7, 2008
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Hello All,

I've been a computer user for quite a while now but just recently wondered how difficult it would be to build a copy of my first computer.

Does anyone know where I can purchase a Compudyne 386DX-33 motherboard with the box?

I think that I can find the cards locally if none come with it.

Thanks,

Robert
Brandon, Fl
 
My First Computer

linemanduke said:
i just saw a compudyne desktop not sure if it was a 386 what did yours look like
Click to expand...

It was a tower desktop with a five and a quarter inch and a three and a half inch floppy drive.

A SVGA 14" monitor came with it as well.

Thanks,

Robert
 
He mentions it was a 386, which is within the limits for a vintage PC, as is 486. He may remember it wrong, and it could of been a regular VGA computer. Or perhaps he bought it in the mid-90s and it had been upgraded by ther previous owner, or perhaps the store looking to get rid of it's old stock did some upgrading to it. Besides, most of out vintage PCs here ARE indeed used, except for a mighty few that are NOS.

--Ryan
 
Well 1. Evan is right, 386 and 486 cut it close to the vintage scope of this forum. and 2. NOS means a lot of other things such as Network Operating System which was popular with big iron from the Control Data Corporation, so careful with your acronyms.

I'll move this to the Later PC's area.
 
I have a 8088 Zenith desktop. I also have several Lava 8-bit VGA cards. If I put the VGA card in the Zenith and hook up a VGA monitor, is it no longer a Vintage computer?

I suppose those who drop in once a month or so solely to bitch and complain are the (pseudo) aristocratic ruling class who contribute little beyond a sharp jab in the posterior.

Vlad was right to move it to Later PCs, as, if it is a 3/486, that's been designated the area, but, the "off-with-their-head" decree is not only bad public relations to a NEW member, but completely asinine as well.
 
Druid6900 said:
I suppose those who drop in once a month or so solely to bitch and complain are the (pseudo) aristocratic ruling class who contribute little beyond a sharp jab in the posterior.
Click to expand...

Oh boy.

Yes, I visit this site "solely to bitch" and clearly I contribute little to the hobby.

Reality check: I visit this site to add constructive things, when and where I can. I'm also happy to help moderate when and where moderators aren't doing their job. As I told Eric a few times, it's one thing to have an off-topic PC subforum here, but many times I see the moderators here actually CHIME IN on clearly off-topic or just miscategorized threads, rather than clarify the appropriateness or lack thereof to the original poster.

As for what I contribute to the hobby .... have you heard of VCF East? Yeah, I run that. Oh, and I founded a 170-member user group for vintage computer collectors here in the mid-Atlantic/northeast, and we've got a bricks-and-mortar computer museum. I also travel to academic conferences around the country to preach our hobby to Ph.D.s in the history and philosophy of science. Meanwhile, every week for 2.5 years, I published a vintage computer collectors' email newsletter, which helped get this forum on the map -- and after that I started writing a vintage computing blog for Computerworld magazine, which has 500,000 subscribers.

Can you crunch that number, Druid? 500,000, most of which are hard-core IT industry veterans. Along with Eric and people such as Bruce Damer (Digibarn) and Sellam Ismail (VCF founder), I'm often quoted as a hobby representative, for example I've been quoted by Reuters and the IEEE. BusinessWeek magazine put me on their TV show and I was a historical consultant to the History Channel program "Modern Marvels".

That summarizes my influence in this hobby and what I contribute. And you?
 
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OK, OK, OK. I didn't mean to start anything. I was just pointing out that a 386 is a vintage computer. I didn't mention it was borderline(I hinted it though) nor did I realize he was new. Still, lets not split hairs here. I don't have much else to say other than that even though Evan doesn't drop by here often, he does have a fine magazine and organization, which I belong to.

As for the name(and questionable contributions) he was acused of? I'd feel better about myself if I didn't chime in on that one.

--Ryan

P.S. I'm not taking sides on this. And maybe the profanity should be put into ***** things(can't spell their real name) for the younger hearted viewers. It slipped my mind what else NOS could mean. I was using it for New Old Stock, and will keep in mind to better specify that in the future.
 
Despite the bickering I found that an interesting argument, whether upgrading a vintage system to newer technology would make it not apply in a vintage forum. I didn't recall SVGA being out during the 386 days but that could simply be me not having those funds or not knowing any better. I remember upgrading to SVGA with the 486 after a friend and I were swapping pictures from Photoshop and trying to figure out who had a better monitor (the one that it looked good on or bad on lol).

So continuing the nature of this thread here: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/920713/archive_019167.htm is an interesting post with some prices of different 386 systems in 1992. Several do show SVGA ability but it's fun to see the options they're bragging about ;o) 386SX/25 2MB RAM 84MB drive..$1270.00

I guess I haven't played with 386s for a while. Sorta forgot that a lot of them maxed out a 8MB RAM, I just honestly thought the hard drive sizes would be larger.

..crap almost forgot my comment that was useful. Ibgator, I'm not sure if you're looking for the entire system or to build it like you indicated, but you're really just looking for a motherboard that can support the 386/33 chip, then you could find the chip and a "Full Tower" case if you wanted that part again.
 
Ooooops

Ooooops

Thanks everyone for the constructive criticism on my post.

My sincere apologies for not taking the time to know when and where I should and should not post my questions.

I did not realize that I was entering holy ground and should have removed my shoes and trod more carefully.

I will endeavor to be more careful in the future.

Is the aforementioned user group the most appropriate forum for my quest to find the parts that I am looking for?

Thanks again for the input.

Happy St. Patrick's day everyone.
 
barythrin said:
Despite the bickering I found that an interesting argument, whether upgrading a vintage system to newer technology would make it not apply in a vintage forum. I didn't recall SVGA being out during the 386 days but that could simply be me not having those funds or not knowing any better. I remember upgrading to SVGA with the 486 after a friend and I were swapping pictures from Photoshop and trying to figure out who had a better monitor (the one that it looked good on or bad on lol).

So continuing the nature of this thread here: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/920713/archive_019167.htm is an interesting post with some prices of different 386 systems in 1992. Several do show SVGA ability but it's fun to see the options they're bragging about ;o) 386SX/25 2MB RAM 84MB drive..$1270.00

I guess I haven't played with 386s for a while. Sorta forgot that a lot of them maxed out a 8MB RAM, I just honestly thought the hard drive sizes would be larger.

..crap almost forgot my comment that was useful. Ibgator, I'm not sure if you're looking for the entire system or to build it like you indicated, but you're really just looking for a motherboard that can support the 386/33 chip, then you could find the chip and a "Full Tower" case if you wanted that part again.
Click to expand...

Hey this link is great!

My first computer was a Compudyne 386DX-33. I thought that it was an SVGA monitor but it could have been a VGA.

It had a 120mb hard drive, two floppy drives. 1mb of memory.

It came in a "Compudyne" tower case.

The monitor was also "Compudyne" labeled. I believe it was a 14" but it could have been a 15".

It did not come with a modem. I later installed a 1200 baud modem to begin logging on to local BBSes.

It came with DOS 5. No windows. I later forked out the moola for Windows 3.1.

I drove my wife crazy learning to use DOS and downloading software to use in her business, games, etc.

Oh yea ... I purchased an Epson LQ-570 dot matrix printer which made quite a racket when it printed. I used it to print out manuals for shareware software, BBS phone lists, school reports, etc.

Those were some good times and I would like to show my kids what early computing was like.

All the best.
 
The bickering needs to be addressed a little bit.

A newbie posting about their first PC is nothing to be upset with. Let the moderators move the post aside to a harmless area, and let the newbie have their post. If the moderators are slow to move something, feel free to drop an email or a PM. Some of us have day jobs and can't be all places at all times. We normally do well at keeping things neatly sorted, and supressing trash.

As for relative contribution, that's not really relevent. I think we have room here for the aristocrats and the rabble, as long as they don't start flaming each other. Unless you are going to flame using old school animated ANSI, the flame is off topic.

Lastly, even the moderators bicker amongst themselves at times. Not all of us agree on moderation style. Do us a favor - if you see something you don't like, skip it. Unless it is an egregious violation of one of the ettiquette rules, it's not worth the electrons to bitch about it.
 
EvanK said:
Oh boy.

Yes, I visit this site "solely to bitch" and clearly I contribute little to the hobby.

Reality check: I visit this site to add constructive things, ....etc.
.....
.....
Can you crunch that number, Druid? 500,000, most of which are hard-core IT industry veterans. Along with Eric and people such as Bruce Damer (Digibarn) and Sellam Ismail (VCF founder), I'm often quoted as a hobby representative, for example I've been quoted by Reuters and the IEEE. BusinessWeek magazine put me on their TV show.

That is my influence in this hobby. What's yours?
Click to expand...

Err...I don't want to perpetuate or exacerbate a flame war, but I feel I need to add my bit..

Evan, your vintage credentials are indeed impressive. You've obviously done a lot for the vintage community, which is great. However getting back to your original post, I do think the short terse phrase "Take it elsewhere" doesn't do anything to help newbies engage with a community like this. It may not be meant to be overly agressive but would read as "get lost, dumbass" to many. Is that how we should encourage people into vintage computing?

All that was needed was for the poster to be pointed in the right direction (which he indeed was).

Druid just pointed that out, albeit in his characteristic pithy way.

As for Druid, in the six months I've been visiting here, I've noticed he's been a valued member, providing assistance to many people where they have a problem of a deep technical nature. His contribution to maintenace of my own collection has been high, and at least two of my units would probably still be dead if not for his advice. His practical knowledge and experience has made a big contribution in this forum.

Anyway, that's my 10 cents worth. The on-line vintage community plays a big role in keeping this history alive. Let's encourage others to do the same and remember that we all contribute, each in our own ways.
 
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