CyberAngel Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 (edited) My first was an IBM PS/2 with OS/2. To use AutoCAD, you had to switch to a Windows partition. Everyone was still waiting for NT to come out (this was 1991), and IBM capitalized on the frustration by calling it Nice Try. Back then IBM was still trying to remain a player in the personal computer market. A lot of museum-worthy history there, but not related to AutoCAD. The first computer I owned had two floppy drives. You booted from the first drive, ran your app from the second, and saved your data to the first (once you replaced the disk). Yes, the disks were 5.25 inch. The monitor was one color (you could choose between green and amber). The printer was dot matrix. Good times. [edit: This one had an 8086 CPU, 5MHz, with 64K RAM, I believe.] The first computer I ever used was an IBM 360 mainframe at the university. You handed in your program on a pile of punched cards, and you got back the results on 14 7/8" x 11" fanfold green-bar paper. I found out later they would hand a dipstick to a new mainframe tech and tell him to check the oil. He'd go crazy looking for the tube to put it in.... Edited April 21, 2017 by CyberAngel Quote
shift1313 Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 I think the first thing i ran Acad on was a Packard Bell 486 in the mid 90s. I had a Comodore64 before that and various 286 and 386 machines but never CAD on them. I didn't really do anything in CAD until about the late 90s on a machine i built. It was a hotrod of a 500mhz machine:) I can't even imagine it now. I had that system until probably 5 years ago with various internal upgrades. Was able to run older version of Acad on the older ThinkPad laptops(the ones where the keyboard slide out in 2 pieces). It's amazing how far and fast tech has come in the last 10 years. Quote
ReMark Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 An IBM XT - 6MHz speed and 640 KB of RAM. Smokin'! The CPU was an Intel 80286. Quote
f700es Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 .... It's amazing how far and fast tech has come in the last 10 years. This right here. I bought a cell phone at Christmas that has an 8 core CPU. A cell phone!?!? Quote
rkmcswain Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 circa early 1995 intel 486/60DX2 with (get this!) 20MB RAM - not 8 or 16 like a lot of other CAD machines at that time... I think the hard drive was 250MB, and we ran DOS 6.22, and AutoCAD R13 for DOS We did have Windows 3.1 installed, but only used it to run the tape backup software for the HP Colorado tape drive Video card? Couldn't begin to tell you. Quote
Dana W Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 An IBM XT - 6MHz speed and 640 KB of RAM. Smokin'! The CPU was an Intel 80286.Mine was an IBM AT, had a Turbo button that would pop it up to 8mhz. Man that thing was like lightening, ROFLMAO. Quote
shift1313 Posted April 20, 2017 Posted April 20, 2017 circa early 1995intel 486/60DX2 with (get this!) 20MB RAM - not 8 or 16 like a lot of other CAD machines at that time... I think the hard drive was 250MB, and we ran DOS 6.22, and AutoCAD R13 for DOS We did have Windows 3.1 installed, but only used it to run the tape backup software for the HP Colorado tape drive Video card? Couldn't begin to tell you. I know i put a voodo gaming graphics card in my machine Quote
ReMark Posted April 20, 2017 Posted April 20, 2017 Mine was an IBM AT, had a Turbo button that would pop it up to 8mhz. Man that thing was like lightening, ROFLMAO. I distinctly recall having a home computer with a turbo button. I also recall using a memory manager program, I think it was called QEMM, to squeeze out as much in the way of performance as I possibly could in my first 386 computer. Quote
acad_2k Posted December 14, 2019 Posted December 14, 2019 The first computer I ever used was a Dell Pentium 1 running Windows 95 with AutoCAD 13. This was at my first job after Architecture school where I had only drafted with pencil and paper (and ink and mylar ). At home, I had a used Compaq Prolinea (386 I think) that I found in a thrift store for $20.00. This was before the internet, so I had to drive across town to find a math co-processor for it to run AutoCAD 12 DOS, which was also purchased used from a store that only sold second-hand software. This was my introduction to tinkering with old computers. 1 Quote
f700es Posted December 16, 2019 Posted December 16, 2019 1st home PC that I bought was an Acer AMD based 486 DX4 100 MHz, 16 mb and 540 hard drive. It was "faster" than the Pentiums at that time (60 MHz). It had Windows 3.11 and ran my Acad LT student (r12 based) with no issues. Quote
RetroCAD Posted December 16, 2019 Posted December 16, 2019 6 hours ago, f700es said: 1st home PC that I bought was an Acer AMD based 486 DX4 100 MHz, 16 mb and 540 hard drive. It was "faster" than the Pentiums at that time (60 MHz). It had Windows 3.11 and ran my Acad LT student (r12 based) with no issues. The 486/100 is a very fast machine. Much sought after these days. Quote
f700es Posted December 16, 2019 Posted December 16, 2019 LOL, it still worked when I took it apart years ago. It was a very good PC. Ran 2D CAD and ROTT, Doom, Doom 2, Heretic and Hexan Quote
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