How much did you pay for your first PC?

Question

Think back to the first personal computer (PC) you ever owned? What was it? How much did it cost? For me, it was 1990. I bought a 286 PC, like the one pictured, at a store called Computerland; it went out of business a year later. It was a package deal, came with a dot matrix printer and a box of 5-1/4 inch floppy disks. It cost me US$3200, equivalent to US$7784 in 2025. How about you? Tell us your story.

ArrowheadSW · Accepted Answer

Not a PC, but my oldest brother handed me down a Commodore 64 in the late 1980's. If I remember, the 64 stood for 64 KB of memory. That isn't ANYTHING now a days! LOL... I remember I wrote a few simple programs that I stored on a cassette tape drive.

I remember in the early 1990's there was something called a "bread box" that held 1 GB of data! Now you can get a memory stick that weighs less than a quarter ounce that holds 256 GB.

DryGermanGuy · Accepted Answer

It was a Commodore Amiga 2000 in 1990, for 1300 Deutschmark. Screw PCs! 🙂

Nikki1989 · Accepted Answer

My first was given to me. It is a weird machine because it had no brand name on it. Who knows who made it.

douride2 · Accepted Answer

The first computer I remember was an H/P running windows 98. I'm sure I had one before this one though.

worldscolide · Answer

The first one that was mine alone was an AST Advantage, 486 SX, 4 MB of ram, 250 MB hard drive. No optical, No Sound, No modem, and a 3.5 inch floppy drive. By the time i gave it away, it was a 486 DX4 120 (AMD), 64 MB of EDO memory, the video went from 512 KB to 2 MB, A Sound blaster clone ESS 1688 audio card with wave table, a 4X CD Rom drive, i kept the floppy of course but added a 1.2 mb 5.25 inch floppy drive, and added a 1 GB drive as a drive D to the machine. It ran faster than a Pentium 90. In a lot of ways i miss it. Its how i learned what i know now, or rather it was the foundation of what i know now, in my current IT career. Same monitor through out, a Sony Trinitron 15 inch screen i think, it was either 13 inch or 15 inch.

exitseven · Answer

I bought a 286 clone from a local company. It had a EGA color monitor and a dot matrix printer. It was probably 1990 or 91. I was really poor back then so I spent way too much money on it. I was studying to get into the IT field and wanted to have a computer in my house.

tfan1 · Answer

Hmm Santa brought the first computer apple IIC or E. Next computer was packard bell pentium 75 or 90 bought more ram, 14 or 15” color monitor, and printer, IEEE 1284 parallel cable, hewlett packard deskjet 660C color inkjet printer, I think it was 800 for everything back then.

Piercejeans1 · Answer

In 1995 I yelled at a local Walmart store manager for having an outdated and apparently open boxed computer on his shelves. I told him it was embarrassing. The next day he put it on sale for half price. I bought it. He saw me and shot me a look that could kill. I really did not do it for that purpose... but I could not turn down the deal on the Packard Bell. don't remember the price.

bddddd · Answer

My parents bought me a computer in 1987. It was an 8088 with a  massive  640k of ram, two 360k floppy disk drives and a 9 pin printer. I loved it. In today's dollars it would be about $10,000, or about USD6500.

Steak_D_Bone · Answer

My Tandy 2000 was a hand-me-down and free. It actually looked a lot like the one in the picture.

docster · Answer

Not counting my Texas Instruments TI99/4A home computer, my first PC was a 486DX2/66 that I assembled myself. I don't remember the total cost.

Shiprex · Answer

I didn't oay my parents did. In 1980s a ZX81 was my first home computer About 100£

FreyaRed · Answer

I got a Lenvo laptop with big 17'' Display. It wasn't too expensive, around 2000 Euro.

Telekinetic-Potato · Answer

Ehhh, my first computer was a $200 motherboard, a bunch of spare parts from my dad's office and some hard drives from a raid server that had one of the drives in the batch fail.

Tarifa · Answer

This looks really old. If I'm not mistaken, it uses the floppy disk. My first one was a bit more modern, although it certainly didn't have a flat screen like we have nowadays.

llorando · Answer

My first computer was a hand me down Tandy 1000 from my cousin. The first computer I actually bought was an eMachine's I paid $500.

Xawyx-2 · Answer

I don't know, I was just a kid, my first computer was Commodore 64.

michael3478 · Answer

I had my uncle give me an old windows 95 computer as my first computer it wasn't new but i think my parents threw it out when they got a windows xp computer which sucks because i wish i still had it.

Northstar84 · Answer

I bought one of those funky apple computers that was blue, this was in the early 2000’s It was expensive but I don’t remember how much exactly

jJanSmit · Answer

Probably 1983? It was a Commodore 128 with a dot matrix printer. Not really a PC, but I loved it

Texaskid1 · Answer

It was an emachine. I paid $500.  That was a lot of money for me back then.

genericname85 · Answer

my first ever pc was a hand down from my dad. probably a 386 or a 486. don't remember tbh.

boundless · Answer

The first PC I had was the original IBM PC right out of project acorn in Boca Raton, FL. I grew up there. In today's dollars they were retailing for like $10.5K. I didn't pay for it though.

Twalli · Answer

The first one that was mine was a gift. So, technically, nothing. The first one that I bought was probably $300 or so.

Cubus · Answer

Around 1000 zł. I got that money for First Communion.

DavyJ · Answer

It was about £280 in about 1982, and was a Commodore 64.

888theGreat · Answer

Commodore 64 , still have it , with real Floppy Disc

WonderingManII · Answer

The first PC was given to me. The second one I bought for 500 dollars from a friend.

slimyWitch · Answer

Maybe about US$100. It was used PC

FunkyMonkee · Answer

Probably $350. It was used.

jahaims · Answer

500 for a dell in 2013

Malwi93 · Answer

i remmember when it used to cost like 1k

msc545 · Answer

I think it was probably about $2,000

noohair · Answer

5 K..

Raydergman26 · Answer

300 dollars

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