30+ years of computers

During some downtime, I made a list of all the computers I could remember owning. The list is surprisingly long, and goes back to 1992 (before which I had a Commodore 64 but that barely counts, does it?) When I originally wrote this article in 2012 I came up with 10 desktops and 7 laptops, or a new machine nearly every year. By contrast, in 2020 I'm using a 7 year old laptop and it's fine. On the other hand, the 3 Chromebooks I bought in the last 6 years just didn't last.

Still in use as of June 2021: Dell 5155, Dell 3190, Ryzen 3700X, i7-4790k

Approximate dateDescriptionNotes
Desktops
Nov 2019Ryzen 3700Xmy new work machine, nvme, dual 3k monitors
March 2016i7-4790k With a nice big desktop monitor. My first Intel desktop in over 20 years? Upgraded to a 4K monitor recently, still (as of 2021) my gaming machine. (GTX 960 graphics)
December 2012Phenom II X4First adventure with kFreeBSD and zfs. 3 x 3TB disks; new hardware to upgrade without service disruption (finally entered service Fall 2013)
May 2009Phenom X4Previous system failed (capacitor plague?)
Jan 2007Athlon X2Wanted dual core; to develop 64-bit LinuxCNC on Sempron 64; to upgrade from Fedora to Ubuntu without service disruption
Sep 2005Sempron 64Wanted performance, 64-bit, consolidated 2 systems
Jun 2003Athlon XPLast machine I bought to install Windows (XP) on (to play games!)
Aug 2002Duron 1GHzWanted performance, "1GHz"
Ca 2000K6-3D?I think I purchased a faster speed K6 later
Ca 1998K6-3Dbecause 3DNow! instructions sounded cool
486DXdumpster dived
1995?PentiumFirst computer bought with my own money
1992?AMD 386Added 387 co-processor later
Ca 1990V20 and 80286 PCs with MS-DOS
1980sCommodore 64
1980sVIC-20
Laptops
September 202115" Dell 5515Thinkpad's battery reached "holds no charge". This Dell has no proper suspend mode otherwise works great in Linux!
June 201911" Dell 3190Chromebooks flaked out and died and lost software support
April 201711" x86 chromebookSamsung Chromebook was getting slow
September 201414" x86 chromebookBuilt-in 4G LTE
January 201411" Samsung Chromebookbest travel computer yet, ARM CPU
April 2013Thinkpad T530Performance, gaming, previous system had become flaky
April 2008Dell D830Performance, previous system had become flaky
2004?HP zt3000Performance, 1920x1200 screen resolution
IBM T-Series (refurb?)
2002Dell 300MHz (used)
2001?Toshiba Pentium (used)
1999-2001Two 386 laptops (used)
Other
2020Google Pixel 4a Handed down the Pixel 2 to Ingrid
2018Google Pixel 2 New. The XL had a camera problem and I replaced it as soon as I could justify it.
2017Google Pixel XL Refurb
2015Google Nexus 6 New
2013Motorola Photon QAndroid 4, 5-row QWERTY keyboard
2012Nexus 7Introduction-day order even
2012No-name Android 2 tabletPiece of junk, at least it was cheap
2012Kindle PaperwhiteHas seen much more use than my Kindle 2
2011Kindle 2Refurbished
2012HTC SpeedySwitched from sprint to ting
2011?Samsung MomentFirst smartphone


Entry first conceived on 20 January 2012, 13:51 UTC, last modified on 3 November 2021, 21:25 UTC
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