# What’s the oldest computer you own?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 23, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648 "2021-04-23T22:29:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/1 "2021-04-23T22:29:13Z")
I’m retiring my 2012 Windows laptop today, it was not that expensive to begin with and has served its purpose. I’m definitely not a gamer so I wouldn’t need to keep something old around just for nostalgia games.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple family members have some older machines, perhaps as far back as 2000 or so.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/2 "2021-04-23T22:37:47Z")
I still have a 386 with Windows 3.1. Haven’t booted it in probably 20 years, but it still worked the last time. Or, now that I think of it, my TRS-80 Model 100 might be older. Both were bought used and cheap years after their heyday. (I junked my really useless stuff long ago, I think–even the tiny Timex-Sinclair 100.)
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/3 "2021-04-23T22:38:33Z")
Depends on how you look at it. I have a laptop that I bought probably 4 or 5 years ago. But I also have a full size PC that I built back in college (around 2000ish). Over the years it was upgraded with new hard drives, OS, memory, video cards etc. Nothing special, just kept it up to date. I stopped using it maybe 10 years ago and slowly scrapped it for parts to be used in other computers. I finally tossed it a few weeks ago when I realized that it has no power supply and all the hard drives are on a shelf…somewhere, it wasn’t even really operational at this point.
Though I did like it. When I got it, I spent hours cutting a hole in the side of the case, mounting a plexiglass window in it and adding a bunch of LEDs. It looked pretty good and this was loong before I’d ever seen one you could buy like that.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/4 "2021-04-23T22:39:58Z")
North Star Horizon with terminal from 1977 [North Star Horizon - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_Horizon)
It was my dad’s. It was also the first computer I ever used. I have fond memories of dad programming Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and of the two of us playing Adventure.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/5 "2021-04-23T22:43:24Z")
If you count game machines, I have two Sega Game Gears, 2 or 3 first generation Game Boys, and possibly an Atari 2600.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/6 "2021-04-23T22:45:04Z")
The ADM terminal [ADM-3A - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A).
Last time I chanced powering them on, both worked.
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/7 "2021-04-23T23:01:11Z")
I’ve got an [Intel Intellec 8](https://oldcomputermuseum.com/intellec-8.html) from circa 1974 sitting in my spare bedroom. I used to collect “vintage” computers, and this one was given to me by a retired computer science professor. Interestingly it actually predates the Altair\*, but it’s not considered to be the first personal computer because Intel never marketed it to consumers; it was just intended to be a development platform for their customers.
\*Widely considered to be the first personal computer.
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### Author:  [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/8 "2021-04-23T23:13:33Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> Last time I chanced powering them on, both worked.
The last time I used one of those was in high school in the mid-80s. We had a Honeywell DPS-6 mini-computer that was networked to a half-dozen junior high schools, including my own.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/9 "2021-04-23T23:18:00Z")
I have a lot of old hardware kicking around, but the oldest is probably a Tandy WP-2 portable computer/word processor that dates to the late 1980’s. And the thing still works and is perfectly usable for word processing. It has a great keyboard, us only 1" thick, weighs 3.1 lbs and runs more than 20 hrs on AA batteries. An amazing little machine for its time.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/10 "2021-04-23T23:20:58Z")
I guess it would be the iPad I bought somewhere in the first couple years of production. Still works fine, but the speed could be better. I only use it when we’re traveling, so it will probably outlast me.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/11 "2021-04-23T23:28:26Z")
I still own all my old computers, so I technically have my old 286 with Hercules Monochrome graphics. But I have no idea if it would boot or not. I know it can’t off the hard drive, since two pins broke off of it, but the floppy drives might still work.
I have a 286, a 486, a Pentium III, a Pentium M laptop that is disassembled, an AMD Duron, a dead Intel Atom netbook, a Pentium IV that my dad bought, a dual core Pentium, a Core2Duo laptop, a Core i7 2600, and now an AMD Ryzen 5 3600. Only the latter two are in use, and were purchased last year—one before and one during the pandemic.
I also have a few odds and end old computers that people would just give to me, which I would just make work as a hobby, or which I’d used before and were going to be thrown away, and I wanted to at least get the data off of them first. And then there’s not really a good way to get rid of them.
Yes, I am aware I have a pack rat problem with computers. 🙂
(I actually lament not getting some computers, like my grandpa’s Tandy.)
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/12 "2021-04-23T23:52:28Z")
I have my first computer, a Digital Group 8080 kit with a video interface from 1976. I’d be surprised if I could get it running. I kept a Zenith portable from about 1988, but it’s been a long time since the battery would take a charge. We rotate out old PCs through the kids and friends so aside from chips and parts no working machine here now is more than a few years old.
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### Author:  [@Acierocolotl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acierocolotl)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/13 "2021-04-23T23:57:27Z")
Hardware that I still have around the house and haven’t discarded:
RUNNER UP is a **Palm Pilot IIIxe**. I don’t know if it works. It probably does. I did a lot of writing with it during long trips on public transit.
WINNER is a **TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-5** , purchased in 1988. It came with a staggering 1x21 character display and a whopping 4k of RAM. I’m not sure if it works, and I’m disinclined to track down button cells to try it out, but that thing saved me a LOT of time crunching matrix problems and I could never part with it. It being compact has helped, because I’ve discarded larger, bulkier hardware, including a Nabu development kit.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/14 "2021-04-23T23:57:27Z")
This thread is made for me. I still have my 1982 TI-99/4a All 16kb of it.
I had given it to my niece and nephew and they gave it back to me about 22 years ago and I’ve moved it twice now.
So I know it isn’t the oldest in this thread, but pretty old.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2021, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/15 "2021-04-24T01:07:56Z")
I have a lot of old hardware, some of it still in use (a desktop from 2010 which was then my main computer still serves as a file and media server for example), the oldest being my first computer I got at age 16 in 1984, a C 64. It spent many years in storage on an attic, but the last time I fired it up a few years ago, it still gave me the good old blue screen with the “Ready” prompt.
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### Author:  [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/16 "2021-04-24T01:14:14Z")
This is only a technicality, but I have in my possession my oldest computer, a Commodore 64. It was taking up space in my folks house, and when they moved, they gave it to me along with a bunch of my other junior high stuff in a box. I figure we got it around 1986.
No, I haven’t tried to turn it on or use it, what would the point be. I don’t think I even have a tv with an input that would work.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2021, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/17 "2021-04-24T01:19:37Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#):
>
> what would the point be
The point would be fun. I only stopped really playing games on my C 64 when either all my disks went bad, or my only drive cable did. I want to play Forbidden Forest, and Pharoah’s Curse, and The Movie Monster Game! I cannot find a good C 64 emulator either.
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### Author:  [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/18 "2021-04-24T01:23:06Z")
Sorry DC, wasn’t meaning to cast aspirations on the old 64. I didn’t see the point in trying as I was sure I didn’t have a monitor or tv I could kludge to do output on. And while my folks _kept_ the computer, they didn’t keep any of my discs (which I think I gave to my friends anyway when I upgraded to a smoking 386dx40 before I went to college [okay, 486 was out by then, but the 386 was soooo much more than the c64 on every level])
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/19 "2021-04-24T01:23:52Z")
Sorry, my mistake then.
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### Author:  [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2021, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-oldest-computer-you-own/940648/20 "2021-04-24T01:40:29Z")
I just found a good home for the Kaypro 2 that I bought in 1982. It was in perfect shape with all the software and manuals. Gave it to a young man who collects and repairs antique typewriters. It went where it will be enjoyed.
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