My 1st computer was a Sinclair Spectrum purchased direct from Sinclair as they werent in the shops at the time (I still have it) I later fitted more RAM to it to bring it up to 48k, WOW!!
Next I had a BBC micro model B with a CUB colour monitor, bigger WOW!
I then did some growing up and discovered girls, beer and cars so computers were put on the back burner.
Got back into computers in the mid 90s with a 486 DX4/100, 16MB RAM, 1GB hdd, running Win95 and playing Doom and Duke Nuke 'Em, internet was via a USRobotics sportster winmodem and ISP was Compuserve; whatever happened to Compuserve BTW?
Next one was a Pentium 200Mhz MMX, 64MB RAM, 4GB hdd, running win95 then 98se, this PC has only recently left my pocession, was given free to a senior citizen who wanted to do some word processing.
Next one was based around a Duron 800Mhz CPU, 20GB hdd, 128MB RAM, 64MB graphics running win98se, I still have it, it is now my sons PC, it is a dual boot system 98 & XP Home with 512MB RAM. wireless internet connection. Plays his games just great, and is a more than capable second PC.
My current creation, built from some salvaged bits from a defunct Dell gx270 (swollen capacitors being the usual issue with them) and some purchased
Intel 2.4Ghz Celeron socket 478 (salvaged)
Asus P4P800se board
1.25GB RAM (256MB salvaged)
80GB IDE hdd (salvaged)
there was a 250GB SATA drive too, but that caught fire!!!
128MB graphics card
XP Pro
The dell was acquired, fell over a box at work and had to move it for health and safety reasons
Ive never purchased a complete PC from a shop or elsewhere, all have been self builds, apart from the spectrum and BBC they were purchased for me, my pittiful amount of pocket money wouldnt stretch that far, lol
I used to go to computer fairs a lot
Jack