Digital Archaeology: Gateway 486 DX2-66

This expedition is a search through the boneyard of my very first PC. And by PC, I really mean DOS/Windows/X86 compatible computer since my first computer was a Commodore 64. This was the first computer I ever bought myself and I spent most of my summer earnings on this thing the summer before I went to college. It was a whopping $3000 (really more like $2995 plus somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 for shipping). But for this massive sum you got what was a massively powerful computer for the day (we are talking Summer 1993 here).

As you can see, the highlights include a 66MHz 486DX2 processor, a whopping 16MB of RAM plus 256k of cache, a CD-ROM drive (single speed) and a VESA Local Bus video card. It looked just like this except the CD-ROM drive in mine (a Philips model) had a manually operated tray:

By comparison, in my dorm area my first year of college, three out of five people came with a computer including myself. One person came with a 386DX-40 with 2 or 4 MB of RAM and my roommate came with a 486DX-33 with 4 MB of RAM (later upgraded to 8 MB I think). I had bragging rights for a couple of years until someone I knew bought a 133 MHz Pentium.

When I upgraded to a 333 MHz Pentium II (also a Gateway 2000) on Christmas 1997, I gave the 486 to my parents. I got it back a few years later but sadly ended up trashing it (except for the CPU, SoundBlaster 16 ASP and the RAM which I probably have around somewhere as well. I may have kept the video card too but I am not sure. Recently, I was able to pick up a very similar model, except that it is a 486 33 and not the VESA local bus variety. On the bright side, I managed to get it for a relatively reasonable cost and it is in excellent condition (with the minor exception of the leaky battery I had to snip off the motherboard).