In 1982 I had my first computer. A SYM-1 6502 cpu, 1 MHz, with 4k of ram. I added a VT100 terminal and a 300 baud modem to log into the school’s network.
My 1st PC was a Z80 Model I Radio Shack pieced together from units with problems. I built the power supply for it and the 2 8” floppies and the enclosure for the floppies. And hard wired stacked CPU chips on the motherboard, did not use the expansion interphase (was big issue with them). Hand wired the strobe pulse to each stacked CPU chip.
Had a monochrome green phosphor monitor and a tape drive for mass storage. It actually worked pretty well. I still have it somewhere in my shop.
That had to be the noisiest computer ever built. Don’t put a receiver anywhere near it. No shielding. I’m a Ham Op and the two interests with that PC were incompatible.
But I had a lot of software for it. I spent more on the printer than the rest of the PC. Had a wide carriage dot matrix Epson printer. Paid $625 for it back then.
I was living in NM then. I had previously drooled over the MIT Computers ( http://pc-history.org/altair.htm ) made in Albuquerque. Still have a couple of new enclosures that I bought surplus for one of those machines. Pretty nice boxes. I bought them for a receiver project I was working on. Never used them.
Interesting how all this played out.