I went from a Color Computer II to a 286 then to a Pentium II 300 Mhz powered Gateway. I was never fortunate enough to enjoy the 486 years, though I followed them closely in magazines of the time - checking out games like what LucasFilm was putting out, Sierra On-Line, etc. Man, those were the days, every release seemed to be a major gaming event to me, partly because I could not play them.
I went from a Commodore 64 to a 486 DX2-66 then to a Pentium II-333 (both the PCs were Gateways). After that, I started building my own. I always felt I missed out a little not having a Pentium (the Overdrive upgrades were never affordable) but the 486 years were great ones.