View Full Version : Blast from the Past. System builder since 1989
Hi everyone,
Glad I found aria and the forums they are quite friendly. What got me here was aria's great deals on hardware and posting a helpful answer to someones question here.
About me, I've been building PC and MAC systems since 1989, built it all from the XT and AT, 286, 386, 486 and up to the i7 9xx of today. That's a lot of experience and history there. I can definately share some golden (and some not so golden) nuggets of wisdom here.
Claim to fame: Owning one of the first 1.44MB 3.5" floppy discs. :D
Welcome to the forums m8, glad to see another oldie :D
wonderlust
25-03-10, 08:51
There are plenty of us here ;)
I too am getting on abit now....
My first rig was an IBM 486 16mhz, my first upgrade was doubling the memory which cost around £80 for 2mb I think. pc cost me £750 which took a lot of paperrounds to save up for :eek:
40 years in IT. Pre PC. First computer I worked on was an IBM 1130 with a massive 32K of RAM
Saying that DOES make me begin to feel old.
Andrew Moore
25-03-10, 16:38
I love the old stuff! Cant fault it AND it did was it was supposed to do and did it reasonably quickly.. what ever went wrong.
Andy
wonderlust
25-03-10, 16:49
IBM, Intel and Microsoft? ;)
GentleGiant
27-03-10, 12:04
Now we have exhausted old PCs, how about old modems??
I used to have a 600 baud job, it got there by bonding 4 phone lines together; 150 baud each!!!
1200 baud modem and a PC XT with PC3270 for when I was on call. Much better than having to drive the 30 miles to work at 03:00.
I too am getting on abit now....
What you are about 30 tops.
Gunslinger
27-03-10, 22:40
What you are about 30 tops.
yeah, the top end of the 30's :lol:
Wow, thanks so much for the welcomes! :D
Sorry for the delayed thank you's as I've been answering quite a few questions in the forums.
All your posts bring back a lot of memories!
Makes me think of my favourite "blast from the past posts" I did here thus far... anyone remember this hardware???
gargh... I remember the first PC I ever tinkered with. Was an Amstrad 286... but had no sound or anything.
Then we purchased an Olivetti 386 with 1mb ram and added a soundcard... and the hassles that used to give us. I had to have about 10 different boot disks for various games... The X-Wing and Tie fighter ones, and perhaps some of the Monkey Island ones, and some shareware stuff like the original Wolfenstein and Duke Nukem.
IRQ settings used to get my back up no end...
Ah yes, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter! Awesome game.
Did you play Wing Commander back then? Now you needed a good 486 for that one!
Doom I, original Wolfenstein and Duke Nukem... classics.
I had a "website" in the early 80's (BBS) running on my Commodore 64 and 300 baud modem off a 5 1/4" floppy (single sided) and 1 phone line with 1000 users! lol.
"300 baud pocket modem"
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3584/3650820635_074d19a8be.jpg
Ah, here we go! My first modem. 300 baud for $150. You had to use the toggel switches to "reset" the connection and for power.
Now, that was pretty cutting edge calling another computer in the early 80's...
and...
I've owned IBM, Cyrix, AMD and Intel CPU's.
My favourite was the Cyrix and IBM brand in the mid 90's. Great price/performance there with their 686 series. We sold tonnes of them as our gaming systems and had 15 networked systems in our store, 13 Cyrix 686's, 1 AMD and 1 Intel Pentium. ah, memories.
Other than that, I've owned more AMD's than Intels and more Cyrix than both. The last Intel I bought was the Celeron 366. (missed out on the 300A). But the Celeron 366 was ok. The AMD 64 3000+ and AMD 64 4000+ that replaced the Intel was much better.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/KL_Cyrix_6x86MX.jpg/574px-KL_Cyrix_6x86MX.jpg
and 1 more...
£160 for my current gaming card (6 years old now), the ATI X700 Pro 256MB. At the time 128MB cards were the rage and the guy at the computer counter thought I was nutz for wanting a video card with 256MB in memory!!!
http://regmedia.co.uk/2004/09/27/x700_xt_2.jpg
Do I currently have the OLDEST video card being currently used in a main gaming rig??
Oh, that's sad. :(
Most expensive card I ever bought?
£250 for a Trident TVGA 9000 with 2 MB of ram! (ya baby). I remember adding that extra 4x256kb push ram ($25 each x 4) in myself and thinking WOW! This thing has 1/2 as much ram as my computer! Now why don't they offer "expandable ram" today in video cards you can add yourself?
It would be like having a 3,000MB video card today!
http://pchistory.ru/wp-content/uploads/video_trident_tvga8900d.jpg
Those were the days my friend...
gilesgraphics
30-03-10, 14:33
Glad to see I may not quite be the oldest here :)
Manuals in taiwanese anyone?
I have an old 16MB stick of RAM somewhere round here with a price tag on it of over £1600..
Any takers?:rofl:
The first extra memory I bought cost me £120 for 128Kb. Yes 128Kb
gilesgraphics
30-03-10, 15:28
And you had to buy two of them I seem to remember
£3200 for 32MB
Glad to see I may not quite be the oldest here :)
Manuals in taiwanese anyone?
I have an old 16MB stick of RAM somewhere round here with a price tag on it of over £1600..
Any takers?:rofl:
I remember when I got 8 MB for £500 used when 1MB was £80 a stick. Happen to buy 4x 256kb EDO ram for £25 each to make 5 MB.
The first extra memory I bought cost me £120 for 128Kb. Yes 128Kb
Mine was a 512kb upgrade for my Amiga 500, £315. Ouch.
GingaNinja
07-04-10, 14:21
Hi TMC! Glad to hear that someone other than me is enriching the demographic with age and wisdom - well, in my case, age at least. I should say welcome as you've just joined, but I joined at the same time and have fewer posts! Welcome all the same.
Ginga
I've owned IBM, Cyrix, AMD and Intel CPU's.
My favourite was the Cyrix and IBM brand in the mid 90's. Great price/performance there with their 686 series. We sold tonnes of them as our gaming systems and had 15 networked systems in our store, 13 Cyrix 686's, 1 AMD and 1 Intel Pentium. ah, memories.
I started working in a computer shop in '93, so suppose I'm a bit of an oldie. Another vote for the Cyrix 686 here, great value at the time
Hi TMC! Glad to hear that someone other than me is enriching the demographic with age and wisdom - well, in my case, age at least. I should say welcome as you've just joined, but I joined at the same time and have fewer posts! Welcome all the same.
Ginga
Thanks so much Ginga! :thumb:
Age and wisdom! Yes, we can definately help out here with our knowledge or stuff old and new. :D
I started working in a computer shop in '93, so suppose I'm a bit of an oldie. Another vote for the Cyrix 686 here, great value at the time
Those Cyrix's were good stuff back then, even gave AMD a run for their money! I thought by them pairing with IBM they would produce some great CPU's, they did, but in the end it was still AMD and Intel...
A bit of Cyrix is still around today thanks to AMD buying Cyrix!
"They sold the Geode to AMD in 2003. In June 2006, AMD unveiled the world's lowest-power x86-compatible processor that consumes only 0.9 watts of power. This processor is based on the Geode core, demonstrating that Cyrix's architectural ingenuity still survives."
The last Cyrix. "performed faster than an AMD K6/2-300 on FPU calculations "
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Cyrix_M_II-433GP_-_300MHz_CPU_1998_front.jpg/600px-Cyrix_M_II-433GP_-_300MHz_CPU_1998_front.jpg
"Although the company was short-lived and the brand name is no longer actively used by its current owner, Cyrix's competition with Intel created the market for budget CPUs, which cut the average selling price of PCs and ultimately forced Intel to release its Celeron line of budget processors and cut the prices of its faster processors more quickly in order to compete."
Cyrix seemed to fall away with Socket 7 if I remember correctly, around the days of Pentium II when Intel moved to Slot 1 and AMD Slot A.
I thought socket 7 was great, being able to buy a motherboard then choose AMD, Intel or Cyrix was handy
Cyrix seemed to fall away with Socket 7 if I remember correctly, around the days of Pentium II when Intel moved to Slot 1 and AMD Slot A.
I thought socket 7 was great, being able to buy a motherboard then choose AMD, Intel or Cyrix was handy
...and the competition in the market was sure great too. Prices were very competitive and so where the product technology curve due to the competition as well.
We need another good CPU manufacturer to compete with AMD and Intel to get the ball rolling again...
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