Comparing Today's Computers To 1995's

blackhand1001 said:
Just tested it on chrome with the prescott pentium 4. It got in the 600ms range, so 2003 pc cpu's are still much much faster.
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That's one of the areas where algorithm improvements help a lot. The main JS engines continue to get better and faster every quarter.

I get 300ms on this computer with Chrome
I fired up Firefox 1.0 (2004) under Wine and got 11,025ms.
I ran FF 11.0 beta3 under Wine and got 365ms.

We're getting free upgrades :D
 
nutzo said:
There was no DX version of the 386, the 386 used an external math coprocessor chip.
It was the 486SX that was the no math coprocessor version of the 486DX.

The 386sx was a lower cost version of the 386 that only had a 16 bit memory path instead of the 32 bit path on the 386.
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I do remember there being no DX, but I think they rebranded with DX later to separate the models.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Ah the fond memories... I remember my first Windows based PC, also finding out that the IO port on my UART chip wasn't fast enough to handle a 14.4k modem... seriously? BLEH!
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You must have had the old 8250 UART chip instead of the 16550 that had the 16 byte buffer.
I usually ran them at19.2k without a problem, which was fast enough to support a 14.4k modem at close to full speed. Not that that matters any more :)
 
m_isom said:
I tried it once, installed windows 95 on bare minimum specs, 386 cpu (4) 1mb simms. Made it to the desktop and moved the mouse, heard the hard drive go nuts with the swap file just from the mouse moving.
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haha, I had a page swap from opening up notepad!
 
I was ten years old and built my first computer the year before. Great days.

I will always remember my first computer, a 486 DX4-100 on a cheap PcChips motherboard (yea I got served on that one). After breaking the family's computer far too many times, my parents decided it was time to let me have my own playground, hoping they could have their own computer able to funciton for more than a week.

The only thing I regret is caving to the "nerd" stigma and not going further on my desire to get an IT career. Oh well...
 
Re: smart phones. I know I was getting old when I installed and booted Amiga OS on my Nexus One via an emulator. And It was fast. And games worked, and were fast.

My phone crushed the premier gaming rig of my youth.
 
Got my first PC in 1993

386 20mhz
2MB Ram
40MB Hard Drive

It was one of the IBM PS/2's with the metal monitor and rocked. But my parents got so badly ripped off, it was outdated even before I got it. According to my google-fu it was a Model 70 which means it came out in 1990 at the latest. They bought it from the UK's most trusted retailer at the time, says a lot.

I remember being absolutely stoked because I got a disney pack with the Rocketeer and Roger Rabbit, good times.
 
Oh, the memories... and I thought my machine back then was pretty decent at the time:
Cyrix 486DX4-100 CPU on a POS Biostar motherboard, 8MB of RAM, 512MB hard drive (still works), 2MB video card, 28.8Kbps modem.
 
I retain a vast collection of computer and video/computer game magazines mostly because I enjoy contrasting prices of former cutting edge technology with current gear. Thanks for the nostalgic post!
 
Was just discussing with a friend some of the odd little things to come out in the 90s, and if I'm remembering right, I think 1995 was when Intel was pushing the pentium overdrive for 486 boards. Sure brings back memories of a different time in pc's, everything from hardware to how novel the games were back then.
 
I remember making music tunes in my head while waiting for the hard drive to save....ALL I WANT is my word processor to SAVE.
 
ianken said:
Re: smart phones. I know I was getting old when I installed and booted Amiga OS on my Nexus One via an emulator. And It was fast. And games worked, and were fast.

My phone crushed the premier gaming rig of my youth.
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no-contest-divorce-image.jpg
 
BTW, note that the prices are in Canadian $, which at the time, were worth less than US $, perhaps 10% less IIRC.
 
Back in 1995, I worked for Sears in their electronics dept. I remember how we would be hawking those Packard Bell 486's (around $1500 for a DX-33!! :p ). I hadn't used Windows 95 yet at the time, and the first Pentium 60's were on the horizon (that would set you back $3k on the Pac Bells back then!).

Myself, I had a 486DX 50 (a TRUE DX 50, not some stinkin' DX2 chip!! :D ). My Diamond Speedstar was the shizznit back then, and I was pretty proud of my Conner 212mb hard drive!


Ian
 
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