20 Years of Desktops

[raymac46]

My new Dell desktop is the 7^th PC I have owned from that company. I was thinking how far technology has come from that first Dell Dimension 4100 I got back in 2000.

That original beige box was put together in Dell’s huge factory in Round Rock, Texas – a facility which is long gone. My latest Dell was built in Mexico by Foxconn.

It was a modular time in desktop computer design. Everything pretty much happened by way of plug-in cards on the motherboard. ISA was pretty much dead by then so the mobo had tons of PCI connectors. Graphics was handled by AGP 4X.

Looking a bit deeper into the Specs I remember:

• Processor – Intel Pentium III 1 GHz – one of the last great Pentium IIIs - 32 bit, single core.

• Memory - SDRAM 256 MB – I eventually maxed it out at 512.

• Storage – 40 GB IDE HDD which I thought was yuge at the time.

• CD-ROM which could install software or play CDs – no recording.

• Floppy disk 1.4 MB – yes I had one.

• Graphics – Nvidia Riva TNT2 M64 – cheapo discrete card with 16 MB of RAM. Served up VGA to a big 17 inch CRT monitor that weighed a ton.

• Sound – generic Soundblaster from Dell.

• Ethernet – 10Mbps 3Com. This was a deluxe card but it choked on my DSL modem so I had to swap it out with a cheap Ethernet card from the phone company to get online.

• O/S – Windows Me. Oops!

 

This machine lasted until 2008 until I replaced it with a Dell Optiplex 620 I got off lease. So it certainly did not owe me anything. But man, how things have changed.

 

[securitybreach]

Time does fly

[securitybreach]

Neat that you remember all that, I barely remember yesterday

[raymac46]

I think your long term memory is the last to go. 

That old Dell would be hard pressed to run Linux today although I did have Dapper Drake running on it at one time.

[securitybreach]

Well it's not as bad as I make it out to be but there are parts of my life I do not remember until something triggers the thought and then I remember every little detail. Must be selective remembering or something as I clear have the memory when called upon.

[raymac46]

Wait until you can remember stuff that happened 70 years ago...Oi.

 

[ebrke]

1 hour ago, securitybreach said:

Well it's not as bad as I make it out to be but there are parts of my life I do not remember until something triggers the thought and then I remember every little detail. Must be selective remembering or something as I clear have the memory when called upon.

Maybe look at it like these parts of your life have been shifted from RAM to auxiliary storage due to the demands of daily living.

[securitybreach]

Right

[raymac46]

Yeah except my auxiliary storage is on USB 2.0 now.

[securitybreach]

Nice...

[zlim]

I wish I'd thought to take a picture of my first desktop computer, an IBM (all in one) purchased sometime in the mid-1980's.

Talk about clueless. I got it without Windows because I thought Windows was a passing fad!

[securitybreach]

12 minutes ago, zlim said:

Talk about clueless. I got it without Windows because I thought Windows was a passing fad!

 

Well it is kind of, just taking a bit longer to die.

[ebrke]

1 hour ago, zlim said:

I got it without Windows because I thought Windows was a passing fad!

I knew the head of what was then data processing at a largish corporation in the 80's who not only thought windows was a passing fad, but pc's too. He felt they would maybe have some value in the accounting department.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Hmm... memories...

 

My computer history in a nutshell:

 

Desktops

• Commodore SX-64 (bought brand new from individual - probably HOT... he had a whole garage full of them in boxes)
• i486 no name brand (hand-me-down from bother's office in '93)
• ericsbane01 - Pentium I (hand-me-down from brother in 2000)

Frankenputers

• ericsbane02 - AMD processor (built from new and salvaged parts from the computer graveyard)
• ericsbane03 - AMD processor (built from new and salvaged parts from the computer graveyard)
• ericsbane04 - AMD processor (built from new and salvaged parts from the computer graveyard)
• ericsbane05 - AMD processor (built from new and salvaged parts from the computer graveyard)
• ericsbane06 - current shop system - AMD processor (built from new and salvaged parts from the computer graveyard)
• ericsbane07 - current system - AMD processor (built from new and salvaged parts from the computer graveyard)

Laptops

• 3 or 4 miscellaneous Dell and HP laptops from here and there (the 1st of these from Josh, actually)
  • I have none of them these days.

I've NEVER bought a new computer from a retail establishment of any type.

 

[securitybreach]

Easy when you name them all the same with a number on the end

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I actually still have documents on my current system with specs for all of those "Frankenputers".

[raymac46]

The first microcomputer I ever saw was used by my mentor and inspiration Norm Fairbairn. He had it to do statistical analysis and experimental design. It was an Apple II I believe. I did some programming for him in BASIC to do Yates analysis. I'm guessing this was around 1980.

Edited February 21, 2022 by raymac46

[Cluttermagnet]

Interesting old thread. I happen to be on a neighbor's Dell Dimension E520 at the moment.

This evening I put a copy of Linux Mint 20.3 Mate on a new 240G SSD for him. Went well.

I think it had XP or Win7 on it, not sure. It's a little slow, but tolerable. Looks to be about

2005-6 vintage. I sort of 'came out of retirement' to fix this little tower for him. This will be

his inaugural experience with Linux. Hope he likes it.

 

I've worked on a number of Dells over the years. I think they tend to be above average

reliable platforms. Only one I really had to repair was an old XPS600 I inherited. That mobo

had some of the bad electrolytic caps they had a rash of back about 10 years ago. Leaded

component level replacement was a bit touchy on that multi layer PC board, but I did pull

it off.

 

My half dozen or so Precision T3400 have been ever faithful for me. Easy to work on, too.

Still like Dell. Would consider getting more Dells, albeit used copies.

 

Clutter