wirehedd

July 05, 2011 at 7:18pm

I had a dual slot board with a pair of Celeron 333s in them OCd to the moon and 512MB of PC100 RAM with an LS120 and a Diamond Monster 2 as well. I miss that rig. Sounded like a Harrier Jet traking off when I fired that beastie thing up and I loved it. :)

hfxmike

July 05, 2011 at 5:37pm

You can't give that $15,000 computer away for free. Then again, in 10 years, my high end rig will be wortless.
In 1998 I was running a 333mhz G3 mac.

Maalth

July 05, 2011 at 4:12pm

@biggiebob123456:  Tyan still exists:  http://www.tyan.com/ 

Pylon

July 05, 2011 at 3:49pm

I love how the picture on the first one was obviously flipped during editing. Look at the keyboard. I thought it was a left handed one at first, but then you can see the Esc key on the right side.

Pylon

July 05, 2011 at 3:49pm

I love how the picture on the first one was obviously flipped during editing. Look at the keyboard. I thought it was a left handed one at first, but then you can see the Esc key on the right side.

Torqumada286

July 05, 2011 at 2:10pm

Adjusted for inflation, $5,000 in 1998 is a little over $6900 today.

I love the retro articles.  Nice to know my current machine is better than that one.  :p

Ryan5609

July 05, 2011 at 12:48pm

Makes me remember my first "real" desktop pc. 1992 Compaq Pesario all in one desktop with a built in TV tuner and it could make F'ing phone calls! 4MB Ram and I think around an 80 MB hard crive. Loved that old computer. But why was every computer product back in the day that ugly ass taupe/whiteish color. Was black plastic reserved for high end machines back then?

skirge01

July 05, 2011 at 7:09am

I guess in the dream world, everything is a mirror image?  While I could easily use the mouse in my left hand, it would definitely be a tough learning curve for your "dream" keyboard.  :-)

BTW, I'm pretty sure I bought that 7890 case based on this article.

level1paladin

July 05, 2011 at 5:10am

I remember my 333mhz with the Matrox Mystique.  Good times.  I can't imagine why anyone would still use a CRT.

Rift2

July 04, 2011 at 11:44pm

CRT monitors are teh bomb I still use one to this day for everyday use. Use a Led Lcd for gaming though could never use a regular LCD monitor cause of the backlite.

icebox1701

July 04, 2011 at 10:14pm

The year I switched to Linux on my 686 Cyrix

praetor_alpha

July 04, 2011 at 8:27pm

I look at the hard drive transfer rates: 12.some MB/s. Lovely. My drive is at least an order of magnitude faster.

slim186

July 04, 2011 at 6:00pm

WTF?  I know your production schedule has been creeping earlier and earlier but why is the September issue (traditionally the reveal of the Dream Machine) coming out in July?

Joji

July 04, 2011 at 5:41pm

It's hard to believe how in today's world, with $2000, you can buy parts to build a REALLY GOOD gaming computer. Back then, things were pretty pricy...

rrockman

July 04, 2011 at 4:41pm

Wow, lots of nostalgia... In 1998 I was 12 years old and got my first really personal computer (before we had a Pentium 90 Mhz that my mother bought for work), and boy, I think I really got close to the dream PC. I had a Pentium II 350 that I overcloked to 392 by raising the bus to 112 Mhz. I had that marvellous Millenium G200 and a very good Sony Trinitron 17" (actually bought later when my first 17" failed...) that still sits on my desk. Four Point Surround + SB Live! 1024 were added one or two years later, and those 64 Mb of RAM and 6,4 Gb of HD seemed endless for years.

But I'm not going to say it was a better time for PCs. It costed quite a lot, that PC, and today you can buy something way more capable for the same price, even doing all the necessary conversions. If I could have a 3000 dollars PC now (that's more or less what it costed), it would be something much more powerful than what I would ever need.

Mastro Antonio

July 04, 2011 at 4:41pm

Yeah I remember when computers were only for business people and well generally people with a lot of cash to blow. It's a great thing now that you can build a good computer that destroys these machines for five benjamins or so.

szore

July 04, 2011 at 3:08pm

Lovely. Very Quaint. 

duncansil

July 04, 2011 at 2:45pm

Yup, looking at those system prices you can build anything from the budget box to the god rig for about 1/4 the sticker price, but more like 1/5 counting inflation ... and at today's speeds.

Not everyhting gets more expensive, other than that damn gasoline!

whathuhitwasntme

July 04, 2011 at 2:25pm

if you want a real eye opener just look at the parts prices compared to todays average prices

600 dollars for a 19" monitor

for 600 dollars today you can pick up a 46" lcd at compusa an run it as a monitor!