Old Computers

[anything1234]

Who likes old computers?

I love old computers, there is just something so satisfying about them. Some may say why would you want an old computer?

Many people have forgotten the purpose of a desktop computer because these days everything is internet based and there is just so much more to a computer than internet. Computers can be so much fun without browsing the internet.

For me old computers hold nostalgia even the smell of an old desktop computer is so satisfying, cleaning all the dust out and repairing it is a lot of fun on its own. The old floppy disk drives and using floppy disks along with old games and CRT monitors good quality keyboards that are nice to type on. Installing MS DOS 6.22 or Windows 95/98 or 2000.

Does anybody else out there like old computers?

 

[Sketcher]

I liked playing DOS games.

 

[anything1234]

I love old DOS games. I also like DOS commands and coding in DOS. I'm hoping to build a new DOS PC from either a 486 or socket 7 P133 system. Retro gaming has really taken off recently and more modern things like the GoTek which can be added to old systems to allow USB drives to be connected a floppy B drive via the floppy connector. You can get a lot of old DOS games on lets say 2GB flash drive.

 

[Lost4words]

I loved my Win 95 pc....

 

[QvQ]

DOS Dark
I especially miss C:/bad command or file name.
I once typed fdisk thinking I was removing one program. I hit "enter."
What an introduction to the mysteries of computers.
I had a book of commands, DOS for Dummies, so aptly named.
I do miss the old 486. Those were the days!

 

[anything1234]

I just found myself the perfect 486 machine for next to nothing online. I haven't collected it yet and it needs work like many but it has a functioning motherboard and dedicated GPU and PSU works. The case looks fantastic with an old on/off switch all the main parts are there but will need new hard drive, floppy drive and optical drive which I have plenty of to change out if necessary. I always aim to repair any original parts first before swapping anything out. I said to myself I wouldn't buy anymore old PC's because I already have 20 of them but this old 486 machine is too perfect to pass on and its dirt cheap. This would make a very nice DOS PC possibly good for Windows 95 as well although the person I'm getting it from isn't sure of the exact specs like RAM etc. All it needs to have is at least 16MB of RAM I have some spare EDO RAM for it anyway. Its running Windows NT 4.0 on a SCSI hard drive which is temperamental so I'm guessing the RAM will be a good amount. I will want to use an IDE hard drive on it tho. I don't have any spare SCSI drives. Hopefully its got an IDE connector on th main board, but if not I will need to find an adapter or card to add to it.

 

[anything1234]

I bought a PC retro beige case today from ebay. It was going cheap and it looked nice enough plus I fancied building another retro PC to keep my mind occupied despite having many already.

This one will be more of an experimental build using a socket 462 motherboard KT266A with a MX1500 CPU under clocked and CPU cache disabled in the BIOS to make it like a 386/486 performance with a TNT Graphics card and Sound Blaster card. The motherboard I have in mind uses DDR1 RAM so I could get lower amounts like a 128MB stick of RAM. I'll be using a 64GB SSD via a IDE to SATA adapter for the hard drive. This build I will take my time with.

 

[Daniel Marsh]

still using win 7

 

[JesseBassett]

still using win 7

If only I could get away with just windows 7 alone....I love that operating system. Unfortunately everything is either windows 10 or 11 now....

 

[Neostarwcc]

Someday I'd like to go back to the 486 days. It was my first computer and got me started on technology. But they're ridiculously priced for outdated 1992 junk. A lot of other people have the same idea I have lol.

 

[JesseBassett]

My first computer was an old Toshiba with the box TV type monitor. I used it for flight simulator games.

 

[anything1234]

Someday I'd like to go back to the 486 days. It was my first computer and got me started on technology. But they're ridiculously priced for outdated 1992 junk. A lot of other people have the same idea I have lol.

Yep prices are ridiculous on 486 PC's but they are the most reliable because many of the 486 boards don't have those awful electrolytic capacitors on them that cause many motherboards to fail and without the right soldering equipment they are a nightmare to change out.

486 computers will out live most newer Pentium's that came out after the 486 but it still doesn't justify the price because it is old junk after all and aging hardware can fail at any time. Back in 2010 you could pick up a 486 for free or very cheap or find one dumped. There were lots being chucked away literally stacks of them going to recycling centers others being trashed in the mid 2000s. Now everybody wants them. I would never pay scalper prices. They do show up occasionally for a reasonable amount. Sadly now anything "vintage" Retro" "Antique" people want lots of money for it. Its not just old computers but everything. Old junk today is gold.

 

[Neostarwcc]

Yep prices are ridiculous on 486 PC's but they are the most reliable because many of the 486 boards don't have those awful electrolytic capacitors on them that cause many motherboards to fail and without the right soldering equipment they are a nightmare to change out.

486 computers will out live most newer Pentium's that came out after the 486 but it still doesn't justify the price because it is old junk after all and aging hardware can fail at any time. Back in 2010 you could pick up a 486 for free or very cheap or find one dumped. There were lots being chucked away literally stacks of them going to recycling centers others being trashed in the mid 2000s. Now everybody wants them. I would never pay scalper prices. They do show up occasionally for a reasonable amount. Sadly now anything "vintage" Retro" "Antique" people want lots of money for it. Its not just old computers but everything. Old junk today is gold.

Indeed. My friend still has ram from those days but won't sell it to me. I used to own a bunch of old parts but my dad made me throw them in the trash. It's kind of dumb that they're so expensive because they are just junk. Today's computers may have worser motherboards but at least they last for a long time after you have to go through 3-4 DOA ones. Luckily NewEgg pays the return shipping on DOA items.

And hey if a motherboard doesn't last me at least 4 years it was trash to begin with.

 

[QvQ]

Just bought a Alienware Del Computer. Lighting fast. It isn't the computer that frustrates me. It is the software. Windows is intrusive. It is difficult to just run my graphics programs without having to deal with side issues. These graphics programs are huge. I have 6 gigabytes of art files. Windows apps and features use a lot of my ram. I cleaned most of it out but nowadays computers aren't much more than a shopping channel. Hard to do actual work on programs with Windows running the show but this Del is a really fantastic machine. That is saying the older programs will load and run on the new computer. So far, my old graphics programs are working sort of but tearing up the old files on save. This is art, my art I am talking about. Anything I really care about saving, I use paper.
We still have an old computer with Windows 7. That is because it doesn't automatically connect to the internet. Again, that intrusion.
I despise the Cloud and I am not certain how much longer I can keep that privacy invader at bay. This may be my last computer, make it last as it is a very good machine. I paid more for the old 486 when it was brand new than I did for this new machine.

 

[anything1234]

Modern Windows systems are a pain, a lot of PC gamers have migrated to Linux because of all the issues of Windows 10.

The best one is Lubuntu. I've been using Lubuntu for years and have never looked back but I still have to use Windows 10 at work which is OK. Many swear by Linux Mint.

 

[QvQ]

What I can do on Windows: watch television; listen to music ; use Windows entertainment apps, shop shop shop; connect to every device and person in the entire world but I cannot save a file created on a very expensive third party program that worked on Windows 10 but does not work on my brand new Windows Whiz Bang latest version.
The reason for wanting to go back to earlier computers is so older programs will work. There is a shelf of old games here that are unusable because of "incompatibility." I had years of art work created on Paint Shop Pro and one Windows upgrade later, the files were gone. No other program would read the files.
It is either be rich enough to afford new programs every few years as Window's updates or become a consumer of all the great features on the Window's Shopping Channel. This computer is little more than an improvement on the television, telephone in terms of usefulness.
I use paper for art as the shelf life of an art work created or stored on Windows is as long as the next latest and greatest upgrades of Windows.
It would seem that if Windows could upgrade to all the amazing features in video, connectivity and create so many apps, Windows could easily solve the "compatibility" issues.
It isn't the old machines we want, it is the programs those old machines would run.

 

[anything1234]

What I can do on Windows: watch television; listen to music ; use Windows entertainment apps, shop shop shop; connect to every device and person in the entire world but I cannot save a file created on a very expensive third party program that worked on Windows 10 but does not work on my brand new Windows Whiz Bang latest version.
The reason for wanting to go back to earlier computers is so older programs will work. There is a shelf of old games here that are unusable because of "incompatibility." I had years of art work created on Paint Shop Pro and one Windows upgrade later, the files were gone. No other program would read the files.
It is either be rich enough to afford new programs every few years as Window's updates or become a consumer of all the great features on the Window's Shopping Channel. This computer is little more than an improvement on the television, telephone in terms of usefulness.
I use paper for art as the shelf life of an art work created or stored on Windows is as long as the next latest and greatest upgrades of Windows.
It would seem that if Windows could upgrade to all the amazing features in video, connectivity and create so many apps, Windows could easily solve the "compatibility" issues.
It isn't the old machines we want, it is the programs those old machines would run.

Its all about money with Micro$haft. If they solved the compatibility issues there wouldn't be as much money to be made. You could always have another partition for an older Windows system like Windows 7 or XP for your software.

 

[anything1234]

I had a great find today while I was out searching for lumber. There was a stack of lumber all good wood and behind it revealed an old beige PC tower. I wasn't expecting to find that... I took all the wood and the PC.

I got it home and cleaned it up. I popped the cover off to take a look inside to discover it has a socket 7 motherboard. I thought it was going to be a Pentium 4 or something. Unfortunately the motherboard has 5 bulging capacitors on it, an easy fix with the right soldering gear and the board itself is still worth something in its current condition, its got all the the things that retro PC gamers look for in a board like universal AGP slot and ISA slot. Everything is there apart from the hard drive. Complete with IDE cables Optical drive and floppy drive, SD RAM, Processor and cooler and PSU. The case itself is worth about 30 to 50 on its own. I don't sell my retro tech but its nice finding something for free. I will be putting this PC aside for another time and make another retro PC out of it.

It makes me wonder where the mouse, keyboard and CRT are... it might be worth me going back there tomorrow just encase the CRT screen gets dumped as well.

 

[anything1234]

So much good lumber is chucked away and wasted all the time on a large scale I can't imagine how many trees were killed for all that wood. Luckily I'm always building stuff and I often run short on timber so I do my bit to save and reuse what wood gets thrown away. I'll be doing an attic conversion soon so I'll need all the timber I can get my hands on. I recently built a bird aviary which used a good chunk of all my timber. Who knows maybe I'll find some more old PC's along the way.

 

[anything1234]

If only I could get away with just windows 7 alone....I love that operating system. Unfortunately everything is either windows 10 or 11 now....

Windows 7 is still ok to use but security is questionable when going online. I have a PC running Windows 7 but it doesn't get connected to the internet. I just use it to run some Ham radio software and programming DMR/PMR handie talkies. On my main computer I also have a Windows 7 partition to play any semi modern PC games thay might take my fancy otherwise I use Linux for the internet side of things.