6 ms·
$25k after inflation. I had no idea it was that expensive!
by gilbetron 7y ago
$25k after inflation. I had no idea it was that expensive!
- cr0sh 7y agoIt was cheap, compared to the Xerox Star it was "inspired" by...
- icedchai 7y agoTrue. But consider about 2.5 years later, you could've got an Amiga for 1/8th the price.
- ttul 7y agoThe IBM PC in 1981 cost $4,500 to $8,500 in today's money. The original Mac would cost $6,000 if released today. Computers have become a great deal cheaper in the ensuing decades.
- lisper 7y agoMy Apple II cost around $1k in 1978, about $4k today. That was without a disk drive. Today, a Rasbpi costs $5. Holy freakin' cow.
- pickle-wizard 7y agoThe Raspberry pi is a killer deal. When I was in college in the mid 2000s my senior project needed a single board computer. We spent $500 on a small PC104 board with a 100MHz National Instruments Geode (x86 compatible) process. That didn't include any RAM or storage. I really wish the Raspberry PI would have been available back then. Especially the Raspberry PI ecosystem, makes interfacing with stuff so much easier. We interfaced a small LCD I found at a surplus shop and it took us weeks to get it working. No you can buy a touch screen LCD for $30 and there are libraries to get it working in about 20 minutes.
- ghaff 7y agoBill Machrone, long-time editor of PC Magazine, coined a "law" that the computer you wanted always cost $5,000. Which held reasonably true for a rather long time. It broke down maybe about 10 years ago although, as with the latest Mac, you can still get to $5K without too many gymnastics for pro video work or high end gaming.
- paulddraper 7y agoHuh, pretty good. I'd say it's now $3,750 for the whole setup. $3,000 for the tower/laptop plus docking station [1] [2], $650 for dual monitors [3] [4], and $100 for peripherals [5] [6] [7]. And that's with Amazon + non-Mac. [1] https://www.amazon.com/ThinkPad-20ER002KUS-Windows-Professional-Downgrade/dp/B01KV3B37E https://www.amazon.com/ThinkPad-20ER002KUS-Windows-Professio... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Docking-40AJ0135US-Generation/dp/B079NM5JK4 https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Docking-40AJ0135US-Ge... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Dell-27-Inch-LED-Lit-Monitor-S2719DGF/dp/B00N2L5CXO https://www.amazon.com/Dell-27-Inch-LED-Lit-Monitor-S2719DGF... [4] https://www.amazon.com/WALI-Standing-Adjustable-Capacity-MF002/dp/B018MU3SAS https://www.amazon.com/WALI-Standing-Adjustable-Capacity-MF0... [5] https://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-K55-RGB-Gaming-Keyboard/dp/B01M4LIKLI https://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-K55-RGB-Gaming-Keyboard/dp/B0... [6] https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Lag-Free-Wireless-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B00E4MQODC/ref https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Lag-Free-Wireless-Gaming-Mou... [7] https://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-QcK-Cloth-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B000UEZ36W/ref https://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-QcK-Cloth-Gaming-Mouse/dp...
- SomeOldThrow 7y agoIs it really the computer you want if you can't run the software you want on it?
- ghaff 7y agoGiven the various gaming peripherals the parent lists, I'm guessing that they may prefer a Windows system.
- paulddraper 7y ago
- astrange 7y ago> Computers have become a great deal cheaper in the ensuing decades. By the way, it turns out people think "automation is replacing jobs in manufacturing" because they've misread the data showing them just how much cheaper computers have gotten since then, and therefore how much more computer one factory employee can make.
- Chazprime 7y agoMy parent’s Mac II cost over $6000 at the time we got it. Compared to the IBM PCs at the time, the 640x480 hires display was stunningly gorgeous!
- Narishma 7y agoThe Mac II was released in 1987. On the PC side, VGA cards were introduced a year earlier and could do those resolutions.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- xenadu02 7y agoDo you have any idea what a VGA card cost at the time, or what a VGA CRT would run you? Your comparison is hardly apt.
- Narishma 7y agoCompared to a Mac II, it was pretty cheap.
- Someone 7y agoVGA 640x480 was 16 colors, wasn’t it? The Mac II did 256 colors at that resolution. The software side also helped. Windows (¿mostly?) ran a fixed palette, while the Palette Manager on the Mac made it easy for applications to pick whatever color (out of 16M) they wanted. On the hardware side, most PCs still had monochrome monitors, and even those with color monitors didn’t typically have ones as good as the Trinitrons that Macintosh IIs often had.
- Narishma 7y agoSo are we talking about what was available or what people could actually afford? Because if it's the later, the Mac II was much more expensive than even the highest end PCs. You're right though on the color palette. I never understood why Windows nor its applications didn't change it to something less garish than the default CGA palette.
- newsoul2019 7y agoI am really curious about how anyone could afford computers at these prices in the 1980s. I guess my family was really poor then. We had a C64 and later an Amiga.
- FigBug 7y agoThey didn't unless they were well off. Only 8% of houses had a computer in 1984. 15% by the end of the decade. C64 was $595 new, if you had one I doubt your family was poor.
- newsoul2019 7y agoIt would have been closer to $200 around the time we got it!
- BubRoss 7y agoI'm not even sure you can get a working real C64 for $200 now.
- nineteen999 7y agoThere seems to be a few C64's including breadbin and C64C models on eBay most days that I look. Granted some may need recapping or other work done, but there are plenty of others in working condition or only needing minimal repairs. I think you could get one for not much more than $US200 + plus shipping.
- brokenmachine 7y agoSo funny that you could get a Raspberry Pi for like $5 that is orders of magnitude more powerful, and could even emulate a complete C64. Everyone loved the C64 though, so fond memories are worth something.
- JohnJamesRambo 7y agoMy family was pretty poor, but my parents found a way somehow.