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“Winmodem” brings back memories of the dirt cheap Celeron-based Compaq Presario minitower my parents bought at the very tail end of 1999 as a quick replacement

“Winmodem” brings back memories of the dirt cheap Celeron-based Compaq Presario minitower my parents bought at the very tail end of 1999 as a quick replacement a 1996 Mac tower that had its hard drive fail. What a miserable machine that thing was. It might’ve been an upgrade on paper but between Windows 98 and the terrible hardware it was running on, it was a hopelessly crashy buggy mess that rendered any performance advantages it had over the Mac entirely moot. Within a span of 6 months we sold it and replaced it with a Dell Dimension 4100 that cost 3x as much and was much much better, especially after replacing its stock 98SE install with Win2K. We never bought bargain basement computers again after that.

comprev 3y ago
For me it brings back great memories of the first PC my folks bought for the family home where they asked _me_ what spec I'd like (Pentium 4, 256MB RAM, 30GB disk, 17" CRT, Soundblaster Live! 5.1, Creative Labs 5.1 speakers). One might say it was the catalyst to what became my career - and love of gaming!
WWLink 3y ago
> “Winmodem” brings back memories of the dirt cheap Celeron-based Compaq Presario minitower my parents bought at the very tail end of 1999 as a quick replacement a 1996 Mac tower that had its hard drive fail. Also how the difference between a 1996 computer and a 1999 computer was SUBSTANTIAL.
- jwells89 3y ago
  The amount of time that pace kept up was also impressive, lasting well into the 2000s. One of the first computers that was mine (as opposed to being a family computer) was a summer 2000 iMac DV with a 400Mhz PPC G3, 10GB HD, 128MB RAM, and 15” 1024x768 CRT. When I upgraded to a new iMac in 2005, it had a 2Ghz PPC G5, 500GB HD, 2GB of RAM, and a 20” 1680x1050 LCD. That’s a ridiculously huge jump for just 5 years’ time. I can’t imagine where things would be now if that rate of advancement had continued through to today.
JohnBooty 3y ago
God. I remember for a while there in the 90s, Dell was kinda the "gold standard" for mainstream consumer PCs. They often came with nice (Dell rebranded) Trinitron monitors although I think that was usually an upgrade over some base monitor.
- jwells89 3y ago
  Yep, the monitor we got with that Dimension was a 17” Trinitron, which was excellent. Probably good enough to hold its own even today.
  - JohnBooty 3y ago
    Good enough to hold its own, and fetch a few hundred bucks to boot! People pay good money for them now.
krooj 3y ago
Our family went through the same thing with a budget Celeron "MDG" computer running Windows 98. Awful. Keep in mind that, like you, I had previously used a IIsi and an LC630, so I figured... 300MHz, must be amazing?!? At some point later, my high school had surplus Powermac 7500/100s that were gifted from Nortel and I managed to snag one, paired it with a USR 56k external modem and it was a million times better than that Celeron econobox.

comprev 3y ago

For me it brings back great memories of the first PC my folks bought for the family home where they asked _me_ what spec I'd like (Pentium 4, 256MB RAM, 30GB disk, 17" CRT, Soundblaster Live! 5.1, Creative Labs 5.1 speakers). One might say it was the catalyst to what became my career - and love of gaming!

WWLink 3y ago

> “Winmodem” brings back memories of the dirt cheap Celeron-based Compaq Presario minitower my parents bought at the very tail end of 1999 as a quick replacement a 1996 Mac tower that had its hard drive fail. Also how the difference between a 1996 computer and a 1999 computer was SUBSTANTIAL.

jwells89 3y ago
The amount of time that pace kept up was also impressive, lasting well into the 2000s. One of the first computers that was mine (as opposed to being a family computer) was a summer 2000 iMac DV with a 400Mhz PPC G3, 10GB HD, 128MB RAM, and 15” 1024x768 CRT. When I upgraded to a new iMac in 2005, it had a 2Ghz PPC G5, 500GB HD, 2GB of RAM, and a 20” 1680x1050 LCD. That’s a ridiculously huge jump for just 5 years’ time. I can’t imagine where things would be now if that rate of advancement had continued through to today.

JohnBooty 3y ago

God. I remember for a while there in the 90s, Dell was kinda the "gold standard" for mainstream consumer PCs. They often came with nice (Dell rebranded) Trinitron monitors although I think that was usually an upgrade over some base monitor.

jwells89 3y ago
Yep, the monitor we got with that Dimension was a 17” Trinitron, which was excellent. Probably good enough to hold its own even today.
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  Good enough to hold its own, and fetch a few hundred bucks to boot! People pay good money for them now.

krooj 3y ago

Our family went through the same thing with a budget Celeron "MDG" computer running Windows 98. Awful. Keep in mind that, like you, I had previously used a IIsi and an LC630, so I figured... 300MHz, must be amazing?!? At some point later, my high school had surplus Powermac 7500/100s that were gifted from Nortel and I managed to snag one, paired it with a USR 56k external modem and it was a million times better than that Celeron econobox.