http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5885351342753379583&q=8088
Here's a guy who thinks 4.77mhz is perfectly fine.
I vaguely recall first playing a little computer game called Wolfenstein 3d on a 386-16. The computer took 30 seconds to boot into Windows 3.1, and had 4 megs of RAM. SmartDrive was set to allow 1mb to be used for disk cache in DOS, 256k while in Windows. I fondly remember having to edit Config.sys on that computer to get all the drivers to fit in so we could actually start Windows.
Then there was a 486 DX-33 which, although only twice as fast in MHz, loaded up Windows 3.11 four times faster. That one lasted a couple months, died due to faulty RAM, then we ditched it.
The replacement, a Pentium 133, was the shit back when we got it. Probably $3000 or so. Not including the monitor, which Dad didn't buy until he tried to play Links LS which required 800x600...haha...had to buy a new monitor to play one game...the computing industry hasn't changed much. Now you just have to buy a new video card every time a new game comes out. Same price as a decent monitor anyway, eh?
I actually have had family doctors and dentists hand me their old computers right on the spot when I would go for a checkup and we'd converse a bit about my addiction to computers. I have a 486 25 (I think) IBM PS1 sitting in my cedar chest, and a 486 50 which I gave to someone for a college computer a long time ago. There's also the 386 16 that was one of grandma's old computers. I'm not sure what we did with the 386 or 486 that me and Dad used though.
The first computer that was solely mine was a Compaq K6-2 350. Although the P133 was the first computer I truly thought was fast when I first used it, this was a whole new experience. It had 128mb of RAM and an 8 gig hard drive that I thought I'd never fill up (I would later learn that 8gb was hardly anything, and would supplement it with two 6 gigs that Compaq gave my dad - all 3 drives being Quantum Bigfoots). It was unfortunately factory-infected with Windows 98, but putting 95 on it wasn't too hard, and made it a whole lot smoother. Probably booted up in 10-15 seconds.
Ever since Dad bought me that computer, I have simply upgraded it with new parts. I never built a brand new computer from scratch for myself.
Some of the configurations this computer has been in now seem old to me, like the Duron 700 that I overclocked to 1.05ghz. It was the first time I ever witnessed a computer that operated at a higher frequency than my cordless telephone. And I was pretty proud that I could finish a SETI work unit in the same amount of time as a P4 1.4 at a fraction of the cost.
After that processor, I didn't really get any spectacularly unique computing experiences, although I could probably still name every single part that graced the main beast that always took the beating I gave it. I have amassed enough spare parts from replacing old ones that did not do the job I wanted them to do anymore, that I have two complete computers built (one a K6-2 450 with 256 megs of RAM and one an Athlon XP 1.53 with 1 gig), and could probably build another 3 or 4 (Celeron 566 which I don't have a board for, Duron 700, T-bird 1.2, Barton 1.8) provided a proper power supply and case. I really should start selling some of this stuff off once I get it built...being in the IT field and having to keep up to date with the hardware tends to get expensive.
I think I tallied the current cost of the parts that go with my computer as it is now (including monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and excluding parts that I won or got donated) at just under $2600, so it is not hard to imagine that I've spent well into the 5 digits on upgrading this computer over the nearly 7 years I've had it. I'd probably cry if I compared the price at which I bought this stuff to the current street values.
