This has to a be fake: Everything loads too fast. There's no way it could be faster than today's modern software and hardware...
It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
21–28 of 28 posts
Re: It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
#22486-dx2-66 in 1995, with CD-rom, maybe 16mb of RAM, 100mb HDD. (maybe 20, maybe 200, it was a long time ago). Without an OS, self built, cost me approx ~£1600 (GBP). Saved all my McJob money for an entire year. I remember the cost as it was 100% of the money I saved and my desire for more cpu power meant I couldnt upgrade my crt (amber monochrome). I brought it all home on the bus. Edit. 95, not 96.
For comparison in US September 1994
"486dx2-66mhz, 256KB cache, 8MB, 1.44MB fdd, 350MB HDD, SVGA monitor/card, keyboard/mouse."
was $1840 = ~£1200 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37851056
Re: It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
The price hadn’t fallen to the point where they were in mid-range PC’s from big box/discount brands like Packard Bell. Those brands mainly sold behind the curve (e.g. the RAM spec in this machine). In 1994 a CD-ROM was still a bit premium. It would have made more business sense to put a floppy in one of the 5.25” bays for “compatibility.” And cost savings. Windows 95 made CD-ROM a standard feature…most Windows 3 sold…
I agree about the CD-ROM drives, they were definitely only in higher end machines. However, by 1994 5.25” floppies were long obsolete. You would have had to go out of your way get one at that point, which means that yes, in 1994 a machine was far more likely to be purchased with a CD-ROM drive than a 5.25” floppy.
Companies like Packard Bell put them in to lengthen the list on the features sticker and so all the front facing 5.25” bays would not be blank.
It was marketing these PC’s based on selling at retail in big box stores. Mostly to people who were not engaged with tech enough to build their own machines or go to a builder.
Anyway, people had legacy 5.25” disks past the millennium…at least I did and my last computer with a 5.25 floppy lasted almost to 2006. Only disposed of because I sold my house and moved out of state. I built it in 1996 with a 5.25” for those aforementioned legacy discs.
That’s how it was on my street, but I didn’t live in Silicon Valley and didn’t work for big tech…I set up a sneaker net in 1997 where I worked.
Re: It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
#24This has to a be fake: Everything loads too fast. There's no way it could be faster than today's modern software and hardware...
Don't know if this is /s or not, but for me it seems fast, but not extremely so.
My PC from '92, a 386 with 4Mb RAM was a bit slower, but not much. Boot took about a minute, including RAM test. Once in windows 3.1, bigger programs took long to start, but I presume that's mostly RAM limited.
This machine was very powerfull. 16Mb was huge and pentiums were rare.
My biggest slowdown was win95 on I think a cyrix 6x86 with 16Mb. But win95 was such a leap forward that we tolerated it.
SSD's brought us vack to this era of startup speed, and we're quickly regressing again.
Re: It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
#25This has to a be fake: Everything loads too fast. There's no way it could be faster than today's modern software and hardware...
Windows 3.1 was pretty light though. It did indeed start up pretty fast because it simply didn't do much. Remember a DOS PC had almost no startup time besides the BIOS Self-Test so there was some expectation to fulfill as well. With 95 and even more so 98 it really started becoming a thing.
The LCD looks amazing though for 1993. Where I lived we didn't see those appear until much later in the 90s and they didn't have that much contrast (they were still very crappy DSTN panels). In 1994 I worked for a computer shop that sold packard bell among others (mainly their own brands) and we didn't have LCDs until much later. I have seen this Philips 150S LCD later but not in 1994. According to ChatGPT the 150S is from 2002 but I can't find a source link so take it with a grain of salt :)
And at work we didn't get LCDs until 2004-2005! At that time I worked in a callcenter and we used to throw stress balls at each other which we had to stop when the LCDs arrived due to an unfortunate accident.
Re: It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
#26This has to a be fake: Everything loads too fast. There's no way it could be faster than today's modern software and hardware...
Don't know if this is /s or not, but for me it seems fast, but not extremely so. My PC from '92, a 386 with 4Mb RAM was a bit slower, but not much. Boot took about a minute, including RAM test. Once in windows 3.1, bigger programs took long to start, but I presume that's mostly RAM limited. This machine was very powerfull. 16Mb was huge and pentiums were rare. My biggest slowdown was win95 on I think a cyrix 6x86 wit…
/s
Re: It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't know if this is /s or not, but for me it seems fast, but not extremely so. My PC from '92, a 386 with 4Mb RAM was a bit slower, but not much. Boot took about a minute, including RAM test. Once in windows 3.1, bigger programs took long to start, but I presume that's mostly RAM limited. This machine was very powerfull. 16Mb was huge and pentiums were rare. My biggest slowdown was win95 on I think a cyrix 6x86 wit…
/s
/sorry ;-)
Re: It's 1994 and you Startup a Windows 3.11 Computer [video]
#28Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxQLWF_X2eQ “The classic Windows 3.1 "ding" sound, restored to CD quality, using the original Korg M1 "Vibes" sound source!”