For those that have been around for a while, this is an interesting look at some old P4 class CPUs compared to what is available today.

I can still remember being impressed at how much better a basic 386 was compared to our 8088 compatible NEC V20.
Compared to old P4 based systems, current ones are even more impressive than the 386SX was back then.

Phoronix compares old and current x86 systems.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

I've had recent experience backing up personal files on a Celeron 2.4G based PC to transfer onto a new PC, oh what a torture that was. :-((

Even my little old dual core Atom netbook runs rings around it. ;-)

Cheers.

I have used a Pentium I, a PII Deschutes, an Opteron 1210, an AMD E-450 and an AMD A10-6700. The Opteron is running 24/7 on a Linux box, a SUN WS, since January 2008.
Tullio

---

Taking up on Wiggo's comment - the biggest down side to many of today's CPUs isn't the CPU itself, but the operating system and the applications that are running on them.
I recall one "small" job, porting a real-time task manager and some other functions from an 8086 to run on an early Pentium. At first we thought we could just run the 8086 code as it stood, well it ran, but very, very badly, so a recompile was in order, and that's when the "fun" started :-( Our mixture of C, ASM-86 and PLM-86 was highly tailored to the 8086, and some modules needed to be re-written to run properly on the Pentium and its supporting hardware. There were days when we wished we'd never started

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

My experience goes way back to the prehistoric age. A Timex Sinclair ZX81 with both 16k and 64k memory modules. If you want a little more modern. A PC AT running at 12 megahertz with a 40 megabyte hdd. A ATI All in Wonder EGA video card (800X600). A math coprocessor. And I believe 1 megabyte of memory. A early laser mouse. My dad was a early adopter back when. Circa 1988-89.

---

I still have an Olivetti AT&T UNIX PC with a 68010 Motorola CPU, a 40 MB hard disk and a 5"1/4 floppy. RAM is 2.5 MB. It runs UNIX System V.
Tullio

---

Here we go then, my system "history":

Starting with the odd one out, a ZX Spectrum clone (Cobra) with 48k memory.
Then:
- 1992: 386 SX 16 MHz, 512 kb probably Trident video card, 2 Mb RAM and I think 120 Mb HDD. Some chance it may have just been 80 Mb.
- 1994: 486 DX2 66 MHz, same video card as above, 4 Mb RAM later upgraded to 8 Mb, 540 Mb HDD
- 1998: Pentium II 266 MHz, S3 Virge 4 Mb, 32 Mb SDR 66 MHz RAM later upgraded to 64 Mb, 3.2 Gb HDD with a 20 Gb one added I think in late 2001. First SETI cruncher :)
- 2002: Pentium 4A 2 GHz, GeForce 2 Ti 64 Mb, 512 Mb RAM which in 2006 went down to 256 Mb as one module failed, the 20 Gb HDD mentioned above replaced with a 160 Gb one I think at the start of 2005.
- 2008: Core 2 Duo E8400 3 GHz dual-core, initially GeForce 8400 256 Mb upgraded to GeForce GTS 250 1 Gb in 2009, 2 Gb DDR2 1066 MHz 5-5-5-15 RAM, initially 500 Gb HDD replaced with a 250 Gb 10000 rpm one in early 2013 (a 500 Gb remained as backup, as the plan was 240 Gb SSD + 250 Gb HDD as main, but the SSD hasn't happened even now).
- 2015: Pentium G3440 3.3 GHz dual-core, just using the integrated graphics (the GTS 250 is there in a corner if needed though), 4 Gb DDR3 1600 MHz 9-9-9-24 RAM, same HDDs as the upgraded configuration above but OS at the moment on the 500 Gb one (quiet at least, the Raptor is NOISY).
The E8400 is still there in a corner though, and I plan to keep it around for a while, just in case something happens to this one. The 386 was replaced entirely when it was upgraded, the 486 used by my parents for all of the 10 days before the CPU burned out after getting the PII (that was lucky!) then what was left of it sold to someone, the PII then used by my parents for a couple of years and then given away to some friends of theirs when they got another for themselves as well, the P4 donated to a project giving computers to poor children/teens with good results in school, so this will rather mark a first, having a full backup computer around in case of major issues. And with the way things are made these days, sure gives me some needed feeling of safety...

---

I've had recent experience backing up personal files on a Celeron 2.4G based PC to transfer onto a new PC, oh what a torture that was. :-((

Even my little old dual core Atom netbook runs rings around it. ;-)

Cheers.

I was complaining about how slow my sisters old 2.9GHz Core 2 Duo system was when I was doing some stuff for her recently.

---

SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

My first was a VIC 20, followed by a Tandy Color Computer...fun days. Tandy 1000 EX, Tandy 1000 TL, First build: 386 DX-40. Built so many back then, Cyrix 486, Pentium 100, 133, 200, Pentium II 350, Pentium III 733, some Celeron overclockers in there with the classic ABIT BP6 board, AMD 1200 Duron, AMD Athlon 3600 Barton, Pentium Core 2 Duo 3.0GHZ. Fast forward to 2015: one-G3258 using the on board graphics for Seti, one I5-4690K running two 750Tis, one I5-4690K running two 960s. I'm so happy with the processors of today. Though I remember having the fondest of memories running a BBS with the 1000 TL.

---

I can't remember if the old cpu even needed a heatsink. Stock clock was 4.77mhz but there was a turbo mode, I forgot if it was 8mhz or 10mhz. Didn't need to worry about a color screen, dimms, mouse, hard drive or ethernet. And dos 3.0 was so much faster than dos 1.1.

I can't remember if the old cpu even needed a heatsink. Stock clock was 4.77mhz but there was a turbo mode, I forgot if it was 8mhz or 10mhz. Didn't need to worry about a color screen, dimms, mouse, hard drive or ethernet. And dos 3.0 was so much faster than dos 1.1.

I have intel dx4 system that I got a little while ago from work. It is 486 based. It works fine without heatsink. But they did make heatsinks, fans for 486 socket (Socket 3 in my case). I will probably get one for it.

---

Ooh, old x86 computers... love this topic! :-D

I still remember my first computer. I was a bit late to the game coming from a poor family and all.

I had bought a refurbished Packard Bell. When I got it, it had an Intel 486SX 25MHz chip soldered to the motherboard, as well as 2MB of RAM, also soldered to the motherboard. 4x 30pin SIMMs (30 pin SIMMs were 8bit, so you had to install all 4 at a time to match the 32bit bus of the 486 chip). It had an "upgrade" socket that was originally supposed to support the 486-to-Pentium Overdrive before Intel changed the specs and said it required Socket 3. I had onboard Oak VGA 2D graphics with 512KB of video RAM. 5 ISA slots. No VLB or PCI. No sound card. No modem. No CD-ROM drive. I paid extra for a 5.25" 1.2MB floppy to go along with the 1.44MB floppy. 120MB Conner Peripherals hard drive. No L2 cache at all.

In the end, after I held onto that system for as long as I could (after the release of the Pentium II), that system was upgraded several times and ended up as an AMD Am5x86 133MHz CPU, 18MB of RAM (4x 4MB + 2MB onboard), 2MB ATI Mach64 ISA graphics card, 256KB L2 cache, Logitech SoundMan Wave audio, Zoom Telephonics 56k ISA modem, Maxtor 850MB hard drive (paid $300 for that alone), and a 6x (900KB/s baby!) Creative Labs CD-ROM. Eventually moved up to a 10Mb Linksys network card, then finally a 100Mbit 3Com ISA card.

The thing ran the original release of Windows 95, but not too well. Ended up going back to Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and MS-DOS 6.22. Kinda wish I could install enough RAM in that system to see how it would run SETI, but alas, the largest SIMM chips it would support are the 4MB. The 16MB SIMMs I bought simply wouldn't work in it.

Old? x86? Haha, I predate x86 and 'copy and paste', I started out with an Atari 400 that had 48k ram in 1980(an after market kit from New York, this computer was modded before modded was even a term, a stock 400 came with only 16k of ram memory)and it had a better keyboard installed, that's long gone, though I do have a more rare Atari 1200XL(100,000 made, now there are little over 101 left in existence), an Indus GT 5.25" 360k fdd, an ICD PR connection, plus a couple of carts and a floppy game or two. I did have a 1450XL motherboard in a a modded 1200XL case that did work, this computer worked with a larger 1200XL psu brick and a 1200XL keyboard, it's gone too, some collector has it I imagine. I've also owned some Atari ST/Mega computers, Commodore Amiga's(1000, 3000 & 4000). My first x86 cpu was on a card in the 3000 and then in the 4000, this x86 was a 486sx cpu with its own ram, video and such, then in 1992 I built My 1st PC and I've never looked back, I may not have the endurance or a lot of income anymore, but I can still build a PC or clean out a malware infection, I haven't seen one malware infection yet that I couldn't defeat, amateurs...

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I've owned a member of every Intel CPU family from the 80286 up to the current family and I've also owned for AMD CPU's from their Am386 up to the Athlon II's (but I've had plenty of experience with all their later CPU's as well), though they just havn't appealed to me since to own another (their future Zen CPU might change that though) , plus I've had several old Cyrix, IBM, IDT and VIA CPU's as well.

I don't keep my old hardware these days, old stuff got donated off long ago and later hardware has been sold off, so I rarely get a chance to compare any really old hardware now, but that budget P4 Celeron 2.4G system last month compared to the higher end Q6600 system that was replacing it was just incredible let alone comparing it my 2 daily drivers.

Cheers.

DOS, what was that. I ran CPM on a Northstar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_Computers. I had a "super system" as I had dual 5-1/4 inch drives so I was able to work in dBase and I had a job I was doing that had a 11 hour print job. I would start the job in the evening and hope the green-bar paper would feed all night. I would spend half a day trying to get a connection which might stay on for a very short period.

---

SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

My first computer was a "Micro Ace" which I built from a kit. It was based on a Z80 CPU and had 2K of RAM. Then I got a Timex Sinclair which also was a Z80 based computer with a 64K Ram pack. All my programs were written in Basic and were saved and ran from a Radio Shack cassette player.
My next "computer" was an Atari 800XL. I still have 6 or 7 of the game cartridges. All the above hooked up to the TV as the display.
My first IBM compatible computer was a "Leading Edge" Model D. It had a 8088 CPU running at 4.77 MHZ, a 20 meg HD and 4 color CGI graphics. I bought it after "playing" around on my Dad's computer - the original IBM PC. It had 2 full height 360K floppy drives,a green monochrome monitor and 256K of memory. I installed an external 10 meg HD in it for him, it cost $800 for that drive with a power supply, a controller card and a metal box case.
My next computer was a 286 running at 12 MHZ and then a 386 running at 33 MHZ. It came with a 43 Meg HD. WOW! :)
When I first started with SETI, it took somewhere around 48-54 hours to complete 1 work unit using the screen saver, I then "found out" about the command line version and have been addicted ever since.
Today, I am running about 30 "modern" computers and have discovered the advantage of GPUs. My electricity bill runs $500+ a month. Oh well, you can't take it with you.... :)

Keep on Crunchin'

---

Seti Classic: 204,777 WU /113.636 Yrs

OK, My first computer was a C64 it were i ;earned basic and just a smattering hexadeci. My first serious game was microsoft airplane. it was incredible what this computer could do. I thought the 14" monitor and the 8 bit sprites were awesome. I sold that to give me 1/2 of what I need to buy my first 286 and learn GW basic. I think I wrote over 30 useful programs and a couple I sold for a Benjamen each. from there it was 386, 486 etc etc. I started a computer part time computer business just to pay for my computers. first one was called C-Prompt services - long since died.

Computers are a LOT more affordable now then they were 30 years ago. I mean like 1/3 of the cost to get within 25% of the cutting edge. We are faster, better and cheaper than ever. I think it will just get better

Bob

---

Sometimes I wonder, what happened to all the people I gave directions to?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SETI@home classic workunits 4,321
SETI@home classic CPU time 22,169 hours

My first was a VIC 20, followed by a Tandy Color Computer...fun days. Tandy 1000 EX, Tandy 1000 TL, First build: 386 DX-40. Built so many back then, Cyrix 486, Pentium 100, 133, 200, Pentium II 350, Pentium III 733, some Celeron overclockers in there with the classic ABIT BP6 board, AMD 1200 Duron, AMD Athlon 3600 Barton, Pentium Core 2 Duo 3.0GHZ. Fast forward to 2015: one-G3258 using the on board graphics for Seti, one I5-4690K running two 750Tis, one I5-4690K running two 960s. I'm so happy with the processors of today. Though I remember having the fondest of memories running a BBS with the 1000 TL.

another BP6 lover?! ;)

mine still works...but I'm not running it! too much waste of electricity... ;)

---

non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

OK, My first computer was a C64 it were i ;earned basic and just a smattering hexadeci. My first serious game was microsoft airplane. it was incredible what this computer could do. I thought the 14" monitor and the 8 bit sprites were awesome. I sold that to give me 1/2 of what I need to buy my first 286 and learn GW basic. I think I wrote over 30 useful programs and a couple I sold for a Benjamen each. from there it was 386, 486 etc etc. I started a computer part time computer business just to pay for my computers. first one was called C-Prompt services - long since died.

Computers are a LOT more affordable now then they were 30 years ago. I mean like 1/3 of the cost to get within 25% of the cutting edge. We are faster, better and cheaper than ever. I think it will just get better

Bob

Thats so true.
I also started with a C64 but i loved my Amiga 1000.
Of course i began programming with Basic but with the Amiga i learned assembler.
It was amazing what you could do with clean machine code.
First x86 was a sidecar for my Amiga, Cyrix 386SX Athlon 700, Athlon 2500 then AMD Phenom now FX 8350.

---

With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Sinclair Z80 + ASM + Basic. C64 + ASM (mem radar for Leisure suit Larry with split screen graphics and text to see what was needed. Implemented as irq handler). Did that for PC too (monochrome CGA)

Edit: On PC You had to go to help (text mode). The radar worked only there)

---

To overcome Heisenbergs:
"You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes you just might find / you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones