For those complaining about the price of components

[imported_RedStar]

I stumbled across this 1995 computer system quote as i was looking for my new mouse that i have already misplaced (i have mad cow disease).

so ....Just for fun:
(All prices are in CANADIAN funds, eh)

Intel Pentium 200 Mhz(p55c) MMX
Pentium cooling cap
BCM SQ593 Pentium/6x86 Triton III chipset
16MB 72 pin 60 ns EDO RAM
Floppy 3.5 Panasonic
Quantum 3.2 GB E-IDE HDD
Midtower case/ w 230 W PSU
Matrox Millenium PCI 4mb WRAM (expandable to 8!)
MAg DJ700 17" SVGA .28dp 72 Hz
KMG 104 Win95 enhanced keyboard
Microsoft "J" Mouse (2 button serial)
Creative Labs AWE64 (PnP) wavetable sound card
Hitachi 16x CD-Rom
Typhoon 150W stereo speakers
MS Windows 95 (CD-Rom) AND Manuals (Revision B)
Microphone
(1 of each of the items above)

warranty: 3 years labour, 2 years parts

(includes Netscape navigator v 2.01 and Eudora Email)
1 month free internet access!

Subtotal: $3914.71
gst: $274.03
PST: $313.18

Grand Total: $4501.91

------------
We get GREAT value for our current computers 🙂

edit: at least we got good warranty coverage back then.

 

[bamacre]

I'll still complain about system memory prices until they come back down. Last year I was paying $65 shipped for 1GB kits of DDR2-533. And that was Corsair VS.

 

[Genx87]

Hehe yeah the prices back in the mid to early 1990s was insane. I still have a 1992 Computer Shopper with 486 DX2 machines for 3500 bucks and that was the bargain bin.
The margins on that stuff had to be insane back then.

I think we bottomed out pricing wise 99-02 and things have kind of inflated in the mid and high ends since.

 

[imported_RedStar]

edit:"I'll still complain about system memory prices until they come back down..." /edit

and in response to that ..the quote page boldly proclaims:

"Due to RAM prices being unstable all quotes are good only at the time quoted"

thus proving that some things never change! 🙂


🙁

 

[Markbnj]

I paid damn near that much for a 286 20 Mhz (Harris chip) with an Orchid Prodesigner II and 1 meg of ram, 10 meg hard disk, back in 1988 🙂.

 

[imported_RedStar]

heh, tandy 1000 cost an arm and 2 legs + a lung and still had an incompatible printer problem 🙂.

Found a receipt for a 16x cd-rom...and was shocked to discover that i paid 267$ cdn + taxes.

eesh 🙂

 

[pcgeek11]

When I upgraded my RAM in a 386 33mhz from 2 meg to 4 meg it cost me about 95.00 USD for 2 meg of ram.

Ram is a cheap these days.

pcgeek11

 

[AmphibSailor]

Originally posted by: pcgeek11
When I upgraded my RAM in a 386 33mhz from 2 meg to 4 meg it cost me about 95.00 USD for 2 meg of ram.

Ram is a cheap these days.

pcgeek11

Yeah! And how about HDD prices. Remember how much the 200 mB drives cost back in the '80s. Or the 10 mB drives in the late '70s. It was ridiculous!

 

[Geomagick]

When windows 95 came out my dad decided to add 16MB ram to his 486 so that it cold run 95. The cost was nearly £400 which owadays is nearly $800. Ouch.

Still it kept he computer running for another 3 years so wasn't all bad.

 

[bluestrobe]

08/22/2001

(1) AMD Thunderbird 1440 266FSB OEM $129.00
(1) ASUS A7V133 KT133A SktA Motherboard $129.00
(1) Duron/T-Bird Skt A Cooler Master $16.00
(1) 512MB 168pin PC133 Generic RAM $69.00
(1) 1.44mb Floppy Drive $14.00
(1) SuperCase ATX Mid Tower P4 Compatable $49.00
(1) 15" Super VGA .28dps Monitor $109.00

Total $515.00


I think I have a receipt from a rig I built in 1997, I'll have to look.

 

[wwswimming]

the longer you wait, the lower the prices get.

except for DDR2 this last summer.

in 1988 i worked for a local physicist who did consulting work and sold finite
element analysis software (ANSYS). we were equipping what may have
been a Compaq 386-20 and paid $500 a meg for 10 megs of RAM.

 

[mithrandir2001]

Let me try recall the old systems I bought.

Gateway 2000 Desktop (Dec 1990)
Intel 386SX-16 CPU
4MB RAM
80MB WD Caviar IDE hard drive
256KB Diamond Speedstar video
1.44 & 1.2 MB floppies
14" Color Monitor
Keyboard
Microsoft Mouse
DOS 4.01 & Windows 3.0

$2049

Dell XPS166c Desktop (Jan 1996)
Intel Pentium 166 (non-MMX)
32MB EDO RAM
1GB Quantum Fireball IDE hard drive
2MB Number Nine 9FX Motion 771 video
6X Teac CD-ROM
Creative AWE32 Sound
Altec Lansing ACS-31 speakers with subwoofer
1.44 floppy
17" Samsung Monitor
Keyboard
Microsoft Mouse
Windows 95
Office 95 Professional

$3679

On hindsight I cannot believe I spent about $5000 in today's dollars on that Dell. It was a pretty "awesome" machine when new but there are a lot of things in life to spend money on and I'm glad those multi-kilobuck days are over.

 

[lupi]

My last ram upgrade before prices crashed and amoun comps used was about $200 for a 8m chip.