How come there's so many oldies here?

[Perknose]

Back then you couldn't get a "really fast Dell". I had a top of the line Dell when I joined up. It was beyond slow and had a massive 8GB HDD. The main reason I started building was because you couldn't get "fast" out of the box. Hell...how long did we have to wait for mainstream manufacturers to start using video cards and go away from onboard video?

K7S5A til I die!

Iirc, "back in 1999", on board video chips didn't even exist! You simply had to had a separate video card.

But one of the main reasons Dells and Gateways and (giggle) Packard Bells were slow is that they used motherboards that had zero overclocking capabilities. Indeed, most mb's had none. You had to get yourself an Abit!

 

[Phoenix86]

Back then, it wasn't, which leads me to believe you weren't really "in the game" back in 1999.

I'm not sure there has ever been a time where a high end PC was cheaper from a tier 1 manufacturer. Maybe a single model on specific sale or other such rare unicorn.

Back then, it was significantly cheaper to build high end vs. dell, if they even had "high end" options available.

 

[BurnItDwn]

turned 30 on the 6th, i think it's mostly because you have to have a ferrari/m3/BMW and a mcmansion at the least to post here.

They most certainly didnt have that requirement in 1999!

 

[GTaudiophile]

My theory...that may offer some explanation.

On one side of the spectrum we have Millennials or those born around the early 1980s to early 2000s.

On the other side, we have Gen X people or those born around the early 1960s to 1980s.

And then there is the so-called In Between Generation. (Described here.)

This made us the first children to grow up figuring it out, as opposed to having an innate understanding of new technology the way Millennials did, or feeling slightly alienated from it the way Gen X did.

I would argue that a lot of us fit into the last category. We are old enough to remember a time without the Interweb and mass computing yet young enough to have grown up WITH it...to learn it...experience it...and even master it.

There are few places where those of us can band together and for some reason, a lot of us landed here. And many of us stay here.

 

[Phoenix86]

Iirc, "back in 1999", on board video chips didn't even exist! You simply had to had a separate video card.

But one of the main reasons Dells and Gateways and (giggle) Packard Bells were slow is that they used motherboards that had zero overclocking capabilities. Indeed, most mb's had none. You had to get yourself an Abit!

It was a mix of cheap cache, lack of a math-co processor, and slow ram. You could get decent speeds w/o OCing on a decent mobo.

Good lord, packaged hell. I almost forgot....

*triggered* D:

 

[Ruptga]

Socket 754 was old news when I got into it all, but even then you pretty much had to build your own if you wanted the best because major retailers were still ignoring AMD. It seemed like by the time the market as a whole really accepted AMD, Core 2 was shipping and then it was all kinda moot. Since then you can pick something out of Dell Outlet for four hundred, put an $80 video card in it and maybe some memory or an SSD, and you're good to go for almost any user.

 

[pcgeek11]

As opposed to oldest only kid???

Either, Or...

 

[ultimatebob]

Iirc, "back in 1999", on board video chips didn't even exist! You simply had to had a separate video card.

But one of the main reasons Dells and Gateways and (giggle) Packard Bells were slow is that they used motherboards that had zero overclocking capabilities. Indeed, most mb's had none. You had to get yourself an Abit!

My old Dell back then had integrated S3 video which had no real Direct3D capabilities at all. I guess that was one of the reasons I ended up building my own system.

 

[AdamK47]

Typical forums are people age around 13-21 (but mostly 14 imo) but on AT it seems everyone is over 40 years old lol. I'm not hating on oldies at all! I respect every oldies here actually, because I don't see myself being active on forum boards and playing video games when I turn old, you see what I'm trying to say? I mean it! My dad is 55 and he does not even know how to turn on a computer and clueless how to unlock his iPhone passcode lmao ;_;

Just curious, Is this forum special or something? ()

How old are you? Just wondering :hmm:

I would like references to your sources of information. This study is very interesting.

 

[MongGrel]

The only Dell box I ever owned I think was around 1995 or so, was annoying to upgrade, I think I built my first one after on a Gigabyte board with an AMD Thunderbird, and have built my own ever since.

Heh, the old Voodoo cards and Co-Processors

Actually, I think the fist gen AMD was the first one, had a T-Bird as a second one.

I had a Packard Bell 386 before that I upgraded the CPU on, but I started building my own after that Dell when I found out you could build from the ground up better back then.

I still like putting what I want in there.

Played Mech 2 over a CompuServe BB and using Kali to play way back then.

 

[BurnItDwn]

My theory...that may offer some explanation.

On one side of the spectrum we have Millennials or those born around the early 1980s to early 2000s.

On the other side, we have Gen X people or those born around the early 1960s to 1980s.

And then there is the so-called In Between Generation. (Described here.)



I would argue that a lot of us fit into the last category. We are old enough to remember a time without the Interweb and mass computing yet young enough to have grown up WITH it...to learn it...experience it...and even master it.

There are few places where those of us can band together and for some reason, a lot of us landed here. And many of us stay here.

I am certainly of that generation, but I have always been somewhat 'hipster' towards grunge (favoring the underground death & black metal scene), and even more so against AOL (used BBS services as a child, then prodigy for internet as an adolescent, then I got a job at 16, built my own PC, subscribed to Netwave, and played lots of quake.)

But yea, I have been around computers my whole life, and none of the noise of social media. IRC/message boards/usenet being the only social media I used.

That said, my folks, both born in the 50s, had some experience with computers in school, but maybe just because they were in the suburbs during the biggest suburb boom in american history... suburbs had a lot of money for schools at the time...

 

[BUTCH1]

Iirc, "back in 1999", on board video chips didn't even exist! You simply had to had a separate video card.

But one of the main reasons Dells and Gateways and (giggle) Packard Bells were slow is that they used motherboards that had zero overclocking capabilities. Indeed, most mb's had none. You had to get yourself an Abit!

Ah yes, things were not so "automatic" back then, my first build (an AMD K-5 100Mhz) required many jumpers on the MB to be set correctly, frequency, bus speed, multiplier all had to be set correctly before you fired it up. Then the hard drive parameters had to be manually entered. First rule was to double-check EVERYTHING lest one fry a CPU, I won't even get into interrupt settings and cards not playing nice with each other LOL.

 

[MongGrel]

Ah yes, things were not so "automatic" back then, my first build (an AMD K-5 100Mhz) required many jumpers on the MB to be set correctly, frequency, bus speed, multiplier all had to be set correctly before you fired it up. Then the hard drive parameters had to be manually entered. First rule was to double-check EVERYTHING lest one fry a CPU, I won't even get into interrupt settings and cards not playing nice with each other LOL.

Pesky .bat files and things to get memory to even play well

 

[quackagator]

Born in 1936 I win

 

[AdamK47]

I betcha CorvetteForum beats this forum for higher average user age by a few decades.

 

[boomerang]

K7S5A til I die!

Wut? Abit BX6 baby!

 

[Perknose]

I betcha CorvetteForum beats this forum for higher average user age by a few decades.

Or OCDepends!

 

[sdifox]

Either, Or...

If he is the youngest child, he cannot be your first child.

 

[sdifox]

<p>Op, just so you know, The Little Brown Book is not for ass-wiping.</p>


Wtf how did this reply show up in this thread? I was pretty sure I posted this in the apostrophe thread.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I'm old enough to be most ATOTer's grandfather but, I like to understand what 'youts' are thinking. It's also interesting from a cultural anthropology aspect. Plus I get to shake my fist and yell 'get off my lawn.'

 

[edro]

Born in 1936 I win

Wow, you are so old you probably had PS/2 mice back then!

 

[brianmanahan]

Born in 1936 I win

almost 80! yep i think you win

 

[BUTCH1]

Wut? Abit BX6 baby!

Yup, coupled with the Celly 300A, one of the first truly awesome overclocks.

 

[BUTCH1]

Pesky .bat files and things to get memory to even play well

Can't say I miss 'em, I'm so old now I'd probably just give up!.

 

[Azeroth101]

My age group isn't in the poll...