Denial

So, I'm trolling eBay looking for a 486 motherboard to complete a gaming PC I want to build. And as usual, the scalpers have taken over. I'm seeing tons of boards in the $150 USD to $500 range! Really? We used to toss them in the trash (boy, if I had only known!).

What do you guys think a descent 486 board (even un-populated) would be worth?

I am seeing stupid crazy prices for vintage anything on eBay right now. Seems way pricier than even a year ago.

Yeah, it seems to be getting worse by the day. Have any of you seen that guy that sells "vintage" hard drives for $191? Drives me insane.

Might be worth having a look on amibay instead. But prices on old PC stuff have gone through the roof this year, that's for sure.

Maybe there is something I don't get but I have a hard time understanding the relevance of going for a '486 machine.

I maintain an old P3-600MHz Win98SE machine because it has a 3dfx Voodoo 4 AGP card and some games only run with this brand (3dfx - GLIDE) of video card. However, this machine can run DOS 6.22, WIndows 3.11 and all the old stuff you could want to run on a '486.

To me, the above machine is the pre-2k dream machine because it runs pretty much everything that was released before 2000 with excellent performances.

eslapion wrote:Maybe there is something I don't get but I have a hard time understanding the relevance of going for a '486 machine.

I maintain an old P3-600MHz Win98SE machine because it has a 3dfx Voodoo 4 AGP card and some games only run with this brand (3dfx - GLIDE) of video card. However, this machine can run DOS 6.22, WIndows 3.11 and all the old stuff you could want to run on a '486.

To me, the above machine is the pre-2k dream machine because it runs pretty much everything that was released before 2000 with excellent performances.

I also have a nice P3 machine (in pieces at the moment). I have a few reasons for wanting a 486 machine. In fact, I'm going to eventually build a 386 as well. Plus, I'm actively looking for a good deal on an IBM 5150. I collect computers and I like owning different versions, models, etc.

For me, the 486 is really about nostalgia. A 486DX2/66 was the first computer I ever built myself from parts. A 386SX 33 (IIRC) was the first DOS machine I ever owned (I tried to build it but failed...was pretty young at the time).

cbmeeks wrote:For me, the 486 is really about nostalgia. A 486DX2/66 was the first computer I ever built myself from parts.

Me too, incidentally. I moved from an Amiga 3000 to a '486 DX2/66 in late 1994 but coming from the Amiga, I had rather strict criterias.

I elected to install Windows NT 3.51 back then because it could do something I could also do on the Amiga, perform all the following simultanesously:
- receive a file by a high speed (14.4kbps) modem
- decompress a .zip or .lha to hard disk
- format a floppy disk

I also had to have a SCSI controller in my first PC because of a couple of features not available in legacy IDE interfaces. I kept the SCSi interface in all my later PCs except my i7 laptop. SATA and iSATA performs well enough nowadays.

A 386SX 33 (IIRC) was the first DOS machine I ever owned (I tried to build it but failed...was pretty young at the time).

Since Windows NT did not run well on pre 486DX machines, I never had any interest in them.

eslapion wrote:Since Windows NT did not run well on pre 486DX machines, I never had any interest in them.

I worked for a networking company years ago and we installed Windows NT (4) on many customers' servers. We had mixed feelings for it. We had one server actually blue-screen because we swapped out the keyboard. lol

Corrupt drivers and/or bad keyboard but it brought the entire machine down.

cbmeeks wrote:

eslapion wrote:Since Windows NT did not run well on pre 486DX machines, I never had any interest in them.

I worked for a networking company years ago and we installed Windows NT (4) on many customers' servers. We had mixed feelings for it. We had one server actually blue-screen because we swapped out the keyboard. lol

Corrupt drivers and/or bad keyboard but it brought the entire machine down.

I liked Windows NT specifically for that. When you bought the original, it came with a nice compatibility listing catalog that told you all the hardware that was tested and for which manufacturers cared to make proper drivers.

Do it well or close your business.

I guess Microsoft were tired of doing all sorts of botched drivers for DOS and Windows 3.11. People who didn't know better blamed Microsoft for that.

eslapion wrote:People who didn't know better blamed Microsoft for that.

I worked for a company once and my boss used to yell at Bill Gates every time his MS Word would crash or do something he didn't like. I guess you could say that Gates (at the time) was ultimately responsible for all things MS but come on....lol

Have you looked at the price of Apple II / Apple II+ ? (not //e or //c which are a little more reasonable.)
Never should have gotten rid of my loaded Apple II+ 27 years ago

cbmeeks wrote:

eslapion wrote:People who didn't know better blamed Microsoft for that.

I worked for a company once and my boss used to yell at Bill Gates every time his MS Word would crash or do something he didn't like. I guess you could say that Gates (at the time) was ultimately responsible for all things MS but come on....lol

That's one of the reasons why I didn't touch the PC until a decent 32bit OS was available. DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 and previous will allow programmers to do any nonsensical things they wanted to then everything else would go haywire and it was always Microsoft's fault.

With NT (and 2k and XP and whatever afterwards) a poorly programmed software just won't install or won't start.

As a student, I purchased an original of Office 97 and neither Word, nor Excel or Access ever crashed.

I still have my original CD of Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and used this OS extensively until 2003. It was rock solid. Windows XP is in fact just a front name for NT 5.1.

The other day I was looking for a HDD for my portable, but why does a 25 year old HDD cost 3x as much as a new one???
I have a x86 motherboard from 1997 but I'm having tough luck finding parts for it.

Bobbi wrote:Have you looked at the price of Apple II / Apple II+ ? (not //e or //c which are a little more reasonable.)
Never should have gotten rid of my loaded Apple II+ 27 years ago

The annoying thing about Apples is that everybody know the Apple company so everybody wants to sell Apple products for a high price. The other day I walked into my local thrift store to find an Apple II priced at 200$ ?????
I do have a bunch of Apple II software because those don't have any apple logo so I pick up cases of floppies for 2$.
So just because it's Apple, doesn't mean its expensive!

... hmmm looks like I am now the proud owner of an Apple //e ...