RAM prices

[S2central.net]

I just got reminded how incredibly cheap it is to buy computer memory today. I have a 7yr old Mac that is perfectly healthy but looking a bit slow these days. It has 512MB memory and I recall the 1G option when I bought it was stupid expensive, so I gave it a miss.

Today I was able to buy 1GB of memory for it (two different 512MB packages as this machine has only slot of each type) - brand new for £30 without any drama at all... Quite ridiculous.

Unfortunately I cannot find a 2GHz Intel dual core processor upgrade for it, to really jazz it up but thats OK - I am long overdue a new machine... The old one can't upgrade to Leopard - which I want for bootcamp/VMfusion if nothing else...

That old iMac has served me well - only issue I had in 7yrs was a power supply that died and I had to change the PRAM battery earlier this year.

Sods law would say that ten minutes after I post this, the hard disk will explode

[mcandmar]

Its an Apple, it will just die for no reason and cost you as much as a new machine to replace the logic board. And i would love to know what the deal is with Apple's PRAM batterys, i have NEVER had to change the battery on a pc, but yet on the Macs they rarely last over ~3 years.

[S2central.net]

The PRAM battery was an odd one - it only died this year (1st since new in 2002) cos I turned off the machine from the mains for a week when on hols... came back and she was dead as dead. Feared the worst until Google steered me onto the PRAM. Couple of quid and all good. I dunno how/why they say iMacs eat a PRAM every 2-3yrs but its no big deal unless you are handless

on eBay I can find higher spec logic boards for the fraction of the price of a new machine... Its an old G4 thing so not 'cool' anymore versus the higher spec'd Intel beasties.

My next machine will be interesting - am gonna get into the virtual world so that I can run windows and redhat on there as guest systems for a bit of fun - running VAGCOM and the family album on a Mac is just a few clicks away

Like Audi, I have been an Apple fan since WAY before they became cool - our company used them since mid eighties and I bought my first Mac - A 650 'quadra' which is ironic - which I subsequently hotrodded to PowerPC top notch spec in its day. That machine is in the attic, but I bet it still works (haha - better change the PRAM batt 1st).

Apple have shafted me along the way though - like having to eat an upgrade to 10.4 just so I could get the wife's iPod nano to work - cos they dropped support for Firewire docks in favour of USB 2.0 - and this poor old machine was only USB 1.0 - if I waited 3 months I could have had USB2 and 20% faster processor (****).

Then when I wanted to get some prints from iPhoto 4 last week I was told that support for that has been stopped and I need to be on iPhoto 6... So more money for latest 'iLife 09' package only to find that is Intel only (stupid me for not checking) and more money for iLife 08 (on eBay cos you cant buy old shyte from Apple direct) knowing full well this time that I cannot upgrade iMovie component as I have an supported processor. Its the Apple equivalent of 'NLA' from Audi - I suppose its more like 'NLS' - no longer supported... cos they desperately want me to eat a new machine.

Deep breath - more beer.

[mark_s2]

I still use an old LC pizza box mac and the battery dies in that once every couple of years - but thats another story.

[gunman]

I remember years ago I went up to PC world with my unlce, he was wanting to upgrade the memory in his 486 PC. He bought a 4MB chip and paid £175 for it. He had to pay for it at the till then a security guard carried it out to him.

[S2central.net]

Its crazy isn't it...

Here's a vid I found pretty much by accident just now searching the tube for some other demo/training vid - this was 25 yrs ago - all very easy for folks today to look at that and laugh - but equally easy to forget how impressive it was in its day... I had a friend whose Dad was a teacher and he managed to wangle bringing one home at the weekends - not that we were ever allowed to even touch it - but it was a very cool thing to have in a humble house back then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0FtgZNOD44&feature=fvw

[Skull]

i have bought my first 16mb of RAM for 300 nowadays €...

[Tonks4x4]

Back in the day I remember the spec of my pc. It was a 486 just before the pentium came out. It had 32mb of ram. And i paid £400+ for one of the first 1gb hard drives. It was impressive in the fact not only did it have a 3 1/2 inch floppy drive it had the old 5 inch floppy drive too. . It had a quad speed cd reader. And a 16 bit creative labs sound blaster sound card. Lol all this cost nearly £1700 it's crazy how much things have changed in just the last 15 years or so.

[mcandmar]

I remember the quadra, and 6000 range. Last of the real Macintosh machines with elecy floppy drive. And why every Mac owner had a paper clip on their keyring

Speaking of antiques i was clearing the attic out a while back and pulled out my IBM XT and booted it up for a laugh, unbelievably slow, each screen refresh could be measured in seconds. Funny how it seemed normal in those days, yet these days we complain when games drop below 60 frames per second

[madpugger]

Damn Paul, if you had said, iLife 08 is on my desk no longer required!

Vagcom on a mac works a treat :d by the way, leopard should work on a g4? Just not snow leopard. Still a nice new iMac or MacBook pro would be lovely! I just got a 15" MacBook pro earlier this year. If I could find a decent small screen I'd love a mini in the car!

[dest]

I used to work as a computer engineer on Xenix and Unix based patient management systems in NHS hospitals back in 1990-3.
Back then they mostly ran on IBM PS/2 machines and IBM XT/AT which were like mechanical things that were SO slow its untrue!
They would run upto 16 terminals via RS232 cables hardwired around the hospitals.
I remember installing a 1GB drive into a server in Swansea, it was one of the very first ones ever used in the UK and Unix wouldnt partition it properly, I had to sit up all night and call their tech support in America to try and sort it!

The fastest machines at the time just as I left was dual processor Compaq 486/66, which was running 32 terminals, its crazy to think the laptop Im typing this on is a lot more powerful than entire hospital systems were LOL!

[dest]

I meant to add, regarding floppy drives, I remember doing my work experience in a computer departmant in a local shoe factory, they had an IBM mainframe which was as big as a car and used the old 8" floppies! Who remembers those?!

8", 5.1/4", 3.5"


I remember my Amstrad CPC6138 having the useless 3" drive too

[Tonks4x4]

Where i worked as a saturday lad they had WANG reel drives.

[curlyks2]

unbelievably slow, each screen refresh could be measured in seconds. Funny how it seemed normal in those days

I'm not sure how different Vista is today...

[dest]

Where i worked as a saturday lad they had WANG reel drives.

I remember loading them on my work experience too also used tape streamers too, what a nightmare!
Then we got a SCSI DAT drive and it seemed lightning fast