1997 -- Compaq Presario; 200 Mhz processor; 4.3 GB hard drive. $3,000.
1999 -- Custom built computer; 450 Mhz processor; 20 GB hard drive. $1,000.
2003 -- Custom built computer; 2.3 Ghz processor; 80 GB hard drive. $1,000.
2007 (December 31) -- Gateway computer, purchased at Best Buy; dual core Intel processers (2 GB each); 500+ GB hard drive. $860.
I've been trying to wrap my mind around a 500+ GB hard drive. I mean. . . HOLY HELL! I remember my computer science roommates in college telling me 4.3 GB was more storage than I'd ever use; now you have hard drives so large, they can record television shows in real time. To say nothing of the 3+ GB of RAM. There was a time, not that long ago in my mind, when data storage and memory was at a premium and priced like gold; now they practically give it away.
Posted by Ryan at January 2, 2008 02:53 PM | TrackBackThe funny thing is, even before you bought your first computer folks in my family were making the exact same observations. "Remember when nobody thought you would need more than 8 megs of memory"? "Wow, memory is so cheap these days, back in the 80s it was priced like gold."
Posted by: David Grenier at January 3, 2008 09:20 AMThat may be, David, and I neglected to mention the 1993 Macintosh Performa 405, with 256 MB of hard drive space, and AOL!
Still, a jump from 80 GB of hard drive space to 500 GB is still a tad astounding to me.
Posted by: Ryan at January 3, 2008 10:55 AMYou had 4.3 gigs in 1997? You must be from the right side of the tracks. I think the Mac I bought in '97 had 2 GB and I thought I'd never run out of space...
Keep up the Thunderjournaling; you're always good for a laugh.
Posted by: Bryan at January 7, 2008 01:23 PMBryan, one of the reasons I opted for a PC rather than a Mac back then was because PCs offered more hard drive space, and they obviously could play PC games, which Macs were late to the game providing support for them, and I was a HUGE PC gamer back then.
Posted by: Ryan at January 7, 2008 03:57 PM
Stumble It!
