There isn't a dedicated modern hardware section. Perhaps there should be. Personally I don't think anything x64 counts as "retro". That's the same exact architecture as a brand new system and will run all the same software, just slower. IMO there are really three eras that matter when making this particular categorization: the ISA era (1981-~2000), characterized by DOS-compatible systems with CRTs and spinning hard disks, the PCI-only era (~2000-~2007), characterized by crappy P4 systems straining to run virus-infected WinXP on their spinning hard disks, and the modern x64 era, characterized by 64-bit multi-core CPUs, large RAM sizes, solid state drives, and the ability to run heavy modern operating systems.

no

How about two sub subs ? 20th century and 21th century ?

Anyway, I'm happy as long as 286PCs/ATs aren't treated same as XTs. That's what vcfed did. 🙄

Who is "we"?

Did I miss something? Was a retro section added when I wasn't looking? Sounds vague and confusing.

Yeah, exactly. It's silly that users in a "forum" come up with democratic ideas and think of "we".

There is no such thing as a democracy

keenmaster486 wrote on 2023-06-30, 20:04:

There is no such thing as a democracy

I understand. That's unfortunate. Otherwise, a poll would have been an option to gather opinions.

dosquest wrote on 2023-06-30, 17:40:

Also, IMHO, 2009 is hardly retro 😉

But it's been long enough to be nostalgic. People who were born that year will be starting hing school this fall. People who started elementary school that year will be college freshmen. For me personally that was my freshman year.

Also it's not like Core2/WinXP era content is drowning anything yet and by the time it will dominate new threads, it'll be considered legit retro by almost everyone.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2023-06-30, 19:04:

Personally I don't think anything x64 counts as "retro". That's the same exact architecture as a brand new system and will run all the same software, just slower.

A couple of years ago when I sold my Phenom II X6 daily driver it already had trouble running modern software, especially games. It just didn't have the necessary instruction sets. That also applies to Core2. So no. They can't run the exact same software slower. Sometimes they can't run them at all.

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-06-30, 20:09:

dosquest wrote on 2023-06-30, 17:40:

Also, IMHO, 2009 is hardly retro 😉

But it's been long enough to be nostalgic. People who were born that year will be starting hing school this fall. People who started elementary school that year will be college freshmen. For me personally that was my freshman year.

Also it's not like Core2/WinXP era content is drowning anything yet and by the time it will dominate new threads, it'll be considered legit retro by almost everyone.

But isn't it kind of strange that the nostalgia for 80s / 90s is equally strong among all generations?
People don't seem to feel as strong about the 50s or 60s, for example. Or the 2000s.
So there must be something special about this time, even without the rose coloured glasses.

How would you classify a subtopic consisting of cars, politics, pricing, culture? What about a subtopic that's some of both?

Probably not yet

Jo22 wrote on 2023-06-30, 20:14:

But isn't it kind of strange that the nostalgia for 80s / 90s is equally strong among all generations? People don't seem to feel […]
Show full quote

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-06-30, 20:09:

dosquest wrote on 2023-06-30, 17:40:

Also, IMHO, 2009 is hardly retro 😉

But it's been long enough to be nostalgic. People who were born that year will be starting hing school this fall. People who started elementary school that year will be college freshmen. For me personally that was my freshman year.

Also it's not like Core2/WinXP era content is drowning anything yet and by the time it will dominate new threads, it'll be considered legit retro by almost everyone.

But isn't it kind of strange that the nostalgia for 80s / 90s is equally strong among all generations?
People don't seem to feel as strong about the 50s or 60s, for example. Or the 2000s.
So there must be something special about this time, even without the rose coloured glasses.

I don't feel anything in particular that is not a IBM PC compatible and older than a 386 (my first PC). I mean they are interesting from a technical standpoint and if one was to be scrapped right before my eyes I would save it, but I have no desire to own one. The 90s are different, my early childhood with my first and second PCs (386DX-40 and Pentium 100MHz later upgraded to 200MHz). I have nostalgia for those and desire to play around with stuff that was out of my reach back then.

So I think no. It's just that this community is mostly a group of older folks and among them I in my early 30s am one of the younger ones.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2023-06-30, 20:18:

How would you classify a subtopic consisting of cars, politics, pricing, culture? What about a subtopic that's some of both?

Probably not yet

Um, is that a rhetorical question? 🤷‍♂️

Maybe I am old, but I was in college in 2009....sooo, I remember Pentium 4 PCs, my high school still used Pentium III CPUS with Windows 2000.

I just cringe at some kid wanting help with super duper old uber retro windows Vista

Those asking "what retro hardware section are you talking about" I am referring to Marvin.

dosquest wrote on 2023-06-30, 20:24:

I just cringe at some kid wanting help with super duper old uber retro windows Vista

Vista? What ancient technology is that?

When I think retro, I think Windows 8. 😜

Sounds like you have hangups.

General Old Hardware is for any old Hardware question. Sub-sections of general would just make it confusing. Breaking it up by decades would make it more confusing.
If you are running Windows 10 on a 2005 machine that also has parts from other decades what section would that go in?
It makes more sense to have sections by type of hardware for specific discussion if there is enough content to justify that section.

So for the scenario you mentioned in the op then general is the best place.
If someone needs help troubleshooting then if there is alot of troubleshooting taking place then possibly a troubleshooting section would need to be created and so on.
The main purpose of this forum is gaming so that's how the structure should be, not many confusing sections of different eras or architectures or machine models, etc.

There are already too many sub forums, resulting in many dead ones. When there are too many things to click on, people mostly won't bother with something that contains very few posts, nor post in an area with very few views.

I don't say that this is needed, I personally disagree. But if it's done just a suggestion so that it doesn't fall into the same trap as in other forums that attempted it: don't separate by years or decades. Just add one "modern-ish" category like "2010 and later" to hold what's not really old. Rename to 2015 or 2020 at some point in the future and continue.

Agreed. If there will ever be a split, don't fracture it too much. Two categories for old and semi-old/modern would be more than enough, otherwise we'd just get dead subforums.

To be honest, it felt a bit weird posting my Supermicro quad-board in the retro section. The Xeon X7460 has only been discontinued for 12 years, it's not really that old.
But too damn interesting to not tell you guys about it. 😀