douglar wrote on 2024-07-17, 02:13:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-07-15, 07:27:

douglar wrote on 2024-07-09, 15:11:

1999 - Started a second system which went from a frustrating K6-2 450 to an excellent Athlon 700 in a few months. My aunt still uses the Athlon board since 2002 for her part time accounting business. I want it back, but I don't want to mess with her system either.

Actually, the noble thing to do, would be to assist your aunt in upgrading her system to some more current hardware, keeping in mind that running on 20+ years old hardware really increases the risk of a total system breakdown with huge data losses. And I'm not even only trying to ratify you getting your hands on the nostalgic hardware ...

Replacing the hard drive with an SSD would likely be a good plan, but what could I get her that would be more reliable at this point that still runs win98?

I would probably consider migrating data and all to a newer OS as well. Any component in that old system could break down any time.

I'm not sure how well W98 plays with SSD in regards to wear on the cells, or that was a thing of the past?

dormcat wrote on 2024-07-17, 06:07:

douglar wrote on 2024-07-17, 02:13:

Replacing the hard drive with an SSD would likely be a good plan, but what could I get her that would be more reliable at this point that still runs win98?

IMHO the earliest batch of Core 2 Duo with 65 nm lithography ("Allendale" or "Conroe") on a motherboard with Intel 865 family chipset would do the job, as 915 or newer chipsets stopped official Win9x supports.

Alternatively, any Athlon / Sempron 64 in 754 or 939 (Socket AM2 motherboards rarely support Win9x) with VIA K8 series chipsets (nForce was not friendly with Win9x).

Problem is that it's still 15+ years old hardware with an unknown number of operating hours?

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-07-17, 10:07:

Problem is that it's still 15+ years old hardware with an unknown number of operating hours?

Exactly. The PC she uses only gets turned on for a couple hours a month and has lasted. Not sure that a 2008 board is going to be more reliable at this point. And she turns 90 in a couple months. Not sure she’s interested in leaning a new OS or new version of Peach Tree accounting. I’ ll image her drive to an SSD and bring her lunch. Maybe an LCD monitor too.

The funny thing is that I do know where to find a Wolfdale E8400 on a G43 motherboard that I could give her, but the problem is that my dad still uses that. He has resisted efforts to upgrade his system.

douglar wrote on 2024-07-17, 11:01:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-07-17, 10:07:

Problem is that it's still 15+ years old hardware with an unknown number of operating hours?

Exactly. The PC she uses only gets turned on for a couple hours a month and has lasted. Not sure that a 2008 board is going to be more reliable at this point.

Well that's a common problem to all retro-whatever lovers. 😅 Computers, vehicles, cameras, you name it.

douglar wrote on 2024-07-17, 11:01:

And she turns 90 in a couple months. Not sure she’s interested in leaning a new OS or new version of Peach Tree accounting. I’ ll image her drive to an SSD and bring her lunch. Maybe an LCD monitor too.

The funny thing is that I do know where to find a Wolfdale E8400 on a G43 motherboard that I could give her, but the problem is that my dad still uses that. He has resisted efforts to upgrade his system.

Wow, Peachtree...... a name haven't heard for quite a long long while. In that case I agree with you: no need to change the system other than a more reliable storage and a larger, brighter monitor.

For elder citizens, the familiarity of interface is far more important than performance: my Mom complained the interface of her new smartphone I bought for her as her previous phone had a proprietary address book while the new one uses Google Contacts, and she's 14 years younger than your aunt.

Hm, I must be younger than most folks here 😒

2002: Celeron 1.7GHz 478 Willamette aka the SLOW DOG --> Parent's bought the first computer in family for me
2005: Athlon 64 3500+ "Venice" --> It took me AGES to have the sufficient amount of pocket money to buy this
2008: Core 2 Duo E4300 --> Overclocking's paradise
2011: Core i5-2500K --> It was December of 2011 and I had been waiting the WHOLE YEAR for that "Bulldozer" to appear and demolish Intel's offerings. Of couse that didn't go very well so I bought Intel again.
2018: Ryzen 7 2700X --> My first "high end PC", complete with GTX 1080 Ti, 32GB RAM and full custom watercooling loop with 3 radiators.

Since then, the company I work for provides me desktops and laptops and after some years of use I can "buy them" for one cent and bring them home for my own use so no need to buy anything. Instead , the money I would have been spending for upgrades goes to "downgrades" while I tinker with hardware older than me. 😁

-> 1994 - Atari 800XL, Amiga 500, Amiga 1200 (NES and Sega Mega Drive in between)

Bought new
----------
1994 - Cyrix 486 DLC-40 (My first PC)
1995 - Intel 486 DX2/66 (Wow! Finally DOOM ran smoothly)
1996 - Amd 486 DX4-100 (I remember that it worked on some budget motherboard with a SIS chipset on which ALL the capacitors swollen, but despite this the system always worked super stably.)
1997 - Intel Pentium 166MHz
1998 - Intel Pentium 233MHz
1999 - Cyrix 6x86 PR300 (Big disappointment)
1999 - Intel Celeron 466MHz (It's still in the closet)
2000 - Intel Celeron 600MHz (Good for OC)
2002 - Intel Pentium III 500MHz (I still have it today and to this day I wonder why I bought it at all. I guess I was hoping it could be overclocked, but it didn't work out at all.)
2003 - Amd Athlon XP 1600+
2005 - Amd Sempron 2800+
2006 - Amd Athlon 64 3700+

Bought used
----------
2010 - Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 (I bought it to make YouTube work better)
2014 - Intel Core i5-3470
2015 - Intel Core i7-3770 (Small difference compared to i5)
2017 - Intel Core i7-4930K @ 4.5GHz
2020 - Amd Ryzen 2700x (I was shocked how much faster it was than the 4930K)
2022 - Amd Ryzen 5800x

Between 2002 and 2012 I was a console gamer (PS2, Xbox 360) and lost interest in PC.

386, 486, Pentium (dont remember the speeds), K6-2 350Mhz, Pentium III 650Mhz, Pentium D 805, FX6300, i5 10400. 😀