Computers are like cars:
1900 Ford T-models = Old 1980s Apples and IBMs.
1930-1950 Old mafia Cadillacs = early 1990s max.486.
1950-1970 Ford Mustangs = 1994-1996 max.Pentium 1.
1970-1990 Nissan Sunny, Toyota Corolla = 1996-2001 max.Pentium 3.
1990-2000 cars = Pentium 4
2000-2010 Hybrid cars = Pentium Core2Duo
2010+ Electric cars= Quad cores and such...

We reached a point, I believe at the Core 2 Duo age, where cpus became so fast that even today they can still run most web applications and desktop software perfectly fine with minimal impact on performance.

You can say absolutely same things for 386-486 range of computers. Those were very stubborn to die in offices and such. Heck, even 286s were not considered as total junk up to mid-90s - 10+ years of service.

Anyone else think decent PCI sound cards will be quite retro? I'm not talking about the deluge of Live cards out there, but actually decent PCI cards were mostly released at a time onboard codecs made them appear unnecessary, but they were actually pretty important pieces of hardware to own.. I am having a lot of trouble securing some of the more decent Terratec PCI hardware, for example.

Terratec? Sure, but extremely niche, not anywhere GUS level. Probably some Onkyo cards, ESI Juli@, X-Fi Elite Pro and it's clone.

The Core 2 argument doesn't really hold up anymore, working in an enterprise setting, in the last year or so I've seen Core 2 fall on its face finally, yea it took it a decade but its getting to slow to be useful for modern web apps or just modern programs. It has a good run, but its now past its expiration date, and it's no longer adequate for real world work scenarios at least in the enterprise sector.

appiah4 wrote:

Anyone else think decent PCI sound cards will be quite retro? I'm not talking about the deluge of Live cards out there, but actually decent PCI cards were mostly released at a time onboard codecs made them appear unnecessary, but they were actually pretty important pieces of hardware to own.. I am having a lot of trouble securing some of the more decent Terratec PCI hardware, for example.

I had nothing but problems with my old Terratec 1024 PCI soundcard, never worked well with games that used EAX. Hard to see that brand becoming desirable. Gravis Ultrasound (as the The Serpent Rider mentioned) and Yamaha XG cards like the SW1000XG are already desirable, I see Soundblasters becoming more sought after as time goes on.

~please ignore this post, I was in a bad mood at the time I made it.~

You're not alone in any shape or form. Almost anyone I know who hasn't ditched the PC in favor of a smartphone or tablet (and isn't a hardcore gamer) is on Core 2 (or equivalent) hardware or Sandy Bridge Celerons (which are no better than a Core 2 Duo anyway) especially in shitty AIO form factor. Anything Core i3/5/7 hasn't really depreciated much since it hasn't really entered the 2nd hand market in any significant numbers - it's still in use and considered valuable by those who own it. Core 2 is still in use too but there's way more in circulation making it worth less.

I've been thrifting my hardware for years and even that is drying up since less good stuff is being put out and competition/awareness is increasing.

I would suggest looking into getting an AM3 Athlon II or Phenom II Pc as a cheap replacement for that Core, they are fairly comparavle to 1st gen Corei

If I could have just one retro PC setup it would be Pentium 3-1400S: brutally fast and still mostly compatible for Win98 and being relatively rare. I'm not really all that fond of Super7 with bad experiences in its heyday.

On the modern front Nehalem CPUs are well on its merry way of its 10th year of "still viable for modern gaming". Core 2 chips didn't quite managed that.

And also I'm holding on my 4790K forever since its the fastest and last DDR3 platform to support Win 7 100%.

Palladium wrote:

If I could have just one retro PC setup it would be Pentium 3-1400S: brutally fast and still mostly compatible for Win98 and being relatively rare. I'm not really all that fond of Super7 with bad experiences in its heyday.

On the modern front Nehalem CPUs are well on its merry way of its 10th year of "still viable for modern gaming". Core 2 chips didn't quite managed that.

And also I'm holding on my 4790K forever since its the fastest and last DDR3 platform to support Win 7 100%.

4790k is not the fastest with full support for Win7 with DDR3. Try LGA2011.

You get quad channel DDR3 support (instead of just dual channel) and you also have up to an Octo-core CPU (Xeon E5-1680v2)

You also have a ton more PCIE lanes... 40 vs 24.

Core 2 chips didn't quite managed that.

Overclocked Yorkfield can still manage modern games.

AM3 Athlon II or Phenom II Pc as a cheap replacement for that Core, they are fairly comparavle to 1st gen Corei

They can compete with Core 2 Quad and at best just slightly faster, if overclocking is not considered. But hey, no spectre/meltdown shenanigans.

IMO, these are the candidates because of first/last-of-its-kind part, relative rarity and notoriety:

-ATI HD3850/4670 AGP GPUs
-Dual GPU on single cards HD6990
-NV 8800GTX 768MB, GTX285, GTX480, Titans
-X58 mobos + LGA1366 6-core Xeons
-Vanity extreme edition chips e.g 980X/990X
-Z77 mobos + 2500K/2600K/3770K
-i7-5775C
-Intel enthusiast platorm CPUs + mobos
-8GB DDR3 DIMMs, esp 2133-2400 speeds
-Phenom II X6s
-Bulldozer FX8150, 9590

I can see the Xeon Phi being collectable when better/faster models hit the market.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

infiniteclouds wrote:

Titan Blacks still go for $300 while Titan Zs go for 800-1000$

That's just blatant rip-off or oblivious seller.

I wish it were so, but several months later if you look at the SOLD listings on Ebay they are still in that price range (The Titan Blacks). It's too bad as I'd like to replace my 760GTX 4GB with the Black to have the top Kepler card.

I'm honestly wondering if any current hardware will become retro in the future. Firstly, Windows 7 is very comparable to Windows 10 in it's core, so compatibility issues between the two are pretty much non-existent. As Microsoft said that they are never going to end support for Windows 10, which I highly doubt, then compatibility issues with current games and software should be no problem in the future. 😀

Secondly, the PC evolves way slower than it used to do in the 80s and 90s, so very 'old' hardware from 2006-2010 is still very capable today and components like the Core2Duo and the first generations of Core i3/i5/i7 are still widely being used by home users, businesses and schools and they aren't looking yet for a change. These systems are also very capable of running Windows 10, so people are probably not going to replace them any time in the near future. Compare this to the Pentium III, which was totally useless 12 years after it's release; times have changed! 😊

Thirdly, for me at least the current hardware will never feel the same to me as a Pentium III or older. 😜

I'm browsing this forum on a Core2 laptop right now 😀

It really is surpring how 10 year old hardware still holds up today. I think it's true that around 2009-2010 we reached a point where CPUs became powerful enough for most common tasks apart from gaming. Even when a machine from that era starts to struggle there are solutions to bring more life into it - for Intel it's the Socket 775 to 771 Xeon mod, for AMD it's the 1st-gen AM3 AthlonII X4 and Phenom CPUs that still have a DDR2 controller.

That's exactly what I mean! If you want to go really extreme you can even still use a Pentium 4 for your daily tasks, as PhilsComputerLab shows in the following video https://youtu.be/eAdAYeBaz1U?t=1330 😜

I think most people will want at least a Core2Duo or first generation Core i3/i5/i7 though; processors that I think, aren't going to be obsolete any time soon, except for the gaming and video editing department of course. 😊

I have a couple of original nvidia titans in SLI on my computer.

OKish for current games, but will eventually become collector items I reckon.

If those RTX cards become a thing in the future, First ever RTX card model ever and it still supported directx12 might be something people might want in 20 years or so.