Reply 20 of 45, by CapnCrunch53
- Rank
- Member
Win98 is pretty stable for me on my gaming machines (except when I mess up a driver 🤣) because I also keep it minimal and clean (like I do all my machines). I'd still never want to use it as a workstation though for so many reasons, security being a big one. I'm too paranoid to even let any machine running an OS older than XP on the network in my house, which is probably silly of me. And honestly Windows 7 has always run amazingly on my own systems. Even on my little Atom netbook, I really don't experience any slowdown that isn't due to the relatively slow hard drive or the crappy Wifi connection at my school.
As for the original topic, I don't really know. There was a time I thought I'd never use anything older than a Pentium 3, and here I am with a Pentium, 386, and hopefully soon a 486. I don't think PC-wise I'll need anything below my 386, but I'd still like to have some, and I'd use them to at least some extent if I had them. Honestly I think I have more fun tinkering with hardware and getting it running as smoothly and efficiently as I can than I do playing games (I still love games though!). Not that I just hoarde hardware; I play on all of it at least occasionally, and anything that's not being used I try to rebuild into something at least potentially useful (for example, I took a few extra prebuilts I had, threw a few 3Dfx cards I'd acquired in them, and now have a few decent spare Glide rigs that would be useful for a small UT lan with my friends).
I guess it comes down to why you collect and whether it's fulfilling. I enjoy collecting hardware and playing with it. Some people care more about the games and are fine running DOSBox or a VM. Some people collect but don't get any enjoyment from it, and I'd encourage them to find a way to get more fulfillment out of their hobby, or to change their hobby to something that makes them happy.
PCs, Macs, old and new... too much stuff.