How difficult/much harder was it to build a pc in the 90s/early 2000s compared to now?

[GoodBytes]

It wasn't so different. It's a bit easier to install a CPU these days. UEFI is smarter than the old BIOS, where many things are done for us, and even then, it's not THAT much. Nothi8ng that could haven't not been done in 2sec before. Case manufactures didn't have designers like now, doing the industrial design work of a case, so it was flat, boring and beige (well most cases). The cases didn't have cable management. PSUs were not modular. Also, fans were loud.

Many of things that were not there were due to cost. At the time it cost a lot of money, so it was not pushed, computers were expensive as it is (well, was). The rest is just natural evolution of having the idea to make system builders life easier. Also, it's a market thing. Back then, the market for people custom building computers was smaller, and even then, people where not really looking at nice looking system that is also ultra quiet, and power efficient. It was all about performance, 'cause things already costs a fortune.

However BEFORE 2000... Well I let the video explain:

As you'll see, it's still not too different. You potentially have to do more BIOS settings works, and less "plug'n play"

[KWelz]

I dove into my Newegg Order History for a little trip down memory lane.  Here is some of what I used in 2003

 

Case

Actually not terrible considering some of the other things at the time.  

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129127

 

Motherboard was a real Beast.  Even back then Asus was where it was at.  

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131492R

 

And we had these amazing CPU coolers.  

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835116013

 

Oh and this Processor was as much as a 4670K is today...

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116172R

 

Most parts were off white at best.  So anything else had to be custom done.  I remember painting the DVD player for that case so it would match.   

 

Ironically on the same order was a tube of Arctic Silver.  Some things do stand the test of time I guess.  

 

Choices were limited.  The gap between Intel and AMD was almost non existent with one being better for half the year till the other released a new product.  

Graphics cards were very limited.   I think the above build had a FX5900 in it.  And it was a beast.  

 

Oh and you think cases today have some sharp edges?   The ones back there were made out of razor blades and sharpened by the devil himself.  

[OneManArmy]

I was only 1 years old in the year 2000!

[Pedro Galindo]

Not here, just delete it... Sorry

[Pedro Galindo]

Some things were better before, I remind some IBM pre-built pcs... I was fixing one today, I think it was from 2005 more less.... You know when you have to plug those little motherfuckers pins, one for power, another for reset, the next for hdd led, two more separated for power led..... Well, on this IBM, they were all together, you just have to plug a simple cable in the only place it fits....

They should do a standard for this, so all mobos and all cases have the same front panel connector...

[STRMfrmXMN]

I was only 1 years old in the year 2000!

Same here, and I too am from Oregon!

[GoodBytes]

Some things were better before, I remind some IBM pre-built pcs... I was fixing one today, I think it was from 2005 more less.... You know when you have to plug those little motherfuckers pins, one for power, another for reset, the next for hdd led, two more separated for power led..... Well, on this IBM, they were all together, you just have to plug a simple cable in the only place it fits....

They should do a standard for this, so all mobos and all cases have the same front panel connector...

Well usually most manufactured OEM computers have that. It's just the custom build ones that don't. I agree, I don't get why it's not a standard, why it provides any importance of the layout. Like if the case doesn't have a recent button, so ok, just don't have the wires for the plug.

[Pounds]

with the cable management, air flow improved as well. On top of that aesthetics really became a part of the game, which wasn't as much as option back then. Pretty lights and matching the color of ram and case fans to the motherboard wasn't really something people did back then.

[Physc]

fuck IDE...

 

the amount of bulk added trying to cable manage these fat/big cables were a mess.

 

Other than having to look at yellow/brown/green coloured PCB's, nothing much have changed.

[Seed]

The same. My first real build was a pentium dual slotted 450 with 2 9GB raid 1 windows NT. It's pretty much the same today minus the water cooling. Some jumper stuff back then.

[KemoKa]

Not much harder, but it is much, much nicer to build a computer now.

The differences are cost, power efficiency, aesthetics, product quality (I am making a mug out of DDR2 DIMMs from manufacturers I have never even heard of. They all died out)

There's also the matter of how the amount of raw power you can fit in a computer of a certain size has just exploded in the past 4 years.

I consider the mid-90s to mid-00s to be the Dark Ages of computers. the vast majority of computers were running unexceptional hardware and windows 95/8/2000/XP. All the components were dust-magnets and there was no way to prevent dust buildup, and even brand new, the interiors looked absolutely disgusting. There was no optimization, no cable management or sleeving, no aftermarket cooling, no nice, sleek hardware, we had display cards instead of graphics cards, and everything was in that horrific cream colour.

I mean, look at this thing...


the last word in hideous, especially with hundreds of them in an office building. That colour doesn't look good on ANYTHING.
 

but that's what we had.

Now we have things like this:


The age of PC enthusiasm has finally been realized, because we don't have to spend a fortune to make a computer look completely badass (relatively speaking...)

[kpsl808mg]

35 post and only 1 ( one ) mentioning the BLOOD you fed those machines...

 

it was hard...not a great choice of parts...non existing cooling; at LAN partys we had floorfans directed at our opened rigs...

 

it was a time of creativity and 'home improvement' style modging !

[GoodBytes]

35 post and only 1 ( one ) mentioning the BLOOD you fed those /machines...

 

it was hard...not a great choice of parts...non existing cooling; at LAN partys we had floorfans directed at our opened rigs...

 

it was a time of creativity and 'home improvement' style modging !

I thought the video I posted, showed all that. It was showing how hard it was to get parts, on how you get a computer, while you CAN upgrade it, you were stuck with certain part to support, and you can see how the cases were awful, and had nothing. But I guess no one is interesting at watching a 28min video from 1992, and analysis it, by comparing today.

[DigitalHermit]

Let's just say that cable management is a non-issue...

[kpsl808mg]

I thought the video I posted, showed all that. It was showing how hard it was to get parts, on how you get a computer, while you CAN upgrade it, you were stuck with certain part to support, and you can see how the cases were awful, and had nothing. But I guess no one is interesting at watching a 28min video from 1992, and analysis it, by comparing today.

 

oh, i watched my fair share of computer chronicles episodes ^^... but my post was more weighted on the 'Blood' part...and being a bit of a sissy; 'my rig is the size of a wallradiator...same weight too...also the same height on the carseat next to me - have to put a seatbelt on as well ' ...

 

but hey, there were good times too...taken the panels off on each side of the rig, placed in the middle of the workspace, i shut down the central heating for the ( mild ) wintertime... ^^

[Misanthrope]

Wasn't that difficult. Modularity didn't live back then though so you had massive cable clusterfucks back then (all the time).

Yet most parts needed way less cooling thermal tdp was much better back then. So it did not matter as much.

[kpsl808mg]

Yet most parts needed way less cooling thermal tdp was much better back then. So it did not matter as much.

can't recall this; airflow...nah,just  air was needed and not implemented well...e.g. after a few hours ( 2 - 3) of a burning session ( P75 minitower 2 x optical drives) the harddisc was fried...after that i build only midi and above...

[terrytek]

I just loved IDE and Molex so much. No sarcasm.

[Misanthrope]

can't recall this; airflow...nah,just air was needed and not implemented well...e.g. after a few hours ( 2 - 3) of a burning session ( P75 minitower 2 x optical drives) the harddisc was fried...after that i build only midi and above...

Take a look at the coolers on 3dfx cards, the rage pro, tnt or the original geforce: they were crap. If you put a 290x inside a 90s case it would throttle down to 240 speeds if it doesn't melts out right away.

You gotta look at things in perspective

[kpsl808mg]

I just loved IDE and Molex so much. No sarcasm.

hihi, i hated molex ...i <3(ed)  SCSI ...

 

...i was devastated when ISA got obsolete; how should i use my cards from now on !?

[terrytek]

hihi, i hated molex ...i <3(ed)  SCSI ...

 

...i was devastated when ISA got obsolete; how should i use my cards from now on !?

I just hated when VooDoo went bonkers. Not good. But I still love to run Molex, IDE, and Firewire. Pretty much dead standards.

[kpsl808mg]

Take a look at the coolers on 3dfx cards, the rage pro, tnt or the original geforce: they were crap. If you put a 290x inside a 90s case it would throttle down to 240 speeds if it doesn't melts out right away.

You gotta look at things in perspective

not all earlier dated fans were miserable, i graded up with 'Papst' fans and got quite good noise / cooling ratio...but of course you are right about the gross of them...most parts were passiv cooled and the cases with air-intakes coul be counted by your fingers; if you lost a few ^^

... If you put a 290x inside a 90s case it would throttle down to 240 speeds if it doesn't melts out right away...

i did ( sort of), it's an harsh environment i give you that...

[Raid]

The biggest issues were sharing and slavery. irq and ide respectively.

[zushiba]

This was my first CPU, built the system late 1997. I had a HUGE 200meg hard drive I think like 4 megs of ram. It was a BEAST! I eventually added a CD drive and then a zip drive. Paid for the whole thing in payments working at Albertsons as a bag boy. 
I had no idea how to do cable management and it took forever to get the concept of master/slave down.

[mlbguy4life]

I thought the video I posted, showed all that. It was showing how hard it was to get parts, on how you get a computer, while you CAN upgrade it, you were stuck with certain part to support, and you can see how the cases were awful, and had nothing. But I guess no one is interesting at watching a 28min video from 1992, and analysis it, by comparing today.

I watched it and it brought back some memories, it was a good video, thank you for posting.