Legacy Computing, Anyone ? A blast from the past...

[Judge]

Nice. When I think of legacy computing I think of the PDP-11 or Commodore 64

I didn't get really interested in buying a computer for home use until our office got IBM PCs in the early 80s. Back then even my brother was tinkering with his Commodore 64 until his toddler son danced on it.

I started out with a Phillips "Headstart 286" and went on to a Dell 386. That was when I started doing my own hardware modifications, adding RAM to the 386 with a whopping 16 MBs and being able to simply drop a Cyrix CPU to turn it instantly into a 486.

After that one I was building my own systems to the present day. I sometimes wish I would have kept my last computer that ran Windows 3.1, but ended up tossing it after getting it out of my closet only once a year.

 

[Shamar]

Legacy computing reminds me of how inefficient a lot of modern software is.

Yes, it seems like they are thinking "WOW, we have all this available memory, let's fill it up." Not like the old days when every byte counted.

 

[Judge]

Well, my new but ancient 3-pin 70mm CPU fan came in the mail from Amazon.

Installed it right away without incident, and sure enough my Legacy system is much quieter than before. Though I had to reinstall another 120mm exhaust fan that is a little noisier, but brings the RPMs around 1800 to keep the motherboard from reporting in red text that served as a warning. Now all three fan speeds are indicated in green.

 

[fattymeatysardine]

Cool to see that you'll keep the computer out of the closet now that it's quieter. Maybe you can find a use for it. I still use my dad's Windows XP core 2 duo laptop on the go because it edits text fine.

 

[Judge]

Cool to see that you'll keep the computer out of the closet now that it's quieter. Maybe you can find a use for it. I still use my dad's Windows XP core 2 duo laptop on the go because it edits text fine.

The real problem now is where to put it so it can be used in a more practical manner. Translation: Where can I use it to play games....lol. Still enjoy apps like Tiger Woods golf and Quake III. Though using the productivity applications on such a slower system seems pointless considering I have all I need running this computer on Linux Mint 22.1 that can be printed either with my laser printer or color printer.

The amusing part of this continues to be micromanaging technical concerns like thermodynamics when it comes to a 24 year old hardware platform. Once I got it all running and configured again, I noticed the cpu was idling around 40 degrees Celcius. Had me concerned until I simply googled what the normal operating temps are for this motherboard and cpu. -Forty degrees Celcius is right on the money. Though in switching around exhaust 120mm fans I found the BIOS seems to note much of any fan running under 2000 RPMs as being in a declining or failing state, noting the RPMs in red. Which of course doesn't take into account how much more efficient newer fans can run outputting more CFM air but at significantly lower RPMs. So those revolutions in red text in the BIOS aren't alarming either.

Probably my last "feat of magic" will be to replace the front 80mm fan to increase the incoming airflow somewhat, with even less noise that the existing fan that is around 25 years old.

Funny to recall that in this computer's prime I only used a single exhaust fan in this computer which ran without incident between running Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

 

[Outdated]

I noticed the cpu was idling around 40 degrees Celcius. Had me concerned until I simply googled what the normal operating temps are for this motherboard and cpu. -Forty degrees Celcius is right on the money.

This is a big part of the drive for smaller and smaller chips - less power consumption = less heat generated.

We're now down to something like 0.76 volts to run a cpu. Mind you, they're still sucking 75 amps, it might only be 3/4 of a volt but it's got enough kick to kill a man.

 

[Judge]

This is a big part of the drive for smaller and smaller chips - less power consumption = less heat generated.

That's why I appreciate all the feedback from @grommet on his new rig with that i9 Ultra cpu. With temps and performance that seems quite more agreeable than the original 14th gen. i9. Though I still need to do more reading about them to understand all the criticism the computer gurus are claiming at the moment. Though time will tell how well these new kind of cpus will hold up using so much power, and how they may impact other components in terms of thermodynamics.

And then there's also Apple's M4 and soon to be released M5 chips that seem to be in the same category. Much more power but withstanding whatever heat they generate. Interesting stuff...

I know a lot of them are fed up over how the big hardware manufacturers continue to release new models of their products, yet their performance increases seem so nominal that they amount to another round of "bait n switch". But then part of me just wonders if this is there way to justify their own standing as content providers on platforms like YouTube and TikToc.

 

[Outdated]

I know a lot of them are fed up over how the big hardware manufacturers continue to release new models of their products, yet their performance increases seem so nominal that they amount to another round of "bait n switch". But then part of me just wonders if this is there way to justify their own standing as content providers on platforms like YouTube and TikToc.

A lot of people simply can't see past their own immediate concerns. Newer chips haven't been about better performance for nearly a decade and any performance increases have been purely incidental, more performance isn't what they're trying to develop right now because we don't have much demand for more performance.

The demand is for less power consumption and better heat management.

 

[Judge]

A lot of people simply can't see past their own immediate concerns. Newer chips haven't been about better performance for nearly a decade and any performance increases have been purely incidental, more performance isn't what they're trying to develop right now because we don't have much demand for more performance.

The demand is for less power consumption and better heat management.

Though there's one enormous "ten-ton gorilla" in the mix. Whatever processors and other potential peripheral hardware devices that run on or depend on AI-based cpus. And that in as much as Microsoft expects everyone to magically buy newer computers that handle TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, the industry may trump Microsoft as well, to make yet another demand on consumers, just to run forms of AI. Where timing may be critical in the event the global economy continues to slide.

Hopefully AI technology won't countermand considerations like less power consumption and better heat management, but who knows? And also what appears to be a distinct shift in the market away from the demands of gamers and game developers in favor of demands based on AI.

Lots of unknowns ahead...

 

[velociraptor]

I'm looking at building another 486 DX2/66 just for fun. Got myself a nice old VGA monitor for $5 at the thrift store that works. I'm not going to bother with disk drives this time. Using an IDE to CF adapter so the system reads my CF cards as drives. I've got an old Macintosh Plus and old Powerbook G3 I play on occasionally as well.

 

[Judge]

I'm looking at building another 486 DX2/66 just for fun. Got myself a nice old VGA monitor for $5 at the thrift store that works. I'm not going to bother with disk drives this time. Using an IDE to CF adapter so the system reads my CF cards as drives. I've got an old Macintosh Plus and old Powerbook G3 I play on occasionally as well.

Reminds me as well of thoughts of perhaps trying to use adapter cards to run SATA-based SSDs instead of slow and noisy IDE 7200 rpm hard drives. That would be outstanding if I could clone my Windows XP to an SSD and get a whopping performance increase over some very old applications.

Indeed, while I refer to it as a "Legacy" computer, it still has advanced technology for its time. No ISA slots, but 1 AGP 4.0 slot for video and 6 PCI slots for everything else.

I'm also still mulling over the possibility of abandoning Windows XP altogether and running my games on Windows 98SE, which can be done independently of accessing Microsoft online. Less bloatware, but I'd have to drop the memory from 1.5 GB to 1.0GB. (I've never been able to get Windows 98SE to run on any more than 1GB of memory no matter what some claim on the Internet. (The vast majority of my ancient 16/32 bit software runs fine on 512GB. Except for Photoshop, which gets kinda ugly with graphics at 300 DPI or more). But I have this computer for graphics...runs great on Linux through Wine 10.0.

 

[Outdated]

Hopefully AI technology won't countermand considerations like less power consumption and better heat management, but who knows?

It's AI that's driving the demand for less power consumption and less heat. Just a few years back we used to complain about the amount of power bitcoin miners were using, now our power demands are so high that we don't even consider them any more.

 

[Judge]

It's AI that's driving the demand for less power consumption and less heat. Just a few years back we used to complain about the amount of power bitcoin miners were using, now our power demands are so high that we don't even consider them any more.

My attitude is to just wait and see ultimately what happens when AI is ready to hit the market relative to personal computers. Hopefully it will continue to parallel such trends...but with the powers that be and how avaricious they are about shareholder equity, I will remain cautious about what actually happens.

One thing that really concerns me about AI is not the technology, but rather how the industry is exploiting investors to provide themselves with horrendous amounts of capital to use or abuse. And how as their net worth is astronomically increased, that it's easier to hide what they may be doing with all that cashflow.

IMO the technology itself is both fascinating and alarming. But the major players of this game are all entities the public should not trust.

"X-Files, baby! Trust no one."