Uncreative Labs

Guest

Today I went on eBay to look at vintage computers. I saw this 486

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-486-PC-Computer-DOS-6-22-Windows-3-1_W0QQitemZ8724125907QQcategoryZ51096QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

$81 current bid.

Then I looked at some newer PCs, like this PII 400.

http://cgi.ebay.com/GateWay-400-C-Computer-Pentium-2-3gig-hd-400mhz_W0QQitemZ8726387854QQcategoryZ51097QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

$35 buy it now price.

What is so great about the 486 computers that make them more valuable than a pentium II system?

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 377 Location: Stuttgart, Germany

Darn! I used to have that exact same pc ( just with a k5-pr75 instead of the dx2 ) and I threw it away about two years ago! too bad...
I don't see anything of interest in that 486 auction. The only thing noticeable might be the vlb vga card which is a thing that's not too common, but that doesn't even remotely justify a price of $81. strange...

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 8:01 pm

Some times you get lucky as a seller...

Other times someone needs a 486 for a task only that class of machine can do due to timing issues.

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

I don't know, but I'm almost afraid my site is responsible for it (a freakin Geocities site of all things). For years, I used to claim 486 machines were the best thing you could get out there because I had 4 of them, and they never broke down, rarely crashed, and always did everything I wanted them to do, all after working with computers for about 6 months.

Now 5 years have passed, I've managed to find ways to get a Pentium III running Windows 98 SE to the same, if not a better, level of reliability, yet I still have that 486, now with a corroded CMOS circuit on it's motherboard (and therefore unable to retain the settings regardless of having a battery or not), and it STILL posts, still works, and still runs great.

However, I always thought a 486 would be a $50 or less item. Sure they are still useful for what most people use a computer for, but jebus. And that $84 is not as ridiculous as the one unit I saw actually climb up to the $500-800 range once, jebus!

My complaint about E-bay is the lack of good 386, 286, 8086, and 8088 stuff. Sure they have plenty of true blue XT's and the occasional AT, but I wish they had more of the weird and bizzare clones availible like they used to.

Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 61 Location: sunny AZ

probably the reason that 486 going for $$$ is that there aren't any others up for auction like there used to be.

maybe it's time to sell off some of these old systems I have laying around...

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Hmm...

At that I rate I have a fortune lying around...

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 377 Location: Stuttgart, Germany

me too.
but creepingnet is right, I can't find any 8088 and 286 systems on ebay.
although there are quite a lot 386 systems...

Guest

Pentium II systems are worthless. They are too slow to run any modern stuff, and too fast to run any old stuff. Not to mention that the market is flooded with them. I would take a good 486 over a Pentium II any day of the week myself. Smile

Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 61 Location: sunny AZ

if I had to actually *use* it, I'd take the pII system over a 486. But since I have plenty of both already....as well as some P4 stuff....

Guest

Low end older machines really sell at my store. We have a few PII boxes, but what we sell the most of is the PIII and Pentium III based celerons. They normally sell from $129-169 and we throw in a 17" CRT at no extra charge. The margins are pretty good on them. The snowbirds buy them up for their mobile homes.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 377 Location: Stuttgart, Germany

I sold some Peniutm 3 PCs to a youth group at my town about two weeks ago. Pentium2 and Pentium 3 PCs are great surfing terminals or office machines. they just won't run the latest games and such...
acutally I bought three ibm pII desktops for $1 on ebay a week ago because I like having them around. you never know when there is some guy that just wants an office machine with say office 2000 and is willing to pay me $50 for it. I'll give him that pII 400 and a 15" crt or a 17" one when I'm in a happy mood...

I even sold my athlon xp 2600+ since I don't play games anymore, so right now I'm using a P3 650 with 6x scsi cd burner and two floppy drives ( 3.5" and 5.25" ). It's really all i need. the only thing i kept from my athlon xp was the hdd for which I just bought an externla usb2.0 case for $25.

Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 61 Location: sunny AZ

think of the electricity you could save running a 650 instead of a 2600+

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

I'm still using a PIII for everything except old old stuff. After my experiences on the job (I do repairs for a well known computer manufacturer), I see no reason to upgrade my CPU or upgrade to XP. Shoot, today my ink jet died, and I replaced it with a MINT almost New Old STock Epson FX-86e Dot Matrix, and it works great (and is hella cheaper too).

Joined: 22 Oct 2005 Posts: 61 Location: sunny AZ

i moved up to a p4 to make video stuff easier since I got a camcorder....

and I'm still on win2k, no need for xp.

and I'm still using cheap/free laser printers, they seem to do the job pretty well, easy to network, etc.

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:21 pm

I've got dual PII 400's for my video stuff. It does a decent job, but when I get the parts I'm going to build up a much faster system. (It's a work in progress--video card arrived yesterday. HD's sitting on the shelf above my laptop... motherboard on another shelf...)