History of PC performance - What money can buy
Each year in the late October to early November time frame I check the prices for a wide range of Personal Computers and add the current makes and models to my price list which goes all the way back to the 1960's to see what your money can buy.
For the computers listed below, I started out with a target system cost of about $3,000 dollars, which is what I would call a high end or performance PC. I not going to list each year and all the price groups which start out with entry level models (less than $600.00) and include mid range systems (the sweet spot of computers for about $1,500 dollars), the performance models (about $3,000) and on up in price to the gaming computers which range in price from 5,000 to 15,000 dollars.
This 10 year list (skipping every other year) should give you a good idea on how much progress has been made and fits a general rule that a four year old top of the line performance PC is equaled or outperformed by even a current year's entry level PC. Near the end of the list I've included a 2008 Dell model 530 costing $609 as a reference.
The pricing for the systems listed below are or where available on the PC vendors web site and do not represent the starting price for a particular model but are based on the final cost when "customizing" the system by selecting various options in order to reach a price at or slightly above $3,000.00.
Also take note that the list may not include every piece of hardware included as part of the package and does not show any software that may have been bundled with the system at that time. Since a vendor's pricing often varies, sometimes from week to week as one special offer ends and another begins, you may find that the prices shown here do not exactly match what you may have paid for a similar system. Warranty or support plans are not shown unless specifically noted.
1998 - Gateway G6-450XL - $3499.00
450MHz Pentium II Processor with 512KB Cache
128MB 100MHz-SDRAM
16GB Hard Drive
19" CRT Monitor, 8MB AGP Graphics Accelerator +12MB 3Dfx Voodoo2 3-D Accelerator
DVD-ROM Drive + MPEG2 Decoder, CD-RW Drive, TV/FM Tuner Card
64Bit PCI Sound Card, Media Theater Speakers, 56K Voice WinModem
Windows 98
2000 - DELL 8100 Series - $3,248.00
1.5GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
128MB Rambus 400 MHz RDRAM Memory
80GB Ultra ATA-100 (5200 RPM) Hard Drive
19" CRT Monitor, 64MB AGP-4X NVIDIA GeForce2 Graphics
12X DVD ROM and 12X CD-RW Drive
Digital Sound Card, Surround sound speakers with Subwoofer
56K V90 WinModem
Windows ME
2002 - DELL 8250 Series - $3,158.00
2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory
200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card
16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives
Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system
10/100 Network Interface Card
Windows XP Home Edition
2004 - DELL XPS GEN 4 Series - $3,394.00
3.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor with Hyper-Threading Technology
2.0GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz Memory
250GB SATA (Serial ATA) Hard Drive
19" CRT Monitor, 256MB PCI Express x16 (Up to 4 GB/s of peak bandwidth) Nvida GeForce 6800 Graphics Card
16X DVD Burner and 48X CD-RW Drives
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, Dell 5650 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers with Subwoofer
10/100 Network Interface Card
Windows XP Medial Center Edition with TV Tuner and remote control
2006 - Gateway FX-510XG - $3,117.98
Intel® Core™2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz 1066MHz FSB 4MB cache, non-HT)
4.0GB (4096 MB) PC5300 dual-channel DDR2 667MHz SDRAM (4-1024MB modules)
500GB (Two 250GB Serial ATA II drives, 7200 RPM) and 1.44 Floppy drive
21" Widescreen High-Definition performance LCD display
16x Double-Layer Multi-Format DVD Writer (DVD±/R±RW/CD-R/RW) (Qty 2)
9-in-1 media card reader and floppy drive
ATI Radeon X1900 CrossFire, 512MB DDR3 memory, dual DVI(via adapter), VGA(via adapter)
Logitech Z-5300e 280 Watt 5.1 THX Certified Surround Speakers with Subwoofer
56K data/fax modem
Integrated Broadband Ethernet (10/100/1000 Gigabit) Network interface
Windows XP Pro SP2 with Backup CD
Price includes 3 years part/labor/tech support plan
2008 - Gateway FX541XG - $3,219.98 MSRP (Available from retailers, pricing may vary)
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor1 QX6850 (3.00GHz, 1333MHz, 8MB L2 Cache)
4.0GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM (4-1024MB module)
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800GT 512MB Factory Overclocked with SLI™ Technology (Dual DVI, VGA adapter and TV Out)
1000GB 7200rpm Serial ATA II/300 hard drive w/ 16MB cache & Raid 0
(Two 500GB hard drives)
22" Widescreen display, LCD Active Matrix TFT, 1680 x 1050
Optical Drive Hybrid Blu-Ray/HD DVD Player / SuperMulti Format DVD-RW DL Drive
Second Optical Drive DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive featuring Labelflash™
700 Watt Power Supply
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI Sound Card
Media Card Reader 9-in-1 Memory Card Reader
Network (2) Integrated Gigabit (1000) Ethernet Connections
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) SP1
2008 – Dell Inspiron 530 - $609 (Entry Level)
* Compare this model with the 2004 DELL XPS GEN 4 Series costing $3,394.00
Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E2200 (1MB L2, 2.2GHz, 800FSB)
Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs
320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio (No speakers included)
Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader
Internal PCI 802.11g Wireless Network Card
2009 - Dell Studio XPS 8000 $3,200 (Performance)
Intel® Core™ i7-870 processor (8MB Cache, 2.93GHz)
MEMORY - 12GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 4 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE - Blu-ray Disc (BD) Burner (Writes to DVD/CD/BD)
VIDEO CARD - nVidia GeForce GTX260 1792MB GDDR3
SOUND CARD - Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
SPEAKERS - Bose Companion 3 Series II Multimedia Speaker System
KEYBOARD - Dell Wireless Desktop Keyboard & Mouse
MOUSE - Mouse included with Keyboard purchase
MONITOR - Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ 22-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor
2 NVIDIA - GeForce 3D Vision Extra Glasses
OFFICE SOFTWARE - Microsoft Works 9.0
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
SECURITY SOFTWARE Norton Internet Security™ 2009 ion 15-months
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
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