Why are older computers better? 

"E90M3" (e90m3) 07/13/2018 at 12:08 • Filed to: None

11

33

Simple, one thing.

Turbo button.

As we all know, turbo is a good thing. 

Azrek > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:13

3

It was always a curious button to me...why would ever NOT use that button? 

Chariotoflove > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:14

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I thought it was because they included a cup holder.

E90M3 > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 12:14

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When you’re going for fuel economy and trying not to hit boost.

Azrek > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:16

0

But on a computer? Does it cost extra electricity? Or cause your CPU to melt faster? 

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 12:16

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The turbo button was there to speed up/ slow down a computer for games/ programs that were designed for the clock of a specific processor. I forget which one, but it is one of those I am going to get shit for not remembering. Someone did an OK video breakdown:

E90M3 > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 12:17

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I have no idea, that computer is before my time.

Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:17

2

Turbo and a Ken Block turn key start!

E90M3 > Chariotoflove 07/13/2018 at 12:18

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I am missing that on my Laptop. 

gin-san - shitpost specialist > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 12:18

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I was curious about this, too, when I was a kid and our family had just gotten our first, blazing fast 486 PC. I think it had 8MB EDO RAM and a 300MB hard drive. Not keeping the button on didn’t make sense to me since everything just went slower.

It turns out some old programs/games used the CPU frequency for timing or calculations or some shit and as a result they didn’t work on the “new” processors, which is why they had these “turbo” buttons on these 286/386/486 CPU PCs after the original IBM processors (I think they were called 8086s or 8088s) became obsolete.

I may not have gotten all the little details correct but that’s the gist of it.

PartyPooper2012 > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:19

2

Turbo turbine spins an air compressor that pushes extra air (and oxygen) into the cylinders, allowing them to burn more fuel.

This leads me to believe old computers were gas driven. Modern computers are electr ic.

What is not yet clear, however, is the number of horsepower turbo added to engines of that era. 

gin-san - shitpost specialist > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:19

2

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:20

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404 - User No Longer Available > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:20

2

Just a thought: an equivalent for today’s PC is a button that switches power state and profiles.

So maybe there is a way to wire a functional Turbo button to a retro sleeper build, maybe the button controls this:  https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/20/14334398/microsoft-windows-10-power-slide-battery-life-feature

Chariotoflove > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:21

1

BMW owner.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 12:22

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It is like not losing all the wiring loom smoke, or using up the blinker fluid on your car.

You don’t want to use up all the processor cycles, or burn up the megahertz prematurely.

Eventually, computer manufacturers took it upon themselves to remove that option, and built that function into the chips themselves, and you can see that to this day... new computers are rated for multi-viscosity processing... 2.9 Ghz, boostable to 4.1 GHz six-core i9 8th generation processors...

You start burning those cycles, overheating cores... your computer will start locking up and giving you BSOD errors sooner ...

Aremmes > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 07/13/2018 at 12:23

0

That processor is the Intel 80286 as installed in the IBM PC AT, specifically the 8 MHz version. Turning a PC's turbo off brings the clock speed down to 8 MHz.

Azrek > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 07/13/2018 at 12:24

1

I will just install a diverter valve. Those always save the turbos! 

Roundbadge > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:27

3

My old 486 DX 33mHz had a Turbo button. I used it when I was playing older DOS games that would run too fast on my brand-new 1992 vintage PC. Those were the only times, though.

That beast had 4MB RAM and an incredible 170MB hard drive.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:27

2

Nibby would know. You need to bait him.

Roundbadge > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 07/13/2018 at 12:28

0

That’s exactly what I used it for.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:39

2

I like CD-ROMS that are controlled through a SCSI connection to a sound card in a VESA slot, because they’re the easiest thing in the world to configure and totally work under any windows ever .

Wait, wait, no, that whole statement was a lie.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:41

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This post needs a gif.

gettingoldercarguy > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 12:47

1

Only if it’s a cyrix.

Nibby > E90M3 07/13/2018 at 12:53

3

damn dude this turns my floppy disk into a solid state

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 07/13/2018 at 12:54

0

486 M ASTER RACE

facw > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 13:08

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A lot of programs were written assuming a specific processor clock, which means older things might run too fast on a new machine. Turning of turbo allowed them to run correctly until an updated version was available.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby 07/13/2018 at 13:31

1

I think my first computer was a 486/33.

Check this video card.

I bought an Optiplex 780 for $20 yesterday. Core2 Duo e8400 proc and 8 GB of RAM. It’s a web/Spotify/YouTube-only machine for my workshop. I installed an 80-gig Velocoraptor 10k rpm hard drive that seems quite fast, actually. But integrated video, VGA only. So I bought that 1GB Radeon for it for $18. Sound purchase, do you think?

I also bought an Optiplex 980 with Core i5 and 16 GB RAM for $30. I ordered a 1GB NVidia Quadro card for that one since Photoshop lots.

Both these boxes are SFF, so half-height video cards.

ranwhenparked > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 13:31

1

It was often counterintuitive - pushing the button usually turned off turbo mode and slowed the processor down enough to run older programs designed for slower speeds.

Of course, nobody in my high school realized that, so every computer had the button depressed all the time. I recall we had a bunch of off-brand PCs with a knight chess piece logo, I think the brand was actually Baseline, but I’ve never come across them anywhere else. Must have been from some local vendor, at any rate, they were pretty much shit.

loki03xlh > Azrek 07/13/2018 at 14:15

2

The turbo button actually slows down the computer so that c ertain games are playable.

Azrek > loki03xlh 07/13/2018 at 14:20

1

Ludacris speed or nothing!

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 07/13/2018 at 15:26

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yeah that’s a decent price

can’t beat $20 for a system that you can still get a lot of use out of... C2Ds are still decent enough for browsing and email

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby 07/13/2018 at 16:02

0

The Velocoraptor drive seems very fast.

boxrocket > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/13/2018 at 19:32

0

CD-ROMs through SCSI? Aren’t you fancy. I only remember having disk (5.25" & 3.5") drives and other peripherals in a SCSI chain.