Discussion What was some of the most revolutionary PC hardware since the 2000s?

[Order 66]

What was the most revolutionary PC hardware since the 2000s? Ex: Intel hybrid x86 CPUs (12th gen)

 

[Ralston18]

I suggest that you start the discussion with a few thoughts of your own.

What do you think was the most evolutionary PC hardware beyond just a generic example?

Add some explanation and cite some references for your candidate hardware items.

 

[Order 66]

I suggest that you start the discussion with a few thoughts of your own.

What do you think was the most evolutionary PC hardware beyond just a generic example?

Add some explanation and cite some references for your candidate hardware items.

I would if I had actually been old enough to remember. Part of the reason I asked the question was because I was either A. Not alive or B. Too young to remember these components launching. I guess as far as my own thoughts, I would say that Intel itanium was revolutionary (in a bad way) because it went to show that x86 was in fact still relevant.

 

[Ralston18]

Re: A and B above....

All the more reason for you to do some research and reach a conclusion of your own.

Your post seems very much like a homework question and Forum rules prohibit doing homework.

To be fair you may indeed be just interested or curious. However, there is no way to really and truly know from this end.

On the other hand, being just interested or curious is often accompanied by some willingness to delve into the topic on your own without further prompting.

 

[Order 66]

Re: A and B above....

All the more reason for you to do some research and reach a conclusion of your own.

Your post seems very much like a homework question and Forum rules prohibit doing homework.

To be fair you may indeed be just interested or curious. However, there is no way to really and truly know from this end.

On the other hand, being just interested or curious is often accompanied by some willingness to delve into the topic on your own without further prompting.

I am genuinely curious because I have only been interested in technology for the last 5 years or so. I more so want to know what people think was/is revolutionary whether it was actually revolutionary or not. (does that make sense?)

 

[Ralston18]

Yes that makes sense.

And it could be quite a discussion and/or debate.

That said, it is now up to other members to respond as they so chose.

 

[punkncat]

One of the major things in my opinion is storage, and particularly removable/portable storage. Going back a bit just before the 2K and everything was pretty much floppy and then a bit later CD or (even later) DVD based. USB sticks were pretty new on the scene and really transformed the landscape of moving and sharing data.
Even beyond that, the move from HDD to SSD has been pretty transformative to the seat of the pants feel from the OS. That went a long way towards lessening wait times.

Alongside that, the changes in network/internet speed and capability. Even some of the slowest DSL/Cable connections available today are impressively fast by the old dial up standards.

Back around 2K I can recall starting my PC and going to do something while I waited. Come back and get the dial up going, hope someone didn't call while I was online, then trying to load up media rich pages was also pretty much a go refill your coffee type thing.

So, to say that among the most revolutionary things since the 2000's has been the end user wait times improving drastically.

 

[USAFRet]

What was the most revolutionary PC hardware since the 2000s? Ex: Intel hybrid x86 CPUs (12th gen)

ATX standards
Solid state storage, at a reasonable price and size
Moving beyond telephone line dialup connectivity

 

[Order 66]

Even beyond that, the move from HDD to SSD has been pretty transformative to the seat of the pants feel from the OS. That went a long way towards lessening wait times.

I know what you mean. I went from EMMC storage at 29MB/s to a SATA SSD at 500MB/s , the difference was huge in the responsiveness of the OS.

 

[USAFRet]

and NVMe M.2 drives.

Compared to the difference between spinning drives and solid state anything, SATA III SSD to NVMe SSD is not that big a jump.

 

[TerryLaze]

Raspberry PI in all its various iterations , because PCs aren't just the x86 big boxes we have today, the Pi on its own is revolutionary but it has also been used to restore/replace VGA, SCSII, sound cards and so much more on a wide range of old systems and it's absolutely mind boggling, it can replace main CPUs or floppy drives and all of the things.
If you told me as a kid that we could get a $5 sbc and use it as an accelerator board for my amiga I would call you crazy.

Also FPGA, especially the MiSTer since you can turn it into any old console or old PC/micro that you want, well as long as it fits into the hardware of the FPGA.

 

[stonecarver]

Installing your OS from floppies to now a USB thumb drive.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

What was the most revolutionary PC hardware since the 2000s? Ex: Intel hybrid x86 CPUs (12th gen)

If it weren't for IBM and the model 5150 you wouldn't be able to ask that question as the "PC" as it's called now wouldn't exist in its present form. For me, and those from my generation, it was the Altair 8800 that started the personal computer revolution.

 

[stonecarver]

Altair 8800 that started the personal computer revolution.

I always wanted one of those but wife / blocked.

I used to dream of the PC's in Dak catalog back in the day.

 

[USAFRet]

If it weren't for IBM and the model 5150 you wouldn't be able to ask that question as the "PC" as it's called now wouldn't exist in its present form. For me, and those from my generation, it was the Altair 8800 that started the personal computer revolution.

Add in the Commodore VIC-20 and C-64.
I have both, and they probably still work.

 

[stonecarver]

DAK Catalog Summer 1990 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

DAK Catalog Summer 1990

archive.org

Blast from the past

 

[USAFRet]

DAK Catalog Summer 1990 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

DAK Catalog Summer 1990

archive.org

Blast from the past

Back when Computer Shopper used to be 3" thick.

 

[USAFRet]

What was the most revolutionary PC hardware since the 2000s? Ex: Intel hybrid x86 CPUs (12th gen)

Google.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Add in the Commodore VIC-20 and C-64.
I have both, and they probably still work.

Ah yes, those and my Atari family (800, 130XE, MegaST) all still working as if new.

 

[Zerk2012]

For sure a SSD that you could actually afford to use. My first was 64GB and still expensive.

Other than that probably the i5 2500K what a pure beast. Mine would OC to 5.2 and it took AMD like 6 years to just match/ beat it when Ryzen was released.

EDIT I'm also with no dial-up played a old game ultima online and if you were fighting things and lost connection by the time you got back online you were dead and everything you had was gone.

 

[Rokinamerica]

I am with some of the above, SSD's were the game changer for me.

 

[pete_101]

I want thrown in RAM speeds and capacity. I know the question was from the year 2000 until now, but go back a little more, having 1MB of RAM was like having a super computer. By 2000 most new computers came with 32MB, maybe 64MB. Within a couple of years it was 512MB (0.5GB). By the late 2000s the RAM limit of 4GB on 32bit systems was becoming a problem at the high end, so this helped 64bit systems become the new standard. I'm sure I don't need to mention where we are today with RAM, and builders not sure if 32GB is really enough?

 

[Order 66]

I want thrown in RAM speeds and capacity. I know the question was from the year 2000 until now, but go back a little more, having 1MB of RAM was like having a super computer. By 2000 most new computers came with 32MB, maybe 64MB. Within a couple of years it was 512MB (0.5GB). By the late 2000s the RAM limit of 4GB on 32bit systems was becoming a problem at the high end, so this helped 64bit systems become the new standard. I'm sure I don't need to mention where we are today with RAM, and builders not sure if 32GB is really enough?

32GB is plenty for just gaming, only a few games use more than 16.

 

[kerberos_20]

I want thrown in RAM speeds and capacity. I know the question was from the year 2000 until now, but go back a little more, having 1MB of RAM was like having a super computer. By 2000 most new computers came with 32MB, maybe 64MB. Within a couple of years it was 512MB (0.5GB). By the late 2000s the RAM limit of 4GB on 32bit systems was becoming a problem at the high end, so this helped 64bit systems become the new standard. I'm sure I don't need to mention where we are today with RAM, and builders not sure if 32GB is really enough?

sdram has ben in computers since 90s without much changes, it just got some speed and capacity bumps once in a while, nothing revolutionary as it doesnt blow your mind when it hit market
the only exception would be dual channel which on DDR1 dropped latency in half (30ns compared to 60ns at single channel), but in later DDR revisions they scrapped it in favor of higher bandwith
id consider ram revolutionary once sdram gets abondoned in favor of something close to sram latencies or if they start with 3d stacking (on CPU)

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I would say when you started getting multi core CPUs like the amd athlon x2 and x4 lines and the phenom series. Of course Intel had the Pentium dual cores, core 2 duo and core 2 quad. But those and then when they got into Sandy bridge.

After that I’d say any ssd. Nvme is cool but honestly if the first ssd you used was sata based, the difference in speed between even a budget sata ssd and a spinning hard drive is just amazing.

As far as gpu tech, I’d say when the nvidia gtx 1000 series and amds rx 400 series that things began to accelerate.