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How to sell your new killer PC 10 years ago

2002-03-23 - 12:50 a.m.

So, you've put together a killer PC with specs that would have truly boggled your mind a mere 10 years ago. Heck, two years ago it would have been awfully cool.

This line of thinking led me to think, imagine if I could take a few killer PCs back in time 10 years and sell them.

Warning, much geek speak follows.

A few hours ago, I bought a 160 gig hard drive at Fry's for $300. Without using the special PCI card that Maxtor provided (and I don't have a free PCI slot), I'll have to partition the drive into pieces smaller or equal to 137 gigs. This led me to thinking more about the time travel issues. Wasn't there a much smaller hard drive size cap 10 years ago? Not just in what could be made, but in what operating systems of the day could access...

So, here's my guide to issues you'll need to deal with for putting together PCs to sell in 1992.

I admit I haven't done a lot of research, since I haven't even started to build a time machine, but these should get you thinking in the right direction.

1. Bandwidth. If these systems will be plugged into a college or other network, you may be able to slap in a 10Mbit ethernet card. Was PCI common then? Maybe ISA would be a safer bet... so you may have to go with a slower PC to get ISA slots. I guess a 56k modem can still connect at lower speeds, like 2400 baud, so throw in an ISA 56k modem, if those exist.

2. Operating system. You have a few choices (this is a PC, so I haven't considered Mac... that could make a whole different section, but remember not to get anything too pretty, or it'll stick way out as a futuristic item). Dos 6, probably with Windows 3.11... some variant like Dr. Dos... Linux .99 something. I'm sure you can dig those up somewhere. Imagine trying to convince a 1992 person to buy an operating system that hasn't been invented yet... what if something goes wrong? There's no support yet, or even a Slashdot article. And imagine releasing something like Windows 95 four years before its time (shudder).

3. Don't get too fancy. No one has DVDs, so don't bother with a DVD-ROM drive. You can't get blank CD-Rs, at least nowhere-near affordably (did they exist yet? research...), so no CD-RW drive. Find a simple CD-ROM drive, hopefully not 56 speed, don't want to scare them too much.

4. Drivers! Make sure your components all have drivers for your old operating system. Test everything.

5. What are the size limits your operating system will handle, as far as hard drive and memory? Maybe get a few 10 gig hard drives and partition them down. Install and experiment.

6. Cash only. I doubt banks will honor 10-year-old checks. You could also trade for something that's more collectible now and hard to find, like baseball cards whose values have gone up. Look up prices of various things on eBay.

If you go crazy and decide to open a 1992 bank account to get added interest, remember to mail yourself a note (figure out where you were living) so you'll go do something with the account occasionally. Banks tend to close out stale accounts and just keep the money after some number of years of inactivity. Now just hope the 1992 you doesn't go spend all your hard-earned cash before you get home to 2002.

7. Try to minimize your impact. Don't go looking up Bill Gates to sell him a killer PC, unless you really want to mess up the present. Sure, someone may reverse-engineer their futuristic equipment and make money off it, but don't sell to someone you know will go crazy with it. P.S., don't sell it to any military.

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