@DarthAzrael 9 November 2022

Is the Compaq Presario 2240 a retrocomputing pleasure or a piece of junk? It turns out that those are not mutually exclusive categories. If you were a PC power user in the late 1990s looking at computers, then this particular PC would have looked like one of the biggest pieces of junk out there. However, from the perspective of nostalgia, the unique though flawed design helps to make it a fun and interesting machine. So what is so bad about this machine that some would look on it as a piece of junk? First some basic specs: CPU: AMD K6-200 w/256KB pipeline burst cache on the motherboard Memory: 32MB 66MHz SDRAM standard (currently 48MB) Video: S3 Trio V2/DX w/ 1MB Hard Drive: 2.1 GB (currently using 64GB compact flash) Sound: ES1888 Audio Drive Of course those don't mean a whole lot without the context of the time this machine was available and the cost. As far as cost, this computer (without monitor) retailed for $799 though I've seen another document that says $1200 so I'm not sure. But it could have easily varied by that much through the course of a year. It would have been in stores some time in 1998. I found an announcement for it dated January 1998 and have seen claims of it being purchased at the end of May 1998. For some context, I got my 333MHz Pentium II based Gateway 2000 computer on Christmas 1997. Read more: https://hive.blog/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/digital-archaeology-compaq-presario-2240