Here’s a Blast from the Past, a Best Buy flier from 1996 advertising sale prices on Hewlett-Packard, Packard Bell, and Macintosh Multimedia Computers. These are start-of-the-art systems approaching 200MHz speeds! A 133MHz HP Pentium package goes for $1899, while a blazing fast 180MHz PowerPC-based Mac will set you back $2399 – monitor sold separately.
Fast forward 15 years. Packard Bell is history, HP nearly so, and you can buy a new 21″ iMac for $1099 – monitor included. Beleagured Apple Computer survived and thrived after all, and that old Performa 6400 probably still works. How times change…
[via HolyKaw]
Adam Rosen is an Apple certified IT consultant specializing in Macintosh systems new and old. He lives in Boston with two cats and too many possessions. In addition to membership in the Cult of Mac, Adam has written for Low End Mac and is curator of the Vintage Mac Museum. He also enjoys a good libation.
38 responses to “Those Were the Days: Multimedia Computers from HP, Packard Bell and Apple in 1996”
I used two of the three computers (the good Packard Bell) and the Stylewriter. That was back when I had a disposable income and laughable responsibility. ::sigh::
So this is what news is to CultofMac.
Well, at least the price of printers has come down.
lighten up
And actually, there’s an error in that ad. The Performas all included a monitor at Best Buy at that time (I was a “Home Office Department Supervisor” there around that time). Apples were new to the company, and the ad department was so used to having to place monitors in the adverts for the PCs that they simply stuck it in. Some of the Packard Bell machines included monitor deals, too, but 9 out of 10 times, those machines would end up being returned.
LOVE
IT!
:D
That is nothing, I had a PowerMac 9500/120 that I bought it 1995…JUST the tower alone was $4599, then the monitor was another $1000 (17″ Multiple Scan)…the 9500/132 was the faster model and it was going for $5299. The PowerBook 5300ce/117 was the fastest PowerBook at the time, had a whopping hi-res 800×600 10.4″ display and cost $6399 — yeah, the PowerMac 6400 shown above was more of a Performa machine for the low-end, the higher-end PowerMacs cost much more back then.
Haha I used to have that HP (CPU and monitor w/ those nifty little clip on speakers) only with a 3gb hdd AND Muppets Treasure Island.
Hahaha so many memories. I worked for Packard HELL tech support call center supporting the computer in that picture…. OMG…. WTF those things were… a ROYAL POS!!!!
The best part is that 1.6 GB hard drive. If CPU speeds had increased as much as HD capacities, we would be at around 200 Ghz.
I got my first PC back in mid 96. I remember looking lustfully at machines such as these, for a few years! A 2GB hard drive looks pitiful, but I’m sure it was the equivalent to a 500Gb drive today, when you consider the files we were using were a LOT smaller in size.
Is that windows 7 running on the packard bell?
I remember the 2k i dropped on an Apple Performa as my first Mac and playing Marathon on it.
Historical stuff is awesome Daniel. I’m with Somoma. Great retro trivia. 1996 was five years or so after Commdore’s demise. I used Macs back then at work only. I used Commodore and Amiga equipment at home since it was affordable – started with my first Vic-20. I recall the Mac emulators you could buy for the Amiga.
Fortunately those are not the days anymore :D
“RAM Doubler” was such a ripoff. It did nothing of the sort.
Commadore’s Demise???
You can buy one today, they have core i7 processors….
http://www.commodoreusa.net/CU…
Fantastically gay author bio.. It’s great, though
All of Apple’s “old” equipment still works. That’s why their the best!
Yeah, my Performa is definitely running, with 10 Base T network and an ATA HD too!