Computer Shopper (May 1996)
This ad is from the May 1996 issue of Computer Shopper. While Computer Shopper was a quality magazine with good editorial content, it was best known for the hundreds of vendors that advertised in its pages for desktop systems, laptops, computer parts of all kinds, and anything else you can think of that is computer related. The May 1996 issue had nearly 900 pages and this was probably near the height of its popularity.
This ad is one of hundreds of similar ads throughout this magazine. There were so many vendors it could be difficult to chose one. You could flip through the magazine trying to compare prices but an add would only contain a small cross section of the thousands of products that the vendor probably had. In this case, Price Pointe advertises over 30,000 products in stock. I'm sure within a few years as the .com boom came, 99% were probably out of business. I mean who has ever heard of Price Pointe, the vendor in this ad?
This ad is pretty typical and offers a small cross section of the things you could find in this magazine. Some highlights include:
- Networking - At this point in time, motherboards did not typically have built in networking features. The average user didn't even have a use for one as broadband was not widely available yet. But if you did need networking at this time you would probably be buying a 10mbps PCI or ISA card for about $100. Hubs and switches were vastly more expensive than today with a 6 port hub setting you back nearly $1000.
- Modems - If you were buying a modem for dial-up internet or BBS use, then you would be getting a 14.4bps or 28.8 bps modem. Though prices varied based on brand and specific features, a 14.4bps modem would be about $100 and a 28.8bps modem would be about $200.
- Monitors - The vast majority of people at this time would have a 15" or 17" CRT monitor (though some would have a 14" or if you had the money, a 21"). A modest 15" monitor would cost you $350 and up. ViewSonic, Mag, CTX, and NEC are all brands I recognize though I don't remember ever seeing a Nokia monitor.
- Notebooks - At this time, notebook computers were significantly less affordable than they are now. Speeds in this add range from 75-MHz 486 based machines (~$2000) to 133-MHz Pentium systems (~$4300 and up). Most had 8MB of RAM and 800MB to 1.2GB hard drives. Brands such as Texas Instruments, AST, Hewlett Packard, Digital, and Toshiba are advertised here.
- Hard Drives - You could get a 635MB IDE drive for as little as $173 but a 2.1 GB SCSI drive would set you back $700 or more. Seagate and Western Digital are brands probably familiar to most but Conner disappeared in the 90s. They were once known for producing quality drives but ran into financial difficulties and were purchased by Seagate.
...and much more.
Check out some of my other recent posts:
Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (001-004)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-6-001
Maximum PC (May 2003)
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/maximum-pc-may-2003
Vintage Photos - Lot 4 (129)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-4-129
Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron 6000
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/digital-archaeology-dell-inspiron-6000
Vintage Photos - Lot 4 (125-128)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-4-125
MegaCon 2012: Emerald Rose (14) - Star of the County Down
https://ecency.com/hive-181335/@darth-azrael/ynzhhtyf
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.
You Like It Darker by Stephen King.
The Altar Path by Joseph Lisiewski.
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1996 great year , i was working as a computer store manager in Amsterdam , my daughter was born , great times stll dealing with windows 95 , autoexec.bat and confi.sys hardware conflicts on IRQ settings hmm those were the days :)
You have been manual curated and upvoted by @ecency
Did you know that @stresskiller is also a witness now ?
In 1996 I was still using my 486 DX2-66 based Gateway 2000 but it was upgraded to Windows 95. I had a great time with that machine. By the end of 1997 I had upgraded to a Pentium II.
yeah the pentium II with MMX and soon after 3d-voodoo :)