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To put this into a perspective, Google helpfully reminds: > A fully configured IBM Personal Computer AT (Model 5170) with expanded memory and storage cost arou
by nine_k 22d ago
To put this into a perspective, Google helpfully reminds:
> A fully configured IBM Personal Computer AT (Model 5170) with expanded memory and storage cost around $5,795 to $6,000 at its launch in August 1984, which equals roughly $18,600 to $19,300 in 2026 USD.
- mrala 22d agoIt would be interesting to compare the costs of a top of the line machine every decade or so. Costs were steadily decreasing until recently.
- jacobr1 22d agoThey still are, if what you want is roughly the same as the prior generations capability with some uplift (making then number up, but say 20% faster or more ram or whatever). What is changing is that there genuine demand for more capabilities disproportionate to the cost decrease curve. Fab demand and supply constraints have slowed or even reversed some cost decreases - but that is still getting absorbed by the overall systems costs when you are looking at things like laptops. If you all you want is the last decades demand to browse the web and use office - things are cheaper than ever.
- mikestew 22d agoJohn Dvorak said many, many decades ago (80s/90s) that the computer you want will always cost $3000. That statement has been more/less true for some time periods than others, but with some wiggle room I’ve found it to be accurate enough. Care to guess the approximate price of the MBP I bought earlier this year?
- seanmcdirmid 22d agoI bought my refurbished M3 Max MBP with 64 GB for $3k a couple of years ago. Before Ethan I never spent more than $2k for a computer.
- mikestew 22d agoThe “spend” and “want” number might differ, depending on one’s financial state. I know I’ve purchased plenty for less than $3K. But the one I wanted…
- seanmcdirmid 22d agoI'm old and established (after spending most of my life not), but ya, I get what you are saying. It was a huge leap for me to spend $3k on a laptop. Before local LLMs became a thing, I had completely lost interest in buying anything but the cheapest laptop. It felt like "personal computing" was a solved problem. But...it actually isn't, and this is exciting.
- ahknight 22d agoMy heavily-upgraded M1 Max came in slightly over that when I got it five years ago. (Still going very, very strong.) This new Studio? Can't find a config under $5k I'd bother with. But for the MBPs that number still mostly tracks for the average Pro user. (I buy large and run it into the ground so long I mistake the ground for the computer's remains.)
- mikestew 22d agoI buy large and run it into the ground so long I mistake the ground for the computer's remains. My still-being-used 2012 MBP (which cost me about $3K) says, “hi”. And, as you point out, the new computers I want blow Dvorak’s hypothesis out of the water. Never would I have guessed 30 years ago that Dvorak would be wrong the other direction on price.
- rogerrogerr 22d agoI got a 64GB M1 Max four years ago or so, used. Felt like a ridiculous overspend at the time, but I'm sure smug about it now.