Typical PCs Each Year
Introduction
Nowadays it can be difficult to recall what PCs were common in any given year, and even more crucially, what components/chipsets were common. This page aims to catalogue low-end to high-end PCs and their component parts for each year during the DOS era. UK and USA prices and trends are reported.
One caveat here is that the various prices and models mentioned have been taken from major high-street computer magazines, so the focus here is on the everyday computer buyer, not large corporate businesses.
The table below shows a summary of the type of PC for each year. Click on the link to go to that year:
| Year | Clearance/Low-End | Budget/Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | - | - | 8086 4.77 MHz, single floppy, MDA/CGA |
| 1983 | - | - | 8086 4.77 MHz, single floppy, MDA/CGA |
| 1984 | - | 8088/8086 4.77 MHz, single floppy, CGA | 8086 4.77 MHz, 10 MB HDD, EGA |
| 1985 | - | 8086 4.77 MHz, 10 MB hard disk | 80286-6, 20 MB HDD, EGA |
| 1986 | 8088/8086 4.77 MHz | 80286-6, 20 MB HDD | 80286-8, 20 MB HDD, EGA |
| 1987 | 8088/8086 8 MHz | 80286-10, 40 MB HDD | 386DX, 70 MB HDD, MCGA/VGA |
| 1988 | 8088/8086 8 MHz | 386DX-16 | 386DX-20 |
| 1989 | 8088 or 80286 10 MHz, 40 MB HDD | 386DX-20 or 25, or 386SX-25 | 486DX-25 |
| 1990 | 386DX-20 | 386DX-33 or 486DX-25 | 486DX-33 |
| 1991 | 386DX-33 | 486SX-25 | 486DX-40 |
| 1992 | 486SX-33 | 486DX-33 | 486DX2-66 |
| 1993 | 486SX-33 | 486DX-40 | 486DX2-66 / Pentium 66 |
| 1994 | 486DX-25 | 486DX2-66 | 486DX4-100 / Pentium 75/90 |
| 1995 | 486DX4-100 | Pentium 75 | Pentium 100 |
| 1996 | Pentium 75 or 90 | Pentium 100 or 133 | AMD K5 or Pentium MMX 166 or 200 MHz |
| 1997 | Pentium 100 | AMD K5 or Pentium MMX 166 | Pentium II 233 or AMD K6 or Cyrix 6x86 |
| 1998 | AMD K5 or Pentium 166 | AMD K6 or Pentium 200/233 | AMD K6-2/450, 3dfx Voodoo 2 or nVidia Riva 128 |
| 1999 | AMD K6 or Pentium II 233 | AMD K6-2/450 or K6-2+ | AMD K6-3+ |
| 2000 | AMD Athlon | ||
| 2001 |