Skip to main content
Featured Articles

Two decades of Intel Processors

By August 21, 2015December 5th, 2017No Comments
i7 Skylake

intel_logo

I have been using Intel processors for as long as I’ve owned computers. They have been good to me for many years. I never had a problem with any of my processors, and feel pretty confident to say that I’ve been an Intel guy all the way through my PC career. Below is a brief history of processors I’ve owned over the years.

1992
Intel 386-16 SX

My first PC was a store bought Magnavox with a Packard bell monitor. This system featured Geoworks ensemble and DOS. It was my introduction into PC’s and Bulletin board systems. With a 40mb hard drive for storage, it was a good starting point for any kid. Back in these days there wasn’t much competition on the market. This system served me well for a few years, but as always it never stays fast enough.

1994
Intel 486-25 DX

After a while it quickly became apparent I needed more power. I made a trade with a friend and ended up rolling a 486 full tower home on a skateboard. This was my first powerful system with a 250mb hard drive. At the time 486’s was where it was at. Performance wise this was a perfect match for games. Back in these days CPU’s were just shoved into the sockets, and when it was time to swap them out you either pried them up carefully with a screwdriver or used Intel’s CPU puller tool, which looked like a cross between a comb and a pry bar.

1999
p55c 233 MMX

This was a time when MMX seemed to be more important than the processor itself. I remember seeing commercials for Intel on TV and it felt like the golden age of desktop systems. I can still hear that jingle in my head every time I write MMX. This was also my first Pentium and you could totally feel a new level of power from it. Games ran fast, and you could see technology heading towards multimedia and video.

2002
Intel Pentium 4 2.4A Prescott Single-Core 2.4GHz Socket 478 BX80546PE2400E Processor
Socket 478

2002

The next upgrade along my path was to a socket 478 CPU with 2.4GHz speed. It was another big step in performance and function. It’s weird looking back seeing that my CPU speeds have stuck around the 2-3Ghz mark for so long. While each generation had a performance gain, the clock speeds have remained the same.

2006
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe Dual-Core 2.4GHz LGA 775 65W BX80557E6600 Processor

2006

More recently, but still 10 years ago, I needed another upgrade. This was the first system I had with a LGA 775 motherboard. There were no more pins on the processor to worry about. I still had to be careful to gently set the processor in before closing the latch.

2009
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield Quad-Core 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W BX80601920 Processor

2009

Getting an i7 felt like it was the last system I would ever need. It had good performance and allowed for plenty of room to spare in my cooler master sniper case. Jumping up to 1TB’s of drive space meant that I was able to keep all my games and photos close by as well as plenty of extra room. But even 1TB is never enough for everything.

2015

Now with a lot of games I can’t wait to play on the horizon, it’s a good time for me to consider my Intel options once again. I think this time my choice will probably be an i7-6700K with a decent SSD to be ready for Windows 10. I’m starting a family this year so it might be the last system I buy for some time, until my little one is ready for a pc of her own.

What’s your favorite memory of a CPU? And your favorite brand? Let us know in the comments below.

Author Dennis Kralik

A Newegg Insider contributor

More posts by Dennis Kralik