█ Vintage Computing Museum
← Back to AT, 386, 486 — the beige decade begins
1992

Generic 486 DX2/66 clone

Various — Dell, Gateway, AST, no-name shops

Generic 486 DX2/66 clone
Wikimedia Commons — see source page for photographer & license · source

Specifications

CPU
Intel 486 DX2 @ 66 MHz (33 MHz bus, doubled internally)
Memory
4 to 16 MB (72-pin SIMMs starting to appear)
Storage
200–540 MB IDE HDD; 1.44 MB floppy; 2× CD-ROM
Display
VGA / Super VGA, 1 MB video card
OS
MS-DOS 5/6 + Windows 3.1
Intro price
$1,500 – $3,000 depending on configuration

The machine

The archetypal beige tower of the early '90s. Mini-tower case, three or four ISA slots, maybe a VESA local bus video card, a Sound Blaster 16, a 2400 baud or 14.4k modem, and a CD-ROM drive being treated as a serious upgrade. Every office had one; so did every spare bedroom.

Why it matters

The platform that took the PC mainstream — into homes, into schools, into small business. Behind the scenes it was killing CP/M, the Amiga, the Atari ST, and the standalone word processor.