Comment by cr0sh

I got my second PC in 1992 or 93; it was an Acer 486 DX2/50 with 4 meg and VESA video. IIRC, the video resolution could be run up to around 1280x1024 (I'm not sure of bit depth, probably 8 bit or maybe 15 bit), but with a 14 inch CRT monitor, Windows 3.1 was not very usable (everything was so tiny, and a bit blurry); I think I used to run at 1024x768 in 16 or 24 bit depth.

Monitors were crazy expensive, though - so was video RAM or cards with a "lot" of RAM. I didn't move up to a 19 inch monitor (Sony Trinitron) until years later, when they finally became affordable to me (around $500.00 USD) - probably around 1996 or 97. I stuck with that monitor for a long while, but eventually got an LCD monitor as a "hand-down" from my work.

A lot of my later equipment came from work cast-offs; sadly that hasn't happened as much as it used to (I have this perverse liking of cast-off hardware). Virtually all of my most recent stuff has been purchased new and assembled, though I do grab the occasional cast-off when and where possible.