RAM amounts in retro PC builds

[Retro6]

During the mid to late 90s into the early and mid 2000s I remember all the old computers I saw never had as much RAM in them as people put in them today like for example people putting 512MB RAM into a Windows 98 build. I always found that Windows 98 was better on half that at 256MB RAM and even 256MB RAM is still plenty. The most I ever saw in a Windows 98 machine was 192MB RAM most had only 64MB RAM.

Windows 3.1 machines commonly had between 4MB and 8MB of RAM
Windows 95 machines commonly had 24MB to 32MB of RAM
Windows 98 machines commonly had between 32MB, 64MB. 128MB RAM
Windows 2000 Professional 128MB to 256MB
It only when Windows XP had been out for a while RAM started drastically increasing. Most people were still using Windows 98 to about 2005 until Windows XP became the go to OS.

 

[Retro6]

It must have been towards the end of 2003 it was when computers only had single core and Pentium 4 was pretty new and Pentium III was still considered the best computer. I think my memory might be off by a year or two because Windows XP came out in 2001 and before that I remember my work friends telling that there was a new Windows OS coming out called Windows Whistler which then was officially XP.

 

[Retro6]

I used to go to the weekend computer fair to get cheap computer bits. I was in a good position back then because I could also get things like Ram from work, they had boxes of it and it was all donated stuff. The first PC I got was before I worked at the computer place was a Compaq Intel Pentium pro secondhand with 32MB RAM Windows 98 and MS office 2000. A collage I went to they had 128 MB of Ram in there computers running Windows 98. In 2000 to 2010 I lived in London. Things were cheaper and easier to come by with more markets and other places where you could get Ram dirt cheap and it was good branded stuff. London was very different back then.