Ah, technology. It evolves faster than we can say “what’s that weird noise?” And in this video, you get to hear the unmistakable sound of a 30-year-old PC booting up, an Intel 486DX2 to be exact. Back in the day, this thing was a beast. It had 32MB of RAM (yep, that’s megabytes) and a 500MB hard drive (practically infinite storage!)

Now, before modern PCs booted up in less than a second, we had this charming ritual where you could listen to your computer boot up, like it was a tiny robot symphony in desperate need of a tune-up. My first PC was a 286, which felt like it ran on hamster power compared to the 486. But it still had a lot of personality — mostly in the form of beeps, clicks, and the occasional “Uh-oh, we’re about to crash” sound. When it didn’t make any noise? That’s when panic would set in.

For anyone born after the year 2000, this might seem like an absolute horror show. A computer that doesn’t just boot up instantly, that sounds like a dying robot every time it gets turned on, and that takes forever to load anything.

So, take a moment, sit back, and enjoy the nostalgia.

Oh, and if you want more, here’s a video of two Quantum Fireball drives running. They sound exactly like a plane that’s about to takeoff!

[Via BB]