dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (06/09/84)
Duke has just received a new list of prices from IBM reflecting some significant price reductions. These prices are hand-written on the copy I got, so some errors may have crept in. Nevertheless... The biggest piece of news is that IBM is withdrawing all 64K machines (except jrs) from sale, but will continue to ship those in stock at reduced prices (contact IBM for details). No word yet on whether the motherboard will allow expansion to 1 Meg by plugging in chips. (This could be the case if they are using 256K chips.) I'm not sure what the lack of 256K chip sets on the price list says about this. All following price comparisons are based on identically configured machines. That is, in comparing PC prices I have adjusted the cost of the older models to reflect that of machines with 256K by adding the cost of additional memory (at the old IBM price of $165 per 64K). Old price New price Item --------- --------- ---- 669 599 PCjr (64K version) 1269 999 PCjr (128K, 1 DS drive) 2599 1995 PC (256K, 1 DS drive) 3128 2420 PC (256K, 2 DS drives) 2795 2595 Portable PC (256K, 1 DS drive) 3220 3020 Portable PC (256K, 2 DS drives) 5325 4395 PC XT (256K, 1 DS drive, 10MB hard disk, async card) 3390 2650 PC expansion unit (10MB hard disk) 2695 2290 PCXT expansion unit (10MB hard disk) 345 275 Monochrome display 595 449 Graphics printer (Epsonoid) 165 100 64K memory expansion chip set 350 265 Memory expansion card (64K expandable to 256K) 55 45 Game adapter 45 35 Prototype card 120 100 Async comm (RS-232) card 300 240 Bisync card 300 240 SDLC card 220 125 Diskette drive controller card 335 250 Mono display & printer card 150 75 Printer card 260 230 8087 55 45 Printer cable 1695 1395 10MB hard disk 695 590 Hard disk controller card These reductions are about 23% for the PC, 17% for the XT, and only about 7% for the portable (assuming the prices I was given are correct). The portable was introduced so recently and at such an aggressive price, I can see how it would be given a lower cut, but it's good news for Compaq (and for Compaq fans like me). As usual, I've no connection with IBM (or Compaq) except as a customer. Hope this helps, D Gary Grady Duke University Computation Center, Durham, NC 27706 (919) 684-4146 USENET: {decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary