tlpmp@homxb.UUCP (Penrod) (10/13/86)
To make my Apple ][e even more useful to my family (and me), I have been considering ways that we can make our favorite applications programs more easily accessible. This is becoming mor important to me as my wife has a progreesive illness, and although she likes to us the computer for church related activities, handling floppies is becoming more difficult for her. Therefore, I've been thinking along the lines of a hard disk until I saw an ad for the RamFactor card from Applied Engineering. I spoke with a technical support type at AE, and the RamFactor may be just what we're looking for. I already have the RamWorks II with 640K RAM and the Transwarp (AE) accelerator. The applications we use 95% of the time include: 1. Appleworks (expanded for the RamWorks II) 2. Dollars and Sense (128K, non-copy protected) 3. Print Shop I would like to load these into the RamFactor (with battery backup) so that the family could get virtually instantaneous access to the applications. I understand from talking with Broaderbund that their policy is not to support easy access to their software, so its questionable if Print Shop could be loaded. My question is for anyone out there with RamFactor experience. Is my "dream" achievable with Appleworks and the non-copy protected Dollars & Sense? Any input about this would be appreciated. By the way. With the expanded RAM from the RamWorks, a 3.5MHz clock from the Transwarp, and a battery backed up RamDrive, it seems the ][e really becomes super-useful. How close to the ][gs would an '816 processor upgrade to the RamWorks card and an added sound board make the above ][e configuration? Terry Penrod AT&T Network Systems Holmdel, NJ
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (10/16/86)
> > My question is for anyone out there with RamFactor > experience. Is my "dream" achievable with Appleworks and > the non-copy protected Dollars & Sense? Any input about > this would be appreciated. Yes, the battery backed-up Ramfactor works well with Prodos (or Dos 3.3, CP/M and Pascal for that matter). The one I have worked fine until I put in an accelerator board from Titan technologies. The combination seemed to work well most of the time but the ramcard would get trashed about every other day. I presume that the Applied Engineering Transwarp is more compatible with the Ramfactor. The problem with this setup is that it won't eliminate disk access. The RAM is still volatile and an extended power failure could destroy all of your data. On top of th that, the 1meg on the Ramfactor is not enough room to store both pdata and programs. The RAM chips used on the card are of a special type, so upgrading is expensive. For all around data security, ease of use, freedom from disk swapping etc. I would get a hard disk, especially since you already have a Ramworks card for Appleworks. Once you add up the cost of the Ramfactor, memory chips and battery back-up, the cost will be about the same. > > By the way. With the expanded RAM from the RamWorks, a > 3.5MHz clock from the Transwarp, and a battery backed up > RamDrive, it seems the ][e really becomes super-useful. > How close to the ][gs would an '816 processor upgrade to the > RamWorks card and an added sound board make the above ][e > configuration? Not very close at all. The power of the //gs is in the programs built into the machine to use those things and the fact that developers know that all //gs machines will have those things, so great application programs will be written for the machine that won't run on your //e no matter how much you soup it up. One suggestion: Upgrade your //e to a //gs. It will cost about $500 (retail) and will still work with either the Sider or Ramfactor if you get them. It also has a built in RAM disk. Insist that your dealer return your //e motherboard (after all you paid for it) or remove it yourself and take your case only in f for the upgrade. Then go out and get a $100 clone //e case and put your motherboard, Ramworks and Transwarp in this case and you'll have 2 c 2 computers. You may need to get a power supply also, the connector for the //gs is different from the Apple //e so I presume the new power supply is included with the upgrade, but maybe not. To get the near instant response of the battery backed-up Ramfactor you might try just turning your monitor off (and hard drive if you use one) and leave your Apple with Ramworks ramdisk on 24 hours a day. This wont hurt the machine (in fact it is probably better for it since you avoid the voltage surges that occur on power up) and will use less electricity than a 60 watt light bulb. Most of us turn our machines off like a TV set but it isn't necessary. Turning the monitor off is a good idea though because it may etch the screen to leave it on all the t the time and it uses more power than the computer and may overheat and become become a fire hazard. Since the computer itself has no moving parts and uses only 5 volts it is perfectly safe. I would shut off a hard disk disk too, because it has moving parts. With a relatively small investment you should be able to get both a //e and a //gs, both running 3 times faster than a stock //e, with lots of memory. Then you can always run your old reliable //e programs and have the ability to run the new things that are sure to come out for the the //gs. Rick Fincher ranger@ecsvax > > Terry Penrod > AT&T Network Systems > Holmdel, NJ