noring@netcom.UUCP (Jon Noring) (07/29/90)
Hello,
My wife and I will soon purchase a 386-33 PC. We've visited several makers
in the Bay Area of California and would like some feedback on what we
believe to be very good prices on the configurations we are interested in.
In particular, we would like to know if any of you have had any negative
experiences with the makers that will be mentioned, or if there are any
problems with any of the components. I'd also like to know if we could do
better with respect to price without sacrificing quality or reliability.
The best quote we've gotten so far is from High Definition Systems in
Santa Clara. The configuration:
386-33 with 64K cache (the motherboard from Data ... - I can't remember the
rest of the manufacturers name).
1 Mb RAM
1.2 Mb F.D.D. and 1.44 Mb F.D.D. (Teac)
150 Mb ESDI H.D.D., 16 ms (NEC)
ESDI HD/FL Controller
AT I/O Card (25. IP. IG Port)
VGA Card w/1 Mb (Orchid Pro-Designer II)
NEC 3D Multisync Monitor
Full-Size Tower Case with 250 watt Power Supply
101 Key Enhanced Keyboard
2400 Baud Internal Modem
The quoted price is $3378 for the above system (not including tax).
It is claimed that the performance of this configuration is Landmark 55.9,
SI 45.9.
We've also looked at, or are considering looking at, configurations from
L.I.U. in Fremont, Microcom in Fremont, Nordic in Concord, as well as
Tri-Star, Zeos and Gateway (Nordic, Tri-Star, Zeos and Gateway are a little
more expensive, but appear to put together excellent machines with outstanding
service.)
I thank you for your feedback, Jon Noringdhiman@motcid.UUCP (Ravinder Dhiman) (07/30/90)
noring@netcom.UUCP (Jon Noring) writes: >My wife and I will soon purchase a 386-33 PC. We've visited several makers >in the Bay Area of California and would like some feedback on what we [...] >386-33 with 64K cache (the motherboard from Data ... - I can't remember the > rest of the manufacturers name). >1 Mb RAM >1.2 Mb F.D.D. and 1.44 Mb F.D.D. (Teac) >150 Mb ESDI H.D.D., 16 ms (NEC) >ESDI HD/FL Controller >AT I/O Card (25. IP. IG Port) >VGA Card w/1 Mb (Orchid Pro-Designer II) >NEC 3D Multisync Monitor >Full-Size Tower Case with 250 watt Power Supply >101 Key Enhanced Keyboard >2400 Baud Internal Modem >The quoted price is $3378 for the above system (not including tax). [...] >I thank you for your feedback, Jon Noring You don't mention what you are going to do with the machine. If you are just going to run DOS applications, save yourself some money and get a 386-20 (20 MHz). If you are going to run Unix or some other such OS, be careful about the motherboard manufacturer and the maker of the BIOS (e.g., AMI, Phoenix, etc.), especially the latter. If you intend to do multitasking -- regardless of the OS -- you will probably want more than just 1MB RAM (try 4MB). --- Ravi Dhiman Motorola, Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div. Arlington Heights, IL Disclaimer: My opions only, not my employers.