kleinj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (Justin the Blue) (03/13/90)
Greetings and salutations, newsgroup subscibers. I am not a regular subscriber to this newsgroup, as I am not rich enought to own a PC (not yet, anyway), but a situtation has presented itself and it seems this group may be able to provide me with some valuable advice. It seems that, at a new/used computer store just down the street from me, an IBM PC with 128Kb storage has just come on sale. The package includes DOS 1.1...and they say that's about it. (Complete system hardware, anyway...) That, and two SSDD diskdrives. Now, my question is, what with the dearth of software it comes with, is it worth my plunking down $250 for? How availible is other languages for it? Will I have to get a DOS upgrade (I would imagine so) and how much will this cost? I would at least like BASIC for it...where, and how much? I will check back here for replies, so follow up to the group (email if any- one has any really good advice/suggestions/cheap software sources [yes, I know, ha. But maybe they exist]) I need a quick answer...its's on consignment, and not likely to last long. Same with the $250 I may have to pay for it. ADVthanksANCE, -Justin the Blue- <kleinj@jacobs.cs.orst.edu> Corvallis, Oregon.
kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) (03/13/90)
In article <16785@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> kleinj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (Justin the Blue) writes: >It seems that, at a new/used computer store just down the street from me, an >IBM PC with 128Kb storage has just come on sale. The package includes DOS >1.1...and they say that's about it. (Complete system hardware, anyway...) >That, and two SSDD diskdrives. > >Now, my question is, what with the dearth of software it comes with, is it >worth my plunking down $250 for? How availible is other languages for >it? Will I have to get a DOS upgrade (I would imagine so) and how much >will this cost? I would at least like BASIC for it...where, and how much? This is just my $0.02 worth, but this seems along the same lines as the $100/Mbyte thread that went through here a while ago. $250 is just *too* much to pay for this kind of stuff. $100 would be more like it. When you consider that for $750, you can get a full blown Turbo clone *with* a hard disk. Ok, you can skip the hard disk and take $300 off. Now I'm not suggesting that if all you really can come up with is $250 that you shouldn't buy this stuff, but when you consider the relative value of brand new *turbo* hardware with 640k of memory, compared to ten year old non-turbo hardware with only 128k. I guess my advice is, if you can talk them down some, it might be worth it, but I sure wouldn't pay $250. BTW, about three years ago, I too was hot to have a PC... I went to an auction where they were selling brand new, in the box IBM label PCs with 64k of memory. (Any guesses as to why they had to resort to auction.) At the time, you could get a Turbo clone with hard disk and 640k for about $1100. Anyway, when the PCs came up, the crowd went into a wild frenzy, and prices were bid up to $800-$900. I left in disgust. kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propeller Labs Kaleb Keithley spelling and grammar flames > /dev/null
toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) (03/13/90)
In article <16785@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> kleinj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (Justin the Blue) writes: >It seems that, at a new/used computer store just down the street from me, an >IBM PC with 128Kb storage has just come on sale. The package includes DOS >1.1...and they say that's about it. (Complete system hardware, anyway...) >That, and two SSDD diskdrives. >Now, my question is, what with the dearth of software it comes with, is it >worth my plunking down $250 for? NO! You would have to: 1. Upgrade DOS. Version 1 won't run any modern software. 2. Get DSDD drives. You won't be able to read anybody's disks, otherwise. 3. Put in more memory. At this point you could buy a brand new TURBO XT which would run twice as fast. >I would at least like BASIC for it...where, and how much? There is BASIC in the box. But you would have Basic with any clone system that came with MSDOS. >I need a quick answer...its's on consignment, and not likely to last long. >Same with the $250 I may have to pay for it. If it didn't have the IBM label it would last forever! As it is, it would be a foolish purchase. Tom Almy toma@tekgvs.labs.tek.com Standard Disclaimers Apply
cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn) (03/16/90)
In article <16785@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> kleinj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (Justin the Blue) writes:
$It seems that, at a new/used computer store just down the street from me, an
$IBM PC with 128Kb storage has just come on sale. The package includes DOS
$1.1...and they say that's about it. (Complete system hardware, anyway...)
$That, and two SSDD diskdrives.
$Now, my question is, what with the dearth of software it comes with, is it
$worth my plunking down $250 for? How availible is other languages for
$it? Will I have to get a DOS upgrade (I would imagine so) and how much
$will this cost? I would at least like BASIC for it...where, and how much?
I'd strongly advise against it, as it has many, many deficienties (not
to mention its performance):
- 128K memory is not enough! You'll need an absolute minimum of 384K, and
even that won't run most applications - even 512K is too little for some
programs!
- virtually all programs require DOS 2 or higher. DOS costs somewhat
over $100 in Canada; I don't know what the price is in the States.
- single-sided disk drives are useless; DOS 2 and higher can read and write
single-sided diskettes, but nobody (at least, nobody major) distributes
software on single-sided diskettes any more, since the software requires
DOS 2 or higher and therefore the system must be able to read double-
sided media (besides which, can you imagine a package that requires, say
10 DSDD diskettes on SSDD? Yuck!)
So if you do go for it, you'll have to add 384K or 512K of memory to
it (and if it's a really old machine, you'll need a separate board to do
this), you'll have to replace the disk drives, and buy DOS. If you want
a hard drive, you may well have to replace the ROM BIOS as well, since
really old PCs don't have the BIOS support for hard drives. And what do
you have once you've done that? A horribly underpowered machine. It
isn't worth doing unless it's a game machine for your kids, and even then
it's very questionable. You should be able to get a cheap XT clone, new,
for about what you'll end up spending to make this thing usable.
--
Stephen M. Dunn cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
<std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
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"So sorry, I never meant to break your heart ... but you broke mine."