SHENF@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Zhiyong Shen) (09/13/89)
IBM P70-386 60 mb Harddisk, 20 MHz CPU, MCA, VGA, 4 mb RAM and fullsize keyboard. It weighs 20 lbs. It seems to be the best buy at $4716 with their educational discount, and all major alternatives offer less. Compaq doesn't have a comparable 386 portable with these features. Toshiba 5100 instead, which has a lot less than P70-386 (no microchannel, 40 mb harddisk) but it still weighs 14.6 lbs. Zenith Turbo Sport 386 runs at 12 MHz with 2 mb (expandable to 3 mb) RAM. It is 17.7 lbs with battery. 40 mb Harddisk and 1.4 mb floppy. But it doesn't have a fullsize keyboard. Its battery runs for 2 hours when fully charged. It is sold through Computer Network with an educational discount from Zenith. If you knows a better deal, please let me know. I may post a summary if there are enough responses. I haven't see any article comparing 386-based portables/laptops. If you know one, please also let me know. Thanks.
keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (09/20/89)
In article <3017@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> SHENF@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Zhiyong Shen) writes: >IBM P70-386 > >60 mb Harddisk, 20 MHz CPU, MCA, VGA, 4 mb RAM and fullsize keyboard. > >It weighs 20 lbs. > >It seems to be the best buy at $4716 with their educational discount, >and all major alternatives offer less. > >Compaq doesn't have a comparable 386 portable with these features. > > We had a door-stop sitting here that I upgraded to "Really Useful" status. It was a Compaq Portable (8088-based) with 20 Megabyte hard disk. I replaced the motherboard with a Hauppauge (sp?) 16 MHz '386 motherboard, and added the '387. Cost was about $1700 as I recall for the motherboard and co-processor. I replaced the hard disk and controller with a 42 Megabyte Miniscribe (the 120 Megabyte Maxtor overtaxed the power supply) and an OMTI 1:1 interleave MFM controller. (I had them sitting around, anyway.) As soon as they become available (i.e., left over from something else) I'll replace the Miniscribe with a smaller Maxtor and the OMTI with an Adaptec 2372B RLL controller. Oh, I also replaced the floppy drive (full height, 360kbyte) with a half-height high-density 5.25" and a high-density 3.5" while I was at it. The upgrade was not difficult (except figuring out how to jury-rig the disk drive mountings, which isn't Hauppauge's responsibility, anyway). Now it runs noticeably faster than my 16 MHz Intel 301 system! (I'll run some timing tests "Real Soon Now...") kEITHe PS - I got the Hauppauge stuff from my favorite supplier: K.I.S. Computer Center 519 Mantague Expwy. Milpitas CA 95035 (408) 942-8088 (Ask for Angie Wong - tell her I sent you)