) (11/07/88)
*** This is an urgent request, as I will be purchasing a PC
this week.
Has anyone heard anything about VNS America Corp.'s PC-AT Clones.
The company's system sounds good on paper and they are located
in Marlboro, MA. (I saw their advertisement in PC magazine)
*** Please help me out - if you have purchased a system from them
or have any positive or negative information please let me
know. leech@tlab2.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech) (11/07/88)
In article <8811062341.AA28184@decwrl.dec.com> rinesmith@genral.dec.com (CRACKERS for HACKERS: Disk-shaped saltines!) writes: > Has anyone heard anything about VNS America Corp.'s PC-AT Clones. I was excited by their ad for a "free 386 system with purchase of $2995 of Xenix software" in BYTE, so I called VNS last week and talked for a bit; I'm not impressed now. Here are some salient points from my conversation. Note that this refers to their 386 system, not the 286. * The motherboard is their own design, 16 MHz/interleaved. I suspect the board is actually manufactured overseas, especially given the unidentifiable accent of the saleslady (no, it was not a Boston accent :-) * The memory expansion board (8 MB) only comes fully populated. $2997 is not a ridiculous price for that much memory, but I don't need that much (or can afford to buy it). Their ad claimed the system was expandable to 16 MB, which I interpret to mean via 16 bit slots (ick). * VNS is not an authorized SCO reseller, though they do have some sort of contract with SCO. * They do not have any printed literature describing the system, nor do they have customers whom they will put me in contact with (at least in N. Carolina). Big warning lights go off over this item. * The sales rep mentioned there might be some coverage of the system in an upcoming issue of PC Mag., but she wasn't sure. I still plan to give the Better Business Bureau for that area a call and see if VNS is reputable, but even if they are, I'm unlikely to buy a system with so few facts in hand. If you hear anything else interesting about these folks, please let the net know. I suspect I'll end up buying one of the new-generation Mylex/AMI boards (lots of 32-bit SIMM memory on the motherboard) and rolling my own system. -- Jon Leech (leech@cs.unc.edu) __@/ ``The law of gravitation is different from many of the others... there are many places where gravity has its practical applications as far as the Universe is concerned.'' - R. P. Feynman, _The Character of Physical Law_
leech@tlab2.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech) (11/08/88)
In article <5127@thorin.cs.unc.edu> I wrote: > I still plan to give the Better Business Bureau for that area a >call and see if VNS is reputable... Which I did this morning. Many people have called asking about VNS, but the company is new enough that the BBB doesn't have info on them yet. The BBB is trying to get info because of all the inquiries. -- Jon Leech (leech@cs.unc.edu) __@/ "I met a wonderful new man. He's fictional, but you can't have everything." - Cecelia, _The Purple Rose of Cairo_
dts@cloud9.UUCP (Daniel Senie) (11/12/88)
In article <5140@thorin.cs.unc.edu>, leech@tlab2.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech) writes:
< In article <5127@thorin.cs.unc.edu> I wrote:
< > I still plan to give the Better Business Bureau for that area a
< >call and see if VNS is reputable...
<
< Which I did this morning. Many people have called asking about
< VNS, but the company is new enough that the BBB doesn't have info on
< them yet. The BBB is trying to get info because of all the inquiries.
< --
If you would post the address for these people, I may be able to tell you
something about them, like of the address is for a private residence or
something... I work in Marlboro, so it should be easy enough to figure out
where they are.
--
Daniel Senie UUCP: harvard!ulowell!cloud9!dts
Stratus Computer, Inc. ARPA: anvil!cloud9!dts@harvard.harvard.edu
55 Fairbanks Blvd. CSRV: 74176,1347
Marlboro, MA 01752 TEL.: 508 - 460 - 2686