holt@inco.UUCP (05/21/87)
I've decided to invest in a Leading Edge PC, but before I do, can anyone tell me whether it's worth the bucks? I have not heard much about it, but I can get a good deal on it. I'd like to hear something on its compatability, *real* processing speed (not just the clock speed, but the Norton indicators), reliability and expandability. Does anyone out there own one? Having any problems with it? Thanx in advance, Mark L Holt McDonnell Douglas-INCO McLean, VA
asf@sbcs.UUCP (Alan S. Fink) (05/23/87)
> > I've decided to invest in a Leading Edge PC, but before > I do, can anyone tell me whether it's worth the bucks? > I have not heard much about it, but I can get a good deal on it. > > I'd like to hear something on its compatability, *real* processing > speed (not just the clock speed, but the Norton indicators), > reliability and expandability. Does anyone out there own one? > Having any problems with it? > > Thanx in advance, > > Mark L Holt > McDonnell Douglas-INCO > McLean, VA If you're not interested in a whole lot of speed, I would consider the LE a good buy. I have had one now for 8 months, and just suffered my first hard disk disaster - otherwise the machine is solid and well built. The current LEs come with (I believe) and 8088-2 running at 4.77 and 7 (?) MHz. I can't speak for the higher speed, since I have an older single speed model, but Norton reports and SI reading of 1.0. I do slightly better when I have Lightning Cache installed. The new SI still gives 1.0 for the CPU, 1.8 for the disk I/O, and an overall 1.3 for the system. Not tremendous speed, but fast enough for my needs. [When I need faster I dial-in to a *real* computer :-) ]. The LE only has four expansion slots, which may or may not be enough for your needs. If you put in a hard drive there goes one slot immediately. On the plus side, both a hercules compatible and CGA display adapters are built into the system board, as are a serial and parallel port. So you don't need to worry about multifunction boards. Compatibilty: The only software I have found to be incompatible was Sargon III chess, but a call to Hayden Book supplied me with the necessary patch to get it up and running. The only other real problem I know of (which may already be fixed) was a bug in the display attributes of the mono adapter. What used to happen is in some cases the LE would try to display inverse characters as "white on white" so that you actually saw nothing useful. This bug was discovered some time ago, so I can only imagine that it has been fixed (in fact, my system board seems to work fine, but other people who bought their machines around the same time as me had the video problem). Overall: I like the LE. I don't need the speed, nor multitasking (at least not yet), and like the 15 month warranty, the quality of construction, reset and power buttons on front panel, etc... But I would think twice at this point about purchasing an 8088 or 8086 based machine primarily because of the announcements IBM have made and the general swing towards operating systems and software which take advantage of protected mode (well at least there's a lot of talk on it). Anyway, hope this helps. -- Alan S. Fink UUCP: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax}!sbcs!asf ARPA: asf%sunysb.csnet@csnet-relay.ARPA CSNET: asf@sunysb.edu