unbent@ecsvax.UUCP (Jay F. Rosenberg) (12/12/86)
Compuadd advertises in various PC glossies and tabloids. They're based
in Austin, TX, and are the distributors for "Standard" brand PC clones and
clone products.
I ordered a "Standard Turbo-88" box, upgraded from 256K (standard) to
640K. It comes with a (noisy, but adequate Qume diskette drive) whose
controller occupies one of two short slots. There are also six long slots,
which you can fill with your choice of video, I/O, etc. boards. I had modem
and multifunction boards which I could transfer in, but I ordered the new
"Standard" EG-1000 EGA clone board to drive my Multisynch, which, together
with a Seagate 30 MB hard disk, I got from another supplier (See "Mail Order
Experience 1: Logicsoft).
Compuadd promised 7-10 day delivery. Thanksgiving intervened, so the
stuff came in 15 days, which I regard as acceptable. The EGA board was
configured and installed and they'ed plugged in the extra chips for the 640K,
so the unit was ready to turn on. Before opening it up to put in the other
stuff, I did so. It booted PC-DOS 3.2, but was a bit quirky and took a
couple of tries. It appeared to get hung in its own self-diagnostics,
usually the EGA card diagnostics (more later), but always booted successfully
in the end and got better as it got warmer.
The Standard Turbo-88 is a Taiwanese box with an 8088-2 CPU running at
4.77 and 8 MHz (keyboard switchable). It has LED's for power and Turbo modes,
as well as one for hard disk access, which there was nothing on my Seagate to
plug into. (Compuadd themselves sell 85 ms Miniscribes. If you're buying an
8 MHz CPU, it seems silly to get so slow a hard disk. They agree, by the way.)
The LED's had been unplugged during the upgrade and not replugged. It took a
couple of tries to get them right. The motherboard is clean; switches
accessible. The "Modified ERSO 2" BIOS (Taiwanese proprietary) has no trouble
with DOS or EGA, at least so far (24 hours!) The case is *ghastly*, shoddy
metalwork and cheap plastic, in ways that make card installations difficult
(some long boards are longer than others!). In all, a reasonable buy at
$540 for 640K box + Qume drive. You get what you pay for, but nothing more.
The Standard EG-1000 EGA board is also Taiwanese. The "user manual"
(12 page pamphlet) is in Taiwanese English to the point of genuine obscurity.
On powerup, the board displays the following: EGA BIOS VER. 1.5 COPYRIGHT
Award Software, Inc.; EVALUATION ROM -- NOT FOR SALE -- Award Software. It
goes by fast, unless the powerup hangs, which it did a few times during the
EGA test phase. Again, we've now been up for about 24 hours and the thing
has settled down and is behaving itself beautifully. The display on my
Multisynch looks very good, although I haven't tried anything fancy. (I'm
mostly a word-processer, not a game player.) I'll keep you posted. For
$200 it seems to be a functioning EGA clone (Note: NOT autoswitch, but the
DIP switches are accessible from the rear of the machine). Does Hercules,
too: tried it with my Microsoft Word 3.0. Another "you get what you pay
for", I guess.
Compuadd accepts Visa or MC at no extra cost (but not AMEX), ships UPS
regular at no charge, and one again avoids sales taxes. Their "Standard"
house brands seem to be acceptable, and they have a toll-free tech support
line. So far, so good. Recommended.
--
JAY ROSENBERG Dept. of Philosophy UNC Chapel Hill, NC 27514
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