bty00298@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (05/09/90)
I'm sure that we're all tired of hearing about the A3000 and how we should all have one. I am trying to provide an alternate view - one from someone who owns a 2500/30. For all you owners of the aforementioned machine don't feel that you're left in the cold. Although the new machine has some nice features that we lack: - 32 bit Zorro III slots - on-board SCSI II controller - more RAM expansion - 2 MB of chip RAM the A2500 can still hold some ground. In terms of computing power, the 2500/30 held its ground. Benchmarks with Sculpt 4-D demonstrated no noticeable increase in speed. Of course Sculpt had to be run under 1.3 (a fix for 2.0 is in the works), but this should not have affected rendering speeds. Also using speed form Fred Fish, the computing index is comparable - with the 3000 outperforming the 2500/30 with the BURST mode on. Disk performance was tested using DiskSpeed 2.0 and produced results that were comparable to my Hardframe/Quantum 40S combination. In fact in some respects my setup outperfomed it. Still, the utilities supplied with the drive give the user greater flexibility - hopefully this is controller independent and will be included with 2.0. What seems to make the 3000 so appealing is the new OS. WB 2.0 is what everyone needs along with the ECS. With these two in a 2500/30 the difference small differences shouldn't let you feel that your machine is an antique. The plusses of the 3000 will appear later as new hardware is designed to make use of the 32 bit bus. With 2MB of chip RAM this machine seems appropiate for those who need MultiMedia power in a small package. In this case a 3000 would appear to blow away the 2500/30. At first hearing about the 3000, I was ready to sell my machine. Now I feel that I can wait for the release of 2.0 and the ECS. Eventually I will upgrade to a 3000 when funds permit. If I could I would keep both, until a 3000 with greater expandibility (read more slots, Amiga and AT) appears. =============================================================================== Brian Yamanaka Senior @ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign bty00298@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu - All comments are my own and if you don't like 'em - TOO BAD!