[comp.sys.amiga] It's Not Fair!

ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (06/24/87)

[ REPLACE YOUR 8520.... Oh, I already did that. ]

	July BYTE, 1987, page 142.  An advertisement for a 386-based PC:

-------- Meat of ad follows --------

The 386^16 Monochrome System:
	Intel 80386 running at 16 MHz
	1024K of 0 wait-state static RAM
	1.2 Meg floppy drive
	192 watt power supply
	Battery-backed clock calendar
	Hercules-compatible mono graphics
	2 serial and 2 parallel ports
	Hi-res mono monitor
	150 Meg, 16ms hard drive
		Price: $5899.00

--------

	Now then, let me see.  A-1000: $900.  CSA turbo rack with 512K
static RAM: $3800.  150M SCSI hard drive with controller: probably $3000.
Battery-backed clock: oh, maybe $50.  Card rack with power supply: $400-500.
Total cost of SuperAmiga: $8150.

	PC people have it too easy, and we have it too hard.

	Perry!  Rescue us!

Disclaimer:
	Amiga prices quoted by me are from my imperfect memory.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	ihnp4!ptsfa -\
 \_ -_	 Bike shrunk by popular demand,	      dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o	 But it's still the only way to fly.  hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR?  I don't work FOR anybody!  I'm just having fun."  -- The Doctor

root@sbcs.UUCP (Root) (06/25/87)

> 
> 	Now then, let me see.  A-1000: $900.  CSA turbo rack with 512K
> static RAM: $3800.  150M SCSI hard drive with controller: probably $3000.
> Battery-backed clock: oh, maybe $50.  Card rack with power supply: $400-500.
> Total cost of SuperAmiga: $8150.
> 
> 	PC people have it too easy, and we have it too hard.
> 
> 	Perry!  Rescue us!
> 
> Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	ihnp4!ptsfa -\

Actually, it's more like this:

	SUN-3/50 (4 meg 32 bit ram, 68020, MMU, Ethernet, 1152x900 BW screen,
		  2 serial ports, DMA SCSI controller, kybd)	$5K
	150 Meg CDC Wren, box, PS			       ~$3K
	Sun 3.2 single user Unix license with C, Ftn, Pascal,
		NFS, etc all standard + manuals			$450
								----
			Total price, no shopping around:       ~$8.5K

Of course, the Sun is not easily exandable but given all the "standard"
features, it is arguable whether the average user would need to expand
at all.  About all you would want to add to the above configuration is
a tape drive to do backups with, and perhaps a modem.

Anyways, the point of this posting is simply: if you're in the market
for what amounts to a low end workstation, don't bother trying to build
it out of 386 boards, 68020 coprocessors, Amigas, Ataris, MAC-II's, or 
whatever - you'll pay more and ultimately, achieve less functionality 
than if you purchased a piece of integrated equipment from a established
workstation manufacturer.

						Rick Spanbauer
						SUNY/Stony Brook