mg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Paul Greelish) (11/21/90)
Greetings fellow Atarians. I have to take a computing course here at CMU next semester (gee, what a surprise. A computing requirement at CMU?). Anyway, since I'm taking the Humanities (read: watered-down) version, most of the course will consist of programming in Hypercard. I have been toying with the idea of getting a Spectre GCR for a while now, because everyone here uses Macs --and I like them :-) However, my university offers *LARGE* discounts on Macs. I can get a Mac Classic with 2 Mb Ram, 40 Mb hard drive, and keyboard for $1120 plus 6% PA sales tax. ($1187.20) The GCR route is appealing to me, since it enables me to keep my beloved 1040ST (along with its 12" color monitor-- beats hell out of 9" B&W.) But, it's almost as costly. Summation: Spectre GCR: $219 (cheapest I've seen it) Mac 128K Roms: $129 (ditto above) Expanding ST to 2.5Mb: $270 +tax (have to, Hypercard is a memory hog) Atari Monochrome Mon.: $159 +tax (again, cheapest I've seen it) Total: $820 (includes tax + shipping of GCR) If I sell my ST & stuff, I can get $650 (I figure.) So, the actual cost of the Mac Classic drops to $537.20, plus it has a hard drive, and will run *ALL* Mac software (yeah, I know, the GCR is getting pretty good, but I run some weird software.) So guys, WHICH IS THE BETTER DEAL? I am loathe to sell my ST to buy a virtually identical (and in some respects, inferior) machine. I will get a Mac IIsi next academic year, but I need a Mac *NOW*. ______________________________________________________________ |\ /| | \/ | ike Greelish Carnegie-Mellon U. undergrad quote: "When you're bored, everything is your business." --Me stupid disclaimer: My opinions are dictated to me by a 23 year old telepathic Chilean aardvark living in my closet.