steveg@com.com (stephen harold goldstein) (11/10/89)
Ok, one more time. My first post didn't show, my second showed, but had
no lines of content. Third try the charm? Here goes...
Not trying to start a CPU war or anything, but for $4500 you could
purchase the following:
Atari Mega 4 ST (4meg ram, 1 ds/dd floppy)
w/640x400 mono monitor (13") - $1800
Atari SLM804 300dpi *LASER* printer - $1250
Gadgets By Small Spectre GCR - $ 300
128k Mac ROMs - $ 130
Mac System Software - $ 50
30MB Hard Disk - $ 500
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$4030
The Spectre GCR will allow you to read/write Mac format disks directly
and at full speed. The Atari's hard disk architecture and Spectre's
handler give hard disk performace FASTER than a Mac II. Overall
processing speed is about the same as a Mac SE (no 30), but you can
get a 50-100% boost with a $300 accelerator that's available. The
current software allows direct printing to the laser at 144 dpi using
the Imagewriter driver, but for $500, you could buy Imagen's
Ultrascript (postscript clone) and fonts and have 300dpi postscript
printing capability!.
Alternatively, $400 will get you PC-Ditto II and MS-Dos, and add the
functionality of a 10Mhz PC-clone to your system (and I haven't yet
mentioned the utility of the machine in its native mode).
$300 will also buy you an accelerator board that will bost speed from
comparable to an SE to 50-100% faster.
Caveats: Not one to be accused of claiming the above configuration is
perfect, the following should be noted:
Appletalk is NOT supported, but if this is a home machine,
you don't need/wouldn't use it.
When the laser is used with the Atari, it takes away 1 meg
of RAM for its use - the printer is 'dumb' and relies on
the ST's CPU and memory. Thus your machine will be tied up
while printing, but printing is fast (8ppm rating).
Postscript printing is currently a bit clumsy - you first
have to print to disk (hold command-K while clicking ok in
dialog box), then transfer the resulting file to the ST
world, then run it through UltraScript - strange at first,
but quite workable once you get the steps down. Of course
you can save $1750 and not get the Laser/Ultrascript pair,
and use a cheap Epson compatible with the Epstart printer
driver - brings system cost down to $3200 or so, leaving
$1300 to buy quite a bit of software and other add-ons.
The Atari is not for everyone. I'll be the first to admit
that. Dealer support is somewhat limited at present,
but if you're even a bit of a do it yourself/hacker type of
person, it's probably worth serious consideration.
--
Stephen Goldstein steveg@saic.com
My first Atari system? A 24K Atari 800, Rev. A ROMS, C(not G)TIA graphics
Disclaimer: That's not what I said.d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (Jon Watte) (11/14/89)
In article <steveg.89nov10105800@narnia.com.com> steveg@com.com (stephen harold goldstein) writes: >Not trying to start a CPU war or anything, but for $4500 you could >purchase the following: > Atari Mega 4 ST (4meg ram, 1 ds/dd floppy) > w/640x400 mono monitor (13") - $1800 > 128k Mac ROMs - $ 130 Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it ILLEGAL to use Apple software (i.e. Apple ROMs) on any other but Apple machinery ? Also, this might be a workable system, but it's FAR from slick - cumbersome, not compatible, etc. etc. Sure, it's good for some applications, but it's not a mac. No upward compatibility, support for all the various things that make the mac a truly magnificent concept. And it's MUCH harder to emulate an Atari on a mac, because Atari programmers assume so much about the system setup - many atari games only work on one kind of monitor, for instance... But I'm digressing. Followups to alt.religion.computers h+ -- This .signature is longer than 4 lines. If you'd like to see it in whole, please send a note to me. I'm h+@nada.kth.se and also h+@proxxi.se 8')
c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Walter C3arlip) (04/13/90)
About six months ago, someone posted a question along the following lines:
What is the best Macintosh System available for $5000-$6000?
There were several interesting, useful replies. Now that Apple has
released the new IIfx, I would like to pose the question again.
Although a IIfx is beyond the price ceiling proposed, the question arises:
would it be better to get a Mac IIx with the idea of possibly upgrading to
an fx later or is the IIcx or IIci a better buy? Can anyone speculate on
the likelihood that Apple will produce an fx-like upgrade for the IIcx/IIci
in the foreseeable future?
You can assume educational discount prices and need not reserve a budget
for software.
--Walter
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Walter C3arlip c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu
(the "3" is silent) c3ar%zaphod@UCHIMVS1.bitnet
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