woolstar@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (John D Woolverton) (12/03/88)
Was just thinking about a number of problems that people were complaining about on the computer (coming soon) from next: 1. It cost ~$6500 2. It includes a optical drive even if you don't need it. Now since several people brought up the idea of booting/using a Next machine without any drives, and no-one has come up with a reason why it wouldn't work, this should be possible. Now another fact that I can attest to is that there are people out there who have other computers who would love an optical drive for data storage. (A 250 meg optical removable drive sure beats a bourneli (sp?) box, for size (MB) and safty (optical vs magnetic).) So for the student who wants a $4000 Next machine, who can get a network feed to boot off of, could just buy the Next machine and sell the optical drive for ~$2500 to someone. (look in ca.wanted, post in ?.forsale, etc... We could even create a group comp.next.optical_for_sale :-) This idea brings the Next machine just a little closer to being possible. (Now if I can just get that Apple grant... :-) woolstar@mynext.caltech.edu? -- -------------- John D Woolverton "Yes it's true..." jdw@tybalt.caltech.edu woolstar@csvax.caltech.edu
jacobs%cmos.utah.edu@wasatch.UUCP (Steven R. Jacobs) (12/04/88)
In article <8798@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> woolstar@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (John D Woolverton) writes: [stuff deleted, re: making a cheaper version of the NeXT box] > 1. It cost ~$6500 > 2. It includes a optical drive even if you don't need it. > [ stuff deleted] >So for the student who wants a $4000 Next machine, who can get >a network feed to boot off of, could just buy the Next machine >and sell the optical drive for ~$2500 to someone. (look in ca.wanted, >post in ?.forsale, etc... We could even create a group >comp.next.optical_for_sale :-) The tricky part is ripping out the VLSI chip (a very large PGA) that controls the optical disk, and using it to make a controller board for the buyer's machine. NeXT will sell a second optical drive for about $1500, so selling a "used" drive for $2500 would also be difficult. Steve Jacobs ({ihnp4,decvax}!utah-cs!jacobs, jacobs@cs.utah.edu)