john@granada.mit.edu (John Olson) (04/26/91)
I am thinking about buying a new Macintosh. My trusty old 512kE (with a Dove upgrade giving me 2Mbytes) is starting to seem a little slow, and it would be fun to have a larger monitor and color. The choices in my price range would be SE/30, LC, or IIsi. I have some questions I'd like to discuss: 1. Reliability. The SE/30 has been around for years, the IIsi for 6 months and the LC, about 4 months. How do they hold up? Can anyone comment on general problems that seem to recur? Which one is the least likely to break? MacUser seemed quite impressed with the LC's design, less so with the IIsi; and earlier today I read a comment on the UseNet which suggested that IIsi's may be fragile--any comments? 2. Speed. I know the LC doesn't have a coprocessor, which I definitely want. It's easy to put a coprocessor in the IIsi, but is Apple's the best choice, or is there another choice that's cheaper and/or faster? My priority at the moment is cheaper. If I got a IIsi, which is the more useful expansion card, the Nubus or the PDS? If you have the Nubus card, can you plug in any old Mac II card, or do you have to have specialized ones to fit into the LC chassis? 3. Gee-Whiz. I'm less inclined towards the SE/30 because it's an older model, and I expect it to vanish any time now. I don't know anything of the sort, nor have I heard any rumours, but it is the oldest Macintosh model around so its days must be numbered. Are my fears unfounded? Besides which, it's more fun to show off a newer model. I would appreciate any information you can offer, and I will summarize to the net if there is any interest. Please E-mail to john@segovia.mit.edu. Thanks. John Olson. Disclaimer: I have tried to avoid expressing opinions in this, but if I have offended anyone, I did so inadvertently and I apologise. Besides, I'm poor, so there's no point suing me.