rlchan@tiger.waterloo.edu (Rob Chan) (04/13/91)
I'm new in the Macintosh world. I was wondering if anyone could help me decide which of the two Macs to buy. An SE/30 or an LC? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two with regards to:- System 7.0 Expandability Goodies that come with them (ex. microphone ) Thanks in advance. Robert Chan. University of Waterloo Canada
afry@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Alan R. Fry) (04/13/91)
In article <1991Apr13.025606.18104@watdragon.waterloo.edu> you write: >I'm new in the Macintosh world. I was wondering if anyone could help me >decide which of the two Macs to buy. An SE/30 or an LC? What are the >advantages and disadvantages of the two with regards to:- > > System 7.0 > Expandability > Goodies that come with them (ex. microphone ) > >Thanks in advance. > >Robert Chan. >University of Waterloo >Canada Off the top of my head: System 7.0: LC: Can't use virtual memory (no PMMU), but can access larger size memories (up to 10 meg) since it has 32-bit clean ROMs. SE/30: Can use virtual memory (since it has a PMMU) but it can't access larger than 14 meg memory (virtual or real) since it doesn't have 32-bit clean ROMs. Expandability: LC: You can plug in almost any 640 by 480 color monitor into the built in video, but you will probably need the VRAM upgrade to do anything serious. You can also get the Apple IIe emulation card if you have any use for this. The LC has an expansion slot, and a few companies are coming out with accelerators, co-processor cards, and ethernet cards. But note that the LC has a cheaper power supply which can't run some power-hungry boards (some 24-bit color boards will over-tax it). Also, the LC can only use 1" height 3.5" internal hard drives, which are more expensive and come in fewer sizes (at least for now). SE/30: The SE/30 has the processor direct slot into which you can put a number of third party products (acclerators, ethernet cards, 8- and 24- bit color cards, etc.) Unfortunately, most of the market for upgrade boards is in the NuBus (i.e. MacII) arena, but there are still good products out there for the SE/30. The power supply, as far as I know, is high enough power to run most anything. One can install any 3.5" hard drive into the SE/30. Goodies: LC: The microphone (i.e. built-in sound input). But the sound output is mono. Built in color and grayscale video. 512K (32-bit clean) ROMs. Plus the LC is small enough to be portable with a small monitor. Comes with a passable ADB keyboard. SE/30: Built in co-processor. Stereo sound output. Built in video (although the screen is small and B&W). Built in speed (about 1.5 to 2 times as fast as the LC for a many operations, and about 200 times as fast for mathematical operations that use the co-processor). Easy transportability. Eight SIMM slots (up to 8-meg of memory with inexpensive 1-meg SIMMs) instead of the two in the LC (although you can put 4-meg SIMMs in for a total of 10 meg). I think the LC is a good family machine, and I am encouraging my mother to look in to buying one (the old mother acid test :-). Partially this is because it is a very affordable machine, and it is nice to have color for a lot of things, but it is also partially because I know she won't do enough 'serious' computing to need more than the LC (i.e. she won't be calculating giant spread sheets, doing mathematical modeling, or making huge CAD drawings). I would not recommend the LC to a student in a techincal field (chemistry, physics, engineering, etc) or to a person who wanted to do any sophisticated graphic arts work. The LC can be upgraded to be useful in these fields, but you are probably better off getting an SE/30 or a IIsi at the outset. I bought an SE/30 myself. I do a lot of scientific work, and I couldn't live with the slower processor and smaller memory of the LC. If I were to have bought a IIsi, I would have been in good shape for speed, but for the price I could get a much nicer (in my opinion) SE/30 (i.e. larger hard drive, more memory) *and* get a color card and monitor. I have recommended the SE/30 to a lot of my friends (mostly physics students), and those who have gotten it have been pretty happy with theirs. For a lot of good information, check out the December 1990 MacUser which does a thorough review of the Classic, LC, and IIsi along with doing a lot of speed and feature comparisons among all the Macs. Hope this helps, Alan -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Alan R Fry | You know what I hate? | | afry@uhura.cc.rochester.edu | Rhetorical questions. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+