philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (12/02/90)
The Dove 16MHz Marathon accelerator ($529 from MacWarehouse) looks reasonably attractive to me, but doesn't appear to allow addition of a floating point unit (FPU). The Total Systems Gemini _does_ appear to include an FPU, and is even more attractively priced at $425 from MacCenter (though it appears to use up the slot, unlike the Dove). Has anyone had good/bad experiences of these? Are there any other reasonably priced alternatives? The MacProducts USA RailGun looks good in the ad, but they've had bad reviews on the net. Cost is reasonably important, but I need an FPU. Please post or e-mail (I'll summarize). -- Philip Machanick philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (12/05/90)
In article <1990Dec2.022943.5847@Neon.Stanford.EDU>, philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU I asked about 68030 accelerators:
I've checked further, and had a few e-mailed responses.
So far, it looks as if the Dove Marathon is out because it doesn't
have FPU support. The Total Systems Gemini appears to offer what I want,
but once I've added options like floating point support, it comes to
pretty close to the Stanford price for an SE/30 upgrade.
The MacProducts USA RailGun appears to be a good product - I had 2
positive reviews, and with FPU and 4M of RAM (on a 32-bit bus)
it comes to under $900. On the other hand, reports of doubtful
advertizing practices by MacProducts keep popping up on the net.
So - one more try. A NewLife accelerator, made in Canada, lists at
$1199 with FPU but excluding RAM. If I can find a dealer who will
discount it, this could be a good deal, especially as this is a 25MHz
accelerator (the rest I looked into are 16MHz). Does anyone have
experience of NewLife / recommendations of dealers? Or, for that
matter, any more ideas about good products at lower end prices?
(I didn't have many requests for details; please e-mail if you'd
like the reviews I've received.)
--
Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.educlouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) (12/05/90)
In article <1990Dec5.011154.21728@Neon.Stanford.EDU> philip@pescadero.stanford. edu writes: >... >have FPU support. The Total Systems Gemini appears to offer what I want, >but once I've added options like floating point support, it comes to >pretty close to the Stanford price for an SE/30 upgrade. >... > >So - one more try. A NewLife accelerator, made in Canada, lists at >$1199 with FPU but excluding RAM. If I can find a dealer who will >discount it, this could be a good deal, especially as this is a 25MHz >accelerator (the rest I looked into are 16MHz). Does anyone have >experience of NewLife / recommendations of dealers? Or, for that >matter, any more ideas about good products at lower end prices? Philip, you may want to take another look at the Gemini product. I recently got some product information from them which included a "special pricing" list. Their '030, 16MHz with 20MHz 68882 FPU has an SRP of $895, but this list offers it at $716 for Qty. 1 and $671 for Qty. 2+. (Whoops, please note this one is called "Mercury," not "Gemini.") The Gemini, with a 20MHz '030 and the same FPU is MUCH more expensive at $1,645 SRP, $1,316 for one, and $1,234 for two or more. Anyway, I don't remember how much you said you wanted to spend, but if you're on a budget, you could get the Mercury with FPU and still have $$ left over for lotsa RAM. I've seen reviews which laud the Total Systems product line. I also got information from Newbridge (the folks in Canada)--their prices look good, but I have no idea what their track record is or even how long they've been around. As for finding dealers willing to discount--good luck. I suspect that margins on these cards are quite low, which means that not many dealers will want to carry them. In fact, looking through the ads in the back of MacWeek, I could only find two outfits that even MENTION accelerators (other than the DayStar Fast Cache IIci). --K (Whoops. By the way, SRP = standard retail price. Sorry about the jargon!) -- ........................................................................... : Kathy Strong : "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot, : : (Clouds moving slowly) : and everything's blurry" : : clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : --El Arroyo : :..........................................................................: