fransson@blake.u.washington.edu (Larry Fransson) (01/18/91)
In article <2508@westmark.WESTMARK.COM> billy@westmark.WESTMARK.COM (Bill D'Augustine) writes: >I am contimplating getting myself a Mac Classic computer, and have >some questions I an curious about. > >First, I settled on the Classic, cause its cheap, and it does what >I would want it too do. In my opinion, anything above an SE, would >be overkill for me (altho colour would be nice, but I can do with >out it) I recently placed an order for the Classic for the same reasons (plus the fact that my 7-year-old //e just doesn't cut it for engineering-type applications... I'm being called a traitor by ][ fans for wanting to sell it). >Anyways, on the Classic model, there are two varities: one with no >hard drive for about $900 and one with a 40mb drive for about $1400. >$500 for a 40mb drive is quite a lot of money, so I am wondering, >if I get the one without the hard drive, can I later add a hard >drive too it? Wow...someone's doing some funky pricing there. The University Bookstore here (University of Washington) has them for $999 and $1299 for the 1Meg and the 2/40, respectively. For that reason, I'm buying the 2/40. In your case, it *may* be less expensive to buy the 1 Meg Classic without the hard drive and buy the hard drive separately. You can, in fact, add an internal hard drive after the fact. I'm not sure what that would involve, but you can bet there would be a charge for some service person to install it. I had considered this route (I have a friend who works in Apple's corporate office not far from here who works as the equipment manager, and could easily do this for me...he told me I should look into that possibility), but it is difficult to find a good hard drive for less than $400 that I've seen, so I chose to go for the 2/40. It should be noted that the hard drive installed at the factory is a Quantum hard drive. Other brands *could* void the warranty. (Of course, if the warranty has expired, I guess nobody cares too much.) Another consideration in thinking about which to buy is how much memory you want. If 1 Meg will work for you, fine. But if you are going to want more than that, you will have to buy the memory expansion card (you see, that's likely part of the $500 difference between the two). Once you've got 2 MB, it is relatively simple and cheap to expand the memory farther. I have seen mail order Simms chips for as low as $45 per MB. (If I remember correctly, they are user-installable, but you will want to check that to be sure.) So, then, for $90 plus shipping, you have yourself a 4MB Mac (that's as far as it goes). I recommend checking the classified ads and various Mac/computer-oriented publications for hard drives and memory. Find out what it is likely to cost you to upgrade later. Once you have a good idea of what it may cost later, you may find it is cheaper to buy it now (I did, anyway). Good luck. -Larry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Larry L. Fransson || UW Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics - - Naval Nuclear Aviator || fransson@u.washington.edu - - Aircraft Designer || It's really handy to have friends who work for - - Extraordinaire || Apple...even if we're not roommates anymore... - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Dennis H Lippert) (01/18/91)
In article <14673@milton.u.washington.edu> fransson@blake.u.washington.edu (Larry Fransson) writes: >In article <2508@westmark.WESTMARK.COM> billy@westmark.WESTMARK.COM (Bill D'Augustine) writes: >>I am contimplating getting myself a Mac Classic computer, and have >>some questions I an curious about. > >>Anyways, on the Classic model, there are two varities: one with no >>hard drive for about $900 and one with a 40mb drive for about $1400. >>$500 for a 40mb drive is quite a lot of money, so I am wondering, >>if I get the one without the hard drive, can I later add a hard >>drive too it? > >buy the hard drive separately. You can, in fact, add an internal hard drive >after the fact. I'm not sure what that would involve, but you can bet there It would involve one of the new "slow-start" hard drives to avoid frying the power supply... >Another consideration in thinking about which to buy is how much memory you >want. If 1 Meg will work for you, fine. But if you are going to want more >than that, you will have to buy the memory expansion card (you see, that's >likely part of the $500 difference between the two). Once you've got 2 MB, >it is relatively simple and cheap to expand the memory farther. I have seen When running a Classic.. you must remember that you're running system 6.0.7, Mac systems are getting bigger with every release... 6.0.7 running on 1 meg is really starting to push things a bit. For the record... I have a Classic 2/40, the student price at Pitt was 1114 + tax & $45 shipping (they didn't tell me about the shipping until I was ready to order... I avoided that charge and a three-month wait by buying elsewhere... sure I paid more, but...) I believe the 1 meg is like $749 here. But honestly, the memory expansion card ($150) and the 4o meg hard drive (approx $350) will add up to the $500 retail price difference... and there *installed*... giving you a factory-fresh, never-opened machine. And as to the point of "If it's aout of warranty, who cares?".... there is (theoretically, at least) not a single Classic on the face of the earth whose warranty will expire in less than 8 months, 27 days from now. Remember... 1 year warranty... released just 3 months ago! Hope the above helps bias the decision toward the 2/40! :-) Dennis Lippert- macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu
gsm@gsm001.uucp (Geoffrey S. Mendelson) (01/19/91)
billy@westmark.WESTMARK.COM (Bill D'Augustine) asked: > >I am contimplating getting myself a Mac Classic computer, and have >some questions I an curious about. > I have recently purchased a Mac Classic. If you use system 6.0.7, which is the earliest release that works (there was a 6.0.6) and is supported on a Classic, you will have trouble fitting any applications on a 1.4meg floppy. The price of $500 for the two meg ram, 40 meg disk is actually quite a bargin. The drives sell for about $399. new. They are Connor 1" high 3 1/2" scuzzy drives. You can pick up a used one on the net for about $250 plus shipping. The extra meg of ram is not just a SIMM (plug in module), there is an expansion card reqired too. So what you end up spending is: Used drive 250 1meg Simm 40 Non Apple card 150 ___________________ total 440 Considering the Apple version costs you only 60 bucks more, its worth getting it for the warrenty. Note that this was with a USED drive, with a new on its almost $150 more. As for price, you can easliy get your local dealer down to $1400 for the 2/40 system (I did). I have heard that Heath/Zenith sells them for $1300, but I did not bother to check them out as I had already bought mine. I would not bother buying an Se as the two differences are: 1.) It has an expansion slot and 2.) It has a second floppy drive bay. Since the Classic has an expansion slot (disguised as the memory card slot for the 2meg model), number one is a moot point. You can already buy non Apple memory and 68030 cards for the Classic. A second floppy is not really worth it, as an Apple 1.4m floppy drive is almost as expensive as their 40m hard disk. If you use an internal hard disk on the Se, you give up the second floppy bay anyway. I expect that you will want the hard disk as soon as you get the machine. I also expect that you will want a 68030 in a few months. The Classic is infuriatingly slow. I do not have another Mac to compare it to, but I do have a 12Mz 80286 and an Amiga 2000. Both machines seem to leave the Classic in the dust. It's not really that bad, but since you can't see the disk activity light (there isn't one) or hear the disk, (it's verrrry quiet), it just seems to be standing still alot. Then on the other hand, if you don't get bored easliy, you may not care. If you've never had a "personal" computer before, I suggest that you look at a used Mac Plus. You can get one for about $500. or less if you bargain. Just make sure that it has at least 1meg of ram, and an 800k floopy drive. If you have it for a month and decide you aren't one of "the rest of us", (you prefer a command line interface) or you decide you like the Mac, but want speed or color, you can sell the plus for very close to what you paid for it and get a system more suited to your needs. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Geoffrey S. Mendelson | Computer Software Consulting | Dr. | | (215) 242-8712 | IBM Mainframes, Unix, PCs, Macs | Who | | uunet!gsm001!gsm | | Fan too!|
francis@uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) (01/19/91)
In article <1991Jan18.212051.457@gsm001.uucp> gsm@gsm001.uucp (Geoffrey S. Mendelson) writes: billy@westmark.WESTMARK.COM (Bill D'Augustine) asked: > >I am contimplating getting myself a Mac Classic computer, and have >some questions I an curious about. > I have recently purchased a Mac Classic. If you use system 6.0.7, which is the earliest release that works (there was a 6.0.6) and is Strictly speaking, 6.0.6 is not a release, since it was never released, if you see what I mean. (Or even if you don't, actually. :-) -- /=============================================================================\ | Francis Stracke | My opinions are my own. I don't steal them.| | Department of Mathematics |=============================================| | University of Chicago | Until you stalk and overrun, | | francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu | you can't devour anyone. -- Hobbes | \=============================================================================/
smiley@gcc.uucp (Wise men still seek Him) (02/05/91)
In article <2508@westmark.WESTMARK.COM>, billy@westmark.WESTMARK.COM (Bill D'Augustine) writes: > I am contimplating getting myself a Mac Classic computer... > ... on the Classic model, there are two varities: one with no > hard drive for about $900 and one with a 40mb drive for about $1400. > $500 for a 40mb drive is quite a lot of money, so I am wondering, > if I get the one without the hard drive, can I later add a hard > drive too it? The model with the 40 MB hard drive also includes 2 MB of RAM - making it ready to run the System 7.X software, when it becomes available. The extra megabyte of RAM in the Classic involves an extra card that plugs into the board, not just another 1 MB SIMM. Thus the $500 gets you the hard drive, the card with the extra SIMM sockets and another 1 MB SIMM. Although the $500 may still seem like a lot for a 40 MB drive and the memory, consider the fact that the power supply on the Classic is small - it needs a drive that specifically meets that small power requirement. Presumably, the drive that Apple put into it does - third party internal drives may not! (Several third parties initially released and recalled Classic internal drives for this reason. They are now beginning to reappear.) Jim Smiley