patel@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Amit Patel ) (11/15/90)
Just wanted to get some outside input before I commit to anything. I am going to buy a Mac in the near future, and I've narrowed it down to the SE/30 or the Mac IIsi. Here are the configurations and prices at Penn: SE/30: 2/40 $2278, 5/40 $2473, 4/80 $2896 IIsi: 2/40 $2454, 5/40 $2686, 4/80 $2942. Additional costs if I buy the IIsi: 68882 coprocessor, so I don't have the compatibility problem that seems to be popping up: $181 Monitor: Mono $275, RGB 12" $402, RGB High 13" $671. Right now, I'm leaning towards getting the SE/30. Money is important, here, and the features of an si don't seem that important. Color would be nice, but nothing that I would use (or are there programs out there that make this a productive feature?). I can get a MacRecorder if I want a mike. And I can always expand later. So, can anyone give me a convincing reason to go for the IIsi? Or should I stick with the SE/30? -- Jeff Porten, Annenberg School for Communication, UPenn (sjporte@asc.upenn.edu)
boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin) (11/18/90)
patel@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Amit Patel ) writes: >Just wanted to get some outside input before I commit to anything. I am >going to buy a Mac in the near future, and I've narrowed it down to the >SE/30 or the Mac IIsi. Here are the configurations and prices at Penn: >SE/30: 2/40 $2278, 5/40 $2473, 4/80 $2896 >IIsi: 2/40 $2454, 5/40 $2686, 4/80 $2942. >Additional costs if I buy the IIsi: >68882 coprocessor, so I don't have the compatibility problem that seems to be >popping up: $181 PSI Integration offers an 030 PDS adaptor with a mounted 882 chip AND a slot (which the Apple equivalent does not offer) for an optional $300 cache card which PSi says will improve performance a further 25% to 70%, all for $135 (academic pricing). Their ads are in the back of MacWeek/User/World. >Monitor: Mono $275, RGB 12" $402, RGB High 13" $671. There's a $250 rebate from Apple on the 13" RGB until year's end that you're not factoring in. >Right now, I'm leaning towards getting the SE/30. Money is important, here, >and the features of an si don't seem that important. Color would be nice, >but nothing that I would use (or are there programs out there that make this >a productive feature?). I can get a MacRecorder if I want a mike. And I can >always expand later. First, the IIsi is roughly 25% faster when an FPU is installed. Second, a 13" screen (which you could but probably won't add to the SE/30, since with the necessary video card it comes up to quite a bundle) will make you wonder how you ever lived with the 9" one. You don't say in which areas your computing is concentrated, but color, apart from making your environment nicer to look at (which, I found, improves productivity quite a lot during long work sessions or when I'm tired), has a surprising number of uses that have nothing to do with presentation or DTP. Charting your categories in color, even using the primitive capabilities of Microsoft Excel 2.2, lets you discover trends and relationships in your data a lot faster. In a stats program such as DataDesk, with its 3D plots, color is invaluable. The popular high-end relational database 4th Dimension displays different syntax parts of its programming language in different colors. Even in MS Word 4.0, you can mark text blocks that need editing, moving or are suggestions for inclusion in different colors (this is going to become even more useful with System 7's Edition Manager). And, of course, if you're into graphics, there are more programs than I'm even aware of that will make you and everyone else gasp. Boris Levitin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WGBH Public Broadcasting, Boston boris@world.std.com Audience & Marketing Research wgbx!boris_levitin@athena.mit.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily coincide with those of my employer or anyone else. The WGBH tag is for ID only.)