v126mc7u@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Elliot M Furman) (05/08/91)
I finally decided to treat myself and buy a sparkling new 33Mhz 386 machine but I am looking for a little more advice before I go out and blow all that money. Is there anyone out there who has a Dell, Northagate or Zeos machine (or any other good machine that they convince me to buy) that can tell me how they like it, i.e. quality, reliability, performance or any other helpfull info. Also, has anyone heard of Ultra-Comp. They sell what seems to be a nice 33Mhz system at a good price but I haven't been able to find any reviews on them. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, Elliot
chapin@cbnewsc.att.com ( Tom Chapin ) (05/08/91)
Elliot writes: >I finally decided to treat myself and buy a sparkling new 33Mhz 386 machine >...Is there anyone out there who has a Dell, Northagate or Zeos machine >that can tell me how they like it, i.e. quality, reliability, performance Isn't this sorta the primary FAQ question? And how about 486en also? Any comments on the article in PC Computing (?? or BYTE or wherever) which showed the 486/33 Tandon, Tangent, and Zeos with the Mylex disk caching controllers blowing away the others? And are the things compatible with the various UNIXes? -- tom chapin att!hrccb!tjc tjc@hrccb.att.com
davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (05/08/91)
| Is there anyone out there who has a Dell, Northagate or Zeos machine (or | any other good machine that they convince me to buy) | that can tell me how they like it, i.e. quality, reliability, performance | or any other helpfull info. I've used Dell a lot (maybe 100 at work) and Northgate and Gateway a little. If I were buying and money wasn't an object I'd buy Dell. If money is an object you look for a cheap box with a big power supply, good motherboard (AMI, Mylex, Micronics), good disk controller (WD, Ultrastor, CompuAdd, Adaptek (SCSI)), and decent disk (maxtor, Seagate, Connor, etc), and monitor (NEX, Mitsubishi, Sony, etc). All the other stuff is cheap. Maybe call 3-6 Computers (back of _PC Week_). I don't believe it matters much who assembles it, as long as you get the good stuff. Hint: if you buy from a small outfit, order by mail, specify the brand name of the major parts after checking on the phone, and pay by credit card. This gives you maximum coverage for getting your money back and using mail fraud charges to insure that you can. Oh, and have them *mail* you information if possible, since that proves you were solicited by mail. -- bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen) sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me
rcp@moth.sw.mcc.com (Rob Pettengill) (05/14/91)
In article <75383@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v126mc7u@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu writes:
;
;
;I finally decided to treat myself and buy a sparkling new 33Mhz 386 machine
;but I am looking for a little more advice before I go out and blow all
;that money.
;Is there anyone out there who has a Dell, Northagate or Zeos machine (or
;any other good machine that they convince me to buy)
;that can tell me how they like it, i.e. quality, reliability, performance
;...
;
;Elliot
I have had a Dell 333D for about 10 weeks and am very pleased with it.
I have kept my original IBM PC putting along for 8 years at home and I
wanted a high performance multitasking machine that would last as long.
Advantages:
High performance. In any individual category you may find a machine
faster than the Dell - In the Dell you can see the results of
engineering time that went into making the processor, memory, disk,
and vidio all fast. The onboard video gives good performance in the
SVGA 800x600x16 and 800x600x256 colors in windows. Applications only
take a second or two to maximize and repaint themselves.
High quality. My Dell was delivered exactly as promised and has
worked since then without a hitch. The mechanical and electrical
quality of the machine is very high (comparable to what I expect from
HP). It is easy to configure: everything is accessible and easy to
open. The motherboard is a high quality, no blue wires, surface
mount VLSI design. My experience and the other reports I have seen
put DELL 2nd to none in compatibility. Windows runs very solidly with
3 or 4 windows apps and 2 or 3 DOS apps going (including simultaneous
file transfers with Kermit).
Quiet and Cool. The 333D is the quietest desktop machine I have
heard. I can barely hear it even late at night at home. With SVGA,
5MB RAM, 2 S 1P port, and 195MB IDE drive no parts felt more than
slightly warm to the touch after several hours of running. After
getting used to how quiet the DELL is, I think that the roar made by
most "personal" workstations is almost criminal!
Disadvantages:
Cost: Dell costs about 20% more than other "quality" mail order
vendors. (This is still a factor of 2 below Compaq and HP).
SIMMS: The 333D uses 72pin (36bit wide) PS/2 style SIMMS for memory.
These allow you to add 1 SIMM at a time (almost any mix of 1 & 4 MB),
but (because these use more expensive 4 bit wide chips) the PS/2 SIMMs
cost about 60% more than byte wide (9 bit) SIMMS. (IBM, Compaq, and
Zenith also use these SIMMS).
--
Robert C. Pettengill
rcp%tikal.cactus.org@cactus.org
well!rcpetten@apple.com