[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Orchid Pro-Designer II vs Diamond SpeedSTAR

6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) (11/11/90)

Fellow netters...

I've narrowed my search for 33 MHz 386 to Gateway and EPS.

EPS offers Orchid Pro-Designer II with 1 Mb upgrade, Gateway
just switched to Diamond SpeedSTAR with 1 Mb. Both are Tseng
4000-based cards and reportedly VERY fast (not that I'm a
speed freak but I will be doing graphics-intensive applications).

My primary work (other than mundane word processing for which I
DON'T need the 386) will be OCR and GIS. The OCR is Windows 3.0
based (Calera WordScan Plus) while the GIS is not and will not
have any drivers written for it in higher resolutions.

I've heard of the problems Orchid graphics boards have had in
the past. I've also heard that Diamond's drivers are generic
rather than board specific. Anyone have any comments on the
relative merits of the two cards? Any horror stories or positive
experiences first-hand?

Many thanks in advance for any info.

Bill

"Life is too important to be taken seriously"   - Einstein