Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!ginosko!uunet!microsoft!randyn From: randyn@microsoft.UUCP (Randy Nevin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: opinions on jameco computer? Keywords: jameco 386 20Mhz VGA Message-ID: <8520@microsoft.UUCP> Date: 31 Oct 89 16:44:42 GMT Distribution: na Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA Lines: 28 i've been thinking about trading in my AT clone for a 386, and also upgrading from an EGA to a VGA, and from a 360k floppy to a 1.2 Mb. when the BYTE magazine arrive yesterday, along with it came a catalog for jameco. inside i found the following machine: * 20 Mhz 386 (8/16/20 Mhz selectable) in a "baby" AT case * AMI bios * Miniscribe 40 Mb hard disk, Teac 1.2 Mb floppy, controllers for each * 1 Mb RAM * 1 parallel, 1 serial, 1 game port * 101 key keyboard for $1600. add to that: * Casper 14" VGA monitor * 8/16-bit VGA card for $600, that's $2200 total for pretty much the system i'm after, and the best price i've seen so far. has anyone bought this system, and what do you think of it; what do you think about jameco in general? what's the trade-off between 8-bit VGA and 16-bit, just speed? how much memory is required on the VGA card to do 640x480x256 colors? (the card above is sold with 256k, "upgradeable" to 512k; will i be forced to upgrade to do 640x480x256?) are there any gotchas i should be looking out for? please send comments to me, and i will forward a summary to anyone who is interested. Arpanet: microsoft!randyn@beaver.cs.washington.edu or microsoft!randyn@uunet.uu.net Usenet: ..uw-beaver!microsoft!randyn or ..uunet!microsoft!randyn CompuServe: INTERNET:randyn@microsoft