Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt
From: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Educational Discounting
Message-ID: <3628@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 16 Oct 90 10:56:37 GMT
References: <1990Oct12.190148.16154@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: SPRU, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Lines: 35

From article <1990Oct12.190148.16154@agate.berkeley.edu>, by kawakami@earthquake.Berkeley.EDU (John Kawakami):
> 
> BTW, since this is an atari group: why does atari have so many versions of
> the same machine: the STes, the Megas, the Stacy.  Note, there are many
> macs as well: Plus, SE, SE/30, IIxx.  but the capabilities of the different
> machines are somewhat varied.  The STs are all basically the same machines
> with the same clock speed and processor; they differ only in memory.  
> Shouldn't Atari just make the Mega box and have SIMM sockets.  OOPS forgot
> about Stacy.  They should keep Stacy.
> John Kawakami                  kawakami@ocf.berkeley.edu

Good point.  To make matters worse, here in the UK many dealers are
still also selling STFM bundles too.  I guess the reason Atari doesn't
just make the Mega box is that they're more expensive.  It's going to
get worse rather than better: to judge from Derek Mui's messages of a
while ago, the Mega STE's a strong possibility, with SIMMs and the new
TT desktop.

At the moment, in the UK at least, an STE with expanded memory is pretty
good value - half the price of an equivalent Mega.  The main thing
present buyers have to worry about is whether the machine bought is old
stock (with an early version of TOS 1.6 and/or a faulty DMA chip which
screws up most hard disks) or new.  As Atari aren't *officially*
admitting that there were ever any STEs with faulty DMA chips, it's hard
to tell without invalidating your warranty and finding someone who knows
how to tell the difference without messing around with a hard disk.  (Or
am I wrong here?  Does anyone know a reliable, non-invasive test
procedure?)

Graham
-- 
Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK
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