Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!midway!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!RICHTER.MIT.EDU!krowitz
From: krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: The old "Classic/New Coke" trick.
Message-ID: <9011081359.AA14481@richter.mit.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 90 13:59:22 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 35

The reason for buying an upgrade for a DN3500/4500 to an '040 DN5500 is
that the CPU is a minor part of the full cost of a system. This is why
the product literature in which the manufacturers trupet their latest
and greatest CPU line always quotes the price of the "entry level
" system -- ie. monochrome, diskless, and with minimum RAM. If you
look at the cost of upgrading a color DN3500 with 19" 1280x1024 monitor,
32 MB RAM, 697 MB disk and cartridge tape (about $7000 for the CPU
upgrade) vs. the cost of an entry level model 425t (about $9000), then
the prices look similar. But the additional 24 MB of RAM (at $4000/8MB)
will run you another $12,000, the 19" high-res color monitor option will
cost you another $2000 for the color controller and $2000 for the 19" vs.
the 16" monitor, two 200MB internal disks will run you another $5000,
and the external catridge tape is not on my price list, but general goes
for at least another $1500. This totals out to $31,500 vs. $7000 -- and
only includes 400 MB of disk vs. 697 MB disk. If you need a machine that
has an AT-bus (either because you have multiple network controllers in
your DN3500/4500 or because you have 3rd party I/O boards), then the
cost difference between a model 425t and a model 433s is adds another
$3000 to the price for a total of $34,500.

This is not cheap.

The CPU upgrades are a *very* good price for many customers who have
large investments in memory, periperals, and graphics options. That is
why HP/Apollo offered them. It is also why so many customers got so
pissed off when HP initially implied at the ADUS conference that they
would not support OSF/1 on any DN platform, including the DN5500.


 -- David Krowitz

krowitz@richter.mit.edu   (18.83.0.109)
krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu
krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet
(in order of decreasing preference)