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From: mcgredo@prism.cs.orst.edu (Don McGregor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Next, 40, Sparc, 2
Message-ID: <21737@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 13 Nov 90 04:03:31 GMT
References: <2403.273E80BF@blkcat.fidonet.org> <1990Nov12.135515@Atherton.COM>
Sender: usenet@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU
Reply-To: mcgredo@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (Don McGregor)
Organization: Oregon State Univ--Industrial Engr
Lines: 38

In article <1990Nov12.135515@Atherton.COM> dlw@Atherton.COM (David Williams) writes:
>Maxwell Spangler asks if SPARC2's will pose a problem to NeXT....
>
>Correct me if I'm wrong but you can't BUY a SPARC 2 for $3500...try $25K!
>
Just today a prof asked me to price out a few Unix boxes as an exercise for
a wish list he's putting together.  It was highly instructive.

From a cursory examination of prices and configurations:

PC hardware based:  486/25 with 330 MB HD, Dell Unix, VGA, tape drive,
		    8 MB memory:~$11,000, plus $475/year for support/
		    updates.

Sun:  The sales guy was not pushing the 1+ at all.  Apparently they're
      positioning the 2 in the 1+'s old place.  Anyway, a mono with
      2 205 MB drives, 3.5" floppy, tape, Sun OS and documentation,
      and 16 MB was about $10,500 with full academic discount (40% off
      list, plus another 5% off for this being the first Sun in the 
      department.) OK, you can probably save a few bucks by getting a
      third party drive in the 300-400 MB range.  Didn't get a quote
      on updates.

      The SLC with 2 205's and a tape drive with 8 MB of memory was
      around $6,000. (the tape drive acounted for about $700 of this).

NeXT: NeXT station with 1 105 MB drive and 3.5" floppy for $3,145
      at the bookstore.  Tack on another $1,500 for an external 
      SCSI drive and case.  NeXT has been more than generous on its
      update policy.

So if you're looking for a generic Unix box at the low end, the NeXT
winds up being cheaper than most other choices, and has a far better
(IMHO) environment as well. It gives up speed to the SparcStation 2,
but it's about 1/2 the price too.  To us, that's important.

Don McGregor             | "I too seek the light, so long as it tastes  
mcgredo@prism.cs.orst.edu|  great and is not too filling."