Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!trwind!venice!ries
From: ries@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (Marc Ries)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: 486's
Message-ID: <958@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM>
Date: 14 Jan 91 19:49:19 GMT
References: <655@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> <1991Jan14.171123.8461@demott.com>
Reply-To: ries@venice.sedd.trw.com (Marc Ries)
Distribution: na
Organization: TRW Systems Engineering & Development Division, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 33

In article <1991Jan14.171123.8461@demott.com> kdq@demott.com (Kevin D. Quitt) writes:
->    I'm looking into buying the Price Club's machine right now.  I've
->got some benchmarking to do, to see how close the machine gets to what
->it should be.  By the time you bring the machine up to 8MB, and add the
->tape backup, you're at $4,000, but that's still a good price.  It also
->includes windows 3.0.  And, of course, if you don't like it, you can
->take it back.  8-{)}

  On the other hand , Gateway 2000 sells a 486 with 8 Meg installed and
  a >>200<< Mb disk (no tape) for $3999.00 (this month, it was $4395
  last month).   With the Positive machine, it will cost more to go
  the extra 100Mb disk than to go for a tape machine, considering you can
  get a tape machine for >$300 street price.  The Gateway machine includes
  a hi-res monitor, card, MS DOS 3.3 or 4.01 and windows as well.  Gateway
  also includes a 30-day money-back policy plus a one-year P&L.  The Positive
  machine has 30-days on site, one-year P&L but the money back is through
  Price Club (14 days?).

  On the other hand, a decent cached 386-33 with co-processor will be nearly the
  same power as the 486-25, yet about $500 cheaper, if they are both using
  the AT bus.  With some 486 suppliers, the difference in the street price
  of a 486-25 and a 486-33 is only about $500, about the same (best case)
  between the ISA bus and a 32-bit VEISA bus.

  "My crotch says 'buy', but my mind says 'wait a while'":  Later this year,
  Intel is supposed to come out with a smaller, more integrated VEISA 
  interface.  If AMD comes out with a clone-386, then 386-prices should really
  dive. Intel is also expected, according to an article on ALR in the Times
  Business Section, to have a "low-cost" 486 out in the second quarter of this
  year. God only knows what "low-cost" means, although another source
  indicated that Intel is working on  a i486 >>without<< the coprocessor.

  -- Marc Ries