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From: bj@cbmvax.commodore.com (Brian Jackson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: A500 and A590 questions
Message-ID: <19174@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 20 Feb 91 23:18:52 GMT
References: <1991Feb20.162708.18902@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Reply-To: bj@cbmvax.commodore.com (Brian Jackson)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 47

In article <1991Feb20.162708.18902@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> ajf1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Allen J. Fisch) writes:
>The A590 is available for $377 on ed
>discount, but since it is slow, only 20MB, and not precisely cheap, it
>didn't seem to be the right solution.  I have heard, however, that an
>Amiga with only 1 meg really limits its capabilities, so I'd like to
>add another meg or two. But then it occurred to me that without a hard
>drive, that extra memory won't be very useful - I'm limited to loading
>things that fit on a floppy!  THEN I saw that the A590 allows 2 meg
>memory expansion, so maybe it is worth buying after all - an
>unpopulated memory board costs at least $100 anyway.  Does this sound
>reasonable to all you experienced Amiga users, or am I missing
>something?

No, your not missing anything. A 2 meg ram A590 on a 1-meg A500 makes for a
nice system. Yes, the stock 20 meg drive that comes in the thing is not any
trailblazer but you can *easily* add most any SCSI drive to it at a later
date (I've seen good condition Q40 Quantum drives going for as little as
$200) and have a *fast* hard drive.

>Does the A590 come with its own power supply?

Yep.

>Does the A500 work with a standard IBM monitor?

No.

>On the more speculative side, is there any reason to expect HD prices
>to fall in the next few months?  (Why are they so expensive anyway?
>$599 for a 40 of 50 meg drive in the IBM world would be absurd.)

Economy of scale mixed with a "what the market will put up with" factor.

>If someone could answer any or all of these questions, I would GREATLY
>appreciate it!  Thanks.

Not all, but some.

>Allen Fisch (ajf1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu)

bj

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 | Brian Jackson  Software Engineer, Commodore-Amiga Inc.  GEnie: B.J. |
 | bj@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com    or  ...{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!bj     |
 | "We defy augury"                                                    |
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