Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!knuth!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg
From: elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM (Eric Lee Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: 486 clone vs. Amiga 3000
Message-ID: <00674274081@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM>
Date: 15 May 91 02:21:21 GMT
References: <1991May12.211848.7252@athena.mit.edu> <o#3H6uz@cs.psu.edu> <48814@ut-emx.uucp> <24739@well.sf.ca.us>
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home
Lines: 42

From article <1991May12.211848.7252@athena.mit.edu>, by reynaldo@athena.mit.edu (Rey Villarreal):
> Microprocessor                    Intel486             Motorolla 68030
> Clock Speed                         25 Mhz                25Mhz
> Memory                               4/32                 2/16 Meg
> Hard Drive                          100 Meg              50 Meg
> Max Resolution/Colors           1024x768x254            640x480x16
> on 14 inch Multisync
> no flicker
> case                               Tower                 add $1000 for tower
>                                                          and descent amount
>                                                          of slots(A3000T)
> Software Library                  Enormous               Small by comparison
> OS                                3 crappy chices          Best on Micro
> Competition in Market            Ocean of Barracuda       couple of sharks
> driving prices down
> Sound                             add $175 board 11 voices   good 4 voices
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Price(aka God)                     $2999                    ~3100 educational

Note that with the current Power Up program, you could get the Amiga 3000
for around $2100, then add monitor.

As for which you want to get -- it all depends on what you want to do with
the machine. If you want a fast machine with fast I/O and a fast window
system, you probably want the Amiga. If you want a REALLY fast machine with
SLOW I/O and a slow window system, you probably want the '486 machine.
(Note that any '486 you buy for $2999 is going to have an I/O system that
sucks dead puppy dogs... i.e., the absolute scuzziest and slowest hard
drive controller, hard drive, and video card that you can buy). If you're
doing CPU-intensive stuff that doesn't do a whole lot of I/O, the '486
machine is perfect. (At least, if you run Unix or some other 32-bit OS :-).

If you want a '486 machine with a fast I/O bus (EISA or Microchannel), plan
to pay out the nose. If you can deal with the slow AT bus (16 bit, 8mhz),
you'll still pay some for a good fast SCSI controller and VGA card. Note
that the $50 VGA cards quoted in most ads have about 40 wait states for
each access :-}.

--
Eric Lee Green   (318) 984-1820  P.O. Box 92191  Lafayette, LA 70509
elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM               uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg
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