Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!esseye!jdbbs!wybbs!therip!FredMail From: Rod.Fulk@f24.n228.z1.FidoNet.Org (Rod Fulk) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Amiga is better then what??? Message-ID: <678091803.0@therip.FidoNet> Date: 28 Jun 91 04:27:22 GMT Sender: FredMail@p0.f24.n228.z1.FidoNet.Org Lines: 64 DRL> DRL> I can get a 24-bit card for $299 (list). It takes advantage of the DRL> Amiga's DRL> built-in coprocessors. For about $100 more I can get one that also DRL> includes DRL> a slow-scan video digitizer. This one (DCTV) has been demoed at shows DRL> paging DRL> full-motion, full-color video off a HD and displaying it through this DRL> advice in DRL> real time (Watched a few minutes of Back to the Future III...) NOT on a 500 though.. Not as easily as a 2000 I am sure.... I am comparing the 500 to the STe.. Compare the Mega Ste to the Amiga 2000 and it gets a little closer and the TT and the Ami 3000 might as well be the same machine... (Different capabilities here... I wouldnt really deam one or the other of killing the other.) In SOME areas (Video is a biggy) the atari is behind yet... However there are some boards available to boost the video. I have heard of some nice stuff comming out of Germany that makes the ST ATLEAST as functional in ANY bussiness arena as ANY computer out there... (Within $10,000 of the ataris price range.) HD Floppies, Tremendous graphics... Multi tasking environments. (UNless your running a bbs or drawing alot of fractals multi tasking has no real purpose.. I still stand by that statement... The ONLY time I EVERY use multi tasking is when the task at hand takes a long time and I need the computer.. This only includes telecomputing... I use macs in a multi tasking environment.. I use unix machines... (Some neat stuff can be done with this in the background but thats different..) And of course my BBS on this desqview machine. (I do use desqview but only cause most dos programs are pretty brain dead...) There are real time video digitizers available for the ST also.. The Ste brings GENLOCK to the ST easier then it does with an amiga... (Plug it in like a monitor.) Note, there are enhancements available that take the computer to extremes too... For roughly 1200 I could turn any ST into a machine that would be as fast as a TT, Ami 3000 or Mac fx.. With 32 bit of memory... (I think 1200 is actually something like with 2 meg of ram... ) Yes, Tos 2.x will work with ANY machine and is not a TT tos... (However older machines do not have the ROM space for it so it might be a little tricky...) Tos 1.6 in the Ste's is supposed to work with the 680x0 processors but I understand there are some quirks... Tos 2.x is much better anyhow... Other then the STe's Atari products have normally been VERY reliable... The older St's did have a DOA problem but that was due to loose chips and not fault of the hardware. I can't believe some of the stuff I did to motherboards while doing upgrades of memory to them and the ST's still worked... I know of quite a few local dealers that have had ALOT of problems in the past getting working amiga equipment... (Course you ask them now and they will deny it since most the employees have moved on to something else since then..) (PS, who cares how long the warrenty is.. If you have to wait for parts for long periods of time what good is the warrenty. Sure you get the problem fixed but it takes forever sometimes...) On broken in warrenty parts you can do UPS's equivelent of fed/exing it and get it back within a week from atari on their better days.. 2 weeks otherwise.. The blitter is a little slower in the STe then the amiga.. But the STe's interface and usage of the Blitter is MANY times better then the older st's. Not to mention the amigas blitter was more "built into the system" then the st's ever has been. The Mega Ste comes swithcable at 8/16 mhz.. At 16mhz it blows a standard amiga out of the water.. * Origin: The R.I.P. (616)235-2313 [HST] (1:228/24)