Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request From: trudel@caip.rutgers.edu (Jonathan D. Trudel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: 3/50 --> 3/60 upgrade versus NeXT purchase Message-ID: Date: 9 Feb 89 05:59:33 GMT References: <8901271611.AA01531@utafll.com> Sender: usenet@rice.edu Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 37 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu Original-Date: 3 Feb 89 19:12:00 GMT X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 147, message 1 of 13 >Comments: Sun has a clear advantage over NeXT ... >However, for >those of you who don't mind rhetorical questions, let me pose one: If you >were a university customer whose h/w and s/w needs could be met by either >a NeXT purchase or a Sun upgrade, which package would you choose? Well, since all of our suns have dimples (too cute to upgrade? :-) we can only consider getting a NeXT and upgrading the memory of our 3/50's. I think that a lot of people are holding off on making any sort of decision like the one you suggest because so much is going to happen this year as far as Sun and NeXT are concerned. To make a decision now would be without value for this reason. However, I and a lot of other people will probably take exception with the method of your comparison assumptions. You don't use comparable systems - the NeXT has its optical drive (with a SCSI crontroller ?), and the 3/50 you chose does not include the price of a disk subsystem. You should include these when doing your comparison. >Assumptions: >1) Cost of a bottom end NeXT: $6500 price to university computer store > $1300 20% markup (purely hypothetical) > $7800 total cost to university department Purely Hypothetical? Is that in order to skew the results? I don't see valid reason to add this amount. 3/60 upgrade NeXT >Cost $4655? $7800? If you subtract the price of the optical drive (I'll guess $1000), and subtract the $1300 price markup, the Next's price for a system similar to a bare-bones 3/60 is more like $5500, not $7800 as you suggest. I'm still unconvinced one way or the other, though...