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From: arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.zenith
Subject: 386SX / small power supplies
Message-ID: <22275.25dc6dd8@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 17 Feb 90 03:17:11 GMT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 27

I'm in the market for a 386sx, and our state contract says "thou
shalt buy Zenith and no other".  The Zenith 386sx has a 120 watt
power supply, which seems unreasonably small.  The Zenith sales
rep said they use some special chips which reduce the power
requirements.  This whole business seems weird -- the power supply
is a pretty small-dollar item in the context of the price of the
system, and the power usage of pc's is an insignificant contributor
to the electric bill of any governmental institution (i.e. Zenith's
primary market).  Just what are they trying to accomplish by using
such a low-rating power supply?

Anyway, my questions to you fellow netters:  Does anyone have 
experience with these units (or other Zeniths with very small
power supplies)?  Is this a practical consideration?  What happens
if I add a tape backup, a transputer board, maybe a few more
megabytes of memory, or other electrical load?

Whatever advice, anecdotes, warnings, etc. you can offer would be
appreciated.
________________________________________________________________________
Ray Arritt                        | 
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy    |
Univ. of Kansas                   |
Lawrence, KS  66045               |
arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu         |
arritt@ukanvax.bitnet             |