Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!mcgill-vision!ferrie
From: ferrie@mcgill-vision.uucp (Frank Ferrie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Help!!! What does a (soon to be)Mac
Message-ID: <1990Mar2.181558.27733@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Date: 2 Mar 90 18:15:58 GMT
References: <1092@njitgw.njit.edu> <126900190@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (Usenet File Owner)
Reply-To: ferrie@Moe.McRCIM.McGill.EDU.UUCP (Frank Ferrie)
Organization: McGill University, Montreal
Lines: 48

In article <126900190@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>Here are some of the advantages of the SE.
>
>1)  SE now has 1.4Mb floppy drive
>	This is GREAT for backing up your hard disk.  You don't have to
>	feed the stupid thing disks so often.  MEI Micro order center
>	in Ohio is selling HD disks (generic) for 89 cents each.
>
>2)  SE's CPU is 10-20% faster
>	I believe this is because of the dual-ported video ram, and
>	the fact that the CPU does't need to baby the display.  This
>	is not a big deal.
>
>3)  SE disk is 1:2 interleave, MacPlus is 1:3 interleave
>	In most situations, you will see faster disk throughput on the SE.
>	This is important, since launching a program and saving a file
>	are big time-sinks on the low-end machines.
>
>4)  SE's mouse / keyboard is nicer
>	The new ADB mice & keyboards are nicer.  The MacPlus mouse is harder
>	to position.  The MacPlus keyboard lacks a Control key.  This is a
>	pain in telecom programs.

  The 1.4Mb floppy and ADB peripherals are nice, but are they worth the
price difference?  The slight increase in SE speed really doesn't make
much difference (as stated).  As far as SCSI transfer rates are concerned,
software patches to the Mac+ driver (e.g. SCSI accelerator) appear to
make it MUCH faster than the SE.  For example, if I believe SCSI evaluator,
my Seagate 296N is running at about 2.5Mb/sec.  As far as I know, you
can't patch the SE 'cause the functions are performed in hardware (one
of the ironies of technological change :-)).

  Another argument people often make in favor of the SE is its expansion
slot.  By all means, if you plan to upgrade, it might make a difference.
However, why not avoid the rush and buy an SE/30 to begin with?  IMHO,
at about $1000 (or less), the Mac+ is definitely a better buy.  Sure, it
may be a dead end, but so are all the other 68000 Macs.  But there are a lot
of us out there who are still quite satisfied with what we can do with
a ``low end'' machine.
-FF

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F.P. Ferrie                                                tel. 514-398-6042
McGill Research Center for Intelligent Machines
McGill University
Montreal, CANADA                          Inet: ferrie@moe.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
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