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From: kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Is this a good idea?
Message-ID: <3072@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 12 Mar 90 21:50:29 GMT
References: <16785@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Sender: news@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: kaleb@mars.UUCP (Kaleb Keithley)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Lines: 35

In article <16785@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> kleinj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (Justin the Blue) writes:
>It seems that, at a new/used computer store just down the street from me, an
>IBM PC with 128Kb storage has just come on sale.  The package includes DOS
>1.1...and they say that's about it.  (Complete system hardware, anyway...)
>That, and two SSDD diskdrives.
>
>Now, my question is, what with the dearth of software it comes with, is it 
>worth my plunking down $250 for?  How availible is other languages for
>it?  Will I have to get a DOS upgrade (I would imagine so) and how much
>will this cost?  I would at least like BASIC for it...where, and how much?

This is just my $0.02 worth, but this seems along the same lines as the
$100/Mbyte thread that went through here a while ago.  $250 is just *too*
much to pay for this kind of stuff.  $100 would be more like it.  When
you consider that for $750, you can get a full blown Turbo clone *with* a
hard disk.  Ok, you can skip the hard disk and take $300 off.  Now I'm not
suggesting that if all you really can come up with is $250 that you 
shouldn't buy this stuff, but when you consider the relative value of
brand new *turbo* hardware with 640k of memory, compared to ten year old
non-turbo hardware with only 128k.  

I guess my advice is, if you can talk them down some, it might be worth it,
but I sure wouldn't pay $250.

BTW, about three years ago, I too was hot to have a PC... I went to an
auction where they were selling brand new, in the box IBM label PCs with
64k of memory.  (Any guesses as to why they had to resort to auction.)
At the time, you could get a Turbo clone with hard disk and 640k for about
$1100.  Anyway, when the PCs came up, the crowd went into a wild frenzy,
and prices were bid up to $800-$900.  I left in disgust.

kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov            Jet Propeller Labs
Kaleb Keithley

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