Advice wanted on buying 386SXREFRESH

[herrickd at iccgcc.decnet.ab.com]

In article <BCHEN.90Nov14214627 at wpi.WPI.EDU>, bchen at wpi.WPI.EDU (Bi Chen) writes:
> Dear network news readers:
> 
> I'm seriously considering to bye a 386SX computor. Since I am a graduate
> student in physics and I live on the little stipend as a RA with my wife,
> I'm really very poor and tight in budget. We have never been dinering out
> and seeing movies for about two years to save the money for a computor we
> loved so much. I want a decent, reliable, compatible and expandable
> 386SX at lowest possible price to a student. By the way I have never
> done major mail-order purchasing before.
> 
> The following are some points which I want to get advice on:
> 
> 1. Is the list price of a mail-order vender a stiff price? Can one
> bargain with a mail-order vender? If one can how much in percentage is
> considered resonable to bargain with? 

Everything is negotiable, but when you go to shopping seriously
for price, you will find two or three vendors who are close together
and living on very tight margins.  Probably you are more likely to
get them to throw something in (software, dust cover, diskette supply,
mouse, another diskette drive in another format ... what is useful to 
you?) than to get them to lower the money.
> 
> 2. Could one bargain with vender on the upgrade stuff such as more RAM,
> co-processor etc when one buys the system from a vender? How much is
> a reasonable discount one should expects with or without bargaining on
> the system.

These are other things to try to get him to throw in to sweeten the deal.
> 
> 3. How could one insure the compatibilty of such a computor from
> vender? By compatibility I mean it should run smoothly the popular
> soft ware such as Window 3.0 under all phases(enchanced, protected
> mode or not), graphics driver of Turbo C family and so on? How could
> one insure that the computor is UNIX, Xwindow compatiable for future
> expandsion? Is there a independent public or private service one can
> get information from? Can one ask the vender to provide with a written
> promise on the issue?

The clone market has been very compatible for several years now.  Guarantees
are another issue.  If the box has a 30 day satisfaction guarantee, you can
send it back if the software you consider crucial today does not work.  Unix
in the future is another problem entirely.   
>   
> 4. Since the quality and service are different from vender to vender,
> it may be difficulty to give a reasonable price reange on such a
> mechine. But how much should a 386SX with all stand features plus a
> SVGA monitor and card and a 65MB HD should cost around if valued by
> you? What is the "street price" of such a machine?

Figure out what your configuration is.  Buy a current Computer Shopper
and spend a few hours making a list of all the vendors that advertise
your configuration or one near it.  (I did this a year ago.  Two hours.
Thirty vendors.  Two almost exactly my configuration and within a
hundred dollars of each other.  The first one I called got the sale.
I never heard of the vendor before - they had been advertising for
some time in Computer Shopper but I wasn't in that market.)
> 
> 5. How could one safeguard to insure the computor he buy is from a
> morel and responsible vender who will tell truth on the phone and
> stand behind the computor he sales? Is there any public or private
> service where one can check the reputation of venders?

If you make the list I described above, talk to three or four different
vendors.  Their behavior on the phone will make you trust them or make
you distrust them.  You should be able to recognize a snow job by 
someone who does not know what he is talking about.  

The relationship between Computer Shopper and their advertisers is very
profitable for both.  It depends crucially on customer satisfaction.  If
you have problems with an advertiser, Computer Shopper wants you to end
up satisfied.  If an advertiser consistently has problems arising from
trying to cheat people, Computer Shopper will stop accepting their ads.

This remedy does not make good the people who were cheated, but it keeps
their number down.  The computer direct market is a big, important
industry and it works on buyer trust.  The major players in the market
work very hard to preserve that trust.  And, yes, you could still get
cheated.  I don't think you will.
> 
> 6. What is general caution one should take if he has to go to a
> mail-order vender? If problems do happened, for example if one pay the
> computor but does not receive it or if one returns the computor but
> does not receive refunds, whom should one go for asking help?

A protection that you can use is to charge the purchase to a major
credit card, because such charges are reversible.  The best protection
you have is the good name of the vendor.  Find one who has been doing
it for a few years and survived.
> 
> 7. What is best configration for a physicsist who knows only a little
> about computor architechture but need to deal hardware on I/O, hard
> interupt and graphics for real-time experimental purpose. What is best
> BIOS for such a purpose? What is the best I/O BUS for this purpose? 
> Is there any particular requirements on hardware for heavy numerical
> analysis job besides a co-processor? What kind of Extended-Memory with
> supported software (preferablely can work with MS.C,Fortran) under DOS
> or maybe OS/2 works most smoothly and painlessly?  
> 
> 
> Any serious advice on any of the points is greatly apperciated. You
> can post it on Newsgroup misc.forsale.computor or comp.sys.ibm.* and
> so on. It may benifit other reader too. Any reference on article
> published on popular magzines, name and phone of mail-vender you feel
> worth to recommand are also welcomed. Please send e-mail to me if you
> don't feel to trouble.
> 
> Thanks a lot in advance for your attention and help.
> 
> Bi Chen
>      
> email adderss bchen at wpi.wpi.edu 
> 
>  

The machine must have a monitor and a video card and a disk system and
a keyboard.  Each of these is a decision you have to make before your
first purchase.  Number crunching means a numeric coprocessor, eventually.
Everything else is optional and can be added later.  Each of the 
components can be separately upgraded later.

The idea of buying the machine is daunting and your questions are
appropriate.  And some people do get stuck.  But not very many.  Find
some software that is useful for your wife.  Enjoy your shopping.  And
enjoy your new machine.

dan herrick
herrickd at astro.pc.ab.com