Fast 386 Color Workstation

[Jonathan Leech]

In article <387 at aeras.UUCP> misha at aeras.UUCP (Michael Umansky) writes:
>	Micronics i80386DX-25Mhz based Mother Board with 32K Cache
>		i82385-25Mhz Cache Controller
>		4 Mb of 80 ns (1Mbit chips) DRAM, Sockets for 387/Weitek
>		The 387 has its own crystal, so you can use a slower FPU
>		Lithium battery for CMOS Setup Ram/Clock on board
>	Tower Case with Reset, Turbo and Speed Display
>	220 Watt Power Supply
>	Adaptec AHA-1542A SCSI Host Adapter (DMA Bus Master)
>	CDC WREN III 155Mb (formatted) SCSI Hard Drive (16 ms access)
>	1.2  Mb 5.25" Floppy Drive
>	1.44 Mb 3.5"  Floppy Drive
>	Paradise VGA Plus
>	NEC Multisync 3D
>		Memory for factory and user defined setups
>		Maximum 1024x768 interlaced - like IBM 8514A
>	101 Key Keyboard
>	1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 1 Game Ports
>	Mouse Systems Optical Mouse (Serial)
>	Docs for Motherboard, SCSI controller, WREN III, VGA, NEC, Mouse,
>		IO Ports, Keyboard, 1.44Mb Floppy Drive, Case
>	Landmark SPEED test shows about 43.5 Mhz
>	Norton SI shows about 32
>
>	Only $5600.00 (+COD SHIP) - Unbeatable for above configuration!!!

    We had a little email disagreement about the truth of this last
statement; I claim this price is easily beatable.  For example,
looking in 9/11 PC Week, we find:

    25 MHz Micronics+4M+
    Tower Case+Kbd+2S+1P	$2450	(USM Int.)
    CDC WREN III		$1185	(EDI)
    AHA-1542A			 $279	(Hard Drives Int.- not adv. in PC Week)
    2 Floppies			 $180	(Numerous sources)
    Paradise VGA Plus		 $220	(S&W Comp.)
    Multisync 3D		 $594	(")
    Logitech Serial Mouse	  $90	(")
				-----
				$4998+shipping => $600 savings

    No effort at all was made to find the cheapest source for the
above parts.  Moral: usenet may not be the most cost-effective way to
buy a system.  I thought for-sale ads were verboten in technical
newsgroups, anyway.
--
    Jon Leech (leech at cs.unc.edu)    __@/
    ``God is more interested in your future and your relationships
      than you are.'' - Billy Graham