🚀 go-pugleaf

>In article <toma.78...@expert.cc.purdue.edu> to...@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Duke Toma) writes:
>Except that the $2000 systems are VERY bare bones, and based on the P60, not
>the '90, and don't get more than small incremental performance improvements
>over your generic 486DX2/66.

	Depends on how much you shop & what you want. I already had a 
sound card & CD-ROM, so I shopped for just a system. For $2000 (in the
US), you can get a P-5/90, 8Mb, 256Kb cache, PCI video card w/1Mb or 2Mb,
540 Mb IDE drive, 1 floppy, 15" monitor. I paid extra because I wanted a
good video card (#9GXE Pro, 2Mb VRAM), and a 17" monitor... (got those from
another dealer) Still, my total was $2,750. (Oh, just for the perceptive, yeah,
this does include keyboard, mouse, and WfWG 3.11. It also has 16550 UARTs,
which is nice, enhanced IDE, also nice, and an enhanced parallel port, which
is ok, too.)

	Most things run 2-3 times as fast as my old '66, so I'm pretty happy.
I did the new PCMag benchmarks (WinStone, DosMark, etc), and found I had an
average performing P90 with above average graphics, which is what I wanted.
So, not too hard to do. I could, for just a bit more, have gotten a double
speed CD-ROM drive. ($75 from MidWest Micro, the place I bought the system
from) Heck, they even tossed in a copy of MicroSloth Works!

	Oh, just one more point. Altho I got the system from MidWest, I looked
at similar setups from 3-4 other companies. Not quite as good, obviously, or I
would have gone to them, but competitive, so this wasn't a special offer or
remainder deal, or anything like that.

	So, the moral is that the new price point for P90's is $2000-$2500.
For those outside the US, of course, it may differ, I dunno. (Actually, I
wouldn't mind hearing some examples of prices outside the US!)

Tom