From: John Kim (jokim_at_CHS.CUSD.CLAREMONT.EDU)
Date: Sun Dec 19 1993 - 02:31:39 EST
Nice to see you beat me to the punch with the mail forwarding account Sean.
Less work for me... :)
> Forwarded message:
>
>>From cfogg_at_netcom.com Sat Dec 18 22:50:32 1993
>>Hi Chad! Can you tell us more about your machine? What software do you
>> run and what OS? I'll assume OS/2 since John told me you work at the
>> OS/2 something...
The guy from New Zealand (whose mail I still haven't managed to forward so I
guess I'd better hurry before his news posting expires...) works in OS/2
support.
> the side. I was tempted to make a little swap... but then remembered
> how much more expandable the 750 is (with color upgrades in early '94),
Have you asked for the price on the color upgrade? $2999.95. Yuck.
Although it does put the overall price in line with the few 750C machines I
found with the substantial "dealer markup." The dealer is supposed to
install it so some of that price may be labor charges.
> more hard drive storage, etc. The weight has been less of an issue as
> I had originally thought it would be.
I'm finding that out too. It's just that the cost of the machine makes me
vary leery of carrying it around like a real notebook. :)
> My reason for keeping it in its original configuration:
>
> 1. Tarrifs were lifted a few months ago on LCD screens. Hopefully
> this will mean a significant price drop for the color upgrade.
This is a popular misconception. The tarriff was on LCD screens shipped
alone. So what all the hardware manufacturers did was manufacture the
entire notebook outside the U.S., then ship the notebook into the U.S.
bypassing the tarriff.
IBM bought some other company that was working on some different active
matrix technology. I'm hoping this or some other breakthrough will drop the
price to something more reasonable than the $3000 it is now. Maybe the
displays they're working on that address each line individually (just like
dual-scan, except it's 480 line scan) will do the trick.
> 2. DRAM prices were very high due to that Summer chemical fire deal.
> Hopefully, by waiting a few more months, the cost of the 4,8, or 16
> MB DRAM card will come down by half or so.
When I called around looking for my memory upgrade, prices were just above
$50/meg which I felt was pretty reasonable for low-power laptop memory
(based on a low of about $25/meg for standard SIMMs before the fire). This
was for a 8MB module (both the 4MB and 16MB modules seem to cost more per
meg).
> 3. The cost differential between the 170 MB HD and the 340 MB model
> was about $400. I figured, what with all these new 500 MB
> 2.5" IDE hard drives being introduced at Comdex, I should hold out
> for a while. I've also heard rumors about 1 GB units.
Where'd you buy your system? Obviously not from IBM Direct, who charges
$650 extra for the 340MB model (that's almost $4/meg, no thank you).
If the 2.5" drives develop anything like the 3.5" drives, they should be
dirt cheap in a year or so. I can't believe I bought a 310 MB FH SCSI hard
disk for $650 just over a year ago (now worth less than $250 if anyone was
willing to buy that form factor).
> Anyway, I was a bit dissapointed to discover that the floppy drive
> bay will not be able to accomodate the new Philips/IBM
> 128 MB 3.5" MO disc. The bay measured about 3/4" deep, but the
> press reports say the current descktop units are 1" thick. The 750's
> removable floppy device is just over 1/2" thick itself.
I don't think we'll ever see a MO drive on a portable. A MO drive writes by
heating up the disk surface to something like 170 degrees Centigrade so the
magnetic particles can be rearranged. That's going to kill your battery
real quick. A MO drive set to read-only while running off the battery
might be feasible.
I am curious if IBM is working on the smaller CD-ROM format though.
Panasonic has a notebook out that uses it. Since most CD-ROMs don't use
anywhere near the full 600MB capacity of the 5 1/4" CDs, this may be a new
standard in the making (with larger CD-ROM drives capable of reading both
formats like Laserdisc players do today).
-- John H. Kim | "In fact, Chicago does support security. The sec- jokim_at_jarthur.cs.hmc.edu | urity APIs are there; they just don't do anything." This mail sent by NUPop | - Brad Silverber, VP Microsoft personal systems
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