From: scottw@src4src.linet.org (Scott Weintraub)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: HELP--AMIGA OR IBM PC CLONE?
Date: 10 Jan 93 04:33:22 GMT
Organization: The Source for Source

First off, I want to say that about a week ago, I ordered my Gateway after
being a loyal Amiga advocate for many years.  Guys, they've caught up.  A
few months ago, we all agreed that HAM didn't cut it anymore and were pretty
excited about the AGA chipset which I can now say *STILL* doesn't cut it.

Now, let's make a reasonable comparison.  We'll compare the basic Gateway
4DX2-66V to a 4000.  The Gateway is $2995 and the 4000, powered up is 
$2700.  The 4DX2-66V comes with a 15" MAG (it has a Gateway case but is
internally a MAG which I may add is considered by many equal to the 3FGX
and the 4FG.  It recently got monitor of the year from PC World and is
completely and utterly FLAT).  Uh oh!  The A4000 doesn't come with a monitor.
Hmmmm... that NEC looks nice but unfortunately, we need a monitor that can
do 15KHz.  Oh well.  We'll settle for a 1960 which definately wasn't our
first choice.  It's about $550 (don't quote me please) so let's tack that
onto the price of the A4000.  $2700 + $550 = $3250.  Wow, that's more than
the Gateway.  As we all know, the Gateway is a 486DX2 processor running
at 66MHz and the A4000 is run off an 040 operating at 25MHz.  They're both
incredibly fast machines and while the 4000 could be faster, it'll have to
do.  The A4000 comes with 6 megs of RAM and the Gateway comes with 8.
The 4000 has one 3.5" high density drive.  The Gateway comes with two: a
3.5" and a 5.25".  Since a 5.25" drive is useless in an Amiga, we can't 
really rank on CBM for not including a second drive.  The Amiga 4000 comes
with a 120MB IDE of which I'm unsure of access time.  Gateway includes
a beautiful 340MB IDE sitting right on the motherboard so it's not connected
to an ISA slot.  I'm very unfamiliar with this technology but I do know it
runs at 13ms and says it has a local bus controller in the ad but doesn't
take up one of the local bus slots.  As far as graphics go, the Gateway
includes a local bus ATI Ultra Pro which happens to be an extremely fast
card.  Windows does *NOT* run slowly with this baby in your machine.  It's
basically a "real-time" OS and is comparable with the Amiga's Workbench.
The ATI does 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 in 24-bit and then drops down to 65k
colors in 1024 x 768 and finally, 256 colors in 1280 x 1024.  According to 
the January '93 issue of BYTE, the ATI card can play back Video for Windows
movies which reportedly can animate 1024 x 768 at 30fps.  I am yet to test
this because my Gateway is in the mail but this is coming from a 3rd party
and I doubt is fictional.  The Amiga comes with the fabulous new AGA chipset.
It can do 256k colors out of a 24-bit palette in 640 x 480.  It can do those
same colors in 800 x 600 and the ever-so-awkward 1280 x 400 but in 15KHz mode.
The increased bandwith on the A4000 enables it approach 30fps in 640 x 480.
The 4000 has 7 slots when everything's over and the Gateway has 9.  8 being
ISA an one local bus.  Both are desktops but for $100, you can upgrade
the Gateway to a tower case.  The A4000 comes with a 101-key keyboard which
I find slightly annoying and the Gateway has a 124-key AnyKey keyboard
which happens to be a joy to use.  Both include mice which are both medicore.
The Gateway comes with MS-DOS and Windows and of course the A4000 comes with
WB 3.0.  Gateway then enables you to choose from a small assortment of   
software.  I choose Paradox 4.0 (considered the best piece of database
software) and Borland C++ 3.1 (considered by many the best C compiler).
Gateway's cache is small.  It's only 64k but for a mere $45 you can jack that
up to 256k which is more than enough.  After that, the leftover money that
you save can be put towards a variety of stuff including RAM at $45/meg,
an upgrade to the ATI card to give it an extra meg of VRAM which is
necessary for the higher resolutions and 24-bit color.  It's $125.  I know,
I know, I know.  There's no sound.  Well, the extra money can be put toward's
Gravis's Ultra Sound.  It's a 16-bit soundboard and costs about $130.  I've
probably forgot something so feel free to correct/add/subtract this post.

Oh yes.  If you want tech support, Gateway's tech support hotline is open
weekdays from 6AM to midnight EST and on Saturday from 8AM to 5PM.  I can't
say the same for CBM who would rather our problems to be in the hands of 
it's dealers but sometimes offers help.

-- 
     /// AMIGA:            * Scott Weintraub - Long Island, NY     *   In
    ///  the computer for  * e-mail: scottw@src4src.linet.org      *DreAms i
\\\///   the blah blah     *                                       *  WalK
 \\X/    blah blah blah    * Letterman is the king of latenight!!! *WiTh yOu
Xref: sparky comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:32974 comp.sys.amiga.programmer:18329