From: rhealey@kas.helios.mn.org (Rob Healey)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.amiga
Subject: Re: Graphics Options
Date: 4 Apr 92 18:15:53 GMT
Organization: Rob's home system, Hopkins, MN

In article <CONSP03.92Apr1154829@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu> consp03@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (Kriston J. Rehberg) writes:
=I already own an Amiga 2500 with a A2620 accelerator board.
=
=Is it worth upgrading to Amiga UNIX on this machine?  I'd have to do
=this:
=    1) add 2 megs of ram so I have 4
=    2) add a 300 meg hard disk
=    3) buy the AMIX tape and borrow a tape drive
=
	The lack of memory will be painful... The disk size is OK but you
	really want a tape drive to back thinks up, floppys are a pain
	unless to pick up the 20M jobbys, 8 20M floppys should back up
	a normal AmigaUNIX setup.

=..at the very minimum.  If I wanted to run X I suppose I'd have to:
=    4) dump the A2620 and get a 50 MHz '030 or similar '040 with 16 megs
=    5) get a display card (is this really necessary?)
=    6) break down and buy that tape drive.
=
	I'd say get at least a 2630 and 16M of RAM. Don't bother with an
	'040 as they AREN'T compatable with an '030 UNIX wise and UNIX
	won't support the '040 for a while.

	If you want color X then you'll have to get a display card, either
	a A2410, the cheepest solution, a DMI resolver or the Ameristar
	1600 card.

	No matter what, you'll be kicking yourself in the keister if you
	don't get a tape drive.

=Should I just go for a full AMIX setup with tape drive (sans monitor)
=out of the box?  If so, which one?
=
	I'd try to make a deal with one of the VT students that are dumping
	their 3000UX's for the DEC thingee.
	
	Barring that, get a base 3000 and slowly build it up to UNIX capable
	level.
	
	The plus with this idea is you start off with an ADOS machine as good
	or better than your current 2500 and slowly get a better box that can
	run SVR4, BSD 4.4 and maybe someday Mach. The 3000 has more upgrade
	potential than an overextended 2500, the Zorro III bus allows for many
	interesting upgrade possibilitys both under ADOS and other OS's.

	If you want UNIX right this minute then add the memory and stick it
	out with the 2500. If you can afford to wait then trade that 2500
	in for a base 3000 and slowly build it up till it is capable of
	UNIX. Even a base UNIX 3000 is one kick butt ADOS machine!!!!

=Commodore's pricing is outrageously high for their UNIX workstations.
=I can get 2 monochrome NeXT workstations for the price of one color
=Amiga UNIX workstation, with 2.88 MB floppy disks, developer
=installation and change left over!  Or I could get a SparcStation SLC
=or clone, which is both more mature and faster...
=
	Those 2 monochrome NeXT's aren't as expandable as a 3000. Same
	with the SLC. The clone is the only cost effective and expandable
	alternative and it doesn't run your AmigaDOS software very well...
	With Sun, you have heavy maintainance costs and when Sun drops
	a product it ceases to exist the next day as far as the Sun is
	concerned. Ask and Sun 3, Sun 2 or Sun 386i owner about this. Sun
	is TERRIBLE when it comes to supporting it's older machines.

	RISC machines in general are costly to maintain and have a
	workstation focus that may not provide a very good general
	purpose home system. How many RISC boxes out there have $100.00
	software? INEXPENSIVE sound, music and video digitizing? This
	sort of stuff is the relm of Amiga's, peewee's and Macs.

=Note- the temporary $4995 incentive on a UXG doesn't count, because
=that's an artificial price that will disappear very soon now (I
=believe the offer ends in May).
=
	HOPEFULLY, that price will be made permanant as it's a decent
	price for a UNIX box in the UX class of machines.

	For those with 3000's AmigaUNIX isn't that expensive relative to
	other UNIX systems. If you don't have a 3000 then it can get VERY 
	expensive hardware wise quickly.

	For anyone thinking about AmigaUNIX or BSD 4.4 I would suggest getting
	a base ADOS 3000 if you can't afford the 3000UX outlay. This gets you
	a snappier ADOS system now and leaves more expansion and OS choice
	for you in the future.

	As usual these are my own opinions and may be totally worthless in
	your particular situation(s).

		-Rob