At 10:41 3/25/99 -0800, Gavin wrote:
>Tom wrote:
>> I am very impressed with this machine.  It is making me regret the $1600
>> machine I bought a few months ago.  I could have purchased the e-machine,
>> installed additional memory, a larger disk drive, and NT workstation, and
>> still have come out ahead.
>
>Of course I've already upgraded the little beast with a lan card ($69 for
>two PCI lan cards, cables, and a five port hub) so that I can network it

Oh yeah, I would've needed a NIC card too.  Still, a quick mental
calculation brings the upgraded 333k e-machine to costing around 60% of the
equivalent machine I got.

>There's an interesting report (this week's Computerworld I think) on the
>relative sales of PCs in different price tiers in February versus a year
>ago.  Under $600 PCs are up 670%, and over $1500 PC are down 70% or
>something like that.  It sounds as though the distinction between "PCs"
>and "workstations" is being reestablished.  Hardware has pulled way ahead
>of software, meaning that almost everyone can be happy without the latest
>(high-priced) 500MHz Pentium III type of system.  Assuming that these
>makers of cheap PCs can turn a profit, it's hard to imagine the high end
>of the market ever regaining the market share that it once had, and it's
>also hard to believe that some of the current manufacturers of "traditional"
>PCs (IBM, Compaq, HP, Dell) aren't going to be in *serious* trouble very
>soon.

Not to mention Intel.


Tom Brandt                            Northtech Systems, Inc.
+1 734-769-5040                     3588 Plymouth Road, Suite 292
+1 734-769-5498 (FAX)            Ann Arbor, MI 48105