$aff                Is the Amiga still a viable alternative?
                ----------------------------------------

$bff                                 Phil97

$9f0For  a  newcomer, would the Amiga be an attractive purchase?  The answer
would  seem to be "It depends what you want to use it for" and of course
"depends  how much it costs"..  Well, according to the last issue of the
The  Word, the re-released basic A1200 will be selling for £250...  Good
VFM?

As  a  word  processor  it'd  be  a  tad expensive (you could get a more
convenient  laptop  '386 for the same price-with harddrive), for a games
machine  it  would  be badly under-powered and as a Internet kit it just
wouldnt  do at all (I've tried it and it was very painful).  So what can
you use a basic A1200 for these days?  Not much, surely.

It  seems  an  accellerator card is a must:  At least a 50Mhz '030..  So
now  our  fictional  punter  has already spent around £350 for a machine
rated  at  9  MIPS.   Ok,  out of interest, lets see what kind of PC you
could  build  for  the  same price:  (ignoring memory and a harddrive as
they are requirements of both systems and cost the same anyway).  Prices
are  from  the  current issue of Micromart (not necessarily the cheapest
prices quoted).

1.  Pentium Motherboard      : £ 50                      
2.  Intel P133 processor     : £ 70             
3.  2MB SVGA Video Card      : £ 25                               
4.  1.4 Mb floppy drive      : £ 15
5.  SB compat Soundcard      : £ 15
6.  Tower Case inc PSU       : £ 30
7.  Keyboard + Mouse         : £ 15
8.  SVGA 14" Daewoo Monitor  : £120     
9.  CPU fan/misc cables etc  : £ 10
-----------------------------------           
Total                        : £350           

So  for  the  same price, you'd get a machine running at least TEN times
faster  than the A1200 with 50Mhz 030 (and fastram).  You'll notice that
the  PC  spec  even  includes  a  SVGA  monitor - the Amiga setup doesnt
include  a monitor (foiling the "You have to spend more cus I can use my
TV  with  the  Amiga" argument).  If you want to truly compare like with
like,  replace  the  PC monitor (and P133 cpu) with an AMD K6_200MMX CPU
(£140),  this  will almost double the performance and leave you with £50
spare to actually BUY Windows 95 - perish the thought!

In  a direct comparison of the above machines, the low performance/price
ratio  of  the  the Amiga is shockingly clear:  Say to any punter, "What
would  you like, this quirkey multitasking Amiga or a Multimedia PC that
runs  at  10  times  the  speed?"  and  what will they say?  "Oh, let me
think"?  I doubt it.

"Speed  isnt  everything",  may  snap  a  guy from #Amirc, so we have to
dredge up the all the other advantages the PC offers:

* Display resolutions up to 1024*800 in 24bit colour non-interlace. 
* Expandibility - loads of slots free.
* The PC world standard, EG: connecting to the Internet is a breeze. 
* Copius amounts of professional software available as shareware. 
* Console-comparible games released by the truckload.

And what can the Amiga offer in its favour? Err.. Multitasking (which
Windows 95 approximates as far as anyone cares anyway)...

I'm not gratuitously attacking the Amiga, I'm just stating facts as they
are  NOW.   (And  some  people really need to wake up to 'em!) Yes, I've
heard about the power-Amigas that are on the horizon, they've been there
for three years or more!  But there's no point comparing pipe-dreams and
vapourware.   I'm  talking  about  the  here and now, cus thats where we
live,  in the present.  And at present, can anyone deny that compared to
the  performance  and  benefits you'd get out of a PC, £350 for a usable
A1200 is a rip-off!?

In  case anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, let me just say that I am still
of  the  opinion  that from a technical viewpoint, PC hardware stinks to
high heaven - its a mess and could be vastly improved.  The Amiga system
was  excellent in 1987 when the A500 was released, but that was 10 years
ago!   The PC has moved on unrecognizably but the Amiga hasn't (granted,
AGA  saved it from an early grave).  But punters buy what impresses them
on  the  surface  and  thats  all that matters (the Amiga must have sold
thousands on the strength of the Juggler demo alone!).

Commodore killed the Amiga by sitting on their laurels and not investing
in  new  hardware.   Now  they  are  gone and the Amiga rights have been
kicked  from  pillar  to  post,  with no-one making real progress..  I'd
dearly  like to see a PC-kickin' Amiga rise phoenix-like from the ashes,
but  going  on  past  non-developments, I think its highly unlikely.  We
have  to  face  it,  its all gone pear-shaped, it didnt turn out the way
we'd like, but hey, that's life..

$ff0
[I  have to say Phil, that of all the electrical devices I own today, my
A1200  is the only one that never fails.  My PC tower has fucked up more
times than I care to remember, my laptops peripherals refuse to function
sometimes and even my TV and VCR's do break down but my A1200?  It still
goes on.  The TV dies so I hook it up to the PC monitor.  The PC monitor
dies  so  I  hook  up  the  tower to the Amiga and use it as an external
peripheral  to  the  Amiga.   I  may  use PC's more these days than ever
before but my trusty Amiga is still my favourite machine.  Kei]



$df0end