#A3000, Cost? Advice?
9 messages in this thread
My son's Amiga 1000 is sitting on a table behind me. He has been working
on an Island, out of touch, sinc May. He has asked me to look into the
possibility of buying an Amiga 3000.
Can anyone give me an idea of the street price of a 3000 and what we
would probably want to add? I think he would need at least 2Meg of memory
and some sort of hard disk. What kind of dollars are we talking about?
Can he use his old Amiga Monitor – and if so what does he give up.
What would you recommend for a monitor, hard disk, other ?
His main interest is interactive video, video editing, graphics and music.
What else should we consider?
All help is much appreciated.
Harry
Harry,
The A3000 comes with a minimum of 2 Meg of memory and a hard disk
as standard equipment. It comes in 3 configurations "off the shelf"
1. 2 Meg RAM, 50 Meg HD and a 16MHz cpu
2. 2 Meg RAM, 50 Meg HD and a 25MHz cpu
3. 5 Meg RAM, 100 Meg HD and a 25MHz cpu
In dollars, you're talking about street prices of about between
3,000 and 5,500 depending on the model.
Yes, he can use his old Amiga monitor, but not in all video modes.
A multi-sync monitor is much perfered for the A3000….Commodore makes one
called the 1950. It goes for about $750.
To be honest though, I strongly suggest you first go to an Amiga
dealer's and look over the 3000 and what options are available for it. You
then call your son and discuss it with him as to what he really wants vs
what you may think he wants.
Don
Don,
Thanks for the information.
I know this is a touchy area, but at those prices it seems to me that the
Amiga is running headlong into the MACs – IICX, ICI etc. at street prices,
with color monitor and HD – would be around $5,000.
The new Mac's coming out in the next ten days are supposed to be cheaper
– though I suspect it will take a while for the street prices to come down.
Do you think the Amiga is still a better buy than the Mac?
Harry
Harry,
The Amiga 3000 is very similar in configuration to the Mac IIci and IIcx.
Prices are about the same (unless you happen to be a student…CBM has some
REAL nice discounts) with the Amigas being a might cheaper. The A3000 is a
bit more powerful than the IIci (can handle more RAM, has multiple onboard
coprocessors to handle specific tasks [similar to the approach used in the
IIfx]). With a Mac, the OS will eat up a lot of you initial RAM, so you
will need more than with an Amiga to start (try starting a IIci with only 2
Mb of RAM…then wait for system 7.0…which needs 2 Mb just to load…)
The new Macs (Classic, et al) are priced the same ($3,000 to $5,000) for
COLOR machines [the Classic is reportedly <$1,000 but is a monochrome Mac,
more like an upgraded Mac Plus].
Bottom line…a Mac can run Mac software and IBM software (with the right
add ons), but not Amiga software. An Amiga can run Amiga, IBM and Mac with
the right add ons. A cheap Mac is a mono Mac. Last of all…consider the
price of the SOFTWARE you want…Mac is usually about twice the price (even
for the exact same stuff: i.e. Sculpt 3D is listed at $1495 for the Mac and
listed at $495 for the Amiga [street prices relatively lower] for the EXACT
SAME PRIDUCT!) Figure out what you want to do, then not only price the
machine, but price the software (which is essential) and you will find a
large disparity.
The Amiga also multitasks…the Mac fakes it.
-Chas
I bought the A3000 on the student discount for $3039. That gave me the 25
MHz version with a 50 MEG HD and the A1950 multisync monitor. I think that
comes in quite abit cheaper than the Mac IICX.
Harry –
The 3000 presently comes in three main configurations: A3000/16 which uses
a 16MHz 68030 CPU (I believe it has 2 meg memory and a 50 (previously 40)
megabyte harddisk), the A3000/25-50 (25MHz 68030 CPU, 2 Meg memory, 50 Meg
harddisk), and the A3000/25-100 (25MHz 68030 CPU, 5 Meg memory, 100 Meg
harddisk). Pricing is dealer dependent (for new equipment), Commodore does
not like mail order. The educational program is quite nice if your son is
working toward a degree. To make full use of the 3000 you need a multisync
monitor such as Commodore's A1950. Using the old monitor gives up the
several new video modes. Hope this is of some help.
Jeff Schweiger
Jeff,
Thanks for the information. Another one said that street prices for a full
set up would cost between $3000 and $5000. Wow! I thought Amiga's main
edge on the Mac was price – and I can't see a difference now.
Harry
Harry,
I'd have to check on some of the Mac specifications, but on the surface,
the only Mac to compare the A3000/25-100 against is the Mac IIfx, which I
believe is still considerably more expensive than the 3000.
Jeff Schweiger
Harry,
I see a HUGE difference between the Amiga and the Mac — and price isn't
the issue.
-sja