Dream machine
4 messages in this thread
Could anyone please give me some advice on a "dream machine on a budget"?
I am currently running AniPro on a 386sx with a math co and four megs of
RAM. Yes, the absolute minimum. (I am planning on making it into a
planter box.) I also have a Jovian VIN converter and their SVIA capture
board, neither one of which is very satisfactory. I realize it's a "you
get what you pay for" kind of situation, but I would like some feedback
from users who have more experience in what hardware functions the best in
regard to proprietary systems, video card compatibility, local bus, ISA,
EISA, etc.
Thanks for any help.
Michael,
A vesa compliant local-bus based 486/66dx2 or 486/50dx2 with local bus
accelerated svga card and lots of RAM should be very good for anipro –
especially playing large animations back at good speed (30fps or more).
With lots of RAM you can fit animations in memory and play from there
without paging from disk. With the addition of a local bus disk controller
you may be able to play animations directly from disk at respectable speed
– haven't tried that. You may not have to convert your 386sx into a hamster
cage, you may be able to just swap out the motherboard – I did this with a
286 with good results. If you want to record your animations to tape in
realtime their are some good converters which I have heard about which will
give better results than the VIN box – Truevision's Videovga with flicker
filter and Magni's vga producer. Some of the other members may have more
experience and info about these.
The new RGB Dynamics 'Translator' is a winner – SVGA, MAC, etc built in,
not much flicker, and doesn't take up a slot (external box). $2,300 list
plus/minus
I could give you some ideas, but how much are you willing to spend? $1000,
$3000, etc.? three will get you a really good computer. Buy some computer
magazines and page through them. they will give you a good idea of what you
can get for your price range. BTW, I can empathize with your future
planter, I have one too…