DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! The Technology Liberation Front is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

The Technology Liberation Front

The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
Jump to original thread »
Author

The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » “The Most Powerful Computer Ever”

Started by TLF · 10 months ago

No excerpt available. Jump to website »

17 comments

  • When I saw this I went to apple.com to see how much it would be possible to spend on a high end computer these days -- a Mac Pro with 2 x 3.2 Ghz 8 core processor (16 cores total), 32 gigs of ram, a $3000 Nvidia card, and fully maxed out other options from the customization page gives this quote:

    "Subtotal Please note that your subtotal does not include sales tax or rebates. $26,673.00"
  • The rebates should bring it down to ¢26,573.
  • That ad says "Our most powerful computer ever," not "THE most powerful computer ever."
  • Man...

    I miss my Commie 64 now. I miss having to use multiple 5" floppies to run a game.
  • Hard to believe that in our pockets we each have a mobile phone orders of magnitude more powerful than that machine, not to mention much smaller and less power-hungry. Few laws are as great as Moore's.
  • Yeah and I can build a better system than the Mac Pro for less :)

    /Apple makes way too much on the "upgrades" from their standard configurations.
  • My favorite quote ever, from Richard Greenblatt, creator (in some versions of history) of the LISP machine, the premier hardware of artificial intelligence ca 1980:

    "The LISP machine will never require more than 256K of memory."
  • Geez, even in a Tandy thread some brainwashed MS fanboi has to knock Macs. Get a life.
  • Nothing worse than spending a ton of money on a Mac and then none of your accessories work because nobody cares to make drivers for your "high-end" computer.
  • Funny how this causes you to start bashing macs, when the Tandy ISN'T EVEN A MAC.

    And ever since 2005, Macs have been able to run Windows on Mac. So, your "nobody makes the drivers" statement is invalid.
  • Coops--no, you can't. I'm as anti-Mac as they come but the Mac Pro dual Harpertown is as well-priced as anything you can put together assuming you buy extra RAM, video cards, etc from NewEgg.

    It's also very tough to find a reliable, well-reviewed dual Harpertown mobo with two PCI-E 2.0 slots and 8 FB-DIMM slots.

    Todd--Windows works on Macs, you know.
  • 8499*(1.062044)^19=26,673
    isn't inflation like 3.25%?
  • no its 325% the number is multiplyed by 3.25
  • @Todd: Now Vista users are the ones complaining that none of their hardware works and there aren't any drivers.
  • Whoa.. I'm guessing that the 1980s must have been unbelievably backwards times. I don't remember any of them, since I was still in pampers in 1987.

    So my question to all of you really old people is; what was the market for this insanely priced system? Did people take out bank loans to buy a system such as this, or was this market to mostly business customers?
  • " Did people take out bank loans to buy a system such as this, or was this market to mostly business customers?"

    Keep in mind that this is Tandy. ie, RadioShack.

    I expect this was probably seriously overpriced, and marketed towards small business buyers with more money than sense. Dentists, lawyers, etc, buying a PC for their office while shopping at the mall.
  • @Todd,
    You don't own a Mac, do you. You're still living in 1989. I've been using Mac for 5 years, and I run my law practice on Macs. I have yet to find hardware that's incompatible.

Add New Comment

Returning? Login