Re: Expanding Focus Capacity (was Re: Please Help w/purchase.)

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

Mitchell Spector wrote,
in response to my reply:
> >At the very least, since you seem to be a power user, 4MB of
> >RAM, a 300MB hard disk drive, and an accelerator card.  That
> >will give you a very usable GS (much more functional that a
> >Mac Plus, the GS's contemporary of 1986).  Eventually, you
> >may want to upgrade further.
> 
>     Except that the Macintosh Plus has a higher vertical resolution
> (the GS cannot do true WYSIWYG at 640x200) and has had more recent
> System Software support than the GS. Otherwise, I agree fully--the
> GS is more of a functional machine (once upgraded) than a Mac Plus,
> especially in terms of multimedia applications and games.

It is WYSIWYG in that you can see what's going on the GUI.
True, it is not perfect because of the resolution, but no
worse than what was happening with the Mac Plus.  It had
less horizontal resolution than the GS and no color depth,
or grayscales for that matter.  If you were looking at
a grayscale image, the GS is much more WYSIWYG than the
dithered Mac Plus screen.  But yes, if you multiply the
GS' greater horizontal res with its lower vertical res,
you still end up with less dots.  You have more information,
though.  Each pixel holds color info, which means the GS
had to provide more video memory than the Mac Plus with
its 1-bit screen.

> 
> >My system is a 13.75MHz Zip accelerated GS (faster than my
> >25Mhz '486 PC in most tasks...you can't compare MHz accross
> 
>     Your comparing a 486SX-25 laptop, I think if you compared
> the same GS to an old 486DX-33 desktop machine the same might
> not be true. ;-)

I'm talking about my own 486, which I previously acknowledged
was somewhere between the performance of an i486 and i386
(it is a Texas Instrument 486SLC-25 chip).  Still, you have
to remember that this was 1991-1993 PC technology.  The GS
was introduced in 1986.  That 1986 technology could keep
up with 1991-1993 technology is quite impressive.  :)

> 
> >processor lines) more than 1GB of storage online, and 8MB
> >of RAM, along with a 33.6 modem (shared using a rotary dial
> >switchbox with a PC).  With all that storage, I've found
> >myself transferring my collection of music alblums to
> >sound files for playing through the GS.  :)
> 
>     I do that on my PC, moving the actual 16-bit, 44.1 kHz CD
>[snip]
> >Did I mention the GS produces near flawless sound and music?
> 
>     Compared to today's standards? Having only 8-bit sound
> resolution at not much higher than 26 kHz (due to the low
> pass filter) doesn't make "near flawless" digital sound.

First of all, that 26kHz low pass filter does not degrade
the signal.  It simply filters noise.  As was pointed out
earlier, you can only really capture frequencies of 1/2
the sampling rate.  Sampling at 44kHz will mean you are
capturing a maximum frequency of 22kHz.  When the Ensoniq
is sampling at 52kHz, that's when the filter limit comes
in.  That filter is just clipping noise.

Second, the sound, to my ears and through my audio
equipment, sounds near flawless.  It may be just me, but
it sounds good.  I do hear a very slight difference
compared to 16-bit sound coming from a CD player.  If
the CD player is flawless sound, the GS is near-flawless.

> >Unlike Mitchell, I've outgrown 300MB of storage.  Originally,
> >I had 170MB primary and a 170MB backup unit.  Soon, I used
> >the backup unit for storage.  Then I gave up and went to
> >larger storage.
> 
>     I can't imagine the average Apple IIgs user outgrowing
> 300 megabytes of hardrive storage, unless your filling up all
> that space with unusually large digitized sound samples or
> tons of generic files like MOD, WAV, MID, GIF and JPG.

If you are a HyperCard fan, need to decode full sized
scanned documents to print them out, and like to turn
your GS into a digital audio player, you'd be able to
imagine it.  :)

> >Alltech Electronics (http://www.allelec.com/).  Get a GS
> >system from them, then grab a 40MB Focus drive.  Replace
> >the 40MB drive yourself with an 800MB IDE 2.5" mechanism
> >from Computer Shopper sources.
> 
>     On a bit of tangent here, how much is the 2.5" 800 MB
> Quantum Go Drive in Computer Shopper? In several posts I
> noticed you mentioning that it costs "literally pennies",
> which to me would mean a couple of dollars. Is that the
> actual case?
> 
> Mitchell Spector
> spec@vax2.concordia.ca

Look up "Dirt Cheap Drives" in the index.  A couple of
months ago, this Nevada based outfit was selling 800MB
Quantum Go-Drive refurbs for $59.

-Scott G.