Article-I.D.: pembina.154
Posted: Tue Dec  9 18:50:50 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Dec-86 00:04:38 EST
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Lines: 59



I'm looking for some extra memory, and I'd like to hear from anybody and 
everybody who has added memory to their machine.  The latest AmigaWorld 
has a list of all available hardware, but they just give the bare essentials
(a full review will be in the May/June issue, according to "Help Key") :

Name              Company              Price   AC  PT  Description

Alegra	          Access Associates    $379    Y   N   0.5M
aMEGA             C Ltd.               $550    Y   Y   1M
AX1000            Comspec              $729    Y   Y   1M
AX2000            Comspec              $899    Y   Y   2M
PowRCard          RS Data Sys          $800    Opt Y   2M, up to 4M
RAM-BOard-1       Techni Soft          $500    Y   Y   2M + 3 RAM-EXP-1 slots
Starboard 2       Microbotics          $495    Y   Y   0.5M + 0.5M sockets
1 Megabyte RAM    Academy Comp.        $399    Y   N        
1.05Meg Memory    Skyles Electric W.   $700    Y   Y
2.15Meg Memory    Skyles Electric W.   $1000   Y   Y

[Type of addon, port used, availability left out]
AC = Auto Config,  PT = Pass Through

One other company in the running is ASDG :
Convertible 0.5M  $450
Convertible 1.0M  $650
Convertible 2.0M  $900
Mini-Rack         $500  - 3 slots, 9 amp power supply
Mini-Rack B       $300  - 2 slots, 6 amp power supply

According to the review, the chassis have "substantial discounts if
purchased with a convertible memory board". Their ad in "Amazing
Computing" states that the Mini-Rack B will be available for $150 if
purchased with any memory board, the memory boards are also on a 10+%
discount (15+% if you're in a user's group), giving a total price for 
1 Meg of $575 + $150 = $725, 2 Meg = $795 + $150 = $945 (at 10% discount).
How long are these discounts on for?  Does ASDG have plans for hard disks?

I'm aware of ASDG's recoverable ram disk capability, do any of the
other boards have this? Can I buy the software for this separately?

The Alegra board is upgradable to 2 Meg by replacing the RAMs with 1 Mbit
DRAMs (as these "become widely available").  Are they, and if so, how much 
do they cost and where can you find them? A quick check of the mail order 
ads in "Radio Electronics" returns a null result.  

Questions:
- Number of wait states? (Does anyone make 1+ wait state boards?)
- Quality of board, case, design, etc.  Description of any special features.
- Have you had any problems with the board?  What is the company's
  warantee period, repair/replace policy?
- Desireability of passing the bus?  I'm not interested in adding
  anything more than a hard disk, so could I get away with one of
  the cheaper boards?
- Can the information in the board survive a warm boot?

So, I am interested in any information anyone has about any of these
(or any other) products, I'll even summarize for the net if there are 
enough responses and/or requests.  Thanks in advance.