[rescue] NeXT cube question

[Steve Hatle]

On 5/27/03 7:50 PM, "Gavin Hubbard" <ghub005 at xtra.co.nz> wrote:


>>> 
> 
> Is this a decent configuration for the asking price, or should I wait for a
> system with the better graphics option to become available.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Gavin

About the only better graphics option you will find for a Cube is a
NeXTDimension board, which will cost much more than the Cube itself.

I agree with Patrick on just about every point.

The best bang for the buck in black hardware is a color slab or Turbo slab-
25Mhz vs. 33Mhz.

An SS10 or 20 is a _great_ NeXTSTEP box. Only one CPU is supported, though.
Don't know about the HP's personally, but I've heard they are nice, too.

All that's been said about the monitor going dim is too true. It's the
Achilles heel of the Cube, because it's not like you can just slap a generic
monitor on it- all the keyboard/mouse/sound electronics run through it.

The best thing about a Cube though is that, well, it's a Cube <grin> I still
like mine.

The SCSI floppy is a nice add-on. Reloading the OS is somewhat problematic
on a Cube, which can't boot from CD. Your other choice is the floppy, but
the Cube doesn't have one, normally. You can put the CD boot blocks on an
optical cartridge with some fiddling, but with the chances of the OD
actually working almost nil, not to mention having extra media. So- having
the floppy is a bonus. Otherwise, you need another NeXT to run the Builddisk
utility (still the slickest way to clone a disk I've ever seen, though
Carbon Copy Cloner for OSX is pretty cool, too)

IMHO, this is about a $150-$200 system. If you can get close to that price,
go for it if you really want a Cube. Else look to the alternatives.

Steve