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The Tandy Factory Direct Computer program and Me...
Needing a new 486 computer, I spent over three weeks shopping around.
I live in the Chicago suburbs, so there is no shortage of retail outlets
selling computers.
Without going into the why/wherefores of my decision, the net result was that
I stopped into my nearest Radio Shack Computer Center store on Saturday,
11/28/92, and placed an order for a 486SX/33, with the usual drives and
lots of ram.
The order process is very easy. Tandy has printed a one-sided options
sheet, and you just run down the list, checking off what you want on your
machine. $1914 later, the order had been entered on the store computer.
Tandy promises shipment within two days of receiving your order. Of course,
a weekend order like mine is counted as a Monday order. The machine arrived
via Federal Express 2-day Air on Friday, 12/4/92.
My first impression, upon unwrapping it all, was that this was a very
heavily built unit. While shopping, I had had a chance to see machines
built by Packard Bell, Acros, Compaq, CompuDyne, IBM, and a number of
others. None of them matches the heavy, strong impression left by the
new Tandy machine. To some extent, it resembles an old-fashioned XT
machine in a grey metal case, made ten years ago.
The case is actually plastic, with attached metal emissions shielding
inside. And, it is a "slim-line" case; one where the bus cards plug in
horizontally, rather than vertically. Thus, it is actually a little shorter
than the old XT case would be.
The front panel of the case includes the standard 3.5" floppy and the
optional 5.25" I ordered. There are also a keyboard Lock switch and a
momentary contact reset button, as well as a pushbutton on/off switch.
Power On and Hard Drive LEDs are placed over the Lock and Reset switches.
I had ordered the heavy duty keyboard, and even that seemed heavier
than expected. The upgraded keyboard offers an audible click with each
keypress, and has the long travel and semi-firm spring resistance that I
prefer.
Installation was relatively simple. The monitor connects here, the modem
there, the printer next to that. Plug it in, and Hey, it works.
Next impression - even the hard drive sounds like a heavy old-fashioned
model. I am told that Western Digital IDE hard drives have that type of
sound, as they operate. And, listen to that power supply fan...
Bottom line is that I am very happy with the construction of the machine.
Call me old fashioned, but I like my $2000 appliances to feel as though
they'll be around awhile.
Everything worked as expected. Windows, DOS and (ahem..) America Online were
loaded on the hard drive. Backup floppies of each were included. That's
good, because the first thing I wanted to do was partition the hard drive
into multiple logical drives. This is not strictly necessary, but it is a
habit I have acquired over the years. There are some advantages to it, but
that's for another discussion. The problem is that after you use FDISK to
partition the drive, you have to reformat it. And then reinstall every
program.
Also included on floppies were SVGA accelerator drivers for both Windows
and OS/2. The Western Digital video hardware, with these drivers, increases
video speed significantly. There are drivers for 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768,
1280x1024, and more. If you have the VRAM expansion installed (results in
1 meg of VRAM), you can get 256 colors up to 1024x768; 16 colors above
that rez.
High rez is nice, but my 14" monitor is only big enough to be useful at about
800x600. I spent awhile at 1024x768, but the Windows icons and titles are
extremely small. I have seen a rule of thumb statement that you should go
to 16" for 1024x768 and 19" for 1280x1024. To me, that seems about right.
With the drivers installed, and Windows set for 800x600x256, the WinTach
benchmark program gave me a score of about 10. My 386SX/25 notebook scored
1.5, so the 486 is quite a bit faster. WinTach tests your machine against
some built-in word processor, spreadsheet, CAD and drawing/artwork
simulations. It's available on CIS.
Tandy encloses a small booklet describing how to set up the machine, and
use the Tandy software supplied. I had no trouble with any of it.
One final included item. Tandy supplies a small sticker to apply to a
spot on the front of the machine. Without the sticker, the spot says
simply "433 SX", the model number. After applying the sticker, it now
reads:
433 SX
Custom Made For
Jim Ness
I'm waiting for my wife to notice.
-JN