Conference 7.286::atarist

   
Re:-

>Now that I've decided to buy an ATARI, the question is, "Which one? STE or 
>MEGA?".

  The STE can definitely be upgraded to 4MB, costing about 90 pounds
  per 1 x 1MEG SIMM.
  
  A significant difference between the Mega and the STe is the Mega
  has an expansion bus, the STe doesn't. Therefore, add ons like the
  cheapo 19" mono monitor (1000 pounds +) are impossible (?) with the
  STe.
  
  The Mega's keyboard is decidely superior to that of the ST/e ... however,
  I wouldn't pay extra money for it, and I mainly use my ST for fairly
  intensive text input.
      
  Regards,
  
  Carl

    Hi Tom,                                     
    
    	Welcome the wonderful Atariland.
    
    	You say you hesit between a STe and a MEGA.Be careful,the STe is
    *not* fully compatible whith the STf:A friend of mine decided to sell
    his old 1040 STf to buy a new STe.He discovered he could no longer play
    one third of his games.A very bad surprise.
    
    	I see two big differences between the STf and the MEGA:
                                                
    		-As Carl said,the expansion bus
    		-The blitter.This chip allows fast graphics outputs (The
    Amiga has one).In fact there are very few programs which take advantage
    of this possibility.So the blitter is not a big advantage.
    
    	A 520 STf can be upgraded to 1 Meg. whithout problem.BUT you won't
    be able to add more memory:the power supply is not powerful enough.
    
    
    		Pierre-Yves

    
>    	You say you hesit between a STe and a MEGA.Be careful,the STe is
>    *not* fully compatible whith the STf:A friend of mine decided to sell
>    his old 1040 STf to buy a new STe.He discovered he could no longer play
>    one third of his games.A very bad surprise.
    
>    	I see two big differences between the STf and the MEGA:
                                                
>    		-As Carl said,the expansion bus
>    		-The blitter.This chip allows fast graphics outputs (The
>    Amiga has one).In fact there are very few programs which take advantage
>    of this possibility.So the blitter is not a big advantage.

Blitter speeds up (some) GEM calls.
    
>    	A 520 STf can be upgraded to 1 Meg. whithout problem.BUT you won't
>    be able to add more memory:the power supply is not powerful enough.

So upgrade the power supply if you don't think you have the power for
more memory in your 520.  If cheap is the word, a used ST with self upgrades
is pretty darn cheap.


However, I'd go with the STe. SIMM upgrading is easy, pretty darn cheap, etc.
STe is newer -- i'd bet that it will get more attention in terms of fixes, etc.
Plus, when STe games come out, it will be a hot game-box.

Anyway, my randopm rambles.
   
    
    		Pierre-Yves

While the blitter doesn't help your GAMES very much, there are a lot of
APPLICATIONS that benefit greatly from it.

Personally, I'd take the STe if only for the digitized sound capability
and the horizontal scrolling hardware, as well as the triviality of
implementing genlock.

I'd gladly trade one of my 1040STf's for an STe, even if I lost a half
of meg of memory in the deal.  North American keyboards only please. 
Any takers?

(Hey, this isn't like trading software is it?  I'll trade you a set of
TOS 1.0 ROM's encased in a 1040STf, for a set of TOS 1.6 ROMs encased in
an STe, any takers? :-)

    Hi tom,
    
    You suggested that upgrading a mega St would be troublesome.
    You have the luck of living in 'ATARI LAND' Germany, if you look
    through the magazine ST-COMPUTER you will see advertisements for
    memory upgrades.
    E.g. upgrading an mega 2 to mega 4 will cost about 650 Dmarks.
    Built in and tested !.
    BUT i've heard that the new MEGA 1 ST version has the main pcba
    layed out for surface mounting (SMD) and upgrading this machine
    will NOT be easy to do.
    
    I'am a mega 2 owner myself and are very satisfied with this system
    , especially the 2 Mb memory is very worthwhile.
    
    Hope this clears a little bit,
    
    Arthur Sinke
    HOLLAND.