Conference noted::ibmpc-95

2970.0. "Monorail" by LEXSS1::JOHNHC () Sun Mar 30 1997 20:42

    Last week while I was picking up a Mac Performa from the Service
    Department at CompUSA, I took a stroll down the PCs-on-Display aisle. 
    In general, it was the same old stuff: IBM, Compaq, Packard Bell, etc.
    Then I came across this strange looking, compact, matte black system
    with a backlit LCD. A Network Computer? 
    
    No. It was a Monorail. 
    
    It had a hard disk, a diskette drive, a CD drive, and speakers. It
    also had a display adaptor port for attaching a CRT. It was about the
    same size as my HiNote VP. The major difference was that the instead of
    having the display *under* the cover when the machine's closed up, the
    display was on the outside, and the whole notebook was mounted on a
    small stand. The LCD was the same size as the one on my HiNote VP.
    
    It came in two versions, a 75MHz and a 133MHz. Both came with 16Mb of
    RAM. the 75MHz box had a 1.2Gb disk, and the 133MHz box had a 2.1Gb
    disk. Both used an AMD CPU, and both claimed to be upgradeable to a
    200MHz Pentium. Both came with Windows 95.
    
    
    The 75MHz box was $795, and the 133MHz box was $995.
    
    Our household had seen enough conflict over access to the one family
    computer, the Mac Performa that I was there at CompUSA to pick up.
    After doing a little research on Monoral, I bought the 75MHZ machine
    two days later.
    
    Now the kids ignore the Mac Performa and fight exclusively over access
    to the Monorail. 
    
    It's as fast as you would expect a 75MHz machine to be, which means that
    it's almost twice as fast as the Performa 575, and it has performed
    flawlessly over the course of the last five days, during which time it
    has been in use for more hours than it has been idle.
    
    So far, we're really happy with it. Anybody else out there looked at
    one or bought one?
    
    Comments?
    
    
    John H-C

It's gotten good reviews in the press.  Look for similar approaches from other
vendors soon - Compaq already has such a model.

					Steve

    I also have the 75mz version and have been very happy with it. It is
    very rugged as I have been carting it around quite a bit, I just wish
    I had the larger disk drive. I added a parallel port ethernet adapter,
    which adds all the functionallity of my desktop systems.
    
    Vin