The Icon Bar: First_Advantage_Six_product_-_the_A6: The Icon Bar: First Advantage Six product

After a few cryptic SMSs, I've finally got through to http://www.thea6.com/, website of the new A6 computer.

Only a few days have passed since Stuart Tyrrell announced Advantage Six, and the first product appears with a bang. Following the current trend for small cube-shaped computers in PC land, the A6 measures 32x21x18cm (around 12.6 x 8.3 x 7"). Of course it's a PC under the hood, but runs VirtualRPC-SE at speeds comparable to a StrongARM RiscPC.

The basic stats are as follows:

Available in three variants, all machines come complete with DVD drive or DVD/CDRW, fast hard drive, Floppy disk, 400MHz dual-channel DDR memory, Geforce 4MX graphics, 56K internal modem, 10/100BaseT networking, 4xUSB ports, 2xIEEE1394 ports (windows only), SPDif optical (input windows only, output RISC OS/windows), Windows XP Home and VirtualRPC-SE. Keyboard and mouse are of course included, along with speakers for those machines where they are not part of the monitor.

The costs are as follows:
A6B : Base unit/DVD/40G hard drive/256MB memory : £599 ex VAT A6 : 15" LCD monitor/DVD/CDRW/80G hard drive/512MB memory: £899 ex VAT A6DB: 17" LCD monitor/DVD/CDRW/120G hard drive/512MB memory: £999 ex VAT

Carriage: £25+VAT

And now I really must get dressed and go to work ;)

Source: TheA6.com

First Advantage Six product - the A6

Phlamethrower (10:06 7/10/2003)
  flibble (09:40 8/10/2003)
    rich (09:59 8/10/2003)
      stdevel (10:52 8/10/2003)
        Horse (15:40 8/10/2003)
          stdevel (16:02 8/10/2003)
            Horse (12:56 9/10/2003)

Jeffrey Lee

Message #92497, posted by Phlamethrower at 10:06, 7/10/2003

Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100

Of course it's a PC under the hood

Arse! Couldn't Stu have chopped up a Risc PC motherboard and fitted it in the case instead? ;)

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Peter Howkins

Message #92498, posted by flibble at 09:40, 8/10/2003, in reply to message #92497

Posts: 890

704ukp, for the base unit. Or 159 ukp for virtual RPC leaving 545 ukp for the base from the supplier of your choice ... incase you hadn't thought of it already ;)

Peter

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Richard Goodwin

Message #92499, posted by rich at 09:59, 8/10/2003, in reply to message #92498

Dictator for life
Posts: 6821

It's still not bad going. I could put together a Shuttle (similar form factor) for about 350-400 UKP not including Geforce 4 - but try and buy one ready-assembled, and if you can find someone that sells them, it's usually for over 500 quid. Oh, and it wouldn't have black components ;)

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Stuart Tyrrell

Message #92500, posted by stdevel at 10:52, 8/10/2003, in reply to message #92499

www.stdevel.co.uk
Posts: 279

If you can build a similar spec shuttle (defined by how well it runs RISC OS) for anywhere close to UKP400, excluding GF4, including XP, either inc or ex-VAT, I'll buy as many as you can supply, Rich! ;)

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Horse

Message #92501, posted at 15:40, 8/10/2003, in reply to message #92500

Unregistered user

Windows XP Home? Is it possible to "unbundle" this software for a discount on the purchase price, following the ideals of http://www.windowsrefund.net?

While I think emulation is probably the thing that will keep the RISC OS platform going for as long as it can - the last RISC OS machine to retail as cheaply was surely the A3010, so I think the native hardware brigade should be somewhat hushed after this - there's a lot to be said for the seemingly paranoid argument that Microsoft are the real winner here.

Where's VirtualRPC-SE for Linux? Or an updated ArcEm?

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Stuart Tyrrell

Message #92502, posted by stdevel at 16:02, 8/10/2003, in reply to message #92501

www.stdevel.co.uk
Posts: 279

Of course! I'm happy to knock off the source price of the OS for a machine taken without it - we're completely transparent about it as with the custom PC's we've been doing for a long time - and it makes life much easier in terms of hardware testing and install times. As default the machines ship with full OEM install and disks (not the cheaper licensed "rescue disks" with their license caveats), and there is no reason why we couldn't ship without them... except VirtualRPC-SE needs XP or 2000 to run.

To clarify: we're making zero on XP or VirtualRPC. Although a machine without either wouldn't be an A6, we can ship a custom machine without either for the corresponding reduction in price.

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Horse

Message #92503, posted at 12:56, 9/10/2003, in reply to message #92502

Unregistered user

Nice to hear of a PC vendor who hasn't entered a customer-screwing pact with Microsoft. Hats off to Advantage Six!

As opposed to Advantage Six Six Six. ;-)

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