Msg: 747 *Conference*

10-28-91 11:21:20

From: JIM SCHEEF

To : BOB OLKEN

Subj: REPLY TO MSG #647 (MODEL 600 - WHAT'S IT WORTH?)

Bob,
    M600s are weird beasts and their value cannot be defined by any market
factors. Shrieve Systems advertised used 600s for $350 or so (I don't have the
exact numbers handy). Does that mean you can sell yours for that much? Probably
not. In fact I'm rather sure that you would have a very hard time finding a
buyer for more than $100. To a knowledgeable buyer your machine is worth more
if it have the BASIC ROM and at least one RAM module. RAM expansion was sold in
96K increments and you can install 2. There was never any 3rd party support for
the 600 so there are almost no programs available. The only sources of programs
I know of are the M100SIG on CompuServe and The Laptops Roundtable on GEnie.
There was a 'Club600' for a while but I have not heard anything about that
organization in over a year. You can still get RAM modules from Purple
Computing (see ads in Portable 100) and it is possible to exchange disks with a
DOS desktop machine if that's desirable (the secret is in a file available on
CompuServe in one of the IBM fora). Perhaps others will offer more info but the
general concensus is that the M600 is pretty much a dead horse. If the built-in
software meets your needs then the machine can be quite useful. Hope this isn't
_all_ bad news.
                                      Jim