Elbox Products Back In Stock At AmigaKit.com

[som99]

Thanks AmigaKit, x-mas times soon so can't run around buying all I want now but I hope you still got the FastATA left in Jan so I can get one

[wawrzon]

@amigakit
perhaps you as reseler would actually be in position to persuade elbox to release thir pci libraries code under some open source license. it would likely speed up adaptations of new drivers for mediator boards, and perhaps reduce burden of software maintenance on the side of elbox themselves. im talking mostly with aros68k in mind (where there is some half a way implementation already), but i guess it might suit all. selling spider usb may be easy money, but likely mediator itself would still sell much better if more and cheap hardware was available for it off shelf. im of course just putting this under consideration.

[Darrin]

@amigakit
perhaps you as reseler would actually be in position to persuade elbox to release thir pci libraries code under some open source license. it would likely speed up adaptations of new drivers for mediator boards, and perhaps reduce burden of software maintenance on the side of elbox themselves. im talking mostly with aros68k in mind (where there is some half a way implementation already), but i guess it might suit all. selling spider usb may be easy money, but likely mediator itself would still sell much better if more and cheap hardware was available for it off shelf. im of course just putting this under consideration.

I've often thought along these lines.  If Elbox had a multitude of dirt cheap PCI cards that could plug into the Mediator then they should be able to sell a shed-load of Mediator expansion boards at a good price rather than try and sell a limited number of PCI cards at an inflated price.

[wawrzon]

@darrin:
it would also be fair and improve their image and acceptance of their products in the scene.

[Darrin]

@darrin:
it would also be fair and improve their image and acceptance of their products in the scene.

When you're in business, "fair" is defined by the owner of the company.  

If the expansion cards were cheap then they would offer real value for money with regards to the daughter board (especially compared to what Zorro II/III cards sell for) and there would be no excuse for "big box" owners not wanting to buy one.

Unfortunately for the A1200, it also needs a cheap replacement case option.  Something for The Daddy to think about?  

What's the going rate at the moment for a Zorro RTG card, Deneb, IDE controller, sound card, network card, etc off eBay?  If PCI replacements were available dirt cheap then they could probably increase the price of the Mediator busboard and still sell them in bulk.

[Saeid]

Well I personally do not blame them for their inflamed prices. Consider the narrrow market for theire products. It is a whole different story when you produce something in mass numbers (Like PC motherboards and graphic cards and studd) compared to a single batch of production.

[wawrzon]

who is blaming whom?

[Saeid]

Not really a blame is involved. Looks like Darrin is not happy with the prices, I just say prices seems reasonable for this market.

[Darrin]

Well I personally do not blame them for their inflamed prices. Consider the narrrow market for theire products. It is a whole different story when you produce something in mass numbers (Like PC motherboards and graphic cards and studd) compared to a single batch of production.

I don't blame them for making money either (and I've bought a lot of Elbox stuff).  I just think they could change the model for how they make it and make less off the cards and more off the busboards.  I love my Mediator and I'd like to see more people using them, but in order to justify buying one you have to look at the total cost of the busboard plus all of the PCI cards you want to use.

I should point out that I have a couple of no-name ViRGE cards ripped from old Pentium 1 PCs that work great with the Mediator, and the same goes for my Soundblaster card.  The one card that tends to upset most people is the Spider because you either have to buy the Elbox card or get someone to do some serious hacking to make the off-the-shelf cards fool the drivers.

I've got both, the $10 hacked card and the $80 Spider and they both perform the same.  Mind you, they're both less than what a second hand Deneb goes for.

[Darrin]

Not really a blame is involved. Looks like Darrin is not happy with the prices, I just say prices seems reasonable for this market.

I have no personal problem with the prices, but I can see why people with less to spend on their Amiga do.  I bought an AmigaOne X1000 and I don't consider it cheap, but I do consider it worth the price.

[Darrin]

Anyway, we've wandered off topic.  The thread is about Ebox hardware being in stock at AmigaKit and as a Mediator user I can highly recommend the Mediator with a 256MB Radeon card, Soundblaster and Spider USB.  They're worth the money.

[wawrzon]

for classic i wouldnt necessarily reccomend radeon as it has no warp3d support. the only card with 3d support is voodoo, and elbox cannot do anything on this subject, since they dont own the code. here could aros68k/gallium/wazp3d come into the game.

[Pyromania]

Nice news!