$70 Modem...

[EULA]

Newegg Link

It's irking me... how can someone buy a $70 modem? The thing doesn't even have whirlygigs or cathode lights!

I guess if you got the money, but still, its a $70 modem!

Death to all who buy it!

 

[chilled]

But....but.....it's the Performance Pro model!

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: EULA
Newegg Link

It's irking me... how can someone buy a $70 modem? The thing doesn't even have whirlygigs or cathode lights!

I guess if you got the money, but still, its a $70 modem!

Death to all who buy it!

i dunno, some people spend 10x times that for a . . . video card

. . . that has ZERO value in 3 years.

:roll:

what's in your rig? . . . go figure

 

[OMG1Penguin]

Maybe it's a hardware modem and not a win-modem?

 

[Algere]

Looks like a hardware modem to me & it's PCI too. If not, it's the biggest Win-MODEM I've ever seen b4.

 

[Fulcrum]

I can remember my dad paying well over $150 for one of the very first 14.4K fax modems! And I don't even remeber how much the cutting edge 2400bps modem cost for our IBM PS2, you know the one that had the "cutting edge" 720K 3.5 floppy dirve when all the Sierra games I used to play still mainly came on 5.25 floppies and you had fill out the card and pay like $10 to get the 3.5 disks shipped to you. I may only be 25, but man, I'm starting to feel like my mom and dad when they tell what they could buy for a quarter or even a dime at the local store when they were very young!

 

[LTC8K6]

Yep, it's a hardware modem. It would take a small load off of your CPU compared to a winmodem, for those who want to preserve every CPU cycle they can for work.

It shouldn't be $70 though. Maybe $50.

 

[jadinolf]

I have three of them and it works for me.

I'm sure it is due to my crappy phone lines here in the sticks.

I have tried other PCI modems, serial modems and USB modems and they are inreliable HERE. Getting connect speeds as low as 1.2Kbps and up to 33.6Kbps.

With the Performance Pro connect is 45.2 which is as good as anyone I know can connect at.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: EULA
Newegg Link

It's irking me... how can someone buy a $70 modem? The thing doesn't even have whirlygigs or cathode lights!

I guess if you got the money, but still, its a $70 modem!

Death to all who buy it!

i dunno, some people spend 10x times that for a . . . video card

. . . that has ZERO value in 3 years.

:roll:

what's in your rig? . . . go figure

Anyone... who spends money on personal computer hardware, as an investment... has a mental defect...

As far as modems go, USR hardware modems are top-notch. I sold one of my (spare) Courier v.Everythings (still new) for ~$80 last year to someone... I wanted a bit more for it. Oh well.
Those things are like the SR-71 'Blackbirds' of analog hardware modems.

Edit: Yikes, that much for the internal, non-voice model? Yeah, that is too much. I could see $70 for external, but not internal.

 

[Auric]

It makes one pine for the days of the great glut when companies were exiting the bidness left and right and hardware modems could be had for a pittance.

 

[Budman]

I paid less for my DSL modem & it's a lot faster.

 

[ttown]

it's a hw modem -- NOT a win-modem -- so you can run it on your DOS 3.3 80286 with no problem at all.

USR is considered top-of-the-line, and you can count on them to be 100% compliant with standards -- but i do agree that they should have come down a lot farther in price over time, since everything else has.

edit: btw... that's about the going rate on a USR h/w modem

 

[jhu]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
Yep, it's a hardware modem. It would take a small load off of your CPU compared to a winmodem, for those who want to preserve every CPU cycle they can for work.

It shouldn't be $70 though. Maybe $50.

no, the point is that you don't need to have ms windows to use the modem.

 

[Varun]

Yes, the reason for it is to run another OS like Linux. When winmodems first came out, the processor power was something to consider, but not with the chips we have today. However, a Winmodem will only work under windows.

As the demand is likely not very high, they would need to charge more for one to recoup manufacturing costs.

 

[XMan]

I imagine the cost is a factor of demand . . . very few people are buying them, so their's not much incentive for a large production, which is why cost remains high.

Try buying some 72-pin EDO, you'll fall over laughing at how much it is . . .

 

[OMG1Penguin]

Originally posted by: ttown
it's a hw modem -- NOT a win-modem -- so you can run it on your DOS 3.3 80286 with no problem at all.

With PCI slots?

Roxxor~

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: OMG1Penguin

Originally posted by: ttown
it's a hw modem -- NOT a win-modem -- so you can run it on your DOS 3.3 80286 with no problem at all.

With PCI slots?

Roxxor~

Good point!

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
As far as modems go, USR hardware modems are top-notch. I sold one of my (spare) Courier v.Everythings (still new) for ~$80 last year to someone... I wanted a bit more for it. Oh well.
Those things are like the SR-71 'Blackbirds' of analog hardware modems.

Couldn't disagree with you more there..... After working at an ISP for several years, doing most of the modem-related tech support, I can tell you that the majority of the support calls are due to USR modems. They have problems connecting to EVERYTHING, including other USRs that we put on the modem banks specifically for USR users to dial into. Maybe they fixed this with the 56K models, but the USR 28.8 and 33.6 modems were utter crap, even the Couriers.

The one reason you may find they work better under certain really bad line conditions is that the USRs (at least up to 33.6) transmit at 6dBm louder than what they are supposed to according to FCC limits, as measured by our other modems. I suspect this was the root of a lot of their connection problems, as the telcos probably clip this above-limit signal.

 

[Texun]

I was a die-hard USR user and I remember paying $186 for a Sportster. I did it because I wanted a no nonsense quality modem, and because Winmodems were more plug-n-pray than plug-n-play, but PNP hardware and operating systems have gotten better over the years so compatibility isn't the issue it once was.

As far as my allegiance to USR... that was shattered a couple of years ago when I built a budget system with a Celeron 500 and a $35 Actiontek modem. It connected at 46 or better each and every time I dialed in. I no longer saw the need to spend a ton of money on USR and have installed only one since then, and that was only by request.

I have a friend way out in the sticks who has a USR56k external on one computer and a $12 generic on his backup. The best he can get is a 21.9 and that is with the generic. The USR connects and then drops carrier. He could probably get an INIT string to help him negotiate the poor line quality but he hasn't wanted to mess with it. The lines out there are so old that his phone company can't spell DSL much less provide it.

 

[Cerb]

It's a hardware modem. Given how they've been under $50 for a few years now at Newegg, I don't get $70, either, but if you're out in the boonies and do anything that eats CPU cycles regularly (even a modern machine can get Starcraft lagging with a winmodem!), it will kick the ass of any winmodem. If you don't want to spend that much, I'd recommend getting a used (or cable- & adaper-less) external one off eBay.

 

[apoppin]

Just cant agree that a HW modem has much - if any - advantage over a win modem, nowadays.



i am in the boonies and depend on dial-up . . . my $20 winmodem doesn't lag on anything - that my ISP and/or phone lines allow.

:roll:

 

[thirdlegstump]

It works in Linux as it has it's own hardware dsp. Winmodems often enough require software support and only work under Windows.

 

[cy7878]

people are willing to pay top dollar for quality stuff. Yeah, you can get a modem free at Fry's after rebate, but have you actually used one of those? People who need a modem for whatever reason and need them to be reliable will buy the best possible modem.


There was a huge market for the USR Courier V.everything years back even when that thing costed $300 compared to their SPortster model that costed $50. If you don't need it, even $1 is too expensive. If you need it, what's $70 bucks?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: cy7878
people are willing to pay top dollar for quality stuff. Yeah, you can get a modem free at Fry's after rebate, but have you actually used one of those? People who need a modem for whatever reason and need them to be reliable will buy the best possible modem.

That is what you are supposed to believe. That is ancient History.


Fry's, No . . . Curseit City.

i am in the boonies and depend on dial-up . . . my $20 winmodem doesn't lag on anything - that my ISP and/or phone lines allow.


edit: gaming generally sucks on 56k - anyway; for me - since dsl and cable are not available my only option is to use 2 phone lines and dual modems . . . dialup has taught me patience.

 

[CP5670]

I remember some years ago that the winmodems were fine for web browsing but took a very noticeable hit in most games, although things may have changed with the much faster processors around today. I still have the USR courier 56k external model I used back then lying around somewhere; if they are still going for these kinds of prices I should definitely try to sell it on ebay or something...