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- Crazy Bear Desk 4/66 model 123/DT, Crazy Bear Corporation
-
- The Crazy Bear Desk 4/66 is one of several systems in this
- review that pack a speedy DX2-66 processor into a compact,
- low-profile case. It's clearly not meant to be a network
- server. The case has room for just threee drive bays, two
- of them externally accessible but already filled with the
- two floppies; the single internal drive bay is filled by a
- relatively small 116 MB Quantum hard disk. You also get
- just three 8/16-bit ISA slots-though all of them are free -
- because Crazy Bear has integrated its own Version video
- accelerator, as well as the disk connector and I/O, on the
- motherboard. The motherboard also holds Crazy Bear's
- Business Audio hardware, which along with the bundle
- microphone and set of headphones gives you Windows 3.1 sound
- capabilities good enough for voice annotations but not for
- music or other hi-fi applications.
-
- Except for its limited expandability, this system is on a
- par with any other here. The $2626 price puts it just $180
- away from the best five for price, and its performance is
- more than competitive, expecially on Windows apps. Thanks
- in large part to PVision, the Desk turned in particularly
- good scores on the Excel and Paradox tests. Performance on
- the BAPCo suite was less impressive. Crazy Bear revamped
- its service and support package as we went to press. It
- now features a three year warranty, weekend support, a year
- of free on-site service, and toll-free technical support.
- The one weakness we detected in the customer support is the
- lack of a turnaround policy for off-site repairs. Company
- representives say that there's no such policy because users
- return their units to dealers first; dealers send the unit
- back to Crazy Bear only if they can't fix it themselves.
-
- If it weren't for the limited expansion options and the
- subpar BAPCo numbers, the Desk would be one of the most
- attractive systems her. As it is, if you want a fast system
- for Windows that won't take up much desk space, this machine
- is a contender.