Did you see the letter 'Taken for a ride' in September's CU Amiga? It was about how Amiga dealers are charging more for things like hard drives, when you can buy a cheaper 'PC' drive that works just as well. As he points out, devices like hard drives and CD ROMs are not specific to the Amiga or PC at all.
I couldn't agree more. I have heard PC users who think that Amiga hard drives cost far more than PC ones; slightly difficult when there's no such thing as a 'PC only' or 'Amiga only' hard drive...
Well okay, it isn't quite as simple as that. A standard A1200 is only meant to take a 2.5" IDE hard drive, which are more expensive than 3.5" ones. You can use 3.5" with A1200s, but if you don't want to cut away at the shielding/casing, you need a slim one, which could cost more also. But if you don't mind a normal 3.5" drive, or have a tower Amiga anyway, then there's nothing stopping you getting a so called PC hard drive.
But as CU point out, you will get a better service buying from an Amiga dealer, in the form of support, software, already formatted and installed drives (possibly with extra software). And there is a small possibility that there may be some hard drives or CD ROMs that don't work with Amigas (?)
For some insane reason, Gasteiner have chosen to advertise their PC section instead of the usual Amiga section over the last couple of months (at the time of writing - September). Why have they done this? A mistake or intentional? Whatever, it lets us see what prices they are charging PC users, to see if they are ripping us off.
A quick look at prices of RAM, hard drives and CD drives reveal that there are some cases where it is cheaper for the PC - but then looking at a CU Amiga ad for November shows the Amiga prices cheaper also. So it seems it isn't that Amiga dealers are out to rip us off.
But on the other hand, looking in somewhere such as MicroMart reveals plenty of 'PC only' dealers with cheaper prices - especially for hard drives. Why this is so, who knows, but there's nothing to stop you buying them.
It is a shame in some ways - if you want to support the Amiga market by buying, say, a new hard drive, if you then go out and buy from some PC dealer, you won't be supporting the Amiga dealers at all!
But, the fact remains, if you can get hold of drivers/formatting and installation software elsewhere, then looking out for 'PC' hardware is a good idea. If I ever get a bigger hard drive, I shall certainly be looking beyond Amiga Ads.
Mark