After several years of declining prices in the recommended incoming freshman computer package, the price of the suggested hardware for the Class of 2000 is expected to cost as much as $220 more than last year's package.
According to Director of Computing Larry Levine, the Council on Computing decided in late April to recommend a Power Macintosh 7200/90 computer package to this year's incoming freshmen.
The recommended package includes a 500 megabyte hard disk drive, 16 megabytes of memory, a quadruple speed CD-ROM drive, and a 14-inch Multi-Scan monitor
While the package includes a more powerful machine than any previous class at the College has bought, freshmen buying the system will for the first time in years have to pay more than the previous year's freshman class.
The total cost of the package will be $1590, Levine said, although that price may eventually drop slightly.
Last year's recommended package, the Performa 636, cost $1370, but no acceptable packages in that price range were available, according to council member Andy Daubenspeck, a professor of physiology.
In the past few years, the price of the freshman package has been dropping slightly, from $1423 for the Class of 1997 to $1405 for the Class of 1998 to $1370 last year.
Regarding the sharp rise in cost, Daubenspeck said the council's hands were tied. "There weren't any other choices ... they were all Power Macintosh options." he said.
According to Daubenspeck, Apple no longer Makes Macintosh models that contain the 68040 processor, and this partly accounts for the rise in cost. The recommended packages from the past couple of years included computers that contained the old processor.
Daubenspeck said much of the extra cost comes from improved memory and hard drive space in the Power Macintoshes that the average student will need throughout their four years at the College.
Aside from the added memory and hard drive space, Power Macintoshes also include Ethernet networking hardware, enabling the computers to take advantage of the upgrades being performed to the College's network.
Daubenspeck expressed concern that Apple's future marketing plans would not feature equivalents to the moderately priced machines that Dartmouth has recommended to students in past years.
This could mean the cost of the recommended package may conceivably continue to rise for future freshman classes.
The council, which made the recommendation, is composed of faculty, administrators, and students, according to Levine.
German Professor Konrad Kenkel, who chairs the council, was unavailable for comment.
According to Daubenspeck, the role of the council "is to try to balance what would be ideal for the curriculum with what people can afford."
The Power Macintosh 7200 is based on the PowerPC chip, jointly developed by Apple Computer, Motorola and IBM.
Based on a different technology than previous Macintosh computers, the Power Macs are significantly more powerful.
Although the '98s and '99s had the option of buying Power Macs, the Council decided on Macs based on the older 68040 processor for the recommended package.
Last year, the Council was forced to retract a decision to recommend Power Macs to the '99s when Apple was unable to manufacture a sufficient number of machines.
The council's task of balancing computer performance and price is made more difficult by the rapid rate of technological change.
Levine said "I don't think it is correct to say that computers become obsolete more quickly," but acknowledged that keeping up with the pace of technology can be "somewhat of a horse race."
People can outgrow machines at different rates depending on their computer needs and practices, Levine said.
