What do youi know about this computer?

[SirDave]

Mephisto Advanced Travel. I am pretty sure that has the best price to ELO ratio ever.

I agree that the Mephisto Advanced Travel is a good candidate (I have 2 of them), but the Excalibur LCD Chess Express might be in the running:

http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4526

[Steve B]

Mephisto Advanced Travel. I am pretty sure that has the best price to ELO ratio ever.

I agree that the Mephisto Advanced Travel is a good candidate (I have 2 of them), but the Excalibur LCD Chess Express might be in the running:

http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4526

Well Dave ... the MAT comes in at an impressive Price/Performance ratio of
47.5(1900 Elo/$40)

What would the P/PF ratio for the Ex LCD Express be?

Market Analysis Regards
Steve

[SirDave]

Mephisto Advanced Travel. I am pretty sure that has the best price to ELO ratio ever.

I agree that the Mephisto Advanced Travel is a good candidate (I have 2 of them), but the Excalibur LCD Chess Express might be in the running:

http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4526

Well Dave ... the MAT comes in at an impressive Price/Performance ratio of
47.5(1900 Elo/$40)
What would the P/PF ratio for the Ex LCD Express be?

Market Analysis Regards
Steve

Well lessee: Wiki gives Mephisto Maestro Travel an Elo of 1534 so let's give the Excalibur LCD Express an Elo of 1600 (Wiki having nothing) and a price of $20 which gives a P/PF of 80! Even if we give it an Elo of 1550 and a price of $25, the P/PF is still 62!

I'm thinking prrhaps Ron Nelson (Excalibur LCD Express) vs Craig Barnes (Mephisto Maestro Travel).

Hmm, just noticed that there's an Excal LCD Express on eBay for $16 BuyNow. Make that a ratio of 97!

Another Case Of Looks Are Only Skin-Deep Regards,
Dave

[Steve B]

Well lessee: Wiki gives Mephisto Maestro Travel an Elo of 1534 so let's give the Excalibur LCD Express an Elo of 1600 (Wiki having nothing) and a price of $20 which gives a P/PF of 80! Even if we give it an Elo of 1550 and a price of $25, the P/PF is still 62!


Hmm, just noticed that there's an Excal LCD Express on eBay for $16 BuyNow. Make that a ratio of 97!

Hmmmm
2 thoughts here..
1)Ebay prices are not really the question i was asking
i was trying to find out the Strongest model ever for the cheapest price when sold as new when released for sale

2)Wiki's info on prices is usually in Euro
which would mean the price was about $30
1600/30=53.3
still..i dont see a Wiki price showing $20 USA or 20 Euro
not sure if Excalibur ever sold a chess computer for $20
i could be wrong though

Further Investigation is required Regards
Steve

[Monsieur Plastique]

Well when I worked out the Mephisto Advanced Travel, it was based on the retail price of $39.95 in the US. As I previously mentioned, I bought them with no discounts when they were new on the market and paid my $39.95. Incidentally, probably because they do not make them anymore, they have gone up to 49.95 Euros in Europe.

Anyway, Excalibur prices for machines worth considering were the LCD Talking at $29.95 retail and it has an ELO at schachcomputer of 1376 ELO. Let's be generous though and say 1414 though based on a larger games sample of similar machines to give it the benefit of the doubt. That is about as strong as any of the "native" (not clone) Excaliburs ever got apart from the following stronger "native" machines: Deluxe Talking Touch Chess, Phantom Force, Alexandra, Grandmaster, Igor, Ivan and Ivan II. All of these, however, were either luxury portables or desktop machines and did not have recommended retail prices at release low enough to come under consideration for a victory here.

And $29.95 was about as low as you could get recommended retail for a new Excalibur, except for (I assume) the keychain chess (the recommended retail of which I have absolutely no idea).

So if you take the $39.95 Advanced Travel you conservatively get 1897 / 39.95 = 47.48 ELO points per dollar, or 1975 / 39.95 = 49.43 ELO points per dollar if you take the schachcomputer rating for GK2000 of 1975 ELO which is exactly the same program as the Advanced Travel. Contrast this with the Excalibur equation of 1414 / 29.95 and you get 47.21 ELO points per dollar.

Therefore, regardless of whether you take the lower "old" SSDF rating of 1897 ELO for Advanced Travel or the 1975 ELO schachcomputer rating, Advanced Travel wins as giving the highest ELO points per dollar of any dedicated chess computer ever manufactured.

So far the Keychain Chess is concerned, it has a rating of 1174 ELO at schachcomputer, meaning it would have needed to sell at a recommended retail of $23.74 or less in order to lay claim to the highest ELO per dollar of any dedicated chess computer.

So if anyone can go back in history and work out what the recommended retail of that unit was upon release, then we can determine whether Keychain takes the accolade or Advanced Travel. Chess Baron in the UK claims that the LCD Talking had a retail price of 39.95 pounds and the Keychain 36.95 pounds. Obviously far more expensive than the US, but if I make a simple calculation and say that the Keychain was 92.5% the price of a new LCD Talking Chess, then that would have come to $27.70 - still too high to usurp the Advanced Travel.

If you want the absolute ELO per dollar bargain of the current moment though (brand new chess computers sold through proper retail channels), then I think the Keychain wins that one by quite a fair margain, at least if you live in Europe where Chess Baron UK are selling them for mighty price of 6.95 pounds!