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Kaypro 5

For the sake of completeness, here are the other references.

kaypro-5_01.jpg
BYTE, September, 1983, page 216

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Baldrige, Malcom; et.al. (1983): Considerations for Use of Microcomputers in Developing Country Statistical Offices, Bureau of Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, page 182
 
"If" the Kaypro V was "actually" offered on the market since August 1982 and the successor model Kaypro 10 is only distributed from the second half of 1983 (InfoWorld, August 15, 1983, page 26), then the Kaypro V "could" have been sold for almost a year. Of course, this says nothing about the actual number of units sold, but still.
 
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I do notice that the 1982 mention calls it a "hard-disk expansion". That's sounds more like a kit to convert a dual-floppy Kaypro to Floppy+Harddisk. All that was possible, as the mainboard used for the 4/84 (and even my original 2X) has the harddisk interface on it (my original 2X did not populate the harddisk interface, but the PCB supported it). The kit would have also included a ROM change.
 
The first Kaycomp II is listed in May 1982 a retail price of $1,795. Exactly the same as for the Osborne I. That seems a bit much to me for an upgrade of only one hard drive for $4,484. According to my research, the Kaypro V is actually just a Kaypcomp II or Kaypro II which has an additional hard drive.

The Seagate ST-506 with 6 MB is offered in October 1982 at "California Digital" for $759.
 
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Harddisk drives were pretty expensive, especially at the beginning. I don't recall exactly, but the first 5MB hdds were thousands of dollars. Prices did begin to drop soon, but much of that $4400 could have been the drive itself.
 
durgadas311 said:
Harddisk drives were pretty expensive, especially at the beginning. I don't recall exactly, but the first 5MB hdds were thousands of dollars. Prices did begin to drop soon, but much of that $4400 could have been the drive itself.
Click to expand...
Maybe I misunderstood you here. Of course I see it the same way, the immense price difference ($1,795 to $4,485) is of course the integrated hard drive.
 
Right, I was just keying off the "expansion" wording. Seemed strange to call a complete system an "expansion", so made me wonder if they were talking about a kit rather than a finished system.

The kit would have included the harddisk, plus the Western Digital controller (unsure what that costed), plus cables and mounting hardware, plus ROM. Still a mystery what such a system would have looked like. The Kaypro 10 did not have the "modern" mainboard that the Kaypro 4/84 (and 2X) had, but later versions (not designed Kaypro 10, I believe) did have the "universal" mainboard - an update of the 4/84 mainboard.
 
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