pshuang@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (06/14/91)
In article <strasser.676770721@psych> strasser@psych.psy.uq.oz.au (Michael Strasser) writes: > Given that, am I better off getting a 386/33 + 387 machine or > a 486/25 (I don't think I can afford a 486/33)? Does the on-chip > co-pro on the i486 make as much (relative) improvement as the > 387 to the 386? (Was that a relevant question?) You should probably think about getting the 486/25, since the price point of that machine (from most manufacturers) is almost exactly the same as a 386/33 + 387 and you'll get something like 25% better CPU performance and 50% better FPU performance. I bought a 386/33 in January and now regret not having gotten the 486/25 instead. Sigh. > If I get a 486 machine, should I get one with an EISA bus, or > is an ISA bus sufficient? Does ISA = AT bus? Unless you think you're going to do mongo amounts of expansion into high-speed peripherals or networking, an ISA (which is a way of saying "IBM-AT expansion bus" without using Big Blue's trademarks {grin}) will do. EISA still seems to command a $500+ price premium, although this may drop in the future. What is very important if you're thinking of moving toward the UNIX or OS/2 environment is to make sure that the disk subsystem you get is as fast as you can possibly afford, as this makes a *BIGGER* difference in the throughput you'll observe. Singing off, UNIX:/etc/ping instantiated (Ping Huang)