dab@briar.philips.com (David Bryan;6247;3.25;$0201) (01/03/90)
A friend is looking for comments on PC BRAND 386/20 or 386/25 and DELL 12.5 MHz 286 DELL SYSTEM 210. I don't think he necessarily wants an A/B comparison, but probably is more concerned with getting a low cost system that delivers good value for the money. He will primarily want to run business-oriented software not involving any networking applications. Therefore, speed probably is not of the essence, whereas "compatibility" and reliability may be. Please e-mail to me if possible, unless you feel your comments are of wide general interest.
pipkins@qmsseq.imagen.com (Jeff Pipkins) (01/05/90)
In article <72299@philabs.Philips.Com> dab@briar.philips.com (David Bryan;6247;3.25;$0201) writes: >A friend is looking for comments on PC BRAND 386/20 or 386/25 and DELL >12.5 MHz 286 DELL SYSTEM 210. I don't think he necessarily wants an >A/B comparison, but probably is more concerned with getting a low cost >system that delivers good value for the money. He will primarily want >to run business-oriented software not involving any networking >applications. Therefore, speed probably is not of the essence, whereas >"compatibility" and reliability may be. Please e-mail to me if >possible, unless you feel your comments are of wide general interest. Some things you should know about DELL: The first 12.5 MHz 286 from DELL had, IMHO, a very serious problem: it ran the I/O BUS at 12.5 MHz right along with the CPU. Since the original IBM AT ran the bus at 6 MHz (or 8, early models), this causes setup and hold timing violations on peripheral boards that plug into the slots. What this means, is that most cards won't work in it, or are flaky in it. Oh, sure, it was fast by that day's standards, but fast & flaky won't win the race. A DELL engineer I spoke with recently assured me that they don't do that anymore, and that all of the rest of their machines run the bus at 8 MHz. POINT: Before you buy ANY 286 or 386 or any machine with standard ISA slots, MAKE DAMN SURE BEFORE YOU BUY THAT THE BUS RUNS AT 6 OR 8 MHz. If it doesn't, then don't buy it under any circumstances. Also from DELL: I have read somewhere (sorry, can't remember; take it for what it's worth) that DELL uses a custom ASIC for their serial port (built into motherboard?) and that it cannot handle speeds above 9600 baud. The 8250 used in most clones can handle speeds of up to 38400 baud, although some mfrs. don't recommend it. That in itself is not super important for most people, but it makes me wonder what else they are doing wrong that we don't know about. That's the bottom line. My humble opinions are just that--mine, humble, and just opinions. I am not (obviously) connected with DELL in any way and I have never even seen one of their machines. My employer has nothing to do with the opinions stated here. Standard disclaimers, etc. flames >/dev/null
keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (01/09/90)
In article <73@qmsseq.imagen.com> pipkins@qmsseq.UUCP (Jeff Pipkins) writes: >POINT: Before you buy ANY 286 or 386 or any machine with standard ISA >slots, MAKE DAMN SURE BEFORE YOU BUY THAT THE BUS RUNS AT 6 OR 8 MHz. >If it doesn't, then don't buy it under any circumstances. My minor modification to the above: make sure it is _capable_of_being switched_(back_down)_to_ 8 MHz. We've a bunch of Everex STEP/25's that can be run at either SYS_CLOCK/2 or SYS_CLOCK/3. We (now) run them at /2 since the most recently-received ones started working with our display cards (Video7 FastWrites). But earlier STEP/25's _didn't_ and so we had to run the bus at the /3 rate. kEITHe