djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum) (09/19/89)
I inquired about the possibility of upgrading a 286 to a 386sx as inexpensively as possible. My interest was in gaining the memory mapping features of the 386, rather than in any increase in speed. I was also interested in salvaging as much of my old system as possible. Replies included: >You can find ads for 386sx motherboards for $350 in the back of some >of the trade magazines (PC Week). Add 1 MB RAM (about $100-150) and >you have a board that you can use to replace your 286 motherboard. >Everything else in the machine (power supply, keyboard, cards, etc.) >should work just fine. I don't generally read PC Week, but Homesmart Computing advertises a 386sx motherboard in the back of PC Magazine for $395. A call (1-800-627-6998) revealed that they've dropped the price to $375. I suspect there are other dealers with similar prices out there somewhere. >This is a very, very simple thing to do. All you need to do is buy >yourself >a new 386SX motherboard with no memory on it, should be able to get >this from under $400. Take your memory out of you 286 board and pop >it into the 386SX. >Then stick your new board in, everything connects the same way: >drive controllers, video card, power supply. The hole pattern on >the 386SX may be slightly different that the 286 but that is no >big deal you should be able to get at least >3-4 screws to line up. >A sixth grader could do this. There was also a warning against buying a 386sx: >There are two reasons to not buy a 386SX board: 1) if you are a programmer >and you absolutely have to have 32 bit memory; 2) if you are a programmer >and you want to have access to a 32 bit bus for your hard disk. I think a >lot of the 33 MHZ '386 and '486 designs just coming to market are using the >EISA standard for the 32 bit slot, and this is going to create an after-market >for 32-bit peripherals like disk controllers. If you don't need either >of the above, then I would say go for the 386SX. Architecturally, it's >a '386 and should be able to run all the good software that will come out >over the next few years. And they are cheap, God knows. Thanks to everyone who responded. --David =================================================================== David J. Birnbaum djb@wjh12.harvard.edu [Internet] djb@harvunxw.bitnet [Bitnet] ===================================================================