dpz@dorm.rutgers.edu (David P. Zimmerman) (11/06/88)
I agree on too many of the points you made! '286 boxes are really a waste, considering that the architecture is just an adolescent '86, and that '386 machines and RAM chips should become reasonably priced within 12-18 months. My setup seems to have made me the "hacking on a shoestring budget" contact around here, so I might as well describe it, and add some comments on yours. 12/87: I started off with an Ultra-Comp 10MHz PC clone. Computer Shopper had good things to say about them, so I decided to take the chance, up to my Visa limit. Got a 3.5" drive and 640K of 120ns RAM with it, but no other accessories (not even MS-DOS!). ~$600 AST SixPakPremium, 256K, one serial, one parallel, clock. The 256K used as a RAM disk somewhat alleviates the problem of having only one disk drive. ~$200 EGA Wonder and monochrome TTL monitor. I get the best of most worlds (and since you can't get VGA quality on a TTL, this is "optimal"). ~$250 Survived on that, a borrowed copy of MS-DOS, and 1 floppy disk for a couple of months. Seriously. 3/88: Got a box of disks and monitor power extender from Jameco. Bitch around that they sent me a power extender instead of a video signal extender :-). ~$30 Went out and got my damn video signal extender. ~$20 Now I can get the cpu off the desk. Got a real copy of MS-DOS. ~$100 Survived on that for a couple of months. 8/88: Cannibalize my TRS-80 for 768K of RAM chips and fill out my AST Premium. $0 :-) RAM disk nice and big now, I boot off one floppy, pull the MS-DOS utilities into memory, and nuke the floppy. 11/88: And here we are. Just got a 5.25" drive to make life more comfortable. ~$75 Swapped my Ultra-Comp floppy controller for a true blue one, since the UC one wasn't up to the speed of my PC. $0 Buying a used Plus Hardcard 10 next week-ish. $50 So essentially, I've got a comfortable, well-balanced system for about $1250. I don't buy much, if any, commercial software (and no, I don't pirate). I find that the free stuff out there is more than adequate. Now for some other comments. In article <1218@helios.ee.lbl.gov> forrest@ux1.lbl.gov (Jon Forrest) writes: > As far a micro processor > chips are concerned, the 386 family has proven itself technically > but hasn't gone down in cost the same way the 286 has. Until the > ratio of initial price vs. current price of the 386 is similiar > to that of the 286, I think waiting is the right thing to do. I'm not sure that we are going to see any real price drops until the '486 gets announced (or seriously rumoured). The '386SX should help somewhat, though. > So, I've decided to wait at least a year before I buy anything. Considering that I have bounced to a new primary micro on average once a year (selling old one, buying new one), I should be due again real soon. I will probably break tradition, though. My basic problem with micros in the past is that I really like the compactness of the Zenith 171 and Tandy Model 4P, but after a while that was that, and you hit the expandability wall. My Amiga and Tandy Model 16 bit the dust for other reasons. I think this PC should do me fine for a while. If I get bored, I'll just scrape together some cash and put some more nifty hardware in it. My biggest problem has been the philosophical one of how much local storage I want. Considering the large resources I have available here on the bigger machines, I've been forcing myself to keep small on my micro. The 10M Hardcard should be about perfect. "A bit of local storage" seems to be the best thing to do. Maybe 20M is a top, I'm not sure. However, it certainly saves me time and space having our University operators do as much of the backing up of my data as possible. > 1) I ran SpinRite on my harddisk. This insures that my harddisk/controller > combination is giving the best performance possible. (Cost $60) > > 2) I use the Lightning disk cache program. When I don't specify > any buffers in my CONFIG.SYS file, and instead use a 80K cache, > I find that over 70% of my disk access come out of the cache. > (Cost $35, on sale) > > 3) I use the Fasttrax disk optimizer. This seems to be one of the > better programs available because it lets you locate frequently > used files near the FAT. (Cost $31) I'll have to check up on these. They sound interesting. > So, by spending $130 I'm using my I/O system as efficiently as > I believe possible. There's not much I can do to speed up the > CPU short of buying an accellerator card which I don't want to > do because this is a short term solution and I'd rather save the > money for a true 386 system next year. A V20 might not be a bad > idea but my system has its 8088 soldered in so replacing it with > something new would be a hassle. Ditto, although my '88 is socketed. I'm also not sure if the V20 will have much more improvement over my 10MHz '88. > I am envious of people with fast 286 systems since these now cost > what I originally paid for mine. But, from what I hear, neither OS/2 > or Unix runs well on such hardware so buying a 80286 system would > be the same deadend as what I have now. It looks like the 80386, > or a Mac II (at a much lower price) is the way to go. I'm not envious - I view the '286 as having all the problems of the '88, just that it is faster. And, at this point, for what you use a '286 for, you should really have a '386 to do a good job of it. If I'm going to have to use a segmented architecture, I'm not going to put out big bucks for it (including the higher price of 16 bit AT-bus cards and higher speed peripherals to keep the system balanced). David -- David P. Zimmerman, the Dorm Networking Pilot Project, the UUCP Project, etc dpz@dorm.rutgers.edu rutgers!dpz dpzimmerman@zodiac.bitnet
pad3563@ultb.UUCP (P.A. Deupree ) (11/07/88)
In article <Nov.5.21.54.56.1988.23284@dorm.rutgers.edu> dpz@dorm.rutgers.edu (David P. Zimmerman) writes: >I agree on too many of the points you made! '286 boxes are really a >waste, considering that the architecture is just an adolescent '86, >and that '386 machines and RAM chips should become reasonably priced >within 12-18 months. > This gets into the age old situation. By the time the price drops in 12-18 months then something better will be out and you'll all want to wait for that. Me, I just want to have something now so that there is something for me to work on, so I got an XT286. Why, you may ask. Well, for one the price on those suckers dropped way down when the PS/2's came out and I have a relative that works for IBM so I got a good deal on it. "Why not get a PS/2 since it would probably only be a few hundred more?" you may then ask. Because I don't want to deal with the damn microbus garbage. I personally plan to get into MIDI and I see the chances of there being any decent microbus midi hardware/software out there as being close to nil. "Won't you kick yourself when you find that a 386 is so much better?" Well, there's a neat invention called a processor card. When the 486 comes out I'm sure I'll get one sooner or later (heck, I've got about 5 more empty slots in my XT and the processor cards are usually short ones). Sorry, but I believe in the practicality of "usage gained by not waiting" and not in the "my box is the latest and greatest" philosophy. > >I'm not envious - I view the '286 as having all the problems of the >'88, just that it is faster. And, at this point, for what you use a >'286 for, you should really have a '386 to do a good job of it. If >I'm going to have to use a segmented architecture, I'm not going to >put out big bucks for it (including the higher price of 16 bit AT-bus >cards and higher speed peripherals to keep the system balanced). > Well, I'm just learning some of the aspects of the 286 so I'm no expert. However, from a programmers point of view, I find it an improvement over the 88 because now I can play around with the virtual memory features and the multi-tasking (and considering that I'm writing an operating system at the moment these are both big pluses). Sure, I'd like to have a 386 more (or better yet a Mac II) but as a normal hard working person I can't afford to shell out an extra $2000 (which is what it would have cost to buy a Mac II instead of my 286). Heck, the system I have is a XT286, a Tandon video card (we're talking bargain basement here), a color monitor that I just got off someone for $75, DOS 3.3 (though I would love to lay my hands on 4.0 to go with my C 5.0) and a 1200 baud modem that I've gotten on loan from a place I worked at on co-op. This whole setup has cost me about $1600 and that's put a real strain on my budget. -- Patrick A. Deupree Bitnet: PAD3563@RITVAX.BITNET UUCP: pxd3563@ultb.UUCP "I have great faith in fools. Self confidence my friends call it." Edgar Allen Poe