6500sctt@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Scott Loban) (06/05/90)
I am going to upgrade my micro system, and I'd like the benefit of the readers' experience with the compatibility and quality of the systems that I'm considering. I'm currently running Xenix 2.32 and DOS 3.2 on an AST Premium 286, set up so that I can boot either OS from the hard disk. I'm very happy with this situation, and any system that I upgrade to _must_ be compatible with a similar setup. I'm currently deciding between the following three systems: - AST Premium 386/16 \ Each equipped with 4 megs, a cache, - Dell 386/25 > a 150-200 meg ESDI drive, '387 chip, - Northgate 386/33 / tape backup, and 1024x768 VGA. The astute observer will note that these systems vary from only 16mhz to 33mhz in performance! The reason behind this is that I'm more interested in _quality_ and _compatibility_ for the price that I can afford, than I am in raw performance. (I feel that the overall per- formance of a machine that's always broken down tends to suffer somewhat . . . nicht wahr?) So I'll buy the _best_ machine that I can afford, regardless of whether it is "blindingly fast", or merely "breathtakingly fast". :-) I've read a recent review of '386s in Info-World, and they gave the Northgate machine the highest "grade" of the dozen systems they took a look at (included AST's 386/33), but you know how magazine reviews are: you never really know how the darn thing is going to run over the long run... So how about some feedback on this? Do you have any experience with owning and running Unix/Xenix on one of the above systems? Or perhaps I'm missing a good bet in the $6500-7000 range? Any input is quite welcome! If you don't want to post, email me. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott R. Loban "I was building a model for it, but Dept. of Geography I got glue on the windshield..." 3611 Ellison Hall University of California 6500sctt@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu Santa Barbara, CA 93106 loban@pollux.geog.ucsb.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------