ag3@S.CC.PURDUE.EDU (Rodney Mood) (01/12/88)
Any advice to a person looking for a *GOOD* IBM-PC AT compatable? I definately need these items in the machine: - Truly IBM compatable (will it run Flight Simulator?) - 30MB hard drive with single floppy drive - ~640K RAM - at least a 6MHz microprocessor - serial and parallel ports Thanks for all responses.
ag3@s.cc.purdue.edu (Rodney Mood) (01/12/88)
Any advice to a person looking for a *GOOD* IBM-PC AT compatable? I definately need these items in the machine: - Truly IBM compatable (will it run Flight Simulator?) - 30MB hard drive with single floppy drive - ~640K RAM - at least a 6MHz microprocessor - serial and parallel ports Thanks for all responses.
karthur@codas.att.com (Kurt_R_Arthur) (01/13/88)
In article <1907@s.cc.purdue.edu> ag3@s.cc.purdue.edu (Rodney Mood) writes: > > Any advice to a person looking for a *GOOD* IBM-PC AT compatable? > > I definately need these items in the machine: > - Truly IBM compatable (will it run Flight Simulator?) > - 30MB hard drive with single floppy drive > - ~640K RAM > - at least a 6MHz microprocessor > - serial and parallel ports My advice: don't settle for less than 12Mhz, 0 wait states. OS/2 is slow on anything less than 10, with presentation manager it will get worse. For memory, don't have less than 1MB standard, 4MB available to put on the motherboard. You don't mention video, but a good E/VGA board and monitor are a must (the Paradise VGA or Video 7, NEC Multisync II or Sony Multiscanners are nice). One other scintilla of advice: if you can get a '386, do it! The '286 will be almost dead technology by the end of '88. Good Clones: AST 286/386: They use a passive backplane technology (motherboard is a card) to allow very easy upgrades to new CPUs. The 286 runs at 10 Mhz, 0 wait. I know what I said above, but the bus is a "smart" one that allows coprocessing, and other enhanced featu The AST is probably the most advanced bus in the market after MCA. PC's Limited '386: Not the cheapest, but tremendously fast ALR (Advanced Logic Research) '386: another good, fast '386 Well's American 286 (16 Mhz): Good performance on a budget. Total cost these machines (mail order) should be < $3000 (286) < $4200 (386) One other thing (if important to you) MicroChannel Architecture clones from WYSE and other will be shipping within 6-8 months. Good luck, Kurt Arthur Software Services of Florida, Inc.
karthur@codas.UUCP (Kurt_R_Arthur) (01/13/88)
In article <1907@s.cc.purdue.edu> ag3@s.cc.purdue.edu (Rodney Mood) writes: > > Any advice to a person looking for a *GOOD* IBM-PC AT compatable? > > I definately need these items in the machine: > - Truly IBM compatable (will it run Flight Simulator?) > - 30MB hard drive with single floppy drive > - ~640K RAM > - at least a 6MHz microprocessor > - serial and parallel ports My advice: don't settle for less than 12Mhz, 0 wait states. OS/2 is slow on anything less than 10, with presentation manager it will get worse. For memory, don't have less than 1MB standard, 4MB available to put on the motherboard. You don't mention video, but a good E/VGA board and monitor are a must (the Paradise VGA or Video 7, NEC Multisync II or Sony Multiscanners are nice). One other scintilla of advice: if you can get a '386, do it! The '286 will be almost dead technology by the end of '88. Good Clones: AST 286/386: They use a passive backplane technology (motherboard is a card) to allow very easy upgrades to new CPUs. The 286 runs at 10 Mhz, 0 wait. I know what I said above, but the bus is a "smart" one that allows coprocessing, and other enhanced featu The AST is probably the most advanced bus in the market after MCA. PC's Limited '386: Not the cheapest, but tremendously fast ALR (Advanced Logic Research) '386: another good, fast '386 Well's American 286 (16 Mhz): Good performance on a budget. Total cost these machines (mail order) should be < $3000 (286) < $4200 (386) One other thing (if important to you) MicroChannel Architecture clones from WYSE and other will be shipping within 6-8 months. Good luck, Kurt Arthur Software Services of Florida, Inc.
karthur@codas.att.com (Kurt_R_Arthur) (01/13/88)
Sorry about the subsequent posting, but I forgot several other things to look for in a good AT clone. The ability to alter processor speed from the keyboard (slowing down a machine often eliminates copy protection problems). A bus speed of < 10 Mhz. Some peripherals don't work above 8 or 10 Mhz. Most of the better clones run the bus at a fixed 8 Mhz, the cheaper clones run the bus at the processor speed. The best method is one used by PCs Limited: they run the bus at processor speed, but allow the operator to slow it down if they have a component that doesn't work. BIOS chips from Phoenix, Award or AMI. These are the "standard" clone BIOSes and extremely compatible. Your disk should be of good size (at least 30 meg) and with a access time of < 40 ms. For myself, I would choose a 60 meg disk, 28 ms, because DOS 3.31 supports disk sizes of up to 512 MB (Compaq has the only version of this DOS now, but I expect others will soon). If you purchase a '386 machine, ensure your motherboard will support the 80387, and that that your 32-bit memory can be expanded to at least 10MB. The 32 bits slots in each machine are proprietary, so make sure you buy from someone you think'll be around a while (or max it out when you buy it so you don't have to worry). One last thing, which might be of importance: Some of the larger clone-makers (notably Compaq & ATT) use a _slightly_ different hardware scheme than IBM. This is done for product differentiation,is usually in the video, keyboard or harddisk subsystems, and prevents you from upgrading on the open market - you'll have to go back to the manufacturer for any upgrading (at premium prices). Hope this helps! (e-mail me if you have any questions). Kurt Arthur Software Services of Florida, Inc.
karthur@codas.UUCP (Kurt_R_Arthur) (01/13/88)
Sorry about the subsequent posting, but I forgot several other things to look for in a good AT clone. The ability to alter processor speed from the keyboard (slowing down a machine often eliminates copy protection problems). A bus speed of < 10 Mhz. Some peripherals don't work above 8 or 10 Mhz. Most of the better clones run the bus at a fixed 8 Mhz, the cheaper clones run the bus at the processor speed. The best method is one used by PCs Limited: they run the bus at processor speed, but allow the operator to slow it down if they have a component that doesn't work. BIOS chips from Phoenix, Award or AMI. These are the "standard" clone BIOSes and extremely compatible. Your disk should be of good size (at least 30 meg) and with a access time of < 40 ms. For myself, I would choose a 60 meg disk, 28 ms, because DOS 3.31 supports disk sizes of up to 512 MB (Compaq has the only version of this DOS now, but I expect others will soon). If you purchase a '386 machine, ensure your motherboard will support the 80387, and that that your 32-bit memory can be expanded to at least 10MB. The 32 bits slots in each machine are proprietary, so make sure you buy from someone you think'll be around a while (or max it out when you buy it so you don't have to worry). One last thing, which might be of importance: Some of the larger clone-makers (notably Compaq & ATT) use a _slightly_ different hardware scheme than IBM. This is done for product differentiation,is usually in the video, keyboard or harddisk subsystems, and prevents you from upgrading on the open market - you'll have to go back to the manufacturer for any upgrading (at premium prices). Hope this helps! (e-mail me if you have any questions). Kurt Arthur Software Services of Florida, Inc.
HMM@UNIDO.BITNET (Hans-Martin Mosner) (01/14/88)
Oh no, is this list being taken over by PCniks ? The topic of this
list is IBMish networks, which is something along the lines of SNA
etc for me. I don't need no steenking PC !
Hans-Martin Mosner
postmaster@unido.{uucp,bitnet}
PS: I don't need no SNA either, but I am interested in this list because
unido is a bitnet/uucp gateway and we have to handle IBMish protocols and
such stuff...