wadswort@babss.UUCP (John H. Wadsworth) (03/21/91)
I'm considering purchasing a system for home use. I will run *nix,X11,GNU etc. With this in mind, I'd like to hear your opinion about which tradoffs I should make to get a reasonable configuration at a reasonable price. 386 33mhz or 25 mhz? Is the 25 _that_ much slower? Extra cache or extra main memory? Given the choice would you rather have more cache or more main memory? Svga or vga? I think I know the answer to this one. I recently read some advice that said "Don't skimp on the monitor. Your eyes will suffer" I'd rather not have to replace either my monitor or my eyes because one was no longer suitable so I suspect I want the SVGA (color too!). Are there any problems with this, ie. X11 wont run in Svga anyway? The High price system is of course the 386/33 Svga with 64k of cache and 4 mg memory. Svga color. The low end is a 386/25 with no cache and 2mg memory. (would 2 even be enough?) provided Lastly, do you think the prices for a '386 are stable or are they expected to drop sharply in the next 6-8 months? Any and all advice greatfully accepted. I'll post a summary if warrented. Thanks! John H. Wadsworth uunet!babss!wadswort
ken@dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii) (03/21/91)
In article <1335@b1.babss.UUCP> uunet!babss!wadswort writes: >I'm considering purchasing a system for home use. I will run >*nix,X11,GNU etc. With this in mind, I'd like to hear your >opinion about which tradoffs I should make to get a reasonable >configuration at a reasonable price. > >386 33mhz or 25 mhz? >Is the 25 _that_ much slower? > Yes...though 25MHz is pretty reasonable for home use. > >Extra cache or extra main memory? >Given the choice would you rather have more cache or more main memory? > More main memory. Remeber first of all the "more cache" != "more speed" for every job mix, especially under Unix. Secondly, the cost of paging from insufficient main memory is orders of magnatude greater than the cost of taking a cache miss. > >Svga or vga? > Svga. X is terribly cramped (I say useless, but thats just me) with less than 800x600. And yes...get a quality monitor. You'll be glad you did. > >The High price system is of course the 386/33 Svga with 64k of cache >and 4 mg memory. Svga color. > >The low end is a 386/25 with no cache and 2mg memory. (would 2 even >be enough?) provided > 4MB of main memory is not really enough to run X (2MB is not even close). The system swaps itself to death. I'm pretty happy round here with a 386/25, 64k cache, 8MB, 344MB disk, and 800x600 VGA running SCO Unix (ODT). Oh, and a tape drive is a *really big* win (I have a 60MB Archive Viper). > >Lastly, do you think the prices for a '386 are stable or are >they expected to drop sharply in the next 6-8 months? > 6-8 months down the road there will *always* be something bigger, faster, cheaper, stronger. Decide what you want and can afford to buy now. If you keep looking ahead, you'll never actually buy anything... -- ken seefried iii ken@dali.cc.gatech.edu "If 'ya can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with..."
jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) (03/21/91)
In article <1335@b1.babss.UUCP> uunet!babss!wadswort writes: |>I'm considering purchasing a system for home use. I will run |>*nix,X11,GNU etc. With this in mind, I'd like to hear your |>opinion about which tradoffs I should make to get a reasonable |>configuration at a reasonable price. UNIX? At a reasonable price?! Good luck.... |>386 33mhz or 25 mhz? |>Is the 25 _that_ much slower? Get the 33. It's 33% faster for usually only about 1-200 more. |>Extra cache or extra main memory? Overall performance will suffer without enough main memory....immediate performance will suffer due to lack of cache. Get a 64K cache at least, especially at 33 mhz. |>Svga or vga? SVGA. No ifs and or buts about it. |>I think I know the answer to this one. I recently read some advice |>that said "Don't skimp on the monitor. Your eyes will suffer" I'd |>rather not have to replace either my monitor or my eyes because |>one was no longer suitable so I suspect I want the SVGA (color too!). |>Are there any problems with this, ie. X11 wont run in Svga anyway? I would expect most Pc implemetations of X would take advtangage of SVGA. |>The High price system is of course the 386/33 Svga with 64k of cache |>and 4 mg memory. Svga color. Get 8MB for UNIX. Period. SCO Open Desktop requires 6MB just to LOAD... |>The low end is a 386/25 with no cache and 2mg memory. (would 2 even |>be enough?) provided 2MB is pushing it for DOS! ( I couldn't live without a 1MB disk cache!) |>Lastly, do you think the prices for a '386 are stable or are |>they expected to drop sharply in the next 6-8 months? They will drop sharply due to the introduction of the 486-50 and the 486SX. Brian
ilan343@violet.berkeley.edu (Geraldo Veiga) (03/21/91)
In article <24744@hydra.gatech.EDU> ken@dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii) writes: >In article <1335@b1.babss.UUCP> uunet!babss!wadswort writes: >>I'm considering purchasing a system for home use. I will run >>*nix,X11,GNU etc. >> >>386 33mhz or 25 mhz? >>Is the 25 _that_ much slower? > >Yes...though 25MHz is pretty reasonable for home use. > A reminder. You your are buying a 387 (which is a good idea for X) have a look at 486 prices. A 486 motherboard can be a better deal than 386/33 + Coprocessor. >> >>Svga or vga? > >Svga. X is terribly cramped (I say useless, but thats just me) with >less than 800x600. Svga is a complicated business for XWin. You have to consider if the X-server you will be running supports your graphics board. The best vga X-server around is freeware -- X386. It supports best Tseng Labs (T400) based cards. It will go up to 1024x768 non-interlaced if your monitor goes along with it.