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From: JLI@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: RE: Help with CloneBuilding
Message-ID: <10892@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 8 Sep 89 06:35:37 GMT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 73

I have built a few units for myself and friends, and each had very
different configurations based on availability of parts, prices, and
performance requirement. Almost all parts I got were through mail
order places (mostly advertised on Computer Shopper).  The following
is my opinion on some parts.

           Part                          Comments
           -----------                   ------------------
           Half Height Tower             If it is large enough to hold
                                         all drives you want to put in,
                                         I don't see why not.
                                         Some small Tower cases looks
                                         very nice, but the power supplies
                                         in them are not regular sized.
                                         I have some problem with them
                                         (higher failure rate than the
                                          regular ones have, and you have
                                          to go to the original manufacture
                                          to get replacement).

           72 Meg 18ms Miniscribe 3085?  You can also try Mitsubishi drives
                                         or Seagate 4096 or 4144R (full-hight).
                                         Seagate drives are cheaper.

           4.6 Meg Ram                   I haven't tried SIMMs myself yet.
                                         I usually use 1M chips.  No
                                         comments here.

           ACER 386/20 MotherBd AT Jr.   I am not familiar with this board.
                                         No comments here.

           Northgate Keyboard            No comments here.

           Perstor ARRL Controller       This controller is 2:1 controller.
                                         If you are using 18 ms drive,  you
                                         better use a 1:1 controller.  
                                         According to some reviews, this ARLL
                                         controller has some problems (it has
                                         been discussed ealier in this news
                                         group).  I have been using ST-4096
                                         with WD1006V-SR2 controller (RLL,
                                         1:1 interleave) to obtain 122MB.
                                         It has been used for more than 6
                                         months without any problems.

           Zenith Flat Screen VGA        This monitor has nice display but
                                         it can not reach 800X600 resolution.
                                         
           Undecided VGA Card            There are reviews on various PC
                                         publications.  I haven't tried many
                                         of them.  I have been using VRAM
                                         VGA since it first came out.  It is
                                         expensive but has high performance.
                                         Some people reported it has some
                                         kind of compatibility problem with
                                         certain mother boards, but it works
                                         fine with the systems I built.

           Undecided I/O Card            No comments here.

           Fujitsu 3.5&5.25Floppies      No comments here.  I use SONY and
                                         TEAC drives a lot.

           MSDOS                         No comments here.  You still can
                                         get MS-DOS 3.3.  I am mainly use
                                         MS-DOS 4.01.

           XENIX 386 Devel System        No comments here, but I have heard
                                         it is good.

           QNX                           No comments here. A friend of mine
                                         told me that the SCO XENIX is better
                                         than QNX. He is a XENIX user of course.