Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uwvax!shorty!thaler
From: thaler@shorty.CS.WISC.EDU (Maurice Thaler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Dell 310 flame (of sorts)
Message-ID: <8691@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 89 20:08:17 GMT
References: <1075.2529AB21@bigtime.fidonet.org>
Sender: news@spool.cs.wisc.edu
Reply-To: thaler@shorty.cs.wisc.edu (Maurice Thaler)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
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In article <1075.2529AB21@bigtime.fidonet.org> Jim.Birken@bigtime.fidonet.org (Jim Birken) writes:
>I also use a DELL 310.  I have liked it a lot, but then I haven't 
>attempted your i/o struggles.  My question to you is two fold.  Did 
>DELL have the disks available that met your requirements, at any cost?  
>I use mine for spreadsheet work, primarily.  Do you have a problem with 
>one as a file server?
>  
>--  
>Jim Birken
>Domain: Jim.Birken@bigtime.fidonet.org
>UUCP: ...!{tektronix, hplabs!hp-pcd}!orstcs!bigtime!Jim.Birken
>via Big Time Television (bigtime.fidonet.org, 1:152/201)

The problem is not the disks per se. The problem is in the bus of the
DELL310. The hard disk performance is "throttled" by the bus
performance. No matter how fast a hard disk is, you are limited by the
speed the bus will accept your data. I have never seen the DELL310 get
better than about 675K/sec with coretest. I have tried quite a few
different controller/hard disk combinations. I consider this to be a
major limitation. If you are doing spreadsheet work, you will never
notice the difference.

I had problems with the serial I/O port as well. I eventually solved
that one by installing a seperate serial card with one of those national
semiconductor UARTS (16550an I think) that chuck forsberg recommends in
DSZ documentation. I use high speed modem communication at >9600 baud,
and had charactors dropping like flies before I did this mod.

Once again, I think that generally, the DELL310 is a sound machine, but
if you are into high performance (which it was advertised as having when
I bought it), you would be well advised to test the DELL310 before
plunking down $6K for a "full system".  

I have a feeling that the same problems might be encountered with the
DELL 325 as well, but who knows.

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