Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!ca_bt@gsbacd.uchicago.edu
From: ca_bt@gsbacd.uchicago.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 386SX replacements for 80286 machines
Message-ID: <6159@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 7 Nov 89 18:00:47 GMT
Sender: news@tank.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Lines: 42

>In article <19132@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, hunt@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Jim Hunt) writes:
 
>|  Stop and consider here.  If the cost of a motherboard is the cost
>|  of manufacture, plus amortized development costs, then why are
>|  the SX boards so cheap?  Might it be that we are just getting 286
>|  boards with 386SX stuffed in?  I can't explain $400 motherboards
>|  any other way when all the DX boards are $1000 (other than charge
>|  what the market will bear).  So, if they can munge the design to
>|  take an SX, and sell us whole motherboards for $400, then how
>|  much could it cost for a tiny daughter board?

 
>  Okay, here are some prices for motherboards (0k, 2 or more):
>	386SX		$286
>	386/20		$430
>	386/25 cache	$575

>  The low prices don't mean crap, they mean "no reputation." They
>represent the actual cost of manufacture from someone who has nothing
>to sell but the product... 

[ various points deleted]
>bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)

Note also the price of the processors themselves.  From what I've read
recently (PC Week?), 16-20 Mhz 80286s are going for $60-100 in large
lots.  Intel has decided to kill these '286's by pricing the 16 Mhz
80386SX at $80-90 (in large order quantities).  Now, the cheapest
80386 - 16 Mhz are in the neighborhood of $190, and the price of the
more common 25-33Mhz '386 are more like $250-300.  SO, add in at least
$150 for the price of a 25 Mhz '386 motherboard over a '386SX motherboard
just for the processor alone.

Intel is supposedly going to introduce the 20Mhz '386SX chips in early
1990, so look for the 16Mhz motherboards to get even cheaper in a
few months.

Having said that, does anybody have any opinions on various replacment
386SX motherboards?  I've seen adds for a $350 16 Mhz 386SX motherboards
(with 0K) from a HomeSmart computing... any experiences?

					Bill Tsang