Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bwdls58!mlord
From: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: 386SX and EMS 4.0
Message-ID: <4460@bwdls58.UUCP>
Date: 28 Sep 90 20:54:43 GMT
References: <7297@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Sender: mlord@bwdls58.UUCP
Reply-To: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Distribution: na
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 20

In article <7297@darkstar.ucsc.edu> ted@helios.ucsc.edu (Ted Cantrall) writes:
>I am in the midst of the agony of trying to decide which SX board to buy.
>I know I want a Chips & Tech chip set and AMI BIOS, but one of the options
>is a board that has EMS 4.0 built in. Does this seem like a good idea?

Don't fuss over the EMS capability.  It is great for 286's, but with a 386
(sx/dx.. who cares) the EMS capability is much better when provided by
software such as QEMM or 386^MAX.  With hardware EMS, you are usually stuck
with the supplied drivers, which do not approach the capabilities of these
two software packages.

In summary, with a 386 system, built-in EMS 4.0 is not something you
should demand or require of the motherboard.  Ignore it and look at the
other features instead, such as memory capacity, good construction, 
good built-in bios setup program, etc..  And plan on buying QEMM or 386^MAX.
-- 
 ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________
| ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) |
| MLORD@BNR.CA   Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only.   |
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