Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!mvb.saic.com!ncr-sd!iss-rb!booboo!davel
From: davel@booboo.SanDiego.NCR.COM (David Lord)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on tried and true roll your own 386sx system.
Message-ID: <1991Jan3.215525.22945@SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 3 Jan 91 21:55:25 GMT
References: <35204@netnews.upenn.edu> <10523@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Sender: @SanDiego.NCR.COM
Reply-To: davel@booboo.SanDiego.NCR.COM (David Lord)
Organization: NCR Corporation, Rancho Bernardo
Lines: 39

In article <35204@netnews.upenn.edu> sal@grip.cis.upenn.edu (Marcos Salganicoff) writes:
>Goal State: 386sx box with monochrome vga, mouse, >= 40mbyte hard disk
>and 4mb of memory to run windos 3.0 _decently_
>and Unix workalike like coherent by mark williams).
>
>So the basic two questions are prepackaged vs. roll your own, and if
>so, roll with what? Any takers?

Pro roll your own arguments:

o   PC's are so simple it shouldn't be too difficult. Unless of course
    it doesn't work. Does your insurance cover stress related illness?

o   Good learning experience.

o   You get exactly the components you want. This is the only good
    argument, but then the components you want are likely to be the
    most expensive.

Buy it arguments:

o   Probably cheaper. Even for the exact same components.

o   Somebody already knows those components work properly together. At
    least you hope so.

o   Somebody else gets to hassle with it when it breaks. I mean PROBABLY
    it will all work when you put it together but do you want to try figuring
    out what is wrong when you can't access your hard disk?

If you buy one put together get it from somebody who does a lot of them.
Also make sure you see it running Windows 3.0 (in Super VGA if possible).
When Windows 3.0 first came out it showed some subtle incompatibilities
with a number of clones.

Oh one other thing, I've used a monochrome VGA monitor and I really can't
see any point to it. I mean either you want text or you want color graphics.
Honestly I have a hard time even giving up color text as used by many
popular programs nowadays.