Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Opti-486/25 motherboard
Message-ID: <3155@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 13 Feb 91 01:49:42 GMT
References: <1991Feb12.163208.29050@astro.as.utexas.edu>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 29

In article <1991Feb12.163208.29050@astro.as.utexas.edu> gary@utastro.uucp (Gary Hansen) writes:

| 	I am interested in this "deal" but I am vary concerned that there
| may be some hidden reliability or compatibility problem that the sales people
| are unaware of.

  The thing to look for in a 486 is use of burst mode between the memory
and the on chip cache. And if there's an off-chip cache, such as you
describe, the burst mode path must go all the way through.

  A system with burst mode and no external cache is faster then one with
burst mode and no external cache. And with burst mode the performance
difference from the external cache is small in most cases. I'd rather
have it than not, but external cache without burst mode will make a
ssytem barely faster than a 386.


| 	I don't want to get caught with a board that will plague me with
| compatibility problems in the future. That would be no bargain at all.

  Amen! There is a company in the back of _PC Week_ advertising a 486-25
motherboard with 512k cache for about $1600. This sounds too good to be
true, and I want someone else to spend their money proving it works
before I think seriously about it.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me