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From: ken@dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: 386 configuration tradeoffs
Message-ID: <24744@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 20 Mar 91 18:00:25 GMT
References: <1335@b1.babss.UUCP>
Sender: news@prism.gatech.EDU
Reply-To: ken@dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii)
Organization: The House Of Fun
Lines: 60

In article <1335@b1.babss.UUCP> uunet!babss!wadswort writes:
>I'm considering purchasing a system for home use. I will run
>*nix,X11,GNU etc. With this in mind, I'd like to hear your
>opinion about which tradoffs I should make to get a reasonable
>configuration at a reasonable price.
>
>386 33mhz or 25 mhz?
>Is the 25 _that_ much slower?
>

Yes...though 25MHz is pretty reasonable for home use.

>
>Extra cache or extra main memory?
>Given the choice would you rather have more cache or more main memory?
>

More main memory.  Remeber first of all the "more cache" != "more speed" 
for every job mix, especially under Unix.  Secondly, the cost of paging 
from insufficient main memory is orders of magnatude greater than the 
cost of taking a cache miss.

>
>Svga or vga?
>

Svga.  X is terribly cramped (I say useless, but thats just me) with 
less than 800x600.

And yes...get a quality monitor.  You'll be glad you did.

>
>The High price system is of course the 386/33 Svga with 64k of cache
>and 4 mg memory. Svga color.
>
>The low end is a 386/25 with no cache and 2mg memory. (would 2 even
>be enough?) provided 
>

4MB of main memory is not really enough to run X (2MB is not
even close).  The system swaps itself to death.  I'm pretty
happy round here with a 386/25, 64k cache, 8MB, 344MB disk, and
800x600 VGA running SCO Unix (ODT).  Oh, and a tape drive is a
*really big* win (I have a 60MB Archive Viper).

>
>Lastly, do you think the prices for a '386 are stable or are
>they expected to drop sharply in the next 6-8 months?
>

6-8 months down the road there will *always* be something
bigger, faster, cheaper, stronger.  Decide what you want and can
afford to buy now.  If you keep looking ahead, you'll never actually
buy anything...

--
	 ken seefried iii	ken@dali.cc.gatech.edu

	"If 'ya can't be with the one you love, 
		   honey, love the one you're with..."