Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!madd
From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Buying a 386 machine?
Message-ID: <21986@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 24 Apr 88 17:03:49 GMT
References: <21771@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group
Lines: 27

In article <21771@bu-cs.BU.EDU> mds@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Michael Siegel) writes:
|Well the time has come...I think I will buy myself a machine.
|[...]
|I believe I will go for a 386. [...]
|I know [the machine ] uses a Micronics motherboard. Unfortunately, this board
|has a big ``footprint'' and therefore a big box. But what else should 
|I look for in the construction. [...]

Personally I'd take a bigger box over a little -- usually there's more
space between the boards, which helps with cooling.  This doesn't
matter when you only have 2 or 3 boards, but I've dealt with machines
where all the slots are filled with large boards, and it makes a
difference there.

|[...] a seagate 20Mb 65ms hard drive would add 300 though I may 
|want something faster...

If you buy a 386 machine and get a 65ms hard drive, you're crazy.  In
my experience, the hard drive is often the bottleneck to a PC's
user-apparent speed -- with a 386 machine, this would be painfully
obvious.  Look around more -- you should be able to find larger faster
disks for very little more money.  My favorite is the Micropolis 72Mb
(formatted), which is 27ms and at last check cost about $700.  There
may be even better deals, though, so keep your eyes open.

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu