Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!orstcs!statware!scf
From: scf@statware.UUCP (Steve Fullerton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP 9000/500 vs. Vectra with 386 CPU and 387 co-processor?
Message-ID: <1007@statware.UUCP>
Date: 3 Aug 88 15:46:08 GMT
References: <592@rocksanne.UUCP> <830016@bgphp1.UUCP>
Reply-To: scf@statware.UUCP (Steve Fullerton)
Organization: Statware
Lines: 30

We have an HP9000/550 with 2 CPU's and 5.5 Mb of RAM and a 20 Mhz 80386
with 20 Mhz 80387, 4 Mb RAM running SCO Xenix 386.

While I haven't done much in the area of `real' benchmarks comparing
the two machines, we are a software development company and the only
meaningful benchmark for us is how fast an application runs in our
package.  Using this as a ruler, the 80386 is about 4 times the speed
of the HP9000/550 (1 task vs. 1 task).  We are not using an ESDI disk
so the I/O throughput on the HP9000/550 is much better than the 80386.

We have had our HP9000/550 for over two years and it has been a real
workhorse but as I write this message, HP is here installing our new
Series 825.  The trade-in program ends October 1st and while the hardware
credits aren't the greatest, the software credits will save you a lot
of money.  In order to minimize the cost of the upgrade we bought an older
HP9000/540 from HP with 15 1/4 Mb RAM cards for around $1,000 and then
turned around and traded it in on the Series 825 for around $5,000 in
hardware credit (strangely enough, an older Model 540 is worth more as
a trade-in than the Model 550).  This still leaves us with the Model 550
which we will sell through to one of the HP equipment resellers.

HP's bottom line is that they want to sell Series 8xx computers and the
salesmen will get as creative as possible in order to make a sale.  We
liked the Model 550 but its reign is over.

-- 
Steve Fullerton                        Statware, Inc.
scf%statware.uucp@cs.orst.edu          260 SW Madison Ave, Suite 109
orstcs!statware!scf                    Corvallis, OR  97333
                                       503/753-5382