From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Jul 25 12:38:28 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA20353 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 25 Jul 1997 12:38:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dyson.iquest.net (dyson.iquest.net [198.70.144.127]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA20345 for ; Fri, 25 Jul 1997 12:38:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from root@localhost) by dyson.iquest.net (8.8.6/8.8.5) id OAA00722; Fri, 25 Jul 1997 14:38:14 -0500 (EST) From: "John S. Dyson" Message-Id: <199707251938.OAA00722@dyson.iquest.net> Subject: Re: pentium vs. pro for freebsd In-Reply-To: from Johnny Wu at "Jul 25, 97 01:53:30 am" To: jwu@physics.berkeley.edu (Johnny Wu) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 14:38:14 -0500 (EST) Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Reply-To: dyson@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > I'm considering either getting a Pentium/200 or a more expensive Pentium > Pro machine for a FreeBSD system. I've heard that FreeBSD can't really > take advantage of the Pentium Pro, and that its not worth the extra $$$. > Is this true? > The above statement is not true. Not only do we take rather complete advantage of the published features of the Pentium, we also take advantage of many of the additional features of the PPro. Secondly, note that if you ever upgrade to SMP, SMP on PPro's is much better than on a typical Dual P5 system. Lately, I have become very spoiled running on P6 and Dual-P6 systems, leaving my P5 system for being my local router (when I put it back together.) :-). Not to play benchmark-wars or anything like that, but I can do a kernel build in about 90-100secs on an SMP P6... Sure beats the olden days on a 386/25!!! John