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Date:      Sun, 26 Jul 1998 23:12:42 -0500
From:      Steven Plite <splite@purdue.edu>
To:        Nicholas Lee <nj.lee@kiwa.co.nz>
Cc:        freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Intel Providence deal at computer123
Message-ID:  <19980726231242.A26777@cynix.ecn.purdue.edu>
In-Reply-To: <35c3ebc4.14598707@smtp.ix.net.nz>; from Nicholas Lee on Sat, Jul 25, 1998 at 02:30:52PM %2B0000
References:  <35c3ebc4.14598707@smtp.ix.net.nz>

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On Sat, Jul 25, 1998 at 02:30:52PM +0000, Nicholas Lee wrote:
> Noticed your post in Dejanews dated 1998/07/08, Re: overclocking
> PPro166-512kB.
> 
> I was wondering if the 166MHz 512Kb ended up being better than the 180Mhz
> with the deal computer123.com are offering at the moment. 
> 
> How was your business with Clifford Technology Inc as well?  Were the CPUs
> new or Pulls?

I haven't been terribly impressed with Clifford Tech so far.  Shipment
packaging was sloppy, the rotor of one of the CPU fans had popped out
and was floating around inside the board's static bag.  I haven't called
them yet to get it replaced.  It also took them two weeks to ship my order.

The motherboards are pulls (from Toshiba Equium 6200Ms probably, since
the one I've installed has a Toshiba logo on boot up) and don't include
the ATX IO shield to cover the ports.  I have no idea where to get one
to fit the PR440FX, since it's a bit odd in port layout.  But at least
the boards look clean, and they came with a photocopied jumper diagram,
which is good as Intel's manual only gives settings for 180 and 200MHz.

The CPUs are pulls as well, and look a bit worn.  They did ship them with
(cheap) fan/heatsinks, but without any thermal grease (which you can get
at Radio Shack.)

That said, the one board I've installed works so far, though all I've run
on it is DOS and a -current boot floppy.  I'll try loading a -current snap
tonight.

Bottom line is: you get what you pay for.  Or rather, you don't get what
you don't pay for.  I don't know that I'd trust this gear to a production
box, but they should be fine in test boxes, which is where mine's going.

As for the 166/512 vs. 180/256 question, I haven't done any comparitive
testing and am unlikely to have time to do so.  But, if you can afford
the cost delta, the 166/512 would be preferable.  Twice the L2 cache
and 10% faster memory bus are good, and they would probably overclock
to 180MHz (or more) easily if the 14MHz delta in clock speed bothers
you. :-)

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