Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 11:39:31 +0100 (BST) From: Stephen Roome <steve@visint.co.uk> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: What computer to buy ? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95.970821111104.6168A-100000@dylan.visint.co.uk>
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Well, my home computer is still a P100, and last night the hard drive died. So it's time to buy new bits. I thought I'd just get myself a new HD, but now I'm thinking that I should perhaps get myself an Ultra DMA IDE disc and a for that I'd need a new motherboard, and while prices are bottomed out for a while a new processor. Here's the options : 1) Pentium Pro 166 - no idea what motherboard and hard disc I can get with these, it'd have to be IDE (cost) and I don't know what the boards support. problem, if I get DIE (oops IDE =)) then I want Ultra DMA (windows dual boot) for performance, and I'm not sure of any PPRo boards which support UltraDMA IDE, or even support more than 66MHz bus speed. etc. etc. i.e. I know nothing about PPro's =) 2) Pentium [MMX or classic pentium) 200 Mhz (or 233 even) on a motherboard clocked at 75 or 83Mhz bus speed (e.g. FIC PA2007 or ABIT IT5H). problem: haven't got the faintest idea which boards are supporting 83MHz bus speeds properly or which boards support more than 64MB cacheable RAM. (I'm not buying RAM for a while, so I've got 32MB of EDO to use in the board I buy - unless I get the new ABIT board without 72pin FPRAM type slots.) Well, after all this, I've checked Tom's Hardware guide (which is looking neglected) and the figures are all windows only, which is something I'm not going to worry much about as I'm only using windows for wavetable with my soundcard. So, I want a fast machine for the following: quake (I've got an okay video card for now.) programming (It has to compile fast - mmm big deal) futureproof (ish) without buying an excessively overpriced Pentium II. Basically I think Pentium Pro is out, I just can't justify it yet, unless there are some damn nice PPro motherboards out there that anyone knows about with UltraDMA support. So, I think it boils down to which motherboard should I buy. Pentium or PPro, if anyone has any ideas or good sources of information please let me know. Hopefully I can get hold of a processor before Intel take all the Pentiums out of circulation (here in the uk at least it's heading that way). Thanks in advance. Steve P.S. I might not be subscribed to this list, or is hardware just a quiet list (that'd be odd considering recent developments!). -- Steve Roome - Vision Interactive Ltd. Tel:+44(0)117 9730597 Home:+44(0)976 241342 WWW: http://dylan.visint.co.uk/
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