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From: rdmurphy@acs.bu.edu
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	id LAA84577; Wed, 10 Jan 1996 11:06:43 -0500
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 11:06:43 -0500
Message-Id: <199601101606.LAA84577@acs3.bu.edu>
To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject: Req: Purchase recommendations
Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org
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I hope this is the proper venue for this request; please correct
me if it isn't.

I am at last (after a long holdout) going to replace my
home PC (an XT with 20MB hard drive and 1MB of RAM running
PC-DOS 2.1 - don't laugh too much).  I plan to run
FreeBSD and do not have much need to run Windows or DOS
applications.  I don't need sound.  I anticipate using the CD-ROM
drive mostly to load new software; therefore I don't think I need
anything particularly fast here.

I'm looking for system, component, or vendor recommendations -
both positive and negative.

My budget is likely to be roughly $2400.

Looking at various ads, it seems one can get a nice (?) EIDE
Pentium system with 16MB RAM, 1 GB hard drive, and CD-ROM for this
kind of money from places such as Dell and Micron.

Questions:

1) Would these systems work with FreeBSD?

2) Assuming they would, what kind of arguments would anyone offer
to push me away from EIDE and toward SCSI?

3) What other recommendations would you have?

4) Much less pressing: is there any possibility that I could take
my old 20MB drive, install it in the new machine and mount it as a
DOS drive to be used for whatever DOS stuff I do need to do?

I have been trying to read as much of the hardware related
information in various FAQs and at www.freebsd.org, but it's not
yet entirely clear.

For what it's worth, I think I am fairly knowledgable, but not at
all expert.  I have a couple years of experience with IBM's AIX,
DEC's OSF/1 (now DIGITAL Unix), and a bunch of other non-Unix
operating systems.  I am not a hardware guy.


Thanks much for any guidance you can offer.

Russ Murphy