Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 09:53:51 +0100 From: David Clear <davidc@pdd.3com.com> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: PC configuration advice wanted. Message-ID: <14871.9509280853@isolan.pdd.3com.com>
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Thanks for all the input so far. It's really helping.
I've spoken to Gateway who tell me it's a Zappa motherboard. They also
say that straight EDO RAM gives a 15% performance improvement over normal
RAM + cache. Any comments?
I'm going to opt for a 2Gb SCSI disk and a quad speed SCSI CDROM. To be
honest, I knew SCSI was the answer - but recently I've been reading things
that said EIDE was the new PC way and there were no advantages over SCSI.
I'm glad that information was wrong.
The question now is on SCSI and motherboard options. It seems that
the SCSI options are AHA-2940 (available as an option from Gateway) or
NCR-58C10(*) which I believe is an option from a UK company called Viglen
whose kit I've used before and have a very good reputation over here.
The Viglen also comes with an Endeavour motherboard and 256K standard
cache with an option for burst mode cache at an additional charge.
The Gateway option makes the most sense financially. Their package
comes with a sound card, speakers and Office 95 as standard and, as I
said, SCSI is available as a supported option (but they don't do SCSI
CDROM so I'll have to get that elsewhere). Their kit also comes
with a 3 year parts warranty (1st year on-site).
I'd like to go for the solution that makes the most technical sense
though. Speed isn't the be all and end all, which is why I'm opting for
a 90Mhz Pentium as opposed to a 133MHz. It's a great deal of money and
I can't afford a package that doesn't work.
Specifically:
+ Which has the better support in FreeBSD, AHA-2940
or NCR-58C10. I will be using SCSI disk, tape and CDROM.
+ Which is the 'safer' motherboard, Zappa or Endeavour? I
understand that Zappa doesn't support burst mode cache. As
long as I get the P90 performance I expect then that doesn't
matter. What I'd like is a reliability assessment.
Thanks again for the advice. You guys are a real help and I much
appreciate it.
Cheers,
Dave.
* I may have got my numbers in a twist...
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