Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 16:27:06 -0500 (EST) From: spork <spork@super-g.com> To: wb2oyc@cyberenet.net Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Good buy or not? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95.970105162041.24872B-100000@super-g.inch.com> In-Reply-To: <XFMail.970105092857.wb2oyc@cyberenet.net>
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We bought some of these as Win95 workstations and had some troubles with them... Apparently these are factory refurbs. The built-in video is pretty crappy and the memory expansion is fairly limited (2 spare slots plus 8M onboard). I haven't tried putting FBSD on one, but one of our support staff had tons of troubles trying to install Linux... On the other hand, my workstation has an AMD "586" (which I guess is essentially a 133MHz 486) and the board and processor only cost $100 at the time I bought it. Probably cheaper now. Grab a 2G drive for $200, a nice ATI 2M graphics card for $80, a $30 case, and a cheapo 3Com for $70, and you've got a decent non-server box. It's more than adequate for a workstation. I have a similar machine with Win95 running at home, and again, performance is very comfy. 32M of RAM is only $150 now, so I loaded up. More memory seems to be much better than more processor... Charles On Sun, 5 Jan 1997 wb2oyc@cyberenet.net wrote: > I wonder if anyone on the list may have experience with Packard > Bell machines, running FreeBSD? The reason for the question is, a local > store is selling excess stock that didn't sell during the holiday season > at a price that is very, very, tempting. Actually, the price is only a > little more than the cost of a decent motherboard, and it is for a > complete system, including monitor, 4X CD-ROM, etc. The processor is a > 75Mhz Pentium. I don't know the whole story of the Pentium line, but > would it be reasonable to assume that the cpu could be readily upgraded? > Thats a detail that might depend entirely on the capability of the board > in the machine, and I know little about PB, other than the adverse stories > of the recent past. Are they still using "refurbished" stuff and selling > it as new? Do their machines use standard memory components, so they > could be easily upgraded with parts from other vendors, etc? They don't > mention the vendor, but the machine includes an video accelerator type of > card, and the machine is billed as a "multimedia home PC". The monitor is > one of those goofy looking things with speakers glued to its sides. It is > a model 4240. Anyone have any comments on its insides, and whether it > might be as good a buy as it appears to be? > > My current machine is an old 486 box, and I need space for an > additional HD, etc. Running an AMD 486/133, so this machine would not > really be much of an upgrade in itself in terms of performance, but if > possible, I would quickly upgrade its cpu and memory. Would this be a > decent platform to build on or not? > > Thanks > Paul > > >
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