From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Feb 15 10:35:30 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id KAA04406 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 10:35:30 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from abby.skypoint.net (abby.skypoint.net [199.86.32.252]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id KAA04355 for ; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 10:35:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from bruce@zuhause.mn.org) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by abby.skypoint.net (8.8.7/jl 1.3) with UUCP id MAA00502; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 12:35:07 -0600 (CST) Received: (from bruce@localhost) by zuhause.mn.org (8.8.8/8.8.7) id MAA02559; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 12:31:21 -0600 (CST) Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 12:31:21 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <199802151831.MAA02559@zuhause.mn.org> From: Bruce Albrecht To: Greg Lehey Cc: hrothgar@hrothgar.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Hardware In-Reply-To: <19980215182747.44828@freebie.lemis.com> References: <34E69E6E.5DA474A9@hrothgar.com> <19980215182747.44828@freebie.lemis.com> X-Mailer: VM 6.34 under 20.3 "Vatican City" XEmacs Lucid Mime-Version: 1.0 (generated by tm-edit 7.108) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Greg Lehey writes: > On Sat, 14 February 1998 at 23:51:11 -0800, hrothgar wrote: > > I have a friend who is a Unix programmer who is going to set up a > > machine I am purchasing with FreeBSD that claims that there are > > configuration problems with MMX machines. Could you tell me if that is > > true or is he just lost in the old days. He keeps telling me that I > > MUST get a dual pentium pro or nothing. > > There are a *lot* more problems with a dual Pentium Pro than a single > Pentium MMX. That's because of the multiprocessor, not because of the > MMX. As far as I know, there are no FreeBSD-specific problems with > any Intel processor. As someone with a dual Pentium-Pro, I'd have to say that probably wouldn't buy one today. It may be slightly faster than the equivalent clock speed Pentium II because the the onboard cache, and definitely a lot faster than the equivalent clock speed Pentium MMX, it's not clear to me that the price premium is worth it. You can get a 333 Mhz Pentium II system for at least $500 less than a dual 200 MHz Pentium Pro. Sure, if you want to wait 6 months to a year, the new Pentium II chip sets that do a better job at multiprocessing will be out. Sure, FreeBSD, Linux, Windows NT and Solaris x86 support SMP, but FreeBSD and Linux still have a ways to go to do it well. A second CPU is wasted money for a Win95 user. The FreeBSD SMP mailing list has several reports with problems with Supermicro boards. For the money you would spend on a dual Pentium Pro system, buy a high end Pentium II and not worry about it. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message