Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 13:59:15 -0500 (CDT) From: "Paul T. Root" <proot@horton.iaces.com> To: ivaudrey@test.nemko.ltd.uk (Ian Vaudrey) Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, mjanosi@numacorp.com Subject: Re: What to buy? Message-ID: <199705021859.NAA12913@horton.iaces.com> In-Reply-To: <199705021141.MAA07672@mail.nemko.ltd.uk> from Ian Vaudrey at "May 2, 97 12:38:40 pm"
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
In a previous message, Ian Vaudrey said: > > From: Miki Janosi <mjanosi@numacorp.com> > > To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org > > Subject: What to buy? > > Date: 01 May 1997 22:00 > > > > I want to buy a machine specifically for FreeBSD. I have version > > 2.1.0 but plan on buying a new CD of the latest version. And I'd like > > > some tips. This is what I plan on buying. > > > > Cyrix 6x6 +200 motherboard > > The Cyrix processors are reputedly very quick, with the exception of a > lousy floating point unit. What would worry me is the power > requirements, at around twice that of the nearest equivalent Intel > part. This means more stress on the power supply and motherboard, and > for that matter the higher ambient temperature in your box might not > exactly be welcome news to your other components. > > AFAIK, motherboards supporting the 75MHz clock required by the > Cx686-200 are still pretty thin on the ground. At least one MB that > does support this seems to have reliability problems of it's own - > check out the Supermicro newsgroup if you have news access. > > In short, you might want to ask yourself what is more important to you, > speed or stability. If you decide on the latter, I'd personally opt for > an AMD K5 running on a GigaByte 586HX motherboard. This combination is > rock solid and still pretty quick. If you really need more speed and > funds allow, consider Pentium Pro. I have a Cyrix 6x86 P150 on the GigaByte 586HX and am very happy with it. One thing the that the AMD has over the Cyrix is that it is, apparently, recognized as a I586 rather than the I486. I'm hoping the kernel guys are addressing that, if possible. I've had no stability problems with mine. I do have a fan on the CPU, came with it installed from atipa (got the motherboard there, as a package). > > 2940 Adaptec SCSI controller > > There have been several reports on this list of driver problems with > this board. On the other hand, list members consistently report that > the NCR/Symbios 800 series equivalents have no such problems and are > just as quick, while being considerably cheaper. My 2940U is fine. And the 2940UW's are fine also. The problems only occur when they are heavily loaded, as in a news server. > > 16x CD-ROM IDE (Mitsumi?) > > Again, there have been several reports on this list of problems with > IDE CDROMs. I'd go for SCSI. You'd probably get much the same > throughput from a decent 8x SCSI drive as from a 16x IDE unit in any > case. Definately. Why hamper your system with an IDE CD when you've got no use for the bus otherwise. Bus Mastering and the speed of the SCSI more that make up for 4-8x IMHO. > > 8 GB SCSI HD (Seagate?) > > I've no experience of Seagate SCSI drives, but I've had several of > their IDE drives fail. The high failure rate of Seagate units has also > been reported on recently in Computer Shopper (UK). I use Fujitsu SCSI > drives in my servers with no failures to date. > > > SCSI Tape Drive (Seagate?) > > Travan? No experience of these, so no comments. > > > Video Card Matrix Mellanium 8MB > > Ditto. I assume you'll be running X, in which case it would probably be > a good idea to check with the XFree-86 mailing list. > > > Sound Blaster > > No problems AFAIK I think the handbook recommends the Gravis. But I have a SB16 and it works well. > > > > I have an agreement that if I can't get the hardware to work with > > FreeBSD I can swap till I get it to work! Please send responses to my > > > e-mail address since I got my WWW connection taken away and then had > > to quit the mailing list because of bosses orders. > > --------------------------------------------------------- > > Miki Janosi NUMA Corporation, Akron, OH > > Tel: (330) 925-5000 x.455 email: mjanosi@numacorp.com > > As a sysadmin solid, reliable boxes make me happy. You may well have > different requirements, and this is of course just my two cents. > > - Ian > > > -- "I would have to say that if God would have wanted us to vote, he would have given us real candidates." - April Skappel, 17, Winona, Minn.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199705021859.NAA12913>