From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Oct 15 09:34:09 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id JAA29464 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:34:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from horst.bfd.com (horst.bfd.com [204.160.242.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id JAA29453 for ; Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:34:05 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ejs@bfd.com) Received: from harlie.bfd.com (bastion.bfd.com [204.160.242.14]) by horst.bfd.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA19885; Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:31:57 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:31:57 -0700 (PDT) From: "Eric J. Schwertfeger" To: dkelly@hiwaay.net cc: Jonathan Lemon , don@PartsNow.com, Marty Leisner , Jacques Hugo , questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: mmx or ppro In-Reply-To: <199710150135.UAA20999@nospam.hiwaay.net> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Tue, 14 Oct 1997 dkelly@hiwaay.net wrote: > When faced with this choice myself a couple of months ago, I chose the PPro > at 166 MHz with 512k cache at about $325 over a cheaper 180 with 256k or > more expensive 200 with only 256k. In addition to the larger L2 cache I got > 66 MHz bus speed vs. 60 for the 150 or 180. Not rerribly interested in > overclocking as I'd guess the PPro-166 is a -200 that failed the grade. Every PPro150 I've had (5 so far) has been happy to run at 166 (though admittedly with a smaller cache), and all but one would run solid at 180. Since the official 166 comes off a different production line, I'm sure that the 150's aren't tested at 166, so I've been running them all at 166. In playing around with 180 vs 166, I noticed that probably due to the on-chip L2 cache, external bus speed means a lot less to a PPro than it does to a Pentium. I've also noticed that for very small programs that fit in the L1 cache, the PPro really doesn't run that much faster than a Pentium of similar clock speed, but for larger tasks (kernel compiling, make world) the PPro easily outpaces the Pentium.