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Date:      Thu, 17 Dec 1998 10:20:15 -0500
From:      "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM>
To:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, dg@root.com, mturpin@shadow.spel.com, toasty@home.dragondata.com, hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Network adapters: Technical issues 
Message-ID:  <199812171520.KAA95585@whizzo.transsys.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 17 Dec 1998 00:44:32 MST." <4.1.19981217004147.066e2c30@mail.lariat.org> 
References:  <Your message of "Thu, 17 Dec 1998 00:23:14 MST."  <4.1.19981217000925.066e26c0@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19981217004147.066e2c30@mail.lariat.org>

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> At 11:29 PM 12/16/98 -0800, Mike Smith wrote:
> It's just that the cost of an
> upgrade would be significantly more than the $150 it would take
> to replace the motherboard. There's also RAM.... Those systems
> use older SIMMs. And a new motherboard is likely to be in the ATX
> form factor; those 486es use the AT form factor. So between the
> case and the RAM and the motherboard and the CPU and the keyboard
> (yep, the old ones use AT, not PS/2, keyboards) we're almost talking
> about throwing out the box.

I had some similar considerations.

I just bought an FIC VA-503+ motherboard, which is a baby-AT form factor,
has 4 72-pin SIMM sockets, 1 MB of L2 cache, 3 PCI slots, a bunch
of ISA slots and a 350MHz K6-2 CPU for about $250.  I went with this
specifically because I had an existing case and memory that I wanted
to recover.

Having only 3 PCI slots is sort of a downer, but the cost of the motherboard
itself is about $50, so it can't be that bit a mistake.

I did this to replace an old (no L2 cache, slow) 486 system so I could
use the $30 10/100 ethernet boards I had lying around.

louie



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