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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!network.ucsd.edu!usc!rpi!psinntp!psinntp!internet!sbi!zeuswtc!cyclone!bet From: bet@cyclone.sbi.com (Bennett E. Todd) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: What is a good inexpensive UNIX system ? Message-ID: <691@cyclone.sbi.com> Date: 6 Jul 92 20:43:48 GMT References: <4909@shum.huji.ac.il> Organization: Salomon Brothers, Inc Lines: 20 In article <4909@shum.huji.ac.il> klein@sunrise.huji.ac.il () writes: >[...] >I am interested in getting the cheapest UNIX system with X Windows >that I can. I figure this means going with a 80486 PC Machine. >[...] I almost agree with your thought above; where I'd differ is that I don't think a 486 is a proper choice for ``cheapest UNIX system with X Windows''. If you go for a 386SX-25 ISA, stuff in 8M (for Linux) or 16M for anything else, get the smartest SVGA supported by your X server, and stuff in an Adaptek 1542B with a good disk, you'll have a balanced system. To keep a 486 from being I/O starved down to the same performance, you'd need EISA boards for SCSI and graphics --- and at that point I think you've abandoned ``cheapest''. But then if you go for one of the commercial SVR4 releases, or Solaris god help you, then you might not get acceptable performance with a low-end system. It seems like there are a hell of a lot of programmers being paid to conjure up a market for faster hardware. -Bennett bet@sbi.com