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From: crt@tiamat.umd.umich.edu (Rob Shady)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.windows.x.i386unix
Subject: Re: If you were to assemble a new machine...
Date: 13 Jan 1994 10:50:34 -0500
Organization: Univerisity of Michigan - Dearborn
Lines: 73
Message-ID: <crt.758474839@tiamat.umd.umich.edu>
References: <1994Jan12.161313@unccsun.uncc.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cw-u03.umd.umich.edu
jlrobins@unccsun.uncc.edu (James Lee Robinson) writes:
>If all of you experienced unix_on_intel_for_free people were to assemble
>a machine to run either FreeBSD or NetBSD and probably XFree86, what
>kind of machine would you put together. I am a fairly experienced unix
My personal favorite that falls into this price range would be something
similar to the following:
Pentium EISA/VLB Combo Motherboard w/1MB Cache $1500
32MB RAM $ 960
NEC 5FG Monitor $1200
Adaptec 1742 Controller Card $ 250
True IBM 101 Key Keyboard $ 50
Seagate 9GB SCSI Drive $3500
2 Toshiba 3401B CD-Rom Drives $ 720
VGA Ultra Pro VLB w/4MB RAM $ 600
WangDAT 4mm Tape Backup (2GB/4GB) $1000
=====
$9580
Okay, Okay, so it's a little 'High-End', and maybe $4k more than you
want.. Sigh.. Try a 486DX50 motherboard, and maybe a smaller hard drive..
Who knows, one cd-rom drive, no-tape backup, smaller monitor, etc.. ;)
> 1) What hardware not only works, but works well.
Toshiba 3401B CD-Rom Drives are excellent.
NEC ?F? Monitors are excellent.
Adaptec Controller cards are excellent.
IBM Keyboards are excellent.
WangDAT & Exabyte 4MM/8MM backup units are excellent.
> 2) What kind of performance should I hope to expect with
> comparisions to the Sun workstations (IPC / IPX /
> sparc 2, etc.)
I have run NetBSD on a 386/33 w/8MB RAM and gotten a MUCH better
response from that than a SUN IPX w/8MB Ram. Especially on console.
> 3) Is there any preference (performance issues) with respect
> to bus type ? Are there any buses that won't work ?
Microchannel I believe doesn't work yet, but you wouldn't want that anyways.
EISA/VLB seems to be up & coming in NetBSD. PCI may have support in the
near future, but doesn't as of yet (as far as I know).
> 4) Would I be better off assembling a machine by hand, i.e.
> buying motherboard, power supply, case, etc. from
> mail order vendors from out of PC Shopper?
Probably.. Alot of times the mail order vendors throw in cheap equipment
(Mitsumi floppy drives instead of Teac, one piece motherboards (Ie:
Come with IDE, Video, etc all on the motherboard), etc) in order to get
their prices down. At the very least, I feel better because I know
what I have bought and that I have the best possible system for the
funds available.
> 5) What are the common pitfalls / what should I steer away
> from (aside from Diamond video cards and Mitsu...
> CD-Roms)?
Diamond has excellent video cards, it is just their support that sucks.
You CAN get most Diamond cards to work with NetBSD/XFree86, it just takes
a little tinkering. Mitsumi CD-Roms were good drives for the buck, but
stick with a SCSI CD-Rom drive, not something proprietary.
> 6) SCSI or IDE drives? Why? Whats the difference performance /
> comatability wise?
SCSI IDE Drives. You can have up to 7 per card instead of 2/card. They
tend to be faster. They are... Just get them. ;)