Need buying advice for 386 and Unix

[Chin Fang]

liu>I also have an AT clone, which is basically used by my wife as a
liu>word-processor.  It only has Hercules graphics and a 44MB harddisk.
liu>Does it make sense to swap in a 386 motherboard?

 
I am afraid the answer is NO! Just a motherboard is not adqueate.  You also
need a large and fast hard disk.  Personally I quite like Cornor's 210Megs
3.5" SCSI(or IDE).  It's quiet, much quiter than the internal hd in my 
SUN sparc 1+, it is inexpensive too. about $750 (SCSI adapter not included)
and I have several times success using it with ESIX Rev. D R3.2 for both
IDE and SCSI types.  
 
As to vedio subsystem, I feel your current one also won't let you take 
advantage of most Unices can offer, especially X. A good combo for code
developement would be a Tseng ET4000 chip based SVGA ($300 or less) and
a NEC 4D.  Total price ~= $1300.
 
386 33Mhz motherboards are quite stable now. So get one that allows you to
install at least 8 megs Simm on the motherboard and 8 Megs more on 32 bit
memory expension card (Make sure the slot is for 32bit!!!!)
 
Total price motherboard + 16 Megs memory(with expension card) 
~= $850 + $37x16 + $95 = $1537

If you like to put on a few more sram cache memory on, get one that allows
you to equip up to 128K. Once you have more than 32K sram cache, you would
have about 8 MIPs on your desk, which is about 3/4th of Sun's Sparc 1's.
Not bad! $300 more you get a 486 isa motherboard, then using the memory
configuration above, your potential system beats my sparc 1+!!!!

Get a new minitower case with a healthy power supply (over 220 W!) $100 or so.
I don't think you need math-coprossor. That saves you $500 for a 33Mhz i387.
A good sized, non-interlaced monitor like NEC 4D is EXTREMElY important to 
your eyes if you like to do program developement.  I confess being spoiled by
workstations' display.  But don't you like to protect your eyes?  Besides,
running X even using 800x600 is not really that helpful for looking at codes.
Sixty some lines would be good for looking at an entire function body assuming
you programm in C(?)
 
Liu>What about the Unix?  Does the new Dell4.0 sound good to you?  The
Liu>accompanying software seems to be everything anyone would ever desire.
Liu>Well, it has X-windows anyway, which is what I'm worried about now.
Liu>(I'm also hooked on emacs and TeX, but I presume they will build on
Liu>just about any hardware I might pick up.)

As mentioned in FAQ, it's up to you to decide.  I can't help you on that.  I 
don't have R4 yet.  I am sure someone else will give you help on this one.
 
Liu>The system will be used for program development, so it can't be too
Liu>non-standard.  Software portability is an issue.
Liu>
Liu>Crocker Liu    cliu at rnd.gba.nyu.edu
 
I don't think you will go too wrong with today's 386 hardware assuming you won't
buy some really untested/unheard el'chippo and then put in lot's networking 
hardware, then most likely you should be fine.  A few lession I learned so far
(1) go with AMI BIOS, the later, the better.
(2) ESDI adapters typically give you less trouble than SCSI. (Cornor's IDE is
    fine in all cases I tried, so you might want to give it a look)
(3) get Toshiba SIMMs.

That's all I can think of now and it's late.  As always, I gave you my opinions,
but you will be the judge.
 
Good Luck
 
Chin Fang
Mechanical Engineering Department
Stanford University
fangchin at portia.stanford.edu
fang at rock.cadcam.rok.com