From: davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen) Subject: Re: Best 'thing' to upgrade? Date: 8 Sep 1992 19:06:49 GMT
In article <1992Sep7.133714.21760@cs.hw.ac.uk>, scottd@cs.hw.ac.uk (Scott Dunn) writes:
| I have a 25MHz 386DX, 5 megs, 120MB HD, and am looking to upgrade my system.
| The options are :
| 33MHz 486DX motherboard
| more RAM
| bigger HD
| 387
| or a combo of some of the above.
|
| Budget of about 400 pounds, which will get me a cheap 486 motherboard.
| 1MB cost about 25 pounds, I can go up to 8MB (motherboard limitation) this way.
| A 387 about 130 pounds
| I think my HD is big enough for the moment.
|
| So, I guess the question is, would I be better getting 8 megs and a 387, or sticking with 5 megs and getting a 486?
I think you have the wrong question. The real question is "what will
run better with each of these improvements?" right? Here's my guess
having done each at one time or another.
CPU - a 486 will be all around faster, and assuming you get a real 486
the FPU will help X. You will then really run into memory size hurting
performance.
Memory - will ease swapping and make the general operation of the
system faster. Unless Linus changes the way i/o is done it should make
i/o faster, too, due to more buffers.
HD - will help you keep more stuff online. Buy it *only* if (a) you
are seriously short of HD now, and (b) if you can back it up to
something practical. You are correct on having enough, I believe.
FPU - will help X a bit. A must for SX users, but not as huge a
difference for a moderately quick DX.
If you were in the states I would say buy a 386DX40 board with cache
and 387 (about $300). That would give you about double the performance
very cheaply. It will not come near a 486-33, but it's quite cost
effective, and you could add 3MB memory and still have half the fund
left for future needs.
--
bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
I admit that when I was in school I wrote COBOL. But I didn't compile.