From: root@fusion.cuc.ab.ca (Superuser) Subject: Re: help with system to run unix Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 05:02:42 GMT
ag173@yfn.ysu.edu (Jay Hauben) writes:
>
> A friend is looking to buy a computer system. She has limited
> money (under $1400). She is doing research and writing for a book
> about the net. She wants to use UNIX tools for this but also has
> files now in DOS format. She wants a system that will
> successfully run some form of UNIX with uucp and also run DOS.
> She would also want at some point to get a Usenet news feed via
> uucp using the computer system she is looking to buy now.
>
> She has been quoted a price for a system at the upper limit of
> what she can afford. The system consists of the following
> components. Does anyone see in this system anything that would
> prevent her needs from being met? Might any of the components be
> too weak for what she wants to do? The forms of UNIX she might
> have available are Minix (which appears not to have uucp) and off
> the net Linux. She has a 2400 baud modem now and hopes to upgrade
UUCP is available for Minix, but I'd still recommend Linux over
Minix. Why?
1- You say she doesn't want to spend too much $$- Linux is free-
it costs you 30 floppies and some time. Minix costs $$ from P-H
2- If you choose one of the full distributions of Linux, you get
everything in one more-or-less seamless package (X, TEX, C, etc),
You'd have to go and get these and compile and install them with
Minix. If she doesn't have very much Unix experience, she doesn't
really want to be trying this.
> it and maybe buy a CD-ROM player and controller some time in the
> future when she is in a position to afford them.
>
> The system she has the quote for consists of:
>
> 1) Intel 486DX/33Mhz
> 2) Mid height tower case with 230 watt power supply. (Will this
> give enough power and enough VENTILATION?)
230 Watts is more than adequate unless she plans to put in two or
three more full height hard drives, a martini mixer etc..
> 3) 245 MB hard drive by Seagate or Maxton. (Is either
> preferable?)
Both are about the same, get the spec sheets on both, take the one with
the largest storage capacity (they both say 245 Meg, but one may actually
be 244.9 and the other 245.1, both would be rounded to 245- get the
# heads,cylinders,sectors and calculate it). If the specs say that both
have exactly the same capacity, take the fastest one.
> 4) 128 kB cache (Might she in fact need a 256 kB cache?)
128k is probably fine.. Unix doesn't really benefit a great deal
with only 128k more cache, but DOS will benefit some. Is this bit
of performance worth whatever extra $$ it will cost?
> 5) 4 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB. (Should she insist on SIMM
> chips?)
She should, and she should also consider at least 8 Meg instead
of 4.
> 6) AMI bios and ? motherboard. (Would a Pheonix bios be better?)
If she plans to run Unix exclusively, it doesn't much matter, but
if she plans to run DOS as well, she should consider another brand
of BIOS if available (Even the latest version of AMI has some bugs,
and it has too many setup options for non-techies. AMI is also one
of the slower BIOS' available. Personally, I won't even consider
anything with an AMI BIOS- almost anything else is acceptable, but
I like Phoenix the best- Phoenix has been around the longest, and
you're likely to have fewer troubles with a Phoenix BIOS. Unfortunately,
Phoenix BIOS motherboards may be hard to find, AMI BIOS is cheaper
to license than Phoenix, so most motherboard manufacturers provide
AMI BIOS instead).
> 7) 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" TEAC floppy drives
I assume both are of the high-density variety?
> 8) Pentium Overdrive with Intel (?) chips
Does this mean a Pentium can be put in the motherboard in place of the
486 or what? She probably doesn't need this, and could probably get
a better deal on a motherboard without Pentium support. Pentium support
*may* increase the life of the motherboard (since you can upgrade to
the Pentium if you outgrow the 486), but this depends on if the
Pentium stays a viable processor (there's already *many* processors on
the market that are faster and less expensive than the Pentium, so by
the time you outgrow the 486, the Pentium probably won't be an option
anyways).
> 9) 14" Acer 34T (SVGA NI) monitor.
> 10) 101 keyboard
> 11a) Trident 1 MB SVGA video card with a DC 009 IDE controller
> card
> or
> 11b) Genoa IMD VESA local bus graphics card with a VLB IDE
> controller card (for about $150 more). (Is there a significant
> advantage gained for the extra money even though she doesn't
> anticipate doing much graphics?)
The Genoa VESA *might* be worth it, but VLB IDE definitely isn't. IDE
doesn't do DMA, so VLB doesn't help it at all- you can get a cached
IDE adaptor that does DMA from its cache, but that's not really the
same thing, and you can't get near the performance improvement you can
with real disk-to-memory DMA. In any case, Unix may not like VLB IDE,
so that's not a very good idea anyways. If she can get a SCSI adaptor
and drive instead for about the same $$ extra, then I'd suggest she
go for it.
> 12) 2 serial, 1 parallel and 1 game ports
> 13) DOS and Windows on the hard drive - no disks and no manuals!!
*Bzzt* it's illegal to bundle software in a system without manuals (and
possibly disks, depending on the licensing with the software company- many
new machines now come with the software on hard disk only, and you make your
own "originals" by selecting the appropriate option from a menu and providing
your own disks, but these still come with manuals for the software!).
DOS and Windows *must* come with their respective manuals, otherwise they're
"pirated" copies and illegal.
Don't let unscrupulous computer dealers do this to you- insist on (and make
sure you get) manuals and disks to *all* bundled software. And don't let
them charge you extra for manuals- if software is truly bundled, you get
everything, no strings attached. If they make up some sort of excuse about
this, I'd strongly consider taking my business elsewhere!
Anyways.. The cheapest similarly configured system (bigger hard drive,
more software bundled) I can find around here is $1900 CDN (about $1400 US),
so the price is about right- you should be able to talk it down at least
another $100 or so.
> Is there anything in the above system that might prevent her from
> successfully running UNIX or handling her DOS files? Is there
> anything she should change in order to better insure that her
> system might last for a long time?
A few days ago, I told a computer-salesman friend of mine that I was running
Unix on a 33 MHz 386- you should have seen the look on his face: complete and
utter disbelief! Contrary to popular belief, Unix runs just fine on a 386,
it runs even better on a 486, but it still works fine on just a regular
386 (Hell, I'm still running Unix on an AT&T 3b1 (68010), and it runs fine
as well- the machine is more I/O limited (slow disk drive) than anything
else..). The key to running a Unix box smoothly is memory- the more you
have the better, forget the fancy 24-bit graphics cards and big disk caches
and other useless toys, get as much memory as you can afford, and then start
saving up for more! If you use SIMMs, chances are good that if you ever get
a new system, you can just pull them out of the old machine and pop them
into the new.
> All responses e-mail or by public post appreciated.
c4
--
Christopher Lau- "Mr. Unix" | / Fusion: Playing With Fire!
StarBright Research | / / H + H -> He + 24 MeV
-- | /_/_/_ "Bring back Trudeau!"
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