From: acook@athena.mit.edu (Andrew R Cook) Subject: Re: Will this system do for *good* X Windows? Date: 3 Feb 1993 15:38:37 GMT
In article <1km4v9INN5tk@bnsgd245.bnr.co.uk>, rickt@bnr.co.uk (Rick Tait) writes:
|> I'm just about to go out and buy a new 486 to be used exclusively as a
|> Linux machine (*spit* to MS-DROSS), and I am a bit worried that this
|> setup will not be sufficient for fast and responsive X. Can someone tell
|> me otherwise?
|>
|> Setup:
|> 486DX 33Mhz, 8MB RAM, 211MB HD (IDE)
|> ET4000 Local Bus SVGA Card (1MB)
|> 1024x768 SVGA NI Monitor
|>
|> Will this be sufficient for responsive X, say with four xterms (and a few
|> other clients) running?
|>
|> Another question: How easy is it to hang on dumb terminal off the serial
|> port of my PC and have it accept logins?
|>
|>
|> --
|> Rick Tait, Dept GM21, NMBASE Group, TSE, LON40, EMail: R.Tait@bnr.co.uk
|> Northern Telecom Europe Ltd, Oakleigh Rd South, New Southgate, London, N11 1HB
|> Voice: +44 (0)81 945 3352, Fax: +44 (0)81 945 3116, NT Canada: ricktait@bnr.ca
Yeah, It'll go. I have a similar system, but more memory and HD space. The
extra memory helps, especially if you plan to use gcc, or any other big app
(anything that displays .gifs for example). I have only a couple of comments.
If you can afford it, get more memory, and a 424MB HD (only an extra $200 for
the larger HD; worth it, especially if you plan to have MS windows on the DOS
side :-)). Lastly, find out more about the monitor and video card. The best
thing is to get a multisync monitor that has a big bandwidth (>50MHz). The
TSENG card will easily handle it. This makes life much nicer; but it is still
doable without.
Andy Cook
acook@athena.mit.edu