[H-GEN] New Machine

[Paul Gearon]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

Murray Spork wrote:
> I had been reading that the Athlons are significantly faster than the
> Pentiums -- you guys seem to be suggesting otherwise? I thought Pentium III's
> were very overpriced when compared to the bang/buck you can get from a Celeron
> or the Athlon?

They seem to be faster, yes.  I think Frank has a good point about the
CPU not being a bottleneck, but it can be.  If you do a lot of compiling
etc, then a fast CPU is very nice.

A couple of months ago I was surprised to see the PIII price list:
500MHZ	$460
550MHz	$1040
600MHz	$1270

(Athlons were too new to get at a reasonable price.)

Now from the above price, who wouldn't go for an dual 500MHz system? 
I'm sure the Celeries were cheaper again, but I wanted the PIII.

The m/b I got was a Gigabyte.  It has dual U2 scsi channels (Adaptec) as
well as dual slot 1s.  At $730 it only cost a little more than a dual U2
scsi card, so I thought it was a good deal.  If you don't need scsi I'm
sure that the prices are accordingly cheaper.

> From: Frank Brand...
> > BTW (esspecially Murray)...I see Altech at South Brisbane have Gigabyte Athlon
> > boards at $270
> 
> I've heard of problems with the Gigabyte. Mind you -- people have had problems
> with the Asus as well.

My experiences (with the m/b) have been very good.  (smp kernels are
another matter).  I don't know what they're like with the Athlon, but
they are certainly OK with Intel.  Tom's Hardware liked them too.  They
only scored down because they still use jumpers for a couple of
settings.  I don't change that sort of thing normally, so I don't care.

I'd probably have waited a couple of months for the Athlon, only because
AMD are supposed to start using a smaller die for the chips this month. 
They are expecting greater output and faster closkspeeds as a result. 
This is _supposed_ to bring the prices down in about Feb next year...
but you never know.  Then again, you could just do what I did and ignore
the hype and buy whatever is available now.

Regards,
Paul

Paul Gearon
gearon at computer.org

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum
immane
mittam.
(Translation from latin: "I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I
will
fling an enormous rock at your head.")

--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.