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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (27498)	1/1/1998 5:03:00 PM
From: StockMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570919

Jimmy,Jimmy, Re -- I also find it most disturbing that Compaq has dropped an Intel based computer to the bottom end. Even though it's Intel, a 166mmx can't compete against a 220Mhz MediaGXm (MMX) Really Jimmy, the 220MHz 486GX is much slower than a 200 MHz pentium. That is where the 699 pc will be when the 220MHz 486GX comes out. BTW, the 699 is not it, the 499 233Mhz is where it will be in about 3 months. Face it the writing is on the wall Jimmy, 486GX RIP. Stockman

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (27498)	1/1/1998 6:46:00 PM
From: James F. Hopkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570919

Jim ; I recently bought a CTX, cheap..but not bad..I'm an old box maker my self so I opened it up, if I didn't like what I saw I planed on taking it back, but Quantam hard drive no less. I could not have bought the parts wholesale and built the box as cheap as it sold retail. Most noticable inside was KOREA, and it looks like they are just being forced to dump inventory. Also Office Max had just opened a new store in our area and used this as a loss leader..would you belive $599..monitor included. The only draw back was the cyrix cpu but even that surprised me. ( works much better than I thought it would ) , I jammed in another 48megs of EDO and the damm thing flys.. Since then I'v done some looking at cpu prices..hell Intel is not AMD's worry ..cyrix is , it's so much cheaper and looks like they got out the old bugs. For years I would not touch cyrix but now with cheap sets in demand cyrix seems to be the way to go. I'v heard all the stories of how one cpu compares with another and I'v even run most of the popular bench mark programs..and I find them more misleading than factual. ( 1 )cpu speed ( bench mark ) has little to do with real time use, Buss speed is the biggest factor IE the PCI cards you have pluged in with out fast PCI buss and card cpu is crippled. (2) Memory ( lots of IT ) get around the hard disk write/read that win95 wants to use..set up at least 10 meg for net scape to use IN MEMORY Cache, so as not to have to use Disk Cache..as Memory Cache is 100 times or more faster. Also use something like vramdir to run the TEMP and or TMP files to memory, instead of disk, run \windows\spool to memory, run \windows\recent to memory..do that and I'll take a a slow cpu speed say 100 , and it will tear the pants off the fastest one made thats saddled with win95 and her win386.swp file, etc , but this takes memory..but at this time memory is really cheaper than high end cpu that does next to nothing any way. (3) Did you know that most 686 and up cpu's hardly ever run over 15% of capasity in real time use..( with a single user ) it's like a waste unless it's a network server processing at least 5 or more tasks at a time. The bottom line is how much can you do with out win95 having to read/write or swap to hard disk.. (4) FAST Vidio card is also more importent to the real time needs of a PC than a high end cpu. How do you know if the vidio card is as fast as you need it ? set the refresh rate as high as win95 will allow. Then set hardware acceleration to max..THEN if your monitor ( which is also a bottle neck to real speed ) fails to be able to handle it with out bluring letters GOOD you have the max speed the monitor can handen, so then cut back on vidio hardware acceleration untill the monitor can paint a clear picture. ( there is a physical limit to the speed of a monitor screen no matter how fast your pc is. ) --------------- In short cpu's advance faster than the rest of the hardware and software and utilize. Good configuration can most often let a slower cpu actully out run the faster one ( in real out put that you can use ). ------------------------------ Any one not running a network is wasting money going past a 686-200, and just kidding themselvs if they don't opt for at least 64meg of memory and a vidio accelerator..of course pci buss is a must. ---------------------------------- Last about modems..rockwell chip is the best hands down. I'v tested most all. 56k is a joke if you don't have damm good phone lines, and a simular 56k on the other end. Even then it depends on if you send out about as much as you receive it's only 56k ( really 53 ) "one way" and they have much more promblems on anything less than a perfect phone line. data.com Most times because of most ISPs , the extra money on a 56k modem over a 33.6 is generally wasted. While some test show the 56x2 as faster than the 56flex..I belive the were run by people partial to the X2..or robotics..and it's just hype. Getting a clean connection is more than having a fast modem, the real speed is just how fast can you download via FTP a large zip file..with compression I run at about 47.. using the clone 33.6 modem ( acer ) with a rockwell chip set. - Last I did replace the CTX modem..with it's PCtel chip..it did not measure up to what I was use to. ------------------------- Cyrix is under pricing AMD really bad, it's shake out time again..I bought AMD stock back in 96 as she fell, and bought] some as cheap as $10.25 I wound up with an average of $12.5 I sold far to soon..but now it's less than I sold for. I wonder if it will go back down to the low teens ? if so I may try it again. However back then cyrix was not the real contender she is now. Jim