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Technology Stocks : Microsoft - The Evil empire -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cheeky Kid who wrote (591)	1/22/1998 7:15:00 PM
From: K. M. Strickler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1600

OK - let's look at it: Ultra 5 Workstation, 270MHz UltraSPARC-IIi, 256K cache 128MB ECC DRAM, 4.3GB Hard drive, 10/100 BASE T Ethernet, 24X-speed CD-ROM, 17-inch Monitor A21-UFE139J-128CG $4,395 (List Price) Now for comparison - Gateway ( that is what I have, could just as well be DELL! ) GP6-300 300Mhz Pentium II, 512K cache 64MB SDRAM ( this is 10ns RAM and I think the ECC is 60ns RAM ) 8.4GB Hard Drive 10/100 Ethernet, (+$64), 12/24X CD-ROM 19-inch Monitor (.26 pitch) $2949 (+$64=$3013) = SAVINGS $1382 I see: ( Gateway vs. SUN ) - 100% increase in cache (512K vs. 256K) - 10% increase in CPU speed (300M vs. 270M) - 50% decrease in RAM (could be upgraded) (64M vs. 128M) but the memory is 600% faster - interesting call here. - 98% increase in HD capacity (8.4GB vs. 4.3GB) I suspect that the SUN is SCSI based which increases the cost of the peripherals, and increases the throughput. I suppose that it really amounts to where you want to spend your bucks! I don't know how much number crunching you do as in CAD-CAM or other CPU intensive programming, but with few exceptions I don't need the kind of speed the SUN provides. I would like to see some speed tests, especially if the configurations were the same, ie. both SCSI configurations. In the past, RISC ( Reduced Instruction Set Computers) based systems out performed CISC ( Complex Instruction Set Computers) based systems, but as the speed increases that line becomes fuzzy. Remember a CISC performs complex instructions, where a RISC uses a multi-step routine to perform complex functions. Again kind of a blur! With the advent of the MMX technology, where the CPU is unloaded from much of the video work, CPU throughput will again increase substantially. (MMX was developed because it was discovered that 90% or the CPU time was spent in 10% of the code - and that was mainly the display area.) As for spending your time, you will find that you only have a limited amount of time, like 24 hours per day. You have to make choices daily on how to spend your time (money) and there will always be a place to spend either commodity! Spend it where you feel best, but I will tell you, your computer is a relentless time consummer and won't enjoy travelling or sunsets or dinners out or movies - you get the picture. Let me know what you do. Ken