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- COMPAQM.WSK is a review of several Compaq 'M' series systems.
- The M series are Compaq's top of the range business machines.
-
- These systems come standard with an EISA bus, Compaq business audio,
- and the superb QVISION video card. The systems have a replaceable
- 'daughterboard' which holds the CPU, cache, and 4MB of memory so
- they make for an interesting comparison of straight CPU power.
-
- CPU Speed: Each system performs optimally in the CPU tests for
- the CPU type involved, however the 50M seems to be faster than
- most 486DX2/50s - possibly because of the daughterboard arrangement.
-
- Video Speed: The 50M has had it's QVISION card replaced by an
- EIZO board. This seems to have done it no harm, although other
- tests indicate that the QVISION card/driver combo is faster.
- The 486s/25M (an SX), the 386/25M, and the 386/33M are using the
- standard Windows 3.1 VGA driver rather than a QVISION driver - this
- will slows them down quite a bit in video speed. The reason for
- this is compatibility with Borland's TDW debugger.
-
- Disk Speed: All systems are running SmartDrive 4.0 with write
- caching on. All the disks are standard. The impact of the faster
- CPU and cache on the various systems is clearly visible.
-
- Memory Speed: These systems have very good memory controllers
- and memory speed is optimal for the system speed. Small variations
- will have to do with the speed of the CPU/Cache. The memory speed
- of the 25Mhz systems (including the 50DX2) is 172-187. The speed
- of the 33Mhz 386 and 486 systems is 216 and 220, again optimal
- for the system speed.
-
- Overall: All of these systems are very good Windows platforms.
- The 386/25 is a bit slow compared with the others and it's
- rather sluggish disk is a let down.
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- Reviewed by: Chris Hewitt
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