From: fkilpatr@afit.af.mil (Freeman A. Kilpatrick)
Subject: Re: Is anyone using OS/2 with a 486sx 20/25?
Message-ID: <1992Aug13.004122.11981@afit.af.mil>
Keywords: 486 486sx os2
Sender: news@afit.af.mil
Nntp-Posting-Host: wb1.afit.af.mil
Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology
References: <1992Aug12.214351.11581@wam.umd.edu>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 00:41:22 GMT
Lines: 34
govax@wam.umd.edu (Seigneur Tenebreux) writes:
>I am currently constructing a computer system for personal usage, and being
>a poor college type (almost redundant, repetitiive, I realise :) I am
>leaning towards getting a 486sx motherboard due to low cost in lieu of just
>a fast 386. I am interested in doing computational linguistics work at
>a graduate level in a couple years, but don't forsee a pressing need for
>the FPU at the moment (I can always get an overdrive proc. when the prices
>drop if I want to upgrade that system in the future, but by then, a more
>advanced computer may be another consideration) I am highly interested in
>OS/2 2.0 and have followed its rn groups quite often.
>My question is as the subject line says.. has anyone had experience working
>with OS/2 on a 486sx 20 or 25? What have your experiences been like?
>How is performance with a relatively fast hd and hpfs?
I am running OS/2 on a 486 SX/20 that is being pushed to 33 MHz and have
experienced no problems. (I have also run at 20 and there was no noticeable
difference) As has been mentioned in this group before, the absolute most
important thing is having at least 8 Meg of memory. As long as you don't swap to
the disk, it will be fast enough.
As a side note, you can get 486 SX's pretty cheap at the computer fairs -- it seems
like the dealers are just trying to get rid of them. Mine is actually a 486DX
motherboard stuck with an SX. And I got it for the amazing low price of $280 new!
The lack of FPU doesn't seem to be a problem, all the applications seem to figure
out that it is missing just fine on their own.
Good Luck!
--
Alex Kilpatrick fkilpatr@afit.af.mil
"Where the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1 1/2 tons."