On Thu, 22 Apr 1993 00:22:31 GMT Ross Mitchell (rmitch@irus.rri.uwo.ca) wrote:  | I want to use this (proposed) beast for basically four things:    |      -	Editing documents using WordPerfect 5.1 (under dos)  |      -	Creating graphs/analyzing data using Sigmaplot V5.0 (under dos)  |      -	Editing/playing with images using Aldus PhotoStyler, running under  | 	Windows 3.1 - these images can be large, say 2k x 2k, 24bits/pixel  |      -	Using the PC as an Xterminal, running DesqView/X 1.1 and Sun PC-NFS,  | 	talking to our network of Sparcstation's - this is where a lot of | 	the images/data come from, and is the most demanding of these tasks.  | I've read, read, read PC magazines, performed benchmarks, read this newsgroup, | and decided that a "nice" system (price/performance) would be:  | 	486DX-50 256k cache, ISA, VLB, 16meg ram | 	ATI Graphics Ultra Pro, 2 meg ram, local bus | 	15" monitor, 1280x1024 NI | 	3Com Etherlink III 16bit | 	Maxtor 240MB IDE hard drive  | However, the parts don't fit!  Our local retailer apparently put one of these | together, only to discover that the ATI card wouldn't run at 50MHz - surprise | surprise.  Actually, after reading this group, I'm surprised that they even | have a 50MHz local bus running...  | I have a choice now between basically the above system but with a | 486DX2-66 with ISA and VLB,  or,   a 486DX-50 with EISA and no VLB (and thus | the non-local bus version of the ATI card).  Which is better, keeping in mind | that I'm primarily interested in the last two tasks?    Having in mind the size of the images, my opinion is to go with VLB. It has _much_ more bandwith that EISA, which in fact can be utilized by the craphics card. (I have not made measures, so someone else may share experience on that.)  Also, the DX2/66 is faster in the operations, that run off internal cache, slightly slower off the external and about the same off memory. So my advice is the 66/VLB.  | We're quite happy with the ATI card - very fast, ONCE the data gets to it!! | ~Slow~ repainting images under PhotoStyler that have moved off screen, or | been uncovered!    | There doesn't seem to be enough raw cpu when running DesqView/X!  Its sluggish | running the local window manager.  Also, many functions under PhotoStyler take | a long time (even when the images fit entirely in ram).  | There's not enough memory in the system - DesqView/X and a 1 meg SmartDrive | don't leave much room for other apps.  Photostyler will page to disk with | medium size images.  Have You tried running Photostyler without the cache? No need to have paging and cache both. (Well, you might argue, that the paging is cached). My belief (no measurements) is that apps left with more memory will manage it better than smartdrv.exe(sys).  | I have performed a number of benchmarks on the ethernet transfer rates.  This | machine sustains only 120k/sec over ethernet while our Sparcs sustain 600k/sec  | on the same network.  Going to the 16 bit version of the SMC card increases | transfer rates to 160k/sec - still very slow (especially when moving large  | images).  Is there such a thing as a local-bus ethernet card coming??  Will it | make a difference?  I'm hoping so, and leaning towards the 486DX2-66 choice  | (above), for that reason.  The bandwidth (theoretical) of ISA is over 5MB/s, which is far from 0.15MB/s. I tried my ISA IDE hard drive (Maxtor 213MB) and got the same results - 0.65MB/s - regardless of the ISA bus speed (5.5-8.25MHz). So I guess, that just the card/drivers combination is lousy.  | Also, are there DX2-100's on the horizon?  What about DX3-99's?  DX3-150's ???!  The rumors are that DX3-99 (if any) is the most likely chip to come out. But note, that IBM is closest to the technology an it will only sell whole motherboards, so you'll have to upgrade the MB.  | Any information is greatly appreciated.  Just some view, not much figures.  -- Penio Penev  x7423 (212)327-7423 (w) Internet: penev@venezia.rockefeller.edu