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Why and When to Upgrade Hardware: Logistics

CONTENTS

[1] Processor Upgrades beyond the 486: Heart and Soul
[2] The "4x Speedup Rule" and how to Use it
[3] My Upgrade case History: a example of the 4x speedup Rule
[4] Marketing's Upgrade con game: a bad example of 4x speed up rule
[5] What to look for in a Mothererboard...in a nutshell
[6] Excuses for Upgrading: My poor brother

1 Processor Upgrades beyond the 486: Heart and Soul

As you might guess, I love my DX-4 486 based system but the Pentium upgrade has been beckoning of late. I truly believe that techno-geebs like myself live in wonderful times:

• Internet
• Unix/Linux on a PC
• X11...
• memory @ $5 per megabyte(did I remember to say cheap!)

...and compute horsepower to run it all. I have some guidelines for upgrading that I think can be used by non "techno-geeb" types that I would like to pass on. I hope it enables you to make effective tradeoffs with the salesperson when purchasing your next "compute toy".
I have always had "accelerated ATI graphics video" cards in my computers as a result of my day job. 2-D Accelerated video cards running graphical user interfaces (GUI) such as Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 are pretty much the norm these days and should be a primary focus for any new system purchase or upgrade. They have reach that sub $100 dollar price point and can be had for as little as $50. I repeat ...do not buy a non accelerated VGA or SVGA card...it will slow down your system to a crawl even if you buy a P200 (akin to putting skinny bias-ply tires on a Ferrari) . The latest crop of recent video cards have added features such as Video scaling and 3-D extensions that are not absolutely essential. Direct-X/Direct 3-D and software developers are steadily and systematically changing this. For today, you should not lose any sleep over it. But what if they bundle improved 2-D performance at the same time ?....then spending the extra $$$ becomes more of a tradeoff similar to choosing which processor. We all like to have wine at beer prices. How do we decide ?...read on fearless reader...

2 The "4x Speedup Rule" and how to use:

Each succeeding generation of Memory traditionally brings about 4x improvement in capacity. CPU generations (ie. 286, 386, 486, 586 and 686) seem to bring about 2.5x improvement between generations. Hence an upgrade from a 286 to a 586 should bring about more that a 10x increase in compute power to those who can wait that long between upgrades. Early access to CPUs seem to come with a premium and a price on the order of $500 (P200 today). My aim is to buy one or two marketing generations behind to get a good price on some well built clone CPU, but not so far back that I take a 4x hit in the state of the art. At the same, I expect to gain at least a 4x increase in performance. This means that if I had a 386 system, my jump would be to a 586 system. But what are marketing generations...you say? .....things invented to feed the insatiable appetites of hardware reviewers. C'mon guys stop whining so much...hardware is great these days.

With such great performing and affordable hardware, it should be getting harder for people to find software in need of more powerful hardware. Whatever your current status is, you must identify applications that will enable you to gauge the 4x factor. These are "your killer apps" that you run day to day and cannot live without. Depending on if they put a smile on your face :) or a frown :( should determine whether you should or should not upgrade. Somebody said that if the length of time you "tap your fingers" while waiting for an application to run through is related to your need for upgrading hardware. Hmmm...I wonder what my wife would say to such logic. Some adaptive types have coped with "long finger tapping" excursions into making a coffee, doing the laundry, or watching a period of hockey, eh?

For me Linux kernel compiles take 20 minutes on a 486 DOOM exercises the disk access and video card, xeuler (Matlab clone) runs some tough apps in about 30 seconds that heats up the FPU just fine, and last what evaluation would be complete without a flight simulator: I run fly8 which owes it heritage to Amiga...it shows. I don't find the 486 to be wanting in many ways and I really think it is all the computer that most people need. The computer industry moves at a frenetic pace and these things will soon be on the extinct list due to forces beyong their control. ( I have been warned that Quake might make me reconsider the above position). Other applications that require pure compute power (that I do not use) are Page Layout programs dealing with high resolution work with using 24 bpp. Running Winstone 95 or any other benchmarking program for the sake of deciding whether your hardware is adequate is ludicrous. If all you ever do is word processing then get a used XT and run a simple word processing program. It does not matter what Intel/Microsoft marketing departments are "hyping" at the moment, the question is can they make your "coffee apps" turn into "finger tapping " apps. Do you ever wonder why the big apps are getting bigger and bigger .... hint:Don't talk to joint hardware/software marketing teams if you want straight answer.

3 My Upgrade Case History

• i) Intel 8088 to 25 MHz Intel 486SX (Jul 94)
  My last major upgrade took me from an XT to a 486 board originally running a 25 MHz 486 SX. This 486 board was made by DataExpert using an ALI(Acer) chipset supporting VESA local bus. Board capable of supporting up to DX2-66 MHz.
• ii) (Dec 94)
  Motherboard upgrade to no-name board supporting both PCI and VESA local buses running OPTI chipset. 72 pin SIMMs supported as well as older 30 pin SIMMs. AMD DX-4 not supported. Required upgrade for me to beta test new video cards using PCI. Retired OPTI-VESA mainboard board recycled to uncle wishing to upgrade from his 386SX system.
• ii) Intel 25 MHz 486SX to 100 MHz AMD DX-4/SB-16 and CD-ROM (June 95)
  Widespread migration to Pentium by consumers due to effective marketing of Pentium systems enables high end 486 CPUs to be had for $65. The performance is about equal to the original Pentium running at 60 MHz. 4x improvement in CPU internal clock speed compared to SX-486. Sounds/voices/music and DOOM make Sound Blaster card a terrific upgrade.
• iii)32 bit Linux operating system/Internet/12MB memory (Dec 95)
  Everything a operating system should be...stable...fast...and flexible.... well maybe a little too flexible. My only problem is that the OPTI board will not run Linux...the hardware is not generic enough. Purchase Atrend 1425A and donate OPTI-based 486 to my Windows based little brother.
  Emulator runs my old Apple II games perfectly. Linux provides for a fast PPP/Internet/Netscape "surfing". Linux really shows off the hardware and the true power of a 486...it flies under Linux.
• iii) AMD PR75/"San Li" SL586VP (Dec 96)
  This "SL 586VP" mainboard" was first purchased by my little brother in November 96 primarily because I could not give him a reason not to purchase it except that it was not made by A-trend, ASUS, Gigabyte, DTK (Gemlight) or Amptron (The above boards had all passed the stringent Linux boot-up test with "Linux" and have made it to my short list of PC-compliant hardware). He found this nice looking board on his own with what looked like the only Cyrix PR200+ capable (big) heat sink. The manual for the board claimed it supported both 75 Mhz and 83 Mhz bus speeds. Prior to his purchase, I was asked by him "surf and confirm" how reputable this yet unheard of "no name" was (remember, I am running a 486 board with fake L2 cache Ram). My little investigation found this board being distributed by the following companies:
  
1. Photronic ...non working link (Oct 25/97)
2. DataWorld ...non working link (Oct 25/97)
3. Famous Magic-Pro MP-586ITX
4. FKI Voyageur
   
• Acer AP5T motherboard: My San Li board died an undignified death at my hands as I try to track down some intermittent board problems caused by 100's of ISA/PCI board insertions and removals. ISA was particularly bad due to an ill mating ISA slot/SB ISA card combination which put tremendous stess on the board during removals. This board has allowed me to overclock a IBM 166MX to a 200MX level by running it at 2x75 vs 2x66. The switching power supplies barely get hot and allow this system to run stably.

The "San Li" home page has changed its internet address recently and has updated its stable of boards to include the new "TX" chipset from Intel. Today is October 1997 and I have just managed to figure out its new address. The SL586V-plus board is now at revision 1.2 with updates to handle the higher power dissipation of the M2 and K6 chips via switching regulators. One of the distributors has an updated spec of this board while the new "San-Li" site is under construction.

Other than looking at a few web pages illegitimate fathers of the SL 586VP (Photronic and Dataworld), the Testing/Evaluation of the SL-586VP board had to wait until after the purchase of the board by my brother...now that's what I call faith.

4 Marketing's Upgrade Con Game: When not to Upgrade

The reason I (and you should) upgrade to a Pentium machine today is that prices are really about as low as they are going to go before these memory/cpu/motherboard bargains start dis-appearing, like 4x CD-DROM drives, and you'll find out that what is left are big ATX (Yecch!) boards that do not fit your Baby AT case anymore. Thank you marketing departments.

For some reason, when CPU prices hit $100, I start to think upgrade. There are some people who prefer to wait...cuz they will be more powerful and cheaper next year. The real question is can you use that power today and is it cost effective enough now. For a sub $100 processor today, the PR75 by AMD is a few mini-generations (steppings) back from the P200: Starting with the P60, we have P75, P90, P100, P120, P133, P150, P166 and P200: What I will term as six marketing generations over two years to form one CPU generation (see my 2.5x definition above). There was a time in my lifetime a few scant years ago when you could always find bigger apps to run and envy the power of the mini-computers The grass was always greener on the "Workstation" side. Todays PC looks a lot like the Workstation of yore. Computer magazine hardware reviewers took to the task of creating a environment where the best performing computer was the fastest. It didn't matter that the "Editor's Choice" was a mere 1% faster than the rest of the field. It was lauded and got great reviews and great sales. So here we have "marketing generations" of CPUs that a a product of that culture. Grant it, 10%-20% is a more typical improvement factor....but it ain't going to stop you from having that coffee.

Computer hardware has come a loooooong way.... I hate to tell you what 4 MB of Workstation memory cost in 1990 but it might make those who I still hear whining quiet down a bit. Marketing generations were invented to cater to those whose job is to whine and to those people who grew up on 8088...like me. They have such done a good job of it that today we can buy an entry level computer with 512K of L2 cache and 2GB of storage. I'm glad that I woke up and smelled the roses. Anyways...where was I....Oh yes, AMD PR75 power...

I ran some benchmarks on the AMD PR75 and compared it to the P166 and got roughly one-half the performance...not too shabby when you look at the 5:1 price differential. The P200 is reported to be about %10 faster with a 10:1 price differential. The interesting point is that I ran the P166 in good light by quasi "overclocking" it with a bus speed of 83 Mhz and a 2x multiplier instead of 66 Mhz and 2.5 multiplier. It probably looked more like a P200 in this configuration.

So stop squawking about a P75 vs P90 vs a P100, the differences are there but they are nothing to lose sleep over...repeat slowly "4x and no turning back...anything less and be happy with what you got".

5 Shopping for a Motherboard Manufacturer...in a nutshell

In my own case the decision to buy was swayed by a few other factors going beyond speed and came down to the number of incredible standard features that the "SL 586VP" motherboard came with over and above what other Intel VX boards came with (Lets not squabble about VX and HX..10% difference do save me from having to go make a coffee). They are as follows:

• Existence of Main Board Web Home page:
• Hardware nowadays has a heavy software element in the BIOS. Future upgrades of the "flash" BIOS provides for manufacturers to react to problems with there boards in the field due to interactions with different hardware.
• Better than free "800" dial up support where you wait in a phone queue. Internet has enabled people to help themselves.
• Lose your MoBo manual. Relax help is just an e-mail or faq away.
• Cheap memory prices...my brother bought EDO-RAM for $37 per 8MB module on Boxing Day.
• Large on- board 512K L2 Pipeline cache is of advantage to multi-threaded multi-tasking operating systems such as Linux. DOS/Windows need only about 256K before diminishing return law kicks in.
• Short term upgrades capable of supporting up of all P75 to P200 made by Cyrix, AMD and Intel
• Long term upgrades with support of "dual-voltage" [different voltages for I/O (3.3V) and core (2.8V)] of P55C(Intel), M2(Cyrix MMX+PPro speed ) and K6(AMD MMX+PPro speed). It might be a while until these things get down to under $100. But that is probably when I feel itchy again and the new apps supporting MMX will actually exist. The major advantage of Linux is that like NT, most (all?) of the code has been optimized for 32-bit architecture. These new chips will be tweaked for this due to "NT" and Linux will then be "launched into outer space".
• Killer Prices as of Nov 96: $60 for AMD CPU and $170 for MoBo prices (average price for boards made by ASUS, DTK, Amptron and A-trend, and San Li).

6 An Excuse to Upgrade :)

Last, the major push for me to upgrade is, like for many of you out there, are family members who just want to do some word processing and run some CD-ROM titles for their kids. My big brother needed a computer capable of running Windows...so my minimum needs where to buy replacement "Linux" hardware for myself. I suggested that if he went out and purchased Windows 3.1 that I would donate my hardware to him. Looking back, I would have been glad to purchase the exact same 486 system (no fake L2 cache RAM, though) for myself , as I previously had ;) as running "Linux" has beat any hardware upgrade that I have ever made. The transition from from Windows to Linux X11 must have bee similar to what people experienced when they went from DOS to Windows 3.1 with an accelerated video card. The problem nowadays is that 486 system boards are getting harder to find and when you do find them they are not priced that much better than a VX based system running a PR75.



Ray Chau, author of this column, is a analog hardware designer working at ATI. The opinions expressed here are purely my own and not those of my employer ATI Technologies Inc,

...as of April 98
Email: rchau@angelfire.com| HOME