Re: what's the best chip for RH?

[z mcdermott <xydor holyrood ed ac uk>]

> > that'll do you just fine.. forget pentiumII)
> >
> > -z
> 
>   Well to respond, you do have a point although I do think we are
> missing each others points. I do agree on the dual and quad petium pro
> factors, but I do have to say I DO NOT agree with what you had to say
> about the K6....Sorry! Yes you are right about some of the factors
> involved in the architecture but by no means completely correct. You
> see, the question of instruction sets comes in, which is a completely
> independent factor. Linux (as far as I know) does not use some or even
> many instructions available (correct me if I am wromg on this one.) 
Well, I am always a bit defensive about Nexgen..(like a three legged dog..
but you still gotta love it)I had 2 of those boards
(a 100 sans fpu and a pf110) and those were fine for linux.  They used 386
instructions (they'd ID as a 386 running at 500 mhz or something crazy in
dos/windows which caused a lot of problems but was fine for linux).  There
were even some Nexgen patches floating around that optimised linux
performance for these machines.  In fact, after a while Linux was the ONLY
OS reccommended for use with the Nexgen (nt4 and pentium optimised crap
would usually bomb out).  You're right tho.. i doubt linux is using the
MMX instructions that INtel hath forced on us all

So based on the fact that AMD are using Nexgen's tech, I had hoped that
the k6 was going to be a seriously cool linux performer.. 

>On
> the other hand, who knows. As you are, I am also waiting for results to
> come in. I am ready to switch on my linux system IF results say that it
> is better for it. As far as NT goes (and you are right I do ramble on
> about NT) there is quite a bit of evidence about Pentium II being
> better.
it may be better by 10-20% here and there.. I mean.. sort of depends on
your situation.. if you're going to buy a new system off the shelf maybe
this is a good choice.. but if, like me, you have a good motherboard and
system components but a sort of measly processor (i have a k5100 .. which
is OK but no screemer --still runs linux pretty damn fast--) a K6 seems to
look pretty attractive, especially when the 166 looks pretty easy to
overclock to 200 :).

> As far as for Linux it is hard to say and for the most part I am
> leaning against NO it may not make much difference, and you were right
> Dual & quad pentium pro (even 256k) will do just fine. Hope this helps
> to clear it up a little.... Hope to hear from you soon (I think we are
> saying the same thing in different words, but I could be wrong!) :)
> 
> 

no sweat hombre.  I do hear people saying they have install probs with
k6..  so it may be a dog.. at least for now

-z