Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!eutrc3!euteal!blitter From: blitter@ele.tue.nl (Blitter_stagairs_Frans) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: 386 vs. 386SX ???? Message-ID: <115@euteal.ele.tue.nl> Date: 2 Oct 89 10:27:29 GMT References: <89268.165003MHS108@PSUVM.BITNET> <1640021@hpspcoi.HP.COM> Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands Lines: 17 In article <1640021@hpspcoi.HP.COM> dlow@hpspcoi.HP.COM (Danny Low) writes: >The 386SX is basically an attempt to redo the 286 correctly. The >SX makes sense only for people on a very tight budget or who have >a 286 and want to do a cheap upgrade as there are SX upgrade kits >for many 286 machines. IOW, get the real 386. No, no, no, the 386sx is no redo of the 286. The 386 sx is a complete 80386 with only a 16 bits databus. The 'real' 386 (80386DX) already has a bin called BS16 with which you can indicate a 16 bit transfer on the bus. I think they grounded this input permanently on the 386SX. In Germany (just over the border) 386SX bords are about 1100 DM ($550) and 386DX bords (20 MHz) are about 2200 DM. This price difference isn't very much on a complete system but if you are just doing a motherboard swap in your AT it is a considerable amount. Performance difference is about a factor 2. Paul Derks