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From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Mylex vs. Micronics vs. AMI 386 motherboards
Summary: Not as much as it used to be
Keywords: which one?
Message-ID: <477@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 25 Sep 89 13:52:13 GMT
References: <1235@mitisft.Convergent.COM>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center
Lines: 34

In article <1235@mitisft.Convergent.COM>, burton@mitisft.Convergent.COM (Philip Burton) writes:
|  In getting a no-name 386 system, it seems that the motherboard choice is very
|  critical.  Several months ago, PC Magazine reviewed about 110 386 systems.   
|  
|  Among the manufacturers who used a "name brand" third party motherbaord, it
|  seemed that most used AMI.  A few used Micronics, and almost no one used
|  Mylex.  

  I think you will find that the choice of MB is not nearly as critical
as it was at the time the 386 clones first became available. Any of the
three brands you mention seem to run UNIX/Xenix just fine (hardware
compatibility) and the Award, AMI, and Pheonix BIOS sets seem to allow
good DOS functionality.

  I have heard a lot of bad things about other boards, but because they
are often sold under several names and with various BIOS chips, I don't
want to say "this is a bad one."

  If you look at the cost of boards in the back of _PC Week_ or
_Computer Shopper_ you will see that AMI sells for a higher price. I
don't know if this is because they cost more in qualtity or not (I got
quotes on Q11 and they did) or if people are willing to pay more for
them.

  If money was no object I would buy AMI (personal opinion, I have had
one since Dec 86). Either of the other will probably be perfectly fine.
Unless you're doing an upgrade of an existing machine, you might be able
to get a complete machine for within $100 of the same base price, and
add options as needed.
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon