Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.iastate.edu!du248-06.cc.iastate.edu!goldberg
From: goldberg@iastate.edu (Adam Goldberg)
Subject: Re: Chipset preference: C&T or OPTI ??? Differences? (Summary)
Message-ID: <goldberg.677699508@du248-06.cc.iastate.edu>
Originator: goldberg@du248-06.cc.iastate.edu
Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
References: <goldberg.677196950@du248-06.cc.iastate.edu>
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1991 17:51:48 GMT
Lines: 115

In <goldberg.677196950@du248-06.cc.iastate.edu> I wrote:

>I have the opportunity to buy:

>25MHz 386 Motherboard, OPTI chipset, AMI BIOS, 64k cache, up to 32M 
>on board for $230

>or

>25MHz 386 Motherboard, C&T chipset, AMI BIOS, 64k cache for $250.

>I've heard that the OPTI chipset won't work with UNIX, and has problems with
>Windows in 386 enhanced mode.  True? False?

>The C&T motherboard is not the super-nifty chipset, it's lower down the line,
>and requires additional chips (PALs or whatever).

>Both boards claim to support BIOS Shadowing.

>What's the truth? Anyone know? Will the OPTI Chipset run UNIX/windows?
>How much disadvantage is there to not having the super-spiffy C&T
>chipset?

>I'd like to purchase one of these boards, but I sure would like to know
>what I'm getting myself into...

I received informative responses from the following net.folks:

From: ilan343@violet.berkeley.edu (Geraldo Veiga)
From: bjorn@valhalla.esd.sgi.com (Bjorn Kristian Lindstrom)
From: Michael Squires <mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
From: akk@cs.tut.fi (Kautonen Ari)

Their responses follow.  The consensus seems to be:

  o - Everyone who tries seems to be able to get OPTI-based motherboards
      to work properly under whichever version of *NIX they're trying,
      and Windows 3.0.  Occasionally some tweaking of BIOS and/or device
      driver switches & options is necessary (though I suspect this is
      true for most any configuration)

  o - From a trivia point of view, OPTI was formed by (apparently disgruntled)
      former C&T employees.

  o - The OPTI 'neat' chipset uses (I think) 3 chips + CPU, whereas the C&T
      NEAT chipset uses (I think) 5 chips + CPU.  No one was able to give me
      any information about the older C&T chipset (the non-NEAT one).

Even though there seems to be no problem with the OPTI chipset, no one was
able to tell me definiately that the OPTI chipset will work under the 
configuation I want, and another almost equally cheap deal turned up for
a motherboard with the C&T NEAT chipset ($20 more), I went with that.

--- responses to my post follow ---

From: ilan343@violet.berkeley.edu (Geraldo Veiga)

I am running ISC UNIX 2.2  on a 486 motherboard using the OPTI
chip set with the MR BIOS, never had any problems with it.  Recently,
I installed Windows 3.0 in my DOS partition.
It is running in the 386 mode after I turned on the "protected
mode fix" built into the MR BIOS.

In the MR BIOS, there is menu called "First-Aid", where if say "Yes" to
"Protected Mode Problems" it implements a "Faster A20 access".   I
don't claim to understand what it means!!!  I think it is a feature of
the OPTI chipset.  Compared to other PC's I used, it looks like the
OPTI set offers quite a few options -- selecting cacheable range,
shadow memory, device addresses etc.

From: bjorn@valhalla.esd.sgi.com (Bjorn Kristian Lindstrom)

I am using an OPTI 486-25, and am very happy with it.  While I don't know 
about unix, I do use Windows 386 enh. mode almost every day, with no problems.
I am running 8 megs of ram (all on the motherboard).  The only inconvenience
was that I wasn't able to use my 10 meg ram card with it.  Fortunately, RAM is
a commodity that doesn't depreciate much, so I didn't lose a lot switching to
SIMMS.

One thing about windows, is that I had to specify the HIMEM.SYS with /M:2
(or something like that), so that it would handle the A20 line properly
(the Acer computers are like this).  I am running with the bios shadowed, with
DOS 5.0, and everything loaded into upper memory, giving me 610+ k conventional.

No problems at all.

OPTI was founded by ex-C&T employees, and as I understand it, their chip-sets
are almost identical to C&T's.  (Can you say "conflict of interest?"  I KNEW
you could!)

If you ever plan on getting a math co-processor, I would recommend the 486.
It's not that much more, but it's more powerful.

From: Michael Squires <mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>

I have no experience with the 386 OPTI chipset but my 486/25 with the AMI
BIOS and the OPTI chipset runs fine.  The BSD 386 distribution runs on
only OPTI chipset 486's, I understand.

From: akk@cs.tut.fi (Kautonen Ari)

Hi,

I'm using 386 33/40 MHz motherboard with OPTI chipset and 64k cache
memory and have not had any problems with ISC UNIX and Windows 3.0
enhanced mode. They both work just fine. Please summarize the answers
to me.

Ari Kautonen (akk&cs.tut.fi)

-- 
 Adam Goldberg             ! "It's simple! Even a PASCAL programmer could do 
 goldberg@iastate.edu      !   it!"                                          
 tabu6@isuvax.BITNET       ! "Remember: the sooner you fall behind, the      
 #include <disclaimer>     !   more time you have to catch up!"    
