🚀 go-pugleaf

Organization: College of Veterinary Medicine WSU
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Hello, there. I am close to buying a CyberMax computer which seems having
a lot of good stuff and relatively cheap too. The highlights of the system:
(http://www.cybmax.com)

Pentium 133MHz (150MHz with $49 more)
Triton Chipset, PnP BIOS(brand unknown yet)
32 MB EDO RAM, 256K Pipeline Burst Mode Cache
2.0 Gigabye EIDE Hard Drive(Seagate ST32140)
STB PowerGraph 64 PCI Video w/2MB EDO RAM
Aztech 6X CD-ROM
Ensoniq Soundscape 16 bit 32 Wavetable Sound Board
Altec Lansing ACS31 Speakers w/subwoofer
17' MAG DX1795 Color Monitor(0.26 DPI, 1280x1024@60Hz, 1024x768@75Hz)
V.34 28.8 Kbps Data/Fax Modem(Manufacture: Askey, Chipset: Rockwell)
Price: $3499, Any better deal than this?

I am gonna run Linux on it. So my concern is the hardware compatability. Does
anybody have Linux experience with CyberMax computers? 

I check all the HOWTO's and it says XFree86 supports STB PowerGraph 64 and 
Ensoniq. It supports all the video boards with S3 Trio64, but the PowerGraph 
is actually using S3 Trio64V+. However, I should not worry about this, 
should I?

The thing is that I really would like to upgrade the video memory to 4MB so
that it could support 1280x1024 with true color depth(16.7M) at a non-flicker
refresh rate of 75Hz. Because of this, I also need to upgrade the monitor to 
a MAG MXP17F. But the PowerGraph 64 does not have a 4MB vision, the rep said 
I could put $238 more for an ATI Graphics Pro Turbo with 4MB VRAM. Then the 
Linux HOWTO says it supports ATI match64 which is the borad's controller 
depending on RAMDAC. I don't know what RAMDAC is, and would like to hear from 
anyone who had Linux experience with ATI Graphics Pro Turbo w/4MB. Another 
option is to buy a STB Velocity 64V w/4MB which Linux supports(am I right?). 
Which one is faster or better for XFree86? Can they really support 1280x1024 
with 16M colors @ 75Hz? Is the graphics very good? 

Are the MAG monitors very nice? It seems that CTX is cheaper, so is there
any difference between them?

I think the hard driver should be OK, and I don't care very much about the 
CD-ROM and the sound card, but I would like to hear from you too about the
experience with them.

Another is the modem. I will run PPP or SLIP a lot on it. I never heard of
Askey Modem, does anyone have experience with it? I mean, comparing to the 
famous brands like US Robotics, is its performance OK, or tolerable? I have
more questions about modems. I am dreaming of having a modem that could be
run and at the same time the voice signal could be exchanged, i.e., I am
using the modem, and someone can still call me without busy tone. I thought
the USR DSVD (digital simultaneous voice and data) could do this, but after
carefully reading the description on some WEB site, it seems to me that it
can only talk to a second DSVD with data and voice at the same time, right?
Is there this kind of modems on the market? Or there is some software 
approach to this feature? I really would like to have this so that I don't
need an extra phone line.

Finally, I was told that the one of the major differences between the 
Intel-based computers and workstations is the BUS speed. I may not be right.
The 486 can only support 33MHz Bus, and Pentium 100 and up can support
60(or 66)MHz. Does Triton chipset support 60MHz Bus? What is the maxium Bus
speed it can support?

Any suggestions or comments will be very helpful and be highly appreciated.

Again, thanks a lot in advance for any help.

--
bsun@vetmed.wsu.edu