At 05:13 PM 7/6/1998 Rev. Wendell Ramlogan wrote:
>
>     I'm thinking about upgrading and need an opinion on an INTEL
>PENTIUM II 233MHz, CYRIX or AMD  processor. I want to run NT
>and windows 98, what should I look for?


Rev. Ramlogan:

Without giving more information, such as your
present CPU and your motherboard make and
model, your intended uses and software, and
your budget, you aren't going to get very specific
advice.

In such a vacuum, I would recommend you get an
Intel Pentium II-300 and a BX chipset motherboard
after the price drops at end of July. A P-II 300 CPU
should run $210. The selection of motherboards is
tricker (perhaps $160 for a good one); also, securing
decent PC-100 compliant DIMM memory is an
adventure (although prices are very affordable).

If price is a consideration, and you have a Pentium
MMX 166 or higher, I recommend you bring your RAM
up to 64MB and get a high performance/capacity
hard drive. If you have less than a P-166MMX, pick
up a P-233MMX for around $100.

Then sit and wait for First Quarter 1999 revelations,
such as Intel's Katmai CPU with MMX2 and SIMD
for 3D graphics acceleration. Prices should tumble
for the lower end Slot 1, 100MHz front side bus CPUs.

Good luck.

John Chin