From UDIM018 #at# FRORS31.bitnet Mon Apr 22 08:15:40 1993 Message-Id: <199304221054.AA02086 ":at:" oscsunb.ccl.net> Date: 22 Apr 93 12:15:40 EDT From: Subject: G92 on a 486, still more clarifications needed To: chemistry %-% at %-% ccl.net E. M. EVLETH Dynamique des Interactions Moleculaires Universite Pierre et Marie Curie 4 Place Jussieu, Tour 22, Paris 75005 33-1-44-27-42-08 (work), 33 = France; 1 = Paris 33-1-45-48-67-20 (home) FAX 33-1-44-27-41-17 (lab);44-27-38-66(University) e-mail UDIM018 at FRORS31.BITNET Dfor avid Moses' confirmation of the $600 price a G92-windows 486 version is welcome. BUT for USA based e-mailers and my own, additional clarification of the recommended configuration is still needed. It is the $3000 figure which is questioned? I contacted a friend in the USA on this (who actually has an business in constucting PCsfrom components) and his comment was -----. "The $3000 mentioned in theGaussian was not tout compris but their estimate (a bit optimistic I think) for what a mail order 486 would cost that could run Gaussian. I doubt you could do anything serious on a $3000 machine. They say you need 100 Mb free space + 60 for the program. We can't do beans in 100 Mb of scratch. I would say you need at least a 1 Gb disk and 32 Mb of memory. If you can get that for $3000 (with the rest of the machine), (also a tape backup) you are getting an incredible deal. 32 Mb of good memory costs about $1200 wholesale and a 1 gb drive about 1500. I would say $5k is more reasonable for a properly configured machine" We run G92 on workstations in this configuration. But a reasonable estimate of the cost of doing something reasonable is necessary for those who outside the "loop" (thank you George Bush). Former eastern block, Russia, and many other countries are tied into PCs currently, visiting colleagues are use to PC operating systems and and have a lot PC software. Those who pass by here use to using PCs complain about Unix environments and would prefer doing things on their PCs. Informing them on what more they really need to run G92, Games, Spartan, Hondo8 and semiempirical (AMPAC 4, MOPAC) or whatever will be of service. We also still need the low end workstation timings on the examples Moses shows, the Cray times were interesting, a Cray engineer here in France showed G92 running about 40 times faster than our RS/6000 32OH but something more specific comparing a HP735, RS/6000 something would be useful too with regard to the 486 times. The timings allow outside the USA people to estimate the local cost competitiveness of remaining with PCs or getting workstation Unix operating system. One of the cost estimate features is the G92 on a 486 at $600 vs. $2000 on a RS/6000 is a significant incitation to remain in the PC mode. That is the only thing which will be cheaper, the $5000 in the USA will be more outside the USA, though I don't know how much the Taiwanese machines undercut US suppled machines. I'll leave it to others in the real know to now supply the information.