(This document is part of the PC-Clone Unix Hardware Buyer's Guide. The Guide is maintained by Eric S. Raymond ; please email comments and corrections to him.)

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How To Pick Your Processor

Right now, the chips to consider for running Unix are the Pentium IIs and Pentium IIIs and their clone equivalents from AMD or Cyrix. Life used to be more complicated, but with Pentium prices plunging as they have been and the PCI bus having taken over the world, nothing else makes much sense for a new Intel-based system.

Brands don't matter much, so don't feel you need to pay Intel's premiums if you see an attractive Cyrix, AMD or other chip-clone system offered.

To compare the performance of different Intel-based systems with each other and with machines from other manufacturers, you can take a look at the SPECmark Table at ftp://ftp.cdf.toronto.edu/pub/spectable. That document recommends (and I do too) that you read the SPEC FAQ at http://www.specbench.org/spec/specfaq.html to get background before browsing the table.

Good current advice about chipsets can be found at The Cheap /Linux/ Box.

Eric S. Raymond