My recommendations:

	Forget P5. Forget MMX. Go P6.  NetBSD is exclusively 32-bit
	code, and the P6 will give you 3-way integer + 1-way FP
	superscalar dispatch _with_ out-of-order execution. This is why
	it is so much faster (on 32-bit code) than older chips, even
	when compared with higher clock rate alternatives.

	Yes, it will more than make up for the 25% MHz difference, and
	it will cost a LOT less. Also, the low clock rate gen-U-ine
	in-tel CPU's can almost always be overclocked. Your odds of
	overclocking a fast chip are somewhat lower.

	Despite hype to the contrary, the Pentium II does not really
	have a performance advantage over the P6. It is mostly a
	repackaged P6, with two additions that won't help you: MMX and
	better 16-bit performance, one addition that might: larger
	caches, and one that will hurt you: slower secondary cache.
	And of course it has a totally difference socket. I think this
	chip mostly benefits Intel, they get better yields and can push
	more MMX snake oil. (You've gotta have MMX or else, uhh, well, uhh,
	you just gotta have it, trust us, we're intel. We would know,
	right?)

	Buying a 150 MHz P6 is a very smart choice. I got one at Fry's
	many months ago for $181, and the next week they were down to
	$168.  Even less now...they are a great deal. At the time I was
	there the P5+MMX chips were going for TWICE the price of a P6
	at the same clock rate, and a high clock rate P5 was way more
	expensive than a lower clock rate P6. Go figure. I guess people
	just look at MHz.

	It is true that the newer chips (P5+MMX, P6+MMX==P II) have
	larger primary cache sizes, and a given P II has a much bigger
	but much slower (1/2 speed of P6) secondary cache.  This does
	not benefit every application, however. The only thing that
	makes PII go faster than P6 is a higher clock rate and bigger
	cache.

	From other mfrs, the AMD K6 actually appears to be respectable,
	unlike the K5 which was kind of a joke.

	I'm not sure why you think the bus speed will be better with
	the P5.  The PCI bus speed just depends on whether the integer
	divisor from the CPU speed can hit 33 MHz, or whether you have
	to settle for a slightly lower speed like 25 MHz. But who
	cares?  There is no memory on the PCI bus, PCI at 25 MHz is
	still able to do 100 MB/S, which is a lot faster than your
	drive. (Drive max: IDE=700KB, EIDE=7MB, SCSI=5-40, but more
	likely 5 than 40!) People with wide ultra scsi controllers and
	expensive graphics might notice the bus speed difference, but I
	doubt if most people would care.
----------------------
Ross Harvey	Avalon Computer Systems, Inc.		  ross@teraflop.com
		Santa Barbara	 		    http://www.teraflop.com