> >      - Can I safely turn on the chip and board-level caches, now that it'll
> >        be an Intel 486DX2 chip, instead of a Cyrix 486DLC?
> >        (Wary of reactivating the filesystem decay we were having)
> Probably, yes.  It depends on how well designed your motherboard is.
> Most modern motherboards have decent cache circuitry, so you shouldn't
> have any problem.  Some really cut-rate motherboards, however, skimp
> on things and may cause you problems -- it just depends on how well
> designed your motherboard is.  The only way to tell is to turn all the
> caching on and try it.  If you have write-back cache and you get
> problems, you might have to change it to write-through.

For reference, my motherboard appears to have a defective cache implementation.
(Although I recently ran, with no ill effects, for an entire day with the
cache accidently left on after playing DOOM under DOS... :-) It has an "SiS"
chipset, whoever that is.