It depends on the actual motherboard. There has to be enough tag ram
or at least a socket to add more tag ram to support more than 64Mb RAM.
I would that the most people find that 64Mb RAM is perfectly adequate
now for current voice recognition. However if you want to look to the future,
then yes it would be wise to get a system that could support more ram,
particularly as people moves to NT, which itself requires about 16Mb more
than Win95.
Given that, there are 3 choices: 1) Socket 7 motherboard with HX
chipset (and provisions for sufficient tag ram), 2) Pentium Pro, 3) Pentium II.
The Pentium II option is the most expensive (probably minimum $300
more), because both CPU and motherboard are more expensive. However it has a
somewhat better to better upgrade path.
The Pentium Pro is a bargain now IF you choose a PPro 180 ($170) and
a cheap PPro motherboard (less than $100 in places). Many PPro 180's work
fine at 233Mhz, and all work fine at 200Mhz. Clock for clock, the PPro
performs as well or better than the Pentium II (except for MMX, not clear
that is important at all).
The Socket 7 option I think is reasonable ONLY if you get a HX
motherboard that has provisions for extra tag ram AND it can support better
Socket 7 CPU's like the AMD K6 or at least the Intel Pentium MMX/266 (the
end of the road).
If you want to go Socket 7 HX, make sure it will support the K6 and
higher Intel CPU's, and has provisions for extra tag ram. The best motherboard
I know of that meets these specs is the ASUS T2P4 (no longer produced, but
still fairly available). The ABIT HX motherboard is good too.
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