[geeks] Alpha check

[Ken Hansen]

-----Original Message-----
From: Joshua D. Boyd [mailto:jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu]
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2001 2:59 PM
To: 'geeks at sunhelp.org'
Subject: RE: [geeks] Alpha check


<snip>

> The Alpha takes more ram, and while it
> doesn't take more expansion cards, it has scsi on the motherboard, and
> maybe ethernet, saving me one or two slots.

No Ethernet, IIRC. Tulip cards are under $20 - a great bargain, IMHO.

<snip>

> Apache/MySQL/PHP run well on Multias.  If you are careful with how
> hard you use the database, you shouldn't have too much trouble
> saturating the 10mbit network port with those machines. That was my first
> use of Alphas was in doing web dev on a friends Multia running those
> packages.

So the follow-up question is this, would a straight Red Hat Linux 7.0 or 7.1 (if available) install be a good place to start? I'd fire up the 200/166 (since it is all built-up, ready for me) and throw it on there for giggles/testing.

> If I weren't trying to reuse as much as I could from my current file
> server/intranet server, I'd take a multia, since you can use the PCI cage
> to add an extra scsi card, and an extra ethernet card and use all scsi.
> My problem is that I also want several IDE drives to save money.

The Multias take PCMCIA cards, don't they? Are any network cards supported? I can find some common 3Com 10 base T cards for $15/ea (3C589C/D) - they would allow you to stuff two more network connections in a straight Multia. Also, a 2.5" IDE laptop drive can be added w/o major hassles, IIRC. I would be reluctant to place a real 3.5" SCSI drive inside a Multia...

Thanks,

Ken