[geeks] New wish lists, OR Rebuilding the dream ;-)

[Chris Byrne]

All,

Preparing for my emergency relo back from Ireland, I decided to simply
sell off everything. And I do mean everything. I only kept my laptop and
my software library, all other tech gear is gone.

Anyway all this talk about SGI's has spurred me to come up with a new
wish list. As soon as I get set up iny new position (wherever it may be)
I'm going to start rebuilding. I don't ever want to have more then 30
systems again (at one point in CA I had 60 or so laying around, but they
werent all mine), but I do want to have a nice representative bunch. 

I'm trying to keep the list to what will easily fit in a large two
bedroom appartment or small three bedroom house without taking over main
living space. I think everything that I've listed should be able to fit
into one reasonably sized bedroom, though I certainly wouldn't want to
have them all running at the same time. Unless it was minnesota in
february maybe... actually no, because even then I'd need hearing
protection ;-) The only real problem would be power, and honestly the
only ones running 24x7 would be the main storage server and whatever
machines I use as my primary workstations (probably the U60, and the
games machine), and the media center machine. 

This is a relatively realistic list, as in I may be able to acquire a
fair portion of these in the next year to two years. Also this isn't
just self indulgent dreaming. A lot of these systems would be very
useful for some of the conulting work I do. Especially for testing on
security and storage setups. And some of these systems, if I acquired
one, would obviate the need for one or more of the others, so the list
isnt actually as big as it looks. 

Anyway this is what I want to rebuild my collection to:

1 Sun Ultra 60 2x450x4mb, 2gb, 2x36gb HDD, Elite3D-M6 or Expert3D,
SunPCI-2 with 1gb
OR
1 Sun e250 or 450, or equivalent sunfire. 2 or more proc, any speed with
8 mb cache, 2gb or more ram, 2x36gig
1 Sun ss20, quad proc, max ram
1 SGI Octane dual r12k-300, MXE graphics, 2gb ram, 2 36gb drives
1 SGI O2, max proc, max ram, AV module
1 DEC Alpha Station or Personal Workstation 533 with 512mb RAM or more,
reasonable 3D, and two 9 gig or bigger drives
1 DEC Alpha Server with at least 4 procs and 512mb RAM
1 IBM RS/6000 workstation. Black tower style, at least 250mhz, at least
256 meg ram, reasonable 3D 2x9gig or better.
1 8 to 32 way PPRO machine, max ram
1 PPC750 (or faster, preferably dual), 512mb or more, good 3d, 2x9gig or
more
OR
1 PPC604e, quad proc, 512mb or more, good 3d, 2x9gig or more
1 BeBox 2xPPC603e-133, 1 gig of RAM, 2x9gig hdd

On the PC side of things (including Macs) I'd like the following

1 Tornado DP G4 of any speed, 1gb ram, 2 36gig or bigger, Radeon all in
wonder video
1 17" powerbook g4, 1gb, 60gb, superdrive
1 Athlon XP 2800+, 1gb Ram, well cooled mid tower case, GeForceFX,
Audigy 2, 2 disk ide RAID 
1 Athlon XP 2400+, 1gb, Home Audio component style case, ATI
All-in-wonder 9500 with passive cooling, big ass IDE or SATA RAID 0+1
array 
1 Athlon MP 2600+ 1gb, Full tower server case, 2x36 or bigger

In the other hardware section I'd like

1 good modular switch that can handle gigabit and 10/100
10 GigE cards
1 Workgroup laser printer
1 Good color inkjet, either Epson or HP
1 16 way server switch with adapters for sun and adb plus cables etc...
1 USB switch 
4 17"-20" flat panel displays
1 Good 21" monitor (for gaming and fast video. Neither look all that
good on a TFT) 
1 Large storage array or JBOD. At least 1 TB 
1 Archive Library 
2 big equipment racks (those chrome rolling racks or the like)
2 Big desks, preferrably completely covering 2 walls with a corner unit.
4-8 small-medium UPS's, or 2-4 big ones

I don't know why but I've always loved the U60. It pained me to let mine
go. I think they just look like a sun workstation should, and I don't
need the juice of any of the higher end machines. I think SUN has missed
the boat with their new workstation product lineup/strategy. I think
there really needs to be a fill in product between the 150 and the 2000.


Honestly theres no real reason for me to have an e450, an e250 or U60
would be just fine, I just want one. I've put enough of the damned
things in at client sites, now I want one in my home. Plus I'm gonna
need a storage, database, and backup server, and I think the SUN should
be it, and a 450 is ideally suited for the task. I also may want to play
with some of the Sun1 devices at some point, and I'd like the extra
capacity of the 450 for that purpose. And of course if a client ever
needs a database server on shor tnotice, hey I've got one at home (I've
done this more than once).

As for the SS20, basically Ive always wanted a quad proc 20.  

On the SGI front, I've been seeing Octanes going for what 02's were
going for 18 months ago. I know I can get a completely maxed out O2 for
$500 or less on Ebay, and even at reputable they arent all that much
these days. Hell you can get a low end Octane for less than $500 now. 

I want an AlphaStation because I like the architecture, and I chose 533
because I think those were the last ones to actually say digital on the
box. 
I want an AlphaServer to run OpenVMS with, and because I like 4 or more
way SMP machines. Oh and it too must say digital on the box. I hate
Compaq.

I want an RS/6000 because I like the architecture and I want to run AIX
with it. 

The 8 way ppro is because I've always wanted a big ass ppro box. God
knows what OS to run on it though. Most of the bigger boxes had to have
a custom version of NT for them. I figure they'll run other os's but god
knows how well. 

I want the PPC machine because I want to run LinuxPPC and play with Mach
a bit. I'd LOVE a good condition BeigeBox g3 (powermac g3-333mt would be
ideal) but Im not sure if the dual modules work in them. Otherwise one
of the later model clones that support DP would be great.
I want a quad 604e because I like 4 or more way SMP. Something like the
MaxxBoxx would be great. I love the cases. 

I want a BeBox because I'm a geek and I breathe ;-) Honestly I think
these are some of the coolest machines ever built even if they are
133mhz. Plus I love BeOs and I'd like to try it on the system it was
truly meant for.

The Mac's are almost self explanatory. The 17" powerbook is without
question the best laptop I've ever seen and I want one badly. The dual
g4 tower is because I want to play with OSX at relatively high speed,
and of course I love SMP. I think I may be able to pull off the tower,
but I probably wont be able to get the laptop. They are really just too
expensive. I mean I can get 3 or 4 other GOOD computers for the same as
that 1 laptop. 

I want the first Athlon as a gaming rig (thus the GeForceFX), the second
one is a multimedia PC to be run as a media center and PVR. The third
one is a dual proc x86 box for playing with various OS's and to act as a
test server. If they are available I'd love a hammer based system (I
hate the name Opteron as much as I did Athlon).

I'd like to rig at least one GigE card for each of the machines that
supports it. The new Macs have it built in, and so do a lot of new
Athlon Mobos so that's no problem. Most of the rest of them have PCI
slots, but getting driver support for some of them might be interesting.
I figure for the cable run legnths Im talkin about coper GigE isnt a
problem, and for everything else 10/100 should be fine.

As for the storage array and archive library, one of the older Hitachi
deskside arrays would be great, or I could build a big JBOD and hang it
off the SUN server, and I'd love an older small ADIC or StorageTek robot
for the backups. I'd like to be able to get SAN aware stuff, but it's
still just too expensive even without the FC networking infrastructure.
I figure just set it up as a bigass NAS system hangin off the sun server
over the GigE. Yeah it wont be nearly as good as a SAN, but it'll be a
lot cheaper, and I don't really need SAN level performance anyway. 

If I'm careful and lucky I can probably get most of the non-pc stuff (if
I can find it that is. BeBoxen don't grow on trees) in for under 10
grand. I figure if I spread all that over say 2 years, it's a realistic
goal. 

Amazingly enough, the Mac and PC stuff would prolly end up costing more
than the non-pc gear, esepcially if you factor in the displays. The
non-pc boxes can all be stuck on one, maybe two displays with the
switch, but the gaming PC and Mac really need their own displays, and
I'd like to dual head. 
 


Chris Byrne
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The Eyes May Be the Windows on the Soul
But the Word is the Doorway to the Mind
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