[geeks] Ultra 20 thoughts

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 @ 16:47 +1000, Scott Howard said:

> On Fri, Jul 01, 2005 at 07:17:05PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> > > If you choose an "upgraded" model for the "free system" they show the
> > 
> > There is nothing free about the machines anyway.  It's your garden
> > variety false advertising.
> 
> Really!!  You should post something to Slashdot about that - otherwise
> people will be suckered into thinking someone is going to give them
> a computer for nothing!!!!!

Do you have a point?

> > > The graphics options are priced the same if you buy them with the
> > > system or independently.
> > 
> > They are also expensive.  Why can't they just let you use a $99 nVidia
> > card?
> 
> How exactly are they stopping you?

Last time I looked, they didn't offer the option.

Keep in mind I'm talking about ordering from them.

In any case, if the driver support is not there, then you can't use one
you buy elsewhere.

> There are multiple Solaris nVidia drivers floating about, at least one
> of them written by nVidia themselves which I'm fairly sure supports most
> of their cards. 

> > I've always hated limitations on configuration like that.
> > 
> > It really makes life painful if you are trying to repair/replace an
> > existing system.  You end up with a lot of stuff you don't need.
> 
> Welcome to the world of pre-boxed systems.

According to Sun, Dell, and Apple their systems are not preboxed.
That's how they explain why it takes N days to build one for you.

It's a marketing limit.

> >     - it has only two drive bays
> 
> It's a workstation

What does that have to do with it?

> >     - only 33MHz 32-bit PCI: it should have PCI-X
> 
> It has three PCI-E slots - one x16 slot (for the graphics card) and two x1
> slots. The PCI is only there for legacy stuff.

I know what it has.  PCI-X has a lot of nice cards right now.  It's not
a big deal, and I didn't realize so many PC motherboards were dropping
PCI-X.

> >     - only a pair of SATA ports... even on workstations I want the
> >       option of at least 3 drives: 1 for OS, a pair for data.
> 
> It's a workstation.
> (And Data on a workstation?  ewww)

Again, what does that have to do with it?

If I only have one machine, I have to put the data there.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["We have nothing to prove" -- Alan Dawkins]