[SunRescue] What should I look for?

[James Lockwood]

On Fri, 28 May 1999, Michael C. Vergallen wrote:

> I was at one point looking at an ultra5 but didn't get one because they
> used a IDE disc interface and where to close to a PC e.i. PCI bus etc that
> I choose not to get one.

Agreed, IDE sucks.  But with Symbios dual-channel UW SCSI cards in the
sub-$100 range (and fully supported by OBP) this shouldn't be a stumbling
block.

Sun is going to PCI, it's as simple as that.  It offers typically higher
speed than sbus (33MHz 32-bit vs 25MHz 32-bit) as well as maximum higher
speed (66MHz 64-bit vs 25MHz 64-bit).  There are large benefits to being
able to use commodity PCI cards, and driver support is growing (although
slowly).  Sun will not release another sbus machine in the future.

If you're a real power-user on the cheap then you should probably get an
AXi or similar: basically an Ultra 5/10 motherboard but with 6 PCI slots,
a UPA64S slot, dual UW SCSI built in, no audio, and ATX form factor.
They're in the sub-$1500 range with CPU now as well (www.memoryx.com).
Sure, you've got to build your own, but I expect that isn't a big problem
for most of the people here.

-James