[SunRescue] Sparc 10 Modules, bases

[James Lockwood]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, Earl Baugh wrote:

> Anyway, I've spent the last couple of months watching on the auction sites
> looking for a base + motherboard (I've got some memory and a drive already) 
> to get started.  I missed a couple on E-Bay that were ~$100 (with shipping), 
> and haven't seen anything even close to that since (last night two went for
> over 100..one for 140 not including shipping)  Yahoo and Amazon auction sites

That's still a good deal, IMHO.

> are basically a bust.  I spent some time looking around today (went thru most 
> of the sunhelp site vendors...) and the prices I saw were even worse.  Probably
> my best option is to call Fred Dikeman (who is right up the street), and 
> just break down and spending ~$160 for one from him.  But I'm wondering
> if anybody know of some place that can hit the sub-100 mark.

I'd pay that from a reputable vendor if it's got a late EPROM revision and
is an L1B fab board (fixes problems with SCSI/ethernet contention and
GT/ZX).  Fred is a good guy.

> Secondly, it was mentioned on this list recently (and someone followed
> it up asking where these magic vendors are) that we should be able to find 
> SM-51 modules in the $50-$100 range.  Well, I've never found any in that range.
> On EBay they range from $150-160 recently, though I got one for $115 with 
> shipping, and I saw another that went for around $105 with shipping.  

Stay away from ebay for CPU modules unless you get really lucky.  Prices
can get dramatically inflated.

I'd actually recommend that you get a SS20 base and one or two SM50's. 
You'll end up spending about the same as you would on a SS10 and SM51's
and you'll end up with a newer machine that's as fast or faster (due to
the 25% increase is mbus speed)  and has more capabilities (such as the
option for fast 24bpp video).  If you eventually upgrade the CPU modules,
you will get much more bang for the buck.

> MemoryX has SM50's for close to this range, but who wants a 0 cache processor?
> Anybody got pointers??

Don't knock the SM50.  It's easily faster than a SS5/110 when installed in
a single configuration in a SS20.

-James