[SunRescue] Least expensive 'Real Server'

[jcarver]

Hi David,

	I would second James Lockwoods sentiments. I was able to pick 
up a SparcServer 1000E from work. They bought a new server, but were
offered almost nothing for the old one. Me being a complete novice,
bought it thinking "Big Iron"! Better yet I could carry it upstairs to
the spare bedroom I use for my computer room. I know now why none of the
IT guys jumped on this bargain. While I won't get rid of this machine,
I have found a few issues.

	1. It's very noisy. Those 8" fans along one side sound like an
old air conditioner. I'm not sure I can stand to work within 5' of it.

	2. System boards are expensive. I got basically 2 1000E's. I got
a total of 3 boards from the 2. there are 3 SBUS slots per board. Any
additional boards after the first must be populated with at least 1 bank
of memory. If you have faster than 50 Mhz processors there are Emi
issues
that require a different fan assembly(according to the FEH). I just sold
a
board on ebay so I can purchase more memory.(Sold for nearly $500) Now
I'm
wondering, do I use both remaining boards or hold one back for a spare?

	3. Memory shows up on eBay from time to time, but usually goes fairly
high. Dealers know they have a captive audience. Only 8meg and 32meg
sticks
are available. As James says, you can't use them in anything else.

	4. As my lights just blinked again, (Please Lord don't LOCKOUT my 
feeder!) I'm wondering how expensive a UPS is going to be for this
baby?!

As I said earlier I won't get rid of my SparcServer; Now known as
SparcMaster,
because of it's demands ;). If I had the time to sit down and rationally
think
about the whole process, knowing what I do now, I believe an Ultra 1
would be
a better investment. Particularly a "Creator" series with 100T, fastwide
SCSI
and best of all, 24 BIT COLOR! On the bright side, I don't get all
greasy and
grimmy with this hobby. Plus, it's below freezing this morning outside
where the
cars are and it's 70+ in my unheated computer room. (Gotta love those HP
4SI's
when it's cold out ;)

				jim





		

David Rouse wrote:
> 
> Now that I've got a 'Real Computer' I'd like to get a 'Real Server' which I
> guess at this point means a box with board slots, not just card slots and
> the ability to have up to at least 4 CPUs.
> 
> Given the constraints of this being a hobby (so not much money) and me not
> having anything more than standard USA household power, what is the most
> reasonable thing to shoot for? I work with an 670MP, but the odd VME cards
> and lack of support for anything beyond Solaris 2.5.1 are a bit offputting.
> But if the 670MP supports dual MBUS cards other than those yucky ROSS 40MHz
> things I might could manage.
> 
> But I guess what I'm really thinking about is the SS1000 (I'm assuming that
> the SS2000 would still be quite expensive). What would something like this
> cost in a mimimal configuration (just enough disk, ram and cpu to boot)?
> Would it be able to run Solaris 7?
> 
> --
> drouse
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
> http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue