[SunRescue] Re: (New box suggestions)

[Ken Hansen]

First, my question is whay are you willing to spend that much? Do you have
that large a need, or that much cashlying around? ;^)

If I were in the market for a new system, and arch. was not important, I
would have to suggest a PC box. For the kind of money you are willing to
spend, a fantastic desktop box could be built that was SMP w/high speed
CPUs, 256 Meg RAM (or more), large SCSI disk farm and a 19"+ monitor would
all be no problem.

Once you start considering "commercial" platforms (Sun, SGI, other) you are
scraficing price for a level of support most home users do not need.

I am only familiar with Sun boxen (not HP, SGI, or others), but a nice Ultra
system could be built-up for the same 2-3 grand, but for many applications a
$1500 PC would most likely beat it (for typical applications, IMHO).

Unix workstations are great, but for home use you need to have a good reason
to spend real money on one... I got a brand-new Ultra 2300 (2x300 MHz Ultra
CPUs) with 21" monitor, 256 Meg RAM, and a 4 Gig HD for $3,000, but that was
a once-in-a-lifetime deal - I could turn around and get more than that for
the system on the open market. I didn't need that level of performance, but
the money spent is an investment, as opposed to a PC that loses value at an
*incredible* rate...

Just my opinions,

Ken
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Staniewicz" <wstan at planet.nl>
To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2000 4:07 AM
Subject: Re: re SGI (was RE: [SunRescue] 5 major manufacturers?)


> The discussion of SGI prompted me to do a little web browsing and
> learn a little more about the company and what they have to offer
> to a home user. The Indigo2 does look like a nice machine but I am
> wondering how it would compare if I spent the same amount of money
> on a Sun product or a PC type computer. I notice
> SGI offers remanufactured Indigo2's at their web site which might
> seem a good way to go unless eBay had some better deals. Right now
> I am now using an old Pentium MMX with 32mbRAM so anything would be
> an improvement. I am prepared to spend between $2,000 to $3,000
> including the price of a new monitor. What would you folks get?
>
> BTW, here is a link to a site with info on the Indigo2 if anyone
> is interested:  http://sgi-tech.unixology.com/pcw5-93i2.html