OH YEA??? [was: Re: [rescue] Ultra?]

[Chris Hedemark]

On Sat, 2002-08-03 at 06:10, Michael Schiller wrote:

> > Cheaper?  Yes.  I've never had to pay for a SPARCstation.  But praytell
> > what do you think makes them "better"?
> 
> There are 4 reasons why the U1 is a better machine than a U5 or U10:

You're answering a different question than I asked.  What makes an SS10
better than a U5?  Some of these apply to the SS10 so I will address in
the SS10 context:

> 1. Onboard SCSI. No need to waste an expansion slot to get what should
> have been there from the start.

The SCSI in SS10 is very old and not as fast as the newer UDMA drives
you can slap in a U5.

> 2. Sbus. There are pros & cons to both PCI & Sbus, but there are more
> cards available cheaper (on the used market) in Sbus than PCI (for use
> in a Sun)

For the purposes of a cheap workstation to run Solaris on, what else
would you need to add that isn't already there?

> 3. quality of construction. The U1's were made when Sun still cared
> about the quality of their machines. The U5 & U10's were built using
> cheaper parts that are more on line with home PCs than Unix
> workstations. I've owned U5's U10's, and U1's, so I know how the cases
> are built.

Looking at my SS10's and U5, I can see that the SS10 is a more solidly
built machine.  The U5 may be less solidly built in comparison, but the
construction quality of the U5 is still high compared to PC's.

> 4. (most important reason ) :) If you want to buy a reconditioned U1 all
> you have to do is email me, I've got several systems for sale. :)

If I wasn't so in the hole from the TiBook I might be tempted to email
you about that.  But right now an SS10 wouldn't tempt me.  Well built
machines, but I already have a few, and find that I keep turning to the
U5 to do things because it is better able to handle the load.  That 40GB
HDD upgrade sure didn't hurt either.

Oh I just resurrected an SS4 the other day.  Kind of a pokey box but
there is some potential.  110MHz, 64MB, 1.05GB.  I'm thinking along the
lines of DHCP and DDNS.

-- 
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| Rev. Chris Hedemark, DD
| Hillsborough, NC
| http://yonderway.com
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| "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is 
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