[rescue] Re: Digital server 7000r

[Gavin Hubbard]

Hi Lads

Sorry I'm late in addressing your replies.

I found some really good info over at HPaq (http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/archive/7300/) I stupidly figured that because google wasn't pulling anything up, the info I needed was hard to come by.

I'm going to pick it up and try updating to the latest firmware listed on that HPaq support page. As far as I can tell, the 7305 is literally just a 4100 with nominally no support for Unix (and thus originally sold for less $$). So maybe I'll get lucky and end up with a cheap AS4100 (-:

As for the comments about unix gear being cheap here in NZ - AFAICT it is combination of a weak NZ dollar, geographical remoteness, and a small population (so not many unix users). Also most big companies have relocated their IT operations to Australia. In other words there isn't much of a market here for used unix equipment (except me perhaps :-).

However I do spend an awful lot of time looking for equipment (what started off as a hobby is gradually becoming my job). I'm sure if you guys spent time each week scanning the auction listings, cold calling, talking to lease companies, and social networking etc you'd turn up a lot of equipment in your areas as well.

As far as I can tell, the USA are actually much better served in terms of selection and pricing. I buy and import a large amount of smaller parts from EBay (e.g. CPUs, memory, I/O cards etc).

Regards,

Gavin


P.S. I got those two 300MHz R12K O2s from Australia last night. They're actually both 175MHz/1MB R10k systems and one is dead - so its a good thing I only paid 275USD for the pair. Oh well, can't win them all.