[rescue] Re: Sun E4500 Performance Question

[Gavin Hubbard]

James said:

My E4500 is running Solaris 8 02/02 right now with 14x167mHz US-I 
procs.  A kind soul has traded me 6x250mHz/4mb US-II procs.

For general use (light compiling, light encryption, etc.) what does 
anyone here think would be the more usable configuration?  Obviously, I 
might save a bit of electricity by reducing the number of power/cooling 
modules and system boards I run.  I don't know if the coming 
de-supported status of US-I procs in Solaris 10 will affect me, but I 
doubt it.

Any opinions appreciated.

Thanks!

-------------------<end quote>-------------------


Whatever you do, don't trade or sell the X2602A CPU carrier boards. 
They're more valuable than any processor module - except the exotic 
464MHz processor modules.

The sweet spot for Exx00 CPUs is currently the 336MHz/4MB US-II 
module. A couple of months ago there were stacks on EBay selling for 
around $5 each (not a misprint). I understand they mostly came from 
E10k systems that were being scrapped. I bought a set of of 30 x 
336MHz/4MB processor modules for my E6000 system and paid less 
then $200 plus postage. I recall the EBay seller was 
ebay at paladiantech.com (FWIW these guys don't have a good reputation 
here, apparently they spammed the list a few years ago). However I 
found them a good group of guys to deal with and have no complaints 
with the hardware they sent me.

The 400MHz/8MB processor modules have been holding steady at 
around $150 each for the last six months or so. I'd say they're the 
performance sweet spot for processors going into production/
commercial systems.

Incidentally, why do you have 167Mhz processors in your E4500? I can't 
see how that configuration would ever have left the factory? (the 
167MHz processors were only used in the very first Ex000 systems with 
the X2600A carrier boards, but both the processors and the boards were 
quickly superseded by better parts).

Regards,

Gavin