[rescue] Re: SUN Ultra2 + 501-2480?

[Lionel Peterson]

> From: "Gutschner, Marc" <marc.gutschner at itandfactory.com>
> Date: 2004/10/11 Mon PM 12:12:39 GMT
> To: "The Rescue List" <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> Subject: [rescue] Re: SUN Ultra2 + 501-2480?

> The seller ("bassetherder" on eBay) made a big fuzz about how careful he
> handles all the DIMMs he sells - and I'm inclined to believe him according
> to the effort he took to package the modules: Each module was individually
> wrapped up in an anti-static bag, lots of protective material in the box and 
> such...

That's good...
 
> The solution to my problem was quite simple: it's been too early in the 
> morning ;-) I just went down to my "cave" again with a cup of coffee and
> took my time to carefully insert the "new" modules one by one, ensuring
> they are properly seated - and now all is well ;-) The machine has just
> completed booting into Solaris 9 without the slightest hiccup. Can't wait
> until the second CPU arrives later this week to get some "serious" ;-)
> work done.

I've had similar problems myself - where the SIMMs (or atleast one of them) hasn't fully "snapped" into place. I don't know why I didn't think of it.
 
> Anyone care to share some (personal) impressions on how well the 
> performance scales with multiple CPUs? At the moment I've one (soon 2)
> 300MHz CPU in this baby. Will it be worth the money to switch to 400MHz 
> UltraSPARCs if I can get my hands on a matched pair?

2x 300 MHz CPUs are very nice, and you would see a nice bump in performance by going to dual 400 MHz CPUs, but at what cost? There are some nice, economical 4-way ultra clone systems (they take up to 4 CPUs, have 16 memory DIMM slots, PCI slots, and 2 1" high drive slots, it is aproximately the same size as an Ultra 2. I have one, and I suspect you could upgrade your Ultra 2 to a 4-way 300 MHz box for less than a 2-way 400 MHz box...

The value proposition really depends on the cost of the CPUs - around here, they are still quite expensive...