[rescue] Sun Kit Needed for EE Student Here

[Wesley Will]

Aaron Finley wrote:
>> And the "fan boy" comment was just rude.  A large number of
>> engineering shops are using Sun hardware, will continue to use these
>> "outdated" machines for the foreseeable future since it just works and
> 
> Sorry you took it that way. It wasnt meant to be offensive.

Accepted.

> I just seems to be "fan boyish" to recommend a $200 Sun over a $200 PC

He already -has- the "$200 PC."  The problem is, a -newer- machine
with the processor capability you are talking about is -decidedly not-
a "$200 PC" it is more like six or seven times that.  The memory
-alone- runs more than that.  Any motherboard (PC type) that I can in
good conscience recommend (reliability, longevity, and the like) costs
more than $200.  The CPU -alone- costs more than $200.  Cases are
relatively cheap.  Disks are very cheap.  Video controllers (other
than the old free ones I can give him, some aren't even all that bad
but they aren't gamer items or by any means 'high-end') are almost
that at the lower end of the 'better-quality' scale, and upwards of
twice that for the higher end.

Bare-bones, with RAM, CPU, some sort of disk and video, in a mediocre
case retails for quite a lot over double that $200, and it's not
anywhere near the top end which you are talking about.

Bang for the non-existent buck, I'll take commercial-grade el-cheapo
Sun or SGI or DEC or whatever.  Besides, I figured this list if
nowhere else on the planet would be in favour of getting more rescued
kit back into solid and productive use.  I must admit I am somewhat
non-plussed by some of the responses.

--
w will